GSA recap – March 4

The 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 Ackerman Viewpoint Lounge.

Agenda

• Ryan Snyder, of the Ryan Snyder Associates urban planning and transportation firm, presented the Resolution Calling for a Bike Safe Westwood Boulevard, advocating for more bike lanes. He said the plan would provide safer transportation and public health. He urged supporters to step forward and encourage Los Angeles City Councilmember Paul Koretz to add more bike lanes. The resolution passed unanimously.

• Patrick Adler, election commissioner, proposed a schedule to start the election process tomorrow. The new election schedule would include a shortened campaign period of 15 days. The proposed schedule passed unanimously. Adler also proposed two new amendments to the election code. The first amendment would reduce the amount of signatures needed to run for elections from 50 to 30, which Adler believes will produce a greater amount of participation. The signature reduction amendment passed 12-4-0. The second amendment called for no spam campaigning, including a possible ban on unsolicited emails, and did not pass.

• Nathaniel Ross, external president of the GSA Math and Physical Sciences Council, and Mike Hirshman, GSA President, addressed the forum on whether or not to join University of California Student Association. Ross said UCSA does important lobbying work, and if GSA joins UCSA they will be able to join these conversations and have better access to information. However, Ross also said that he believes it is important to consider the costs of joining, which would include a $1.30 charge per student. Joining UCSA would also put a greater time commitment on the vice president of external affairs. Hirshman said GSA left UCSA six years ago because few graduate issues were being discussed and there was no graduate director. However, a graduate director was later hired. The motion to join UCSA failed unanimously.

• Hirshman nominated Ina Archer as Melnitz co-director for the remainder of the year.

Officer reports

• Hirshman urged the collection efforts of an online survey supporting the implementation of bike routes on Westwood Boulevard. He said a majority of students taking the bus are in North Campus, while many of the bus stops are in South Campus. Hirshman also spoke about the tuition hike, which he said is unclear for grad students. He added a rally is being held at Royce Hall at noon on March 5 to address the hikes. Hirshman also stated that Grad Slam Ted talks have a deadline this Sunday. On a final note, Hirshman gave a thank you to GSA member Ashley Mazurki who will be graduating this winter.

• Ivy Onyeador, vice president of academic affairs, and Michael Weismeyer, from the Committee on Library and Scholarly Communications, discussed possible changes to the dissertation and embargo process, which they said does not provide a long enough time for editing dissertations. They said that the amount of embargo time for the dissertation should be lengthened. A graduate student can embargo for up to two years, however they said the embargo period should be longer to prevent one’s dissertation from being downloaded for up to six years. They also discussed the issue of space needs for grad students in the library.

• Andres Schneider, vice president of external affairs, announced the March 4 deadline for the Graduate Summer Research Mentorship for international students.

• Milan Chatterjee, vice president of internal affairs, discussed efforts being made to make discretionary funding more clear. He said his office is also in the process of hiring a developer to update its website. Lastly, his office is looking to revamp the student interest board for better representation.

• Louis Tse, forum representative for Engineering, said he hopes to have the first faculty award for excellence in graduate student mentorship. He said the speculative nomination process would be capped at three letters from current students and alumni to prevent anyone from gaining an unfair advantage. The selection process would be a two-stage process and graduate student run, he added.

• Ross said an outside source who wishes to give a presentation on stipends has approached him. April 15 is the tentative date for the presentation.

Compiled by Sarah Hambro, Bruin contributor.