Graduate association elections loom

Monday, April 15, 1996

Internal vice president only position up for grabs as others go
unopposed

By Ryan Ozimek

Daily Bruin Contributor

With the candidates for president and external vice president
running unopposed, graduate students will be choosing only the fate
of next year’s Graduate Students Association two internal vice
president candidates.

Beginning Monday and continuing for the next two weeks, graduate
students will decide between candidates Danise Kimball, a student
in the political science department, and Phu Tranchi of the
physiological sciences department, for the open position. Although
the two stand for different slates, they bring markedly similar
platforms to the race.

The Graduate Students Association (GSA) internal vice
president’s office, which leads the assembly, forum and president’s
council meetings, analogous to the House of Representatives, Senate
and the president’s cabinet meetings, was headed by Loc Nguyen this
school year.

"The vice president internal needs to guide the Forum and help
lead GSA," Nguyen said. "The position is more integral than many
believe because it is the chair of the policy making of GSA, it is
necessary for this person to help increase GSA’s visibility within
the school."

Kimball, a once Wellesley undergraduate student, is a
fourth-year graduate student studying political theory. A teaching
assistant for an american politics class, Kimball is hoping to
receive her master’s degree in political science next year.

Within campus politics, she has become well oriented with the
Students Association of Graduate Employees, working with them on
issues and programs such as affirmative action and Justice for
Janitors.

Since the start of the campaign, Kimball has chosen to join next
year’s sole external vice president candidate, Grace Chee, on a
platform called the Progressive Student Action Slate.

The slate emphasizes affirmative action, the mobilization of the
graduate government, better communications among graduate schools
on campus and the Students Association of Graduate Employees
organization.

Her opponent, Tranchi, is a first-year physiological science
student. He spent his undergraduate years at UCLA and last year
entered UCLA’s graduate school.

This year, he and a handful of other students in his department
began the department’s first council to report to the graduate
association. Within his council, he has helped create community
outreach programs such as having graduate students speak to
undergraduates to help spark interest in graduate school. He also
worked on the Chancellor’s Council on Diversity, appointed by
Chancellor Charles Young.

Tranchi, like Kimball, chose to join another graduate student,
presidential candidate Chris Tymchuk, on a slate named Diversity
and Outreach.

This slate focuses on the subject of student diversity instead
of solely on affirmative action, and also on graduate student
outreach into the community and undergraduate student
population.

Despite the obvious similarities between the two candidates,
they do differ in approach to issues such as affirmative
action.

Kimball believes that the association must mobilize graduate
students in rallies and protests. She supported the actions taken
by undergraduate President York Chang during October’s affirmative
action protest in Westwood and his subsequent arrest.

"The graduate student body isn’t very diverse in comparison to
those of other schools and the undergraduate student body here at
UCLA," Kimball said.

Although she said that she realizes the government won’t bring
the regents to their knees on the affirmative action issue, it can
still mobilize students towards affirmative action ­ something
that she believes the association hasn’t done in the past.

"We need to take a more active stance to help graduate students
in their support of affirmative action," Kimball said. "Students
need to become more involved politically and GSA should work as
their coordinating body."

However, Tranchi believes UCLA graduate students should look to
other means, such as outreach, to maintain and increase
diversity.

"I don’t think that affirmative action is as much of an issue
within the graduate school mainly because the people accepted are
limited to specific areas, and that small pool of candidates are
all highly qualified," Tranchi said.

Aside from their differing opinions on affirmative action, the
candidates have similar opinions on most other subjects facing the
association.

Kimball and Tranchi both would like to see the graduate
government become a better facilitator of student outreach, not
only by UCLA graduate students going out to the community, but also
students reaching into the graduate government.

To help students become more involved in the graduate
government, Kimball proposes such ideas as an organization day,
which would be a day that graduate students could learn more about
the various clubs and organizations available to them.

"Programs such as a club information day could bring students
from different departments together instead of keeping them
separated by their departments," Kimball said.

She would also like to see the association increase its
involvement with the graduate employees’ association, helping the
organization establish a collective bargaining relationship with
the university.

Tranchi also believes the government needs to improve the idea
of community. He would like to see graduate students become more
involved with the undergraduate student body and also increasingly
involve local communities.

"I think we need to look at currently existing programs, such as
the community fellows program, which gives scholarship money to
graduate students wanting to start community outreach programs, and
also increase communication between the undergraduate government
and GSA to help increase community outreach," Tranchi said.

Throughout this school year, Tranchi believes that the graduate
government has improved its visibility and outreach, but still sees
areas for enhancement.

"I’ve been (at UCLA) for a while and never knew about GSA,"
Tranchi said. "I’m pleased with what I’ve seen this year with GSA,
but it still has more potential."

Closely related to the topic of student outreach is
intradepartmental communication. In order to have an outreach
program that works well, association officials said, students from
different graduate departments must be able to communicate with
each other easily.

Hoping to increase communication, Kimball would like to
establish better intraschool working relationships by starting
leadership conferences which would bring graduate students from
across campus together to discuss different topics, such as a
women’s conference on affirmative action.

"I would like to go to various council meetings in order to show
the individual council members that GSA is interested in what they
have to say," Kimball said.

Tranchi, similarly, would like to see the graduate government
help facilitate the exchanging of ideas outside of the individual
schools, and instead throughout the whole campus.

"I would like to personally go to the department’s council
meetings of each school and encourage them to (put) GSA forefront,"
Tranchi said.

He believes that divisive issues, that each student has opinions
on regardless of which graduate department they are in, will spur
increased involvement by students in the graduate government and
politics, in general.

FRED HE/Daily Bruin

Left to right: Danise Kimball, Christopher Tymchuk and Phu
Tranchi are all candidates in the upcoming elections.