Tuesday, 5/6/97 Council releases grad election results Delayed
decision not ratified due to low council member turnout
By A.J. Harwin Daily Bruin Contributor Despite numerous problems
causing delays during this years’ Graduate Student Association
(GSA) elections, results were finally announced Monday evening at
an Election Board meeting in the GSA office. In the race for next
years’ presidency, urban planning graduate student Andrew Jon
Westall beat out Mark Quigley, a doctoral candidate in English, 462
votes to 306 votes. Current council member Lance Menthe also won
for internal vice president, edging out American Indian studies
graduate student David Kamper, 432 to 307. Menthe, a fourth-year
graduate student from the physics and astronomy department, was
excited about winning and plans to get to work right away. "I’m
going to celebrate tonight," Menthe said Monday. "I’m probably
going to get started over the summer and try to modernize the way
things are working, and make sure we get in touch with people." The
race for external vice president was more of a landslide, as
history graduate student and incumbent council member Grace Chee
easily crushed Robert Davenport from the School of Theater, Film
and Television, 523 to 225. Although actual results had been
tallied since May 2, candidates’ election code violations set back
the announcement of the results. In addition, because not enough
council members attended Monday night’s Forum session, the election
results could not be ratified. The election results will remain
preliminary until the Forum is able to make quorum, which may not
happen until September. The Election Board decided against hearing
a petition against Chee, which charged that she turned in her
petition of signatures late. The decision meant that Chee was
eligible to run, but this decision was not made until after the
election. In addition, a petition against Davenport’s bid for
external vice president was denied by the Election Board. The board
found that hearing the case would have been unfair to candidates
opposing Davenport, who changed his candidacy from internal to
external vice president shortly before the election. One of the
many achievements of this year’s elections was the success of
voting on the GSA Web site. Over half of the graduate students who
voted used the Web site instead of campus polling places. At the
GSA Forum Monday night, Assistant Dean of Social Sciences Marc
Mayerson gave a presentation on the proposed educational fee that
would expand the role of information technology throughout the
undergraduate curriculum. While the fee may not be assessed toward
graduate student classes, it may cause concern among graduate
student teaching assistants (TAs) that the new technology would
burden TAs with extra work. "The administration has no right to
impose a new working environment on academic student employees,"
said Danise Kimball, current GSA internal vice president. "The
current working environment and (Student Association of Graduate
Employees’) attempt to gain union representation is the subject of
a legal fight pending in the courts." The good news for graduate
student voters is that all voter IDs will be placed in a raffle for
various gift certificates, including a plane ticket, later this
week. A list of winners will be posted in the GSA office and
winners will be contacted by phone. External Links: Graduate
Student Association