Grad students fight fee increases

As graduate student fees may undergo a 40 percent increase next
year, members of the Graduate Student Association say they refuse
to stand idly in the dark.

Although several department chairs have made efforts to get
their own voices heard, GSA has launched an advocacy agenda
addressing the proposed increase in graduate fees and budget cuts
to UCLA’s graduate program.

The advocacy plan, which began on March 1 when GSA officers sent
a letter to the UC Board of Regents, will be in full effect this
quarter. In a new section on its Web site titled
“Advocacy,” GSA encourages students to contact their
state legislators and the regents directly by sending letters with
their concerns.

“We want to provide an opportunity to facilitate a
relationship between graduate students and their (representatives
in government),” said Haig Hovsepian, GSA external vice
president.

In light of recent budget cuts and fee increases, GSA also has
made efforts to create a division within GSA that is devoted solely
to advocacy under the direction of the external vice president.
This advocacy arm is still waiting to be approved by the
council’s forum, which meets during the third week of the
quarter.

Before this initiative, GSA did not engage in any form of
structured advocacy.

GSA members requested through e-mail that graduate students send
a copy of the letters they send to their state legislatures and the
regents to ensure they have received students’ input and to
encourage these officials to address graduate students’
concerns.

Essentially, GSA wants to emphasize to the state government and
to the regents the importance of graduate students not only in
academia but also in the economy.

There is a high demand in the future for students with graduate
degrees, and with such a drastic budget cut, these needs will be
hard to meet, GSA members said.

“You don’t cut the legs out of a future investment
such as higher education,” Hovsepian said.

Several GSA members agree that along with expressing concern
about student fee increases and budget cuts, GSA wants the state to
realize the regents should not be in the position to determine what
entities get more cuts than others.

A main concern among department chairs and graduate students is
that if the proposed budget plan does go through, the quality of
the graduate and professional schools, along with competitiveness
and reputation, will decline.

Some graduate students have mixed feelings regarding GSA’s
current advocacy efforts toward this issue.

Amanda Gulsrud, a student in the Graduate School of Education
and Information Studies, said she appreciates GSA’s
efforts.

“It is great that they are organizing this. “¦ I am
going to do it. “¦ As graduate students, we are busy, but they
do a good job of informing us,” Gulsrud said.

But Julia Vazquez, a graduate student in the education
department, has not noted the same dedication on GSA’s
part.

“I think that it is not enough. … Our fees keep going
up, and nothing has been done. “¦ What we are doing is
passive, and our voices are not being heard at all,” Vazquez
said, adding that she believes GSA should constantly make itself
more visible.

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