There are eight people on this campus who are your voice. They represent you, the 3,000 graduate students at UCSB. Their work and decisions directly affect you. They are the officers of the Graduate Students Association (GSA), a great support network and group of advocates for you. Here is the GSA’s mission, according to its website:
“We work to: (1) ensure that graduate student concerns are addressed in campus and off-campus policy decisions, (2) provide graduate students with information concerning decisions that are relevant to student life and (3) provide social activities for UCSB graduate students. We articulate graduate student concerns to the campus administration and to campuswide committees which deal with topics ranging from parking to long-range academic planning. We publish a yearly document detailing graduate student issues and concerns for the campus community.”
This select group is a powerful one and it needs diverse voices and leaders. In the upcoming Spring quarter, there will be elections for all eight GSA positions. Those positions, which pay stipends, are:
President
Vice President, Internal Affairs
Vice President, External Affairs
Vice President, Student Affairs
Vice President, Academic Affairs
Vice President, Communications and Records
Vice President, Budget and Finance
Vice President, Committees and Planning
Former grad peer Indy Hurt wrote an excellent article last year in the GradPost about the GSA: what the fee you pay that goes toward GSA can get you (bagel hours, free lounge use, awards and travel grants, for example); what happens at a GSA Assembly meeting; and more important information.
The GSA holds its monthly Assembly meetings the first Tuesday of each month, between October and June. Free dinner is provided to all who attend. The next meeting is Tuesday, March 6, from 6 to 8 p.m. in the GSA Lounge. All are invited to attend the next meeting Tuesday and find out what’s going on. It is at these meetings that decisions are made that affect you. The assembly also reviews applications for funding from graduate student groups.
If you have any questions about the GSA, please contact President Diana T. Dyste Anzures at gsapresident.ucsb@gmail.com or Dr. Don Lubach, Assistant Dean of Students and Director of First-Year & Graduate Initiatives, at don.lubach@sa.ucsb.edu. You can also follow the GSA on Twitter and Facebook.
