Five GSA candidates focus on diverse issues

The five candidates for next year’s Graduate Students Association were announced Wednesday evening, with candidates focused on a variety of issues, including interdisciplinary communication and increasing graduate and professional student fees.

The four GSA positions up for election are president, vice president of academic affairs, vice president of internal affairs and vice president of external affairs.

There are two presidential candidates running and three vice presidential candidates who are running unopposed.

Arpi Siyahian, who is running for the position of vice president of internal affairs, said her election would allow her to expand graduate student programs.

“My goals include increasing funding for the Graduate Student Resource Center, which is currently one room, and the Graduate Student Writing Center,” Siyahian said.

Siyahian also said she wanted to increase a sense of community among graduate students in campus housing.

“I want to help make the graduate housing community as strong as the undergraduate’s,” Siyahian said.

Two of the current GSA officers, Vice President of Academic Affairs Janet Cummings Link and President Monica Sanchez are running again this year.

Cummings Link, who is up for re-election, said one of her major goals is to increase graduate student input in their education.

“Through my experiences this year in GSA, I have identified specific areas where graduate students can continue to give feedback to educational departments on campus,” she said, adding that a graduate student survey was one way to get students involved.

Sanchez, who is leaving her position as president to run unopposed for the vice president of external affairs position, said she has learned about the other positions extensively in the past year.

“I want to work against the increase in student fees for professional students and foster a closer relationship with the alumni association,” Sanchez said.

The two candidates for president, Nurit Katz and Tony Dunbar, are concerned about different issues.

Dunbar said he wanted to establish a clean GSA, minimize insider politics, and include a broader base of people to work with.

“It’s important to create an organizational infrastructure that executes goals, communicates better, and puts teeth behind actions,” Dunbar said.

Katz said her primary goal is to increase interdisciplinary communication between graduate departments.

“The university departments are like silos and rarely communicate with each other,” Katz said, adding that she has worked hard to bring students in her department to collaborate. Katz said she also wanted to bring graduate students closer through an online community.

“Before next fall, I will utilize online tools to create a social networking community for UCLA graduate students,” Katz said.

The candidates will speak again at a luncheon and dinner on April 16. Voting is scheduled to take place April 17-23 through MyUCLA.

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