Tymchuk to emphasize outreach

Wednesday, April 17, 1996

Running unopposed, GSA president-elect takes helm next year By
Ryan Ozimek

Daily Bruin Contributor

Running unopposed in this year’s Graduate Students Association
(GSA) presidential election, Christopher Tymchuk will be taking
helm of the association starting next school year.

In partnership with internal vice president candidate Phu
Tranchi on the Outreach and Diversity slate, Tymchuk, a second-year
graduate student in the physiological science department, has
several key issues that he wishes to focus on this upcoming school
year.

"Chris is focusing more on graduate outreach into the community
while I’m focusing more on keeping the diversity of the graduate
student body," Tranchi said.

The two candidates hope to accomplish their goal by focusing
their energies on three areas ­ increasing the visibility and
involvement of students with the graduate government, working to
educate undergraduates on graduate life, and setting up community
outreach programs.

Through Tymchuk’s involvement as a representative from the
biological science department in the Forum ­ a sort of Senate
for the graduate government ­ Tymchuk has found many people
interested in student issues and politics at the individual school
level.

"I was surprised at the number of people I saw that were
interested in student government," Tymchuk said. "We need those
people to get together in order to help open the lines of
communication between the graduate schools."

Consequently, one of Tymchuk’s projects will be to facilitate a
roundtable discussion made up of graduate students from across the
campus. There, they will discuss ideas and opinions concerning
different issues that affect the student body as a whole.

"Hopefully, if students learn more about GSA and what it does,
they’ll become more interested in important issues facing graduate
students," Tymchuk said.

As the upcoming graduate student body president, Tymchuk also
believes in the importance of personal involvement in a host of
community actions, such as certain student protests. One such issue
is affirmative action.

Tymchuk has voiced his strong support of it and promised to
continued it through his actions as graduate president.

"Although I do have problems with some parts of its use, I feel
that nothing better has been created to step into its place,"
Tymchuk said.

Though Tymchuk may believe in the issue, a referendum on the
ballot will ask graduate students about their feelings on the UC
Regents’ removing affirmative action in the UC system. This opens
the possibility that a majority of graduate students may support
ending affirmative action .

"If this occurs, I would like to go back to the students to find
what they really want their student government to do for them,"
Tymchuk said.

Another facet of his outreach program includes involving the
graduate association with undergraduates from UCLA and beyond. For
instance, Tymchuk would like to see graduate students give speeches
describing their research projects to help increase undergraduate
student interest in the graduate schools.

The final part of his outreach program involves having graduate
students give back to their communities. Increasing the visibility
of the Community Fellows program, which allows graduate students to
do various kinds of volunteer work while getting their degrees, is
vital to this part of his platform.

"Medical students could work at volunteer clinics or teach
certain high school classes, while law students could go back to
the community and give law advice to those who may need it,"
Tymchuk said.

While reaching out into the community, Tymchuk also hopes to
keep the diversity of the graduate student body by going into
minority and inner city areas and telling high school students of
the opportunities that graduate schools have to offer.

"I see the role of GSA president as a conduit between the
graduate student body, administration and the greater community,"
said John Shapley, this year’s graduate president. "The future
president will need to be one who can connect the entities of
graduate student needs and concerns."

Shapley agreed with getting students increasingly involved in
the graduate association.

"One thing I’ve tried to do was increase the incorporation of
more than one view in GSA," Shapley said. "We need to help others
not yet involved with GSA to understand that each graduate and
professional student has a role in GSA."

Daily Bruin File Photo

Christopher Tymchuk