The Graduate Students Association approved a revised budget with a projected $95,511 deficit that arose because of a spreadsheet formula error and discussed the Underground Scholars Initiative’s request to rejoin the GSA’s Student Interest Board at its Oct. 15 meeting.

The Graduate Students Association is the voice of graduate students on campus and takes positions on current issues affecting graduate students. The association meets every other Thursday at 5:30 p.m. in the Bruin Viewpoint Room. Recordings of the meetings are posted on the UCLA GSA Live! YouTube channel.

Public comment

• No attendees spoke at public comment.

Funding

• An ASUCLA representative said discretionary funding applications are open, with fall applications due Nov. 20 at 11:59 p.m. Guidelines and applications are available under the programming funds section of the GSA website.

Special presentations

• Jessica Alexander, the Student Government Services division manager, explained how students can access council budgets and funding awards through requisition forms for reimbursements, cash advances, invoice payments and payments to vendors or guest speakers. She said requisitions for fall, winter and spring expenses are due Jan. 8, April 2 and June 4, respectively.
• Eric Hernandez, a representative of Change.vote, a nonpartisan voter information website from Change.org, presented the platform’s tools for researching candidates, ballot measures and endorsements based on a user’s address. Hernandez said the platform uses artificial intelligence to assist with gathering information, which researchers verify before publication.

Appointments

• The GSA Forum, a governing body composed of delegates from academic councils and GSA’s Student Interest Board, approved a slate of appointments that included Academic Senate representatives and a director of government relations, with nine votes in favor, none against and three abstentions.

Officer reports

• President Naomi Hammonds was absent from the meeting. In a message read by Internal Affairs Vice President Jonathan ‘Jay’ Vidal Contreras, Hammonds said she arranged a breakfast with Executive Vice Chancellor and Provost Darnell Hunt for Nov. 13 from 8 to 9 a.m., and one representative from each academic council and the elected GSA officers were invited to attend.
• Vidal Contreras said recordings from the previous academic year had been uploaded to the UCLA GSA Live! YouTube channel. He added that technical restrictions prevented livestreaming through the account and encouraged delegates to continue participating through Zoom. Vidal Contreras said the First Generation Graduate Student Council – a group that connects first-generation graduate students with resources, peer support and professional development opportunities – would not operate this academic year and that proceedings to remove it from the Student Interest Board, a voting body that represents various graduate student organizations in the GSA Forum, would begin at the next meeting. He also said he contacted UCLA Housing and Transportation about support for graduate students affected by the Weyburn Terrace conversion from graduate to undergraduate housing, including the availability of late-night shuttles for those relocated farther from campus.
• Academic Affairs Vice President Ben Heronimus said he is recruiting graduate student representatives for the Academic Senate’s Legislative Assembly and the College of Letters and Science’s Faculty Executive Committee. He added that he is seeking a director for the new scholarly activities fund, which supports expenses such as conference attendance, research presentations and publication fees, and he is preparing promotional materials for its application. Heronimus said he plans to meet with Graduate Writing Center leadership to establish its oversight committee and is arranging a meeting between graduate and undergraduate Academic Senate representatives. He added that planned discussions with Graduate Council leadership would address AI, international students’ concerns, childcare center closures and graduate student representation.
• External Affairs Vice President Jack Feng said his office is recruiting for a stipended regional operations director position requiring seven to 10 hours of work per week. He also encouraged students to apply for the UC Advocacy Network Student Ambassador Program – a program through which students advocate for UC priorities and policies affecting students before state and federal lawmakers – and contact his office about a funded opportunity to attend the UC Regents meeting Nov. 17 to 18 at UC San Francisco.

Old business

• The forum approved the revised 2026-27 budget with 10 votes in favor, none against and one abstention.
• Alexander said a spreadsheet formula error omitted expenses for the new scholarly activities fund from the original budget’s expense total. Correcting the budget resulted in a projected $95,511 deficit, which reserve funds will cover, she said. Alexander added that the correction would not reduce the funds currently available to councils. Alexander said carryover funds and money left unspent at the end of the fiscal year would help replenish reserves. She added that Student Government Accounting plans to revise its budget spreadsheet and introduce additional reviews by Student Union Accounting and ASUCLA Finance to prevent similar errors. Alexander also said academic councils received their full annual budget allocations at the beginning of the fiscal year, replacing a process that initially provided only part of their funding. She added that changes in enrollment would inform the following year’s budget.

New business

• Vidal Contreras presented the request from the Underground Scholars Initiative – a student organization that supports formerly incarcerated students – to be reinstated to GSA’s Student Interest Board. He said the organization maintained that it had been admitted around winter 2019 and believed it remained a member. He added that previous emails indicated GSA’s involvement with the board, but he had not located governing documents or meeting records confirming a formal admission vote. Vidal Contreras said the available records suggested possible gaps in GSA’s record-keeping and did not establish whether the organization completed the formal petition process. He said he neither supported nor opposed reinstatement and that delegates could consider reinstating the organization with or without conditions. The forum did not decide the reinstatement request. After an attempted vote to postpone the discussion, Vidal Contreras determined that the meeting lacked quorum, said the item would return under old business and adjourned the meeting.