GSA scrambles for votes

Graduate students campaigning for a referendum on their ballot
are frantically increasing their efforts to get out the vote after
learning that a UC policy announced just a week ago requires double
the voter turnout they thought they needed for its passage.

At least 20 percent of graduate and professional students will
have to vote in the Graduate Student Association elections ““
which began Tuesday and end Monday ““ for the Graduate Writing
Center referendum to pass, if a majority of voters support it.

If passed, the measure would establish a Graduate Writing Center
designed to “serve the academic and professional needs”
of graduate and professional students, according to the
referendum’s language.

The center would assist students in areas such as thesis and
dissertation writing and would be supported by a $4-per-quarter
student fee.

Elections advisor Mike Cohn informed the GSA of the new policy
after voting had already begun, said Tiffany Nurrenbern, director
of elections.

The UC policy, which was announced last Friday, says that a
percentage of all new campus-based student fees, such as those from
referendums, would be returned to student financial aid.

Supporters of the referendum, who include all of GSA’s
current elected officers, said they were unaware that the policy
change would also change the voting threshold, and were under the
assumption that only 10 percent voter participation would be
required.

Nurrenbern said that a 20 percent threshold may be difficult to
reach, as voting ends at noon on Monday.

The only previous GSA election in which more than 20 percent of
graduate and professional students voted was last year, when both
the undergraduate and graduate student elections got a boost from a
referendum widely publicized by Associated Students UCLA,
Nurrenbern said.

Low voter turnout has been a problem plaguing GSA elections for
years, President Jared Fox said at Wednesday’s GSA Forum
meeting.

One leader blamed this on the GSA being disconnected from
students.

“I feel like my students … don’t even know what
GSA is or what the elections are,” said Tim Indersmitten, a
representative from the Biological Sciences Council.

Supporters will be stepping up their publicity efforts by
distributing fliers in the Young Research Library and Louise M.
Darling Biomedical Library, as well as asking academic departments
and graduate councils to urge their constituencies to vote in the
elections, Nurrenbern said.

With reports from Julia Erlandson, Bruin
contributor.