GSA Momentum: Experience shows that “we get it”

Election season is often a time of big promises, broad statements and exaggerated deliverables.

Yet time and again, as the spring turns to fall, classes become more strenuous, the administrative buy-in is more difficult than it seems, and the unaccounted personnel challenges that inevitably emerge, seem to prevail.

Over the past two years, my administration has been committed to providing our fellow graduate and professional students with tangible results, rational initiatives, and solutions-based advocacy.

It hasn’t been easy, but I’d like to think we’ve been pretty successful; after all, the proof is in the pudding.

We advocated for the graduate academic program fee increases for spring 2010 from 15 percent to 2.6 percent.

We did so by authoring a platform to the UC Regents pragmatically arguing how increasing fees would negatively impact the output of the university.

We prevented UC professional school fees being set to private school levels at the March 2010 regents meeting, which would have increased fees by as much as 42 percent. We did this by authoring a platform and cover letter (delivered via registered mail to each regent) logically outlining how setting professional school fees to Harvard’s and Stanford’s levels would create an unsustainable economic model.

We conceptualized and implemented a state-of-the-art graduate student union, to be launched in late fall 2010, one that doesn’t require any additional fee increases.

This facility will have food and drink, a gym facility, a lounge with television and pool tables, as well as a technology area with computers and high-end software. This was motivated by seeing the fragmentation and disconnect all graduate students have from one another, and this facility will be the first of its kind for any Tier 1 West Coast university.

We maintained UCLA’s place as having the most benefits and least cost of any graduate student health insurance plan within the UC.

Specifically, we prevented UCLA from joining a system-wide health insurance policy for 2010-2011, which would have negated and/or increased the cost of dependent care, extended gap care, carved out behavioral health services and uncapped pharmacy benefits for our students, all vital benefits for our demographic.

In addition to the biweekly design and implementation meetings, we flew to Oakland for multiple in-vendor presentations.

We collaborated with UCLA Housing on implementing a new web infrastructure for both Weyburn Terrace and University Apartments South.

Beginning fall 2010, offer and assignment processes, transfer requests, rent changes and waitlist views will all be done online and in a much more streamlined manner.

We were able to do more than most administrations because of an understanding of two core values: time and trust.

Time was a tremendous benefit as this year’s four officers were all at points in their academic programs where they didn’t have coursework.

This flexibility was essential to our success since key issues plaguing graduate students don’t conform to a rigid academic calendar; substantial effort is required on nights, weekends and quarter and semester breaks.

Furthermore, budget briefings, provost and chancellor Q-and-As and policy implementation meetings are all set at specific times in the day. If you have courses, either you neglect your academics, or you neglect the almost 12,000 students you represent.

Trust is probably the most important and students tend to forget that this is a two-way street. Just as how students moan about trusting the administration, the administration, in turn, has to trust in student government leaders in order to collaborate on initiatives that benefit the entire student community.

If we antagonize, insult and ridicule administration, they will simply wait out the student leaders. After all, a nine-month term is too short and precious to waste on irrationality.

I want to emphasize that gaining trust doesn’t mean agreeing with the administration; after all, a dynamic tension will always exist. However, this means that when we do disagree, the student leaders’ voices are the credible sources administrators rely on in jointly imparting change.

Even after these efforts, we’re not done. Equipped with an intimate knowledge of the UC infrastructure as well as many strong relationships with key players, we want to continue to enhance the graduate student experience during a time when it’s needed most.

We want to help restore revenue to our university at a time when state support is at a historic low and only taxing students is not fair or sustainable.

We have successfully maintained our graduate student health insurance for 2010-2011, and we want to assure these vital benefits for 2011-2012 and beyond.

We want to enhance professional development programs with the UCLA Alumni Association and the UCLA Career Center to make sure our graduate students are in the best positions possible facing the daunting job market.

With a strong track record in hand, I know we’ll be able to get the job done.

These are our ideologies; these are our achievements; and these are our coalitions. Vote GSA Momentum. We get it.

Madni is the incumbent Graduate Student Association president and GSA Momentum’s candidate for president.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *