Tuesday, May 5, 1998
GSA elections focus on efforts to revamp organization for
students
GSA: Internal, external candidates lay out positions on graduate
affairs, emphasizing experience
By Ann Hawkey
Daily Bruin Contributor
With the Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) elections
underway, the candidates have outlined their goals. The four
candidates for the external and internal vice presidential offices
have plans ranging from reform of GSA’s infrastructure to increased
outreach efforts.
GSA candidate for the office of vice president-internal,
Meredith Neuman, hopes to improve GSA’s effectiveness by working
from the inside to affect GSA’s members, the graduate students. HOW
MANY ARE THERE?
"I will work to strengthen the democratic infrastructure of GSA
by reaching out to graduate school councils and student groups
whose participation has waned and by working towards the
reimplementation of proper procedure," said Neuman in her candidate
statement.
Neuman feels that GSA needs to concentrate on its democratic
format in order to fairly represent the variety of groups and
interests embodied by the graduate students.
Current GSA vice president-internal, Lance Menthe, is also on
the ballot for re-election to the office. His campaign focuses on
experience and knowledge of the job.
"The job of the VPI is really to make sure GSA runs and is
organized and is there for graduate students," Menthe said. "It’s
the position that benefits the most from experience."
Menthe hopes to continue the work he started, including the
upkeep of the GSA webpage, which he also designed, and to
strengthen the group overall.
"There are no particular goals I want to achieve besides
strengthening the relationship between the central office and local
councils and raising the profile of the organization," Menthe
said.
Below the candidates for vice president-internal, GSA’s ballot
will have two candidates for vice president-external. This year’s
hopefuls are York Chang, former UCLA undergraduate external vice
president and student body president, and current GSA vice
president-external, Jason Ong.
Chang feels his experience in undergraduate student government,
combined with his work as a University of California Association
(UCSA) board member, prepare him to take a seat in GSA.
"My experience will allow me to hit the ground running as GSA’s
representative at UCSA," said Chang in his candidate statement.
Chang decided to return to student government because he wants
to work for a more effective legislative agenda for GSA.
Ong, who took the office of vice president-external by special
election in March, hopes to continue the work he began during his
two months in office.
Ong’s goals include improved outreach efforts to high school
students and increased support for diversity on campus.
"We need to continue to fight for affirmative action and
bilingual education and do what it takes to maintain UCLA as the
most diverse uiversity in the world," Ong wrote in his candidate
statement.
Ong makes his views on the subject of graduate student
employees’ ability to unionize very clear.
"I believe that all groups of individuals have the right to form
unions, coalitions, cooperatives and other organizations to protect
their basic rights," wrote Ong.
The GSA elections web page, contains the candidate statments in
their entirety, as well as information on the initiatives and
electronic voting. The address of the web page is
http://gsa.asucla.ucla.edu/election.