The graduate student government elected UCLA law student Milan Chatterjee to fill a vacant cabinet seat Wednesday.
Chatterjee, formerly the director of Graduate Students Association’s discretionary funding, ran against Heidi Alexander and Matthew FitzGerald for the GSA vice president of internal affairs position. The position opened up after former graduate student officer Hope McCoy resigned in late September.
Chatterjee was elected with 21 votes from GSA forum members at their regular meeting. Alexander, a graduate student at the UCLA School of Arts and Architecture, received three votes. FitzGerald, a graduate student at the UCLA School of Law, did not receive a single vote.
Forum members listened to the opening statements of each candidate for three minutes and held a question and answer session for 10 minutes before voting.
During the candidates’ opening statements, Chatterjee said he hopes to improve GSA’s marketing tactics to increase graduate student groups’ participation in their government.
He also said he wants to increase collaboration between GSA and the Undergraduate Students Association Council on issues that affect both student bodies, such as the University of California Office of the President’s recently proposed tuition increase.
“I want to create a united front for issues that concern all students,” Chatterjee said.
Alexander said she plans to stay involved in GSA as a voting member of forum. She added that she still wants to reach out to the UCLA Office of Intellectual Property Rights and Industry Sponsored Research to address the intellectual property rights of graduate students.
FitzGerald said he plans to apply for the now-vacant director of discretionary funding position, which Chatterjee previously held. He added that he wants to run for a GSA cabinet position in spring.
For his first actions as vice president of internal affairs, Chatterjee said he wants to update forum’s website and make it easier for graduate students to access GSA resources through it.
GSA President Michael Hirshman said he plans to fill the now-vacant GSA director of discretionary funding position as soon as possible.
Chatterjee said he hopes to work with GSA cabinet members and other graduate student leaders to reach out to different graduate councils and learn how GSA can help their groups.
“If there’s a will to succeed, I will make time for it,” Chatterjee said.