GSA elections begin today on Web

By Barbara Ortutay
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Struggling to garner a 10 percent voter turnout has not been an
easy task for the Graduate Students Association. In fact, GSA has
not passed the double-digit threshold for the past 11 years.

This creates a vicious cycle for GSA because its constitution
requires a 10 percent turnout for any referendum to take effect,
even if it is passed by a majority.

This year, GSA is attempting to raise its membership fee from
$5.50 per quarter to $7 through a referendum that was also on the
ballot last year. The fee has not changed since 1982 despite voter
approval.

GSA President Martin Griffin said though the extra resources
would benefit the association, passing the 10 percent mark would
also help in getting more students to be aware of GSA and what it
does.

“It’s more the principle ““ that we have broken
through this haunting, oppressive 10 percent threshold,” he
said.

GSA elections begin today and will continue until next
Wednesday.

While students who choose to vote in the upcoming Undergraduate
Students Association Council elections will do so using paper
ballots, graduate students wishing to vote must log on to their
My.UCLA Web site.

Some members of the undergraduate student government raised
security concerns in their opposition to using the My.UCLA site for
elections, but GSA Administrative Representative Michael Cohn said
students should not worry about security because My.UCLA is the
same system that lets students access their grades.

GSA members hope holding elections online will allow students
who commute, or have little time during the day, to vote. According
to Cohn this method will also cost less than using paper ballots
and poll workers.

After complaints from law students, GSA decided to hold its
elections earlier this year. In the past, GSA elections have
coincided with finals week for the UCLA School of Law, which is on
the semester system. Griffin said he hasn’t received as much
of a response from medical students, who are also on the semester
system.

“We would very much like to connect with the medical
students,” he said.

In the past, GSA has tried numerous ways to boost voter turnout,
from giving away free coffee and discounts to holding its elections
at the same time as the undergraduate government, but so far
without avail.

Last year, GSA put on its ballot a referendum to add the
American Indian Graduate Student Association as a special interest
group to the GSA Forum. The forum is the association’s
executive committee, comprised of delegates from 11 departmental
programs and professional schools, as well as five special interest
groups.

Because too few students voted, the proposal did not take
effect, despite being passed by 97 percent of voters.

“We would like to become a voting delegate of the forum
like other groups,” said Jennifer Bazilius, who is one of 20
American Indian Studies master’s students at UCLA.

Griffin said he hopes for higher turnout this year partially
because graduate concerns, such as the BruinGo! bus program and
housing, have been in the spotlight recently.

With reports from Marcelle Richards, Daily Bruin Senior
Staff.