With a new administration and a new direction, the Graduate Student Association looks to further its advocacy for graduate students by building a stronger campus presence and actively engaging the student population.
One issue GSA hopes to bring to the forefront of the graduate student population is the UCLA Anderson School of Management’s proposed self-sufficient financial model.
The proposal calls for increasing private donations and student fees to replace the roughly $5.6 million the school receives from the state.
Ultimately, whether or not Anderson adopts this model is an issue that affects more than the graduate student population because the proposal is essentially asking students to consider an alternate educational model, said Jason Ball, GSA communications director.
“Graduate students are the ones that are in the program now, but undergrads are the ones who will be applying to it in the future,” Ball said. “Students have to think hard now about whether they want to live in this type of structure.”
The Anderson financial proposal is important to the current cabinet, which won last year on a platform focused on keeping UCLA graduate and professional schools affordable for students.
In the last GSA election, candidates of the Public Education Party slate won all four officer positions, defeating those who ran on the incumbent GSA Momentum slate.
That the Public Education Party’s candidates swept all four officer positions indicated students’ main concern was over the current economic crisis, Ball said.
“The prior administration did a good job, but times have changed,” Ball said. “Because of the financial crisis and the way our school is going, our officers believe that we need to more directly engage students in the political process, and the fact that we were elected indicates that at least the graduate student population thinks this too.”
Ball and GSA President Lincoln Ellis wrote an op-ed for the Los Angeles Times, published Sept. 15, that questioned the validity of a proposal that sought to better a public education by essentially privatizing it.
“The ultimate question is whether it will be cheaper for the students if Anderson stays under the UC or if this proposal goes through,” Ellis said.
“No matter how you spin the numbers, the reality is that the final cost of tuition will be cheaper if they stay under the UC.”
For GSA, the main issue surrounding the proposal is accessibility, said Kimberlina McKinney, GSA vice president of academic affairs.
“An increase in tuition isn’t conducive to lower socioeconomic status groups, and our position is mainly about defending public education for all,” she said.
GSA is also concerned about the amount of input students have in the conversation surrounding Anderson’s proposal. McKinney’s office is currently working with Anderson administration to hold a town hall meeting for students, faculty and staff to discuss the proposal.
Though a previous town hall meeting was held for this purpose, it was only advertised to Anderson students and lasted only a half hour, McKinney said.
“We want to make sure that this issue is given more time and is talked about in a manner that is open to a lot of faculty, students and staff,” she said.
GSA also hopes to build relationships with other campus constituencies such as the Undergraduate Students Association Council, the Academic Senate and the campus unions that represent campus workers, Ellis said.
“A lot of the problems that we’re dealing with affect more than just graduate students,” he said. “Clearly, we can be more effective if we form a broader coalition to work on common concerns.”