Campaigning for Graduate Students Association elections begins Tuesday, with nine candidates representing two slates and one independent candidate, all vying for a position on council.
The two slates ““ groups of students who pool their resources and run on a common platform ““ GSA Momentum and Public Education Party, have candidates running for all four board positions.
Public Education Party is a new slate running against the incumbent GSA Momentum slate, formerly called GSA Progress in last year’s election.
With multiple candidates running for each position, campaigning is expected to be more intense and competitive compared to the previous year in which the incumbent slate ran unopposed, said Mohamed Jukaku, GSA commissioner of elections.
“It’s a good thing for both GSA and campaigners,” he said. “Having that competition keeps everyone on their toes and also helps drive voter turnout because now people have different parties to look at and issues to consider.”
Incumbent GSA president Jamal Madni, who is running for his third consecutive term as GSA president, said the decision to change the slate name from GSA Progress to GSA Momentum reflects the slate’s commitment to the projects and advances GSA has made in the past year.
“Every year takes on its own sort of personality, and we have a different group of officers who run,” Madni said. “With respect to that, we want to give a unique perspective and feel to this election, and we’re really moving forward and really excited about all the initiatives we’re doing.”
GSA Momentum has three key platform issues: the creation of a new graduate student center, graduate student health insurance plans and continued advocacy against fee increases. All of these issues are ongoing projects that GSA has worked on for the past two years, Madni said.
“We’re really passionate with these issues, and we really just want to see them through,” he said. “A year is a really difficult time frame to make meaningful change and benefit to constituents, so any time you get to have continuity, it’s such an advantage.”
But with two members of the incumbent GSA cabinet running for reelection on the GSA Momentum slate, the Public Education Party stands out as a new, diverse group of organizers, said Kimberlina McKinney, Public Education Party’s vice president of academic affairs candidate.
“As a group, we’ve felt concerns growing from the students about the current GSA government,” McKinney said. “We’re working toward replacing the government structure that currently exists and addressing things that haven’t been addressed and bringing new light to issues.”
Public Education Party’s platform rests on keeping UCLA graduate schools affordable and accessible. In addition to mobilizing student support for public education in terms of keeping the university accountable for their fiscal decisions, the slate is pushing for increased access for underrepresented minorities, said Lincoln Ellis, Public Education Party’s presidential candidate.
“We’d like to see a more diverse graduate student body, and we think there’s definitely more the university can do to increase recruitment efforts and enrollment of underrepresented minorities,” he said.
Though the Public Education Party is a new slate, each of the candidates has a background of working for progressive change, including on-campus organizing for demonstrations in support of public education and taking part in last year’s efforts to save the UCLA Labor Center, Ellis said.
“We’re the type of people who are going to be working for the cause whether it’s through the student government or some other fashion,” Ellis said. “We have the record to show that we’re going to be doing the work.”
Campaigning begins Tuesday and will continue throughout the week. Voting via MyUCLA will begin April 19 at noon and end April 23.