What is the Graduate Students Association?
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What is the Graduate Students Association?
In an often confusing and chaotic world of graduate work, your opportunities to
participate in the political process seem to slowly disappear. Between satisfying
degree requirements, teaching, conducting research, writing, and maintaining the
eternally important contacts within our respective disciplines, it is not uncommon
for all of us to feel as if we cannot control the conditions under which we pursue
our degrees. But the fact of the matter is that all UCSB graduate students are automatically
members of and participants in an organization that both advocates their concerns
and agitates for change. The UCSB Graduate Students Association (GSA), supported
by your fees, exists as one of the most powerful links between the graduate students,
the administration, and the campus community as a whole. Your GSA is made up of
the graduate student elected Executive Committee, General Council, and the general
graduate student body.
Who Makes up the General Council?
The General Council is made up of graduate student elected departmental representatives
from every department on campus. They attend monthly GSA meetings, where they bring
up concerns regarding their departments, and also receive information about the
general graduate student body; they report all relevant information back to their
fellow students in their department. As your representatives, they also bring your
concerns to the graduate student body.
When Does GSA Meet?
The GSA General Council meets the first Tuesday of each month to allow all interested
graduate students to air their views and concerns and enact legislation to do something
about those concerns. Every meeting is inevitably informative; you get an excellent
opportunity to find out what graduate students in other departments are working
towards vis-a-vis their departments and/or the UCSB administration, and how you
can do the same. And don't forget that everybody (including the children of graduate
student parents) who attends General Council meetings gets FREE hot pizza! Assembly
meetings take place in the GSA Lounge from 6 to 7:30pm on the first Tuesday of each
month that school is in session. Assembly does not meet during the summer.
How Do I Reach GSA?
The email account for the GSA is gsa@gsa.ucsb.edu. Additionally, you can call 893-3824
or stop by our office in the graduate student lounge, located in the UCen 2502 (above
the MultiCultural Center). You can also reach us through our web page at http://www.gsa.ucsb.edu/.
What Sort of Concerns Does the GSA Handle?
I wish I had known that the GSA meets each week, and that I was automatically a
member just by being a graduate student.
GSA focuses on a variety of issues, both on and off-campus. On campus, GSA addresses
the budget; campus sensitivity to issues of race, class, gender and sexual orientation;
graduate student rights and responsibilities; academic and professional issues;
student health services and the health insurance plan; allocation of space for graduate
students; the Long Range Development Plan; TA training; the Isla Vista community;
and other pressing issues. Keep in mind that any ideas you have about what graduate
students might need or want are extremely important, and should be heard. The monthly
General Council meetings are your best opportunities to garner support for your
ideas. There are also numerous opportunities for involvement by sitting on campus-wide
and system-wide committees in the Academic Senate, Administrative Affairs, and Student
Affairs.
You are also represented in the University of California Students Association
by your External President who deals with off campus matters. UCSA is made up of
representatives from each campus in the system, one graduate and one undergraduate
student; the Vice President of External Affairs sits on the UCSA board of directors.
The UCSA board addresses such issues as fees and elections, and is instrumental
in selecting both the student regent to the UC Board of Regents and the student
commissioner for the California Post-secondary Education Commission (CPEC). The
system-wide issues that these organizations work with are very important to all
of us as graduate students at UCSB; it is therefore our responsibility to keep track
of them at all times.
Socializing with Other Graduate Students
As both new and continuing graduate students, we rarely have the opportunity to
get beyond the niches we've established in our departments. Once we move into our
mailboxes, cubicles, or offices (one's the same as the other anyway), we tend to
forget that over thirty different departments exist on this campus. One opportunity
you have to meet some students from these other departments, outside of events sponsored
by Orientation Programs or the Graduate Division, is to attend one of the many functions
sponsored by GSA, including weekly bagel hours, movie nights, monthly happy hours,
and other community-building events. These are great opportunities to meet other
graduate students in an informal setting.
To Get Involved...
If you wish to know more about the political process for graduate students, and
how you can get involved, feel free to give GSA a call at 893-3824, email us at
gsa@gsa.ucsb.edu, come to the monthly meetings, or drop by our office and graduate
student lounge (UCen 2502--above the MultiCultural Center). We look forward to meeting
you.
--Executive Officers of the UCSB Graduate Students Association
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