Friday, January 31, 1997
Many grad students hardly have time to think, let alone run a
student government. But, somehow, GSA President Chris Tymchuk finds
the time.By A.J. Harwin
Daily Bruin Contributor
hile most South Campus graduate students can barely make the
time to get out of the lab for a soda, Chris Tymchuk spends between
60 and 80 hours a week juggling his class and research schedule
 and manages to also deal with his duties as the president of
the Graduate Students Association (GSA).
Unlike the more active undergraduate government, GSA has
struggled to get participation by graduate students. Tymchuk, a
third-year physiological science student, has made the effort since
beginning his term last June to try to solve the problem of getting
more graduates involved in student government, and meanwhile find
an area in which graduate students have some common ground and
concern.
"There are political issues such as affirmative action and fees
that people rally around, but sometimes graduate students just
don’t care," Tymchuk said. "They’re busy with their research,
teaching and jobs to support themselves. So I was thinking that if
we were to bring (student government) to them, they would respond.
And that hasn’t panned out as well as I would of hoped."
Tymchuk originally got involved in student government in order
to have an organization in the physiological sciences department
that represented the graduate students.
After getting the department organized and registered, Tymchuk
became president of his graduate student department during the
1994-95 year. From there, he ran for GSA president.
"There was need for leadership in GSA at the presidential level
and the vice presidential level," Tymchuk said. "I saw an
opportunity to step into that."
One of Tymchuk’s goals has been to encourage graduate students
to get involved with volunteer programs in addition to getting
graduate students involved in their government.
But Tymchuk’s main obstacles have been getting not only graduate
students to come to GSA-sponsored events, but also getting
department representatives to come to GSA forums.
"One of the problems is that there has not been a high rate of
turnout in the past," Tymchuk said. "People don’t understand what
GSA does, why it’s there, what resources it offers to graduate
students."
Among the things that GSA has done for students was to invite
businesses from off-campus last fall to an orientation to offer
students networking opportunities with the business leaders.
GSA also held a meeting to hear graduate students’ concerns in
the search for a new chancellor.
"Chris has been a diligent president whose primary focus has
been the ability of the GSA to demonstrate to its constituents the
importance of GSA to them," said Jerry Mann, student union and
student support services director.
Recently, Tymchuk met with the graduate student body president
at USC to come up with ideas of how UCLA graduate students could
work on research programs with students at USC.
"One of things we talked about was a combined UCLA/USC research
conference," Tymchuk said. "I think this is a great idea,
considering the fact that there are two major research universities
in Los Angeles that have very little interaction; it would be
really useful, especially at the graduate and professional level to
share work and ideas."
In regards to his leadership during the Student Association of
Graduate Employees (SAGE) strike, he earned high regards from SAGE
lead organizer Mike Miller.
"Chris has done a great job as GSA president fighting for the
rights as students and a great job being supportive to SAGE to the
extent it was appropriate to his position," Miller said. "He was
exemplary in his ability to separate student and employee issues. I
hope he runs again."
But Tymchuk has been focusing more on the present than making
future plans to run for GSA president again. While he has been able
to get seats on the Academic Senate and other councils filled, GSA
has been focusing more on internal problems regarding getting a
sufficient number of council members to show up to meetings in
order to make decisions.
"The main problem right know is with forum, and having the organ
at the council level to come to forum," Tymchuk said. "There are
certain goals that we haven’t reached, like the outreach volunteer
efforts, because of having to deal with forum."
Tymchuk noted that graduate students may not understand the full
importance of the need for a smoothly run forum.
While Tymchuk’s term ends in May, during the next two quarters
he plans to re-establish his goals.
"The major concern right now is elections," Tymchuk said. "We
need to make sure that we inform graduate students to get out and
vote, and possibly become involved with GSA."
When not dealing with GSA issues, Tymchuk spends the rest of the
time focusing on his research on and teaching of prostate cancer,
while putting off his passion for scuba diving.
"Breast cancer and prostate cancer kill the same number of
people in the U.S. each year," Tymchuk said. "And there is five
times as much funding for breast cancer as prostate cancer."
Aside from GSA, Tymchuck’s main priorities in life are to make
the best of himself and take advantage of opportunities that
present themselves.
"I really feel that I am setting myself up now to have a strong
family, that I can provide for my children, and that my children
can look up to me as a role model.
"I think it’s really important that we focus on informing
graduate students about GSA, what GSA has to offer to them, and how
they can become involved in graduate student government," Tymchuk
said.
PATRICK LAM/Daily Bruin
Chris Tymchuk, GSA president.