GSA Meeting Roundup ““ Dec. 5

The UCLA Graduate Students Association is the voice of graduate students on campus. The association meets for forum every three weeks and takes positions on current issues affecting graduate students. Forum meetings are at 5:30 p.m. in the Global Viewpoint Lounge at Ackerman Union.

Agenda

• Vanessa Thulsiraj, vice president of internal affairs, was absent.

Appointments

• Hope McCoy, a graduate student in the Graduate School of Education and Information Studies, was appointed as the GSA communications director.

Officer Reports

• President David Zeke said he attended a financial literacy work group that is putting together a budgeting tool and consolidating financial resources for graduate students.

• Nicole Robinson, vice president of academic affairs, said she attended a town hall meeting last week where graduate students met to discuss the change in the leave of absence policy and their response to it. She added that the UCLA Academic Senate is requesting graduate student input regarding their experiences or thoughts on online learning. Robinson also said the Graduate Council of UCLA Academic Senate requested information from graduate students about their stance on the current incomplete class policy.

• Dani Molina, vice president of external affairs, said he attended the Student Advocates for Graduate Education conference last week with Zeke at the University of Michigan, where they created a policy agenda about higher education issues to advocate for.

Special Presentations

• The Social Sciences Council presented a list of possible reforms to make to the GSA forum, ranging from changing the general meeting procedures to creating new oversight committees. The council asked the forum to discuss the possible changes with their own councils.

• The Black Graduate Student Association, a student interest board group on forum, asked forum to sign its petition to bring the interest group back into forum. Forum unanimously voted to postpone the petition deadline for the group to next quarter.