Tuesday, 4/22/97 GSA elections Candidate for Internal Vice
President: Lance Menthe
Lance Menthe (physics) Candidate for internal vice president I’m
running for internal vice president (VPI) because I care about GSA,
and I want to help make it more effective. I’ve been co-president
of the Math and Physical Sciences Council and an active delegate
from that council to Forum for the past year. I also wrote the
Constitutional Amendment to modernize GSA’s structure which appears
on this ballot. The job of the VPI is to handle the everyday nuts
and bolts of the organization. Among other things, the VPI
processes requisitions, takes care of the central office, runs
forum and president council meetings, sets their agendas and keeps
members informed about what’s going on. If there were no president
or external vice president, GSA would be rudderless, but if there
were no VPI, there would be no organization at all. Of the VPI’s
many duties, the most important is to keep members informed. The
reality is that GSA has been a largely invisible organization, and
will probably remain that way, because most graduate students are
simply too busy to get involved. We have to work with this; we must
recognize that GSA can probably never be a vast mobilizing force
for graduate students. GSA is a tool to help those who want it – a
resource to help active student groups plan and organize so they
don’t have to reinvent the wheel. As VPI, my first priority would
be to make sure that GSA is easily accessible to those who do want
to get involved. I would contact the departments directly, rather
than waiting for them to come to me; I would use GSA’s web space
effectively. I am familiar with the issues facing campus, yet I
know the most important issue facing GSA is that it’s becoming
irrelevant. Give me the chance, and I will show you how GSA can
really work.