GSA exceeds threshold thanks to online vote

By Linh Tat
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Newly elected candidates for the 2001-02 Graduate Students
Association celebrated their wins Thursday, but the real victory
for GSA is that it finally exceeded the 10 percent threshold needed
for a passed referendum to go into effect ““ a feat that has
not occurred for more than a decade.

Charles Harless, Dorothy Kim and Alain Dang are the new
president, vice president, internal and vice president, external,
respectively. Referenda to increase the GSA membership fee and to
allow the American Indian Graduate Student Association to have
voting rights in the GSA Forum passed by 67 and 71 percent,
respectively.

“Finally these referenda that have been on the ballot for
years can be put in the constitution,” said Emily Jarvis,
director of elections for GSA. “We’re happy partly
because the referenda passed, but also because people are more
aware of GSA’s presence on campus.”

This year, voter turnout reached 14.87 percent, up from 7.7
percent the previous year.

Jarvis and others attributed the higher voter turnout to casting
ballots online ““ the first for GSA elections ““
increased effort to publicize the event, extending the voting
period to a week, and holding elections earlier. In the past,
elections were scheduled when law school students had their exams,
which kept many from going to the polling stations.

The referenda passed by GSA voters will go into effect for the
first time in 12 years. According to the association’s
constitution, passed referenda are not recognized unless voter
turnout reaches a minimum 10 percent ““ which has not occurred
since 1989.

Voters passed a referendum that permits GSA to increase its
quarterly membership fee to $7. The association has not been able
to raise its fee of $5.50 since the mid-1980s.

Kim, who is also the current vice president, internal, said she
is happy with the fee increase, since GSA has had to operate on a
small budget for years.

“The office has felt the lack of money, especially when
people have asked us in the past for more money,” she said,
adding that GSA will determine next year’s budget in the
summer when its fiscal year ends.

In last year’s elections, the AIGSA sought approval to
send a voting delegate to the GSA Forum, the association’s
executive council currently comprised of 11 departmental programs
and schools. That referendum passed by 97 percent, but it could not
go into effect because GSA failed to clinch the 10 percent voter
turnout mark.

The same referendum passed this year by 71 percent.

“The American Indian population in L.A. is the highest in
the country. Unfortunately, our group is often marginalized and we
feel we’d have valuable input in the items of
discussion,” said Jennifer Bazilius, a graduate student in
the American Indians studies program, at the GSA Forum meeting
earlier this month.

Eric Splaver, director of college information services, said
voting online appealed to many.

“The results are more a reflection of the convenience of
voting (online) than a sudden change in interest in student
government on the part of the graduate students and the
professionals,” he said.

Additionally, casting ballots online allows the E-Board to get
the results faster, said Splaver, who helped found My.UCLA, the Web
site where students went to cast their votes. The elections ended
midnight on Wednesday, and results were in by 12:38 a.m. The
decision whether to hold future elections online will be up to next
year’s E-Board.

Online elections allowed one-third of the voters to cast their
ballots over the weekend, Jarvis said.

“The fact that there was such a high turnout will
encourage people to think of this as an option,” Jarvis said,
adding that she received much positive feedback from students.

But Jarvis said she would recommend having one polling station
on campus where students can cast votes in person, in conjunction
with the online format.

Concerns over Internet security breeches and other technical
difficulties surfaced when members of the undergraduate and
graduate student government first considered this process. GSA
decided to use this method, but the Undergraduate Students
Association Council opted otherwise.

According to Splaver, the elections ran without major obstacles.
The only problems students encountered included not knowing where
to click to cast their votes or those who did not realize they
could not vote during early morning hours when the server cannot be
accessed.

Candidates will be officially recognized as next year’s
cabinet members at the Forum meeting sixth week, and they will be
inducted into office May 30.

Dang said the first thing he’d like to do as vice
president external-elect is to meet with the new cabinet
members.

“I want to set priorities for the year to see what issues
we can feasibly work on and achieve some progress,” Dang
said.

Harless, the president-elect, could not be reached for
comment.

All those who voted online became eligible to win gift
certificates for the UCLA Bookstore, and the council with the
highest voter turnout also won money. Winners will be notified
shortly, Jarvis said.

GSA ELECTION RESULTS* GSA
Cabinet Ballot referenda
President Charles Harless
94.57% Write-in votes 4.43% Vice
President, internal Dorothy Kim
72.14% Emily Kwong 26.39% Write-in votes 1.47%
Vice President, external Alain
Dang 53.78% Thomas Johnson 44.33%
Write-in votes 1.87% yes Increase in GSA membership
fee – passed with 66.97 percent Each
member of the GSA shall be assessed a quarterly membership fee of
$7 of which a minimum of $3 will go toward that member’s council.
The current membership fee of $5.50 per quarter has not been
increased since the mid-1980s. yes AIGSA requests voting
membership in forum – passed with 71.16
percent This referendum would allow the American Indian
Graduate Student Association representation and one voting delegate
to the Graduate Students Association Forum. Voter Turnout 14.87%
Total number of eligible voters 9,837 Total number of ballots cast
1,463 * The remaining votes not accounted for in each section were
comprised of those in the "abstain" category. SOURCE: GSA Director
of Elections Original graphic by MAGGIE WOO/Daily Bruin Web
adaptation by HERNANE TABAY/Daily Bruin Senior Staff