GSA VP discusses influence, goals

A graduate student in biomedical engineering, Argus Sun ran for and was elected vice president of Academic Affairs during last year’s Graduate Student Association elections. Assistant News Editor JJ Yang sat down with Sun to talk about his motivation for running and what he hopes to accomplish this year.

Daily Bruin: What motivated you to run for this position?

Argus Sun: I’ve been at UCLA since I was an undergraduate. I just wanted to be more involved and take a participatory role. I did clubs as an undergraduate but not student government.

DB: So what sparked this desire to be in student government?

AS: There is a list serve for all the new grad students and there was a position available with the Wooden Center Board of Governors so I responded to it. That’s how I got my start. I ended up serving as co-vice chair. I felt that as a board we got a lot done. That was probably one of the reasons why I wanted to take on more responsibilities.

DB: So why Academic Senate?

AS: I think the role fits me the best. That’s why I ran for that one. Most people think academics are the No. 1 priority at UCLA. I wanted to have a role in shaping academic policy.

DB: As GSA representative to the Academic Affairs, what sort of responsibilities do you fill?

AS: My main job is to interface between GSA and the Academic Senate. The Academic Senate is a body made of UCLA professors that determine how UCLA is run.

I’m kind of like the contact person for all the appointees (which include positions on the Education Abroad Program and Intercollegiate Athletes) to relay the information to me and I relay all the information to the GSA forum. They send me reports every quarter and I compile them into one big report.

DB: What specific initiatives are you working on?

AS: There is a graduate survey that the graduate division of UCLA sends out. Last year they were able to get about a 70-percent response, this summer we got 20 to 30 percent. Most of the quarter I’m going to work in increasing the response rate.

It’s an important tool to assess whether or not grad students are satisfied with their programs.

DB: How will you publicize the survey?

AS: We’re looking into Facebook advertising, and maybe next month when the deadline starts coming, we’ll send out am e-mail via student affairs. Hopefully we’ll get to as many people as possible.

DB: Any responsibilities beyond Academic Affairs?

AS: Graduate students come from various different institutions. I think that my role is unique in that I can bring the undergraduate perspective to the table. You kind of get a mentality in that every single grad school is similar, but there are a lot of issues that are unique to UCLA.

DB: Because of your undergraduate experiences have you reached out to undergraduate student government?

AS: One of my priorities this year was working with (USAC Academic Affairs Commissioner) Jeremiah Garcia to set up a joint meeting with our Academic Senate Appointees. Me and Jeremiah are kind of counterparts. It was good we got in touch so early in the year to facilitate working together.

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