The Graduate Students Association discussed the implications of
recent recommendations made by the Competitiveness Task Force on
graduate student support, as well as approved its election results
and budget for next year at a forum meeting Wednesday.
One of the suggestions made by the task force was to reallocate
the portion of graduate budget controlled by the Graduate Division
to the deans of various schools on campus.
The Graduate Division currently controls 18 percent of the
graduate student support budget.
Claudia Mitchell-Kernan, dean of the Graduate Division and vice
chancellor of graduate studies, said she is against the
reallocation of these funds to individual schools. She believes
funds for graduate students and for the recruitment and retention
of faculty members should be kept clearly separated.
“This is a proposal that I don’t support because it
will destabilize graduate student funds on campus,”
Mitchell-Kernan said.
“The deans have linked fellowship stipends with retention
of faculty. “¦ This could have an enormous impact on graduate
student support,” she said.
William Roy, chairman of the Graduate Council, opposes the
reallocation because these funds are best left in the hands of the
Graduate Division since it is accountable to the council ““
which also includes graduate student representatives ““ in
allocating the funds.
Whereas the deans are accountable to higher authority in dealing
with the funds, they also have faculty retention as their priority,
he added.
Mitchell-Kernan said for three years, the task force also
postponed discussions on the issue of raising funds for graduate
students.
“The reason the university hasn’t made much progress
on increasing graduate support is that we don’t have
specialists like other universities to focus on raising funds for
graduate students,” Roy said.
The Graduate Division takes care of the largest number of
graduate students in the University of California system,
Mitchell-Kernan said, and the division is understaffed.
Duncan Lindsey, chairman of the Academic Senate, said graduate
growth at UCLA has been relatively slow compared to undergraduates
due to insufficient attention directed to improving graduate
education.
“We used to compete for the best graduate students with
Stanford and Columbia, and now we no longer do so because we have
no funds for it,” he said.
Forum then turned to discussing internal issues ““ GSA
codes, stipended appointments and the budget.
Minor changes were made to suggestions by President Charles
Harless before forum approved the addition of a section on
grievance and appeal procedures.
During discussions of the codes, GSA member John Pipan
repeatedly tried to bring up his complaint of GSA officers’
handling of election ballots.
Attention was refocused on items on the agenda, and Harless
reminded forum that applications for stipended appointments are due
on May 14.
Forum then discussed the proposal for next year’s budget,
with Harless pointing out the lowering of the association’s
contribution to the University of California Student Association
with the passing of a referendum during its April election.
In the proposed budget, GSA would contribute the minimum fee of
$7,670 next year, enough to retain its membership in UCSA, compared
to $14,831 it contributed this year.
The budget was approved, and another item left on the agenda,
updates on BruinGo!, was tabled as forum voted to end the meeting
early.