Graduate government troubled by low turnout

Friday, May 3, 1996

Voting access on Internet fails to draw more votersBy Ryan
Ozimek

Daily Bruin Contributor

After a year-long campaign to increase the Graduate Students
Association’s (GSA) visibility, students responded at the polls
with a 7 percent voter turnout ­ the lowest in recent
history.

Government officials shook their heads in disbelief Tuesday
morning as they read the results of a two-week long general
election.

High hopes that the creation of Internet access to voters would
lead to increased student participation in the graduate government,
had died.

"None of us even expected to see less than a 10 percent voter
turnout," said Internal Vice President Loc Nguyen.

Trying to build a foundation on inter-graduate school
communications, the association wanted to increase student
involvement through divisive issues such as affirmative action.

But with this year’s extremely low voter turnout, many in the
graduate government agreed that the association’s problem is much
deeper than originally thought.

Unlike that of the undergraduate student government, some
graduate government officials believed that it is much harder for
them to reach into their constituency.

"Because graduate students are so much more focused in their
studies within their own departments, we have to make a much harder
effort to reach the student body," Nguyen said.

Throughout the past six months, the graduate government focused
its energies on increasing connections with students.

The association looked to various options for increasing its
visibility by trying to find certain events or political issues on
which all graduate students would have an opinion ­ regardless
of which department they came from.

"It’s now obvious that the students are rather apathetic to
GSA," Nguyen said. "We need to give them something to be passionate
about and offer them leadership, but I guess we haven’t."

If some graduate students from the Anderson School are any
indication, Nguyen’s idea of student indifference to the graduate
government is correct.

"In this school (Anderson School), the large majority of us are
here for only two years and are pretty much isolated from the rest
of the campus," said management student David Endler. "We have our
own little niche here and many of the issues don’t affect us."

Officials had hoped that the new e-mail and World Wide Web
voting system would have made voting more accessible for students,
and would result in a larger turnout.

"Earlier on, we thought that the (electronic election system)
would solve all of our election problems," said Elections
Commissioner Katherine Crosswhite. "But it didn’t, and it’s become
a really depressing experience."

A factor that may have caused the low voter turnout was that two
of the three elective positions on the government went uncontested
this year, Crosswhite said.With only a single two-candidate race
occurring, interest amongst graduate students in the election could
have been lost.

But looking at the larger picture, many in the graduate
government thought that graduate students don’t fully understand
the role of the graduate government.

"Maybe GSA doesn’t strike people as important enough, because it
usually works behind the scenes," Crosswhite said.

Indeed, the graduate government is responsible for many graduate
department journals and also for programs such as Melnitz Movies
and the Environmental Coalition. Many of these programs will be
significantly impacted by this year’s low election turnout.
Already, for instance, both Melnitz Movies and the Environmental
Coalition are facing possible elimination.

Because the graduate government election received votes from
less than 10 percent of the student body, a referendum that would
have increased student fees to help fund the association’s programs
will not be enacted.

"Our constitution states that we can’t pass a constitutional
amendment without 10 percent of the student body voting," Nguyen
said.

Without the fee increase that the association hoped for, new
programs such as the Community Fellows program, that would have
allowed students to work in outside communities, will either lose
much monetary support or ultimately cease to exist by the end of
the fiscal year.

"Students didn’t realize what this referendum meant, but they’ll
feel the effects of it really soon," Nguyen said.

The reality is that the graduate government officials may be
reaching a point of desperation. Jerry Mann, the student’s
association’s interim director of student support services,
described the graduate association’s financial dilemma.

"If things don’t begin to change, GSA may very well begin to
wither away within the next four to five years," Mann said.

Whatever the future of the graduate government may be, Nguyen
explained that next year’s officials should begin gaining contacts
for this summer and next year in order to make a smooth and healthy
transfer of power.

"This year I don’t think we started making contacts early
enough," Nguyen said. "Hopefully next year’s government will start
earlier to avoid many of the problems that arose for us this
year."

Next year’s graduate government president-elect, Chris Tymchuk,
agreed with Nguyen that making the association visible early in the
school year is vital to increasing student involvement with the
government.

"I’m already going to council meetings, encouraging people to
apply for stipend and non-stipend positions on GSA," Tymchuk
said.

"People won’t hold GSA in high esteem if they only hear from us
during elections so I’d like them to hear from us all year long,"
he added.