By Linh Tat
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
It may not be a hotly contested race, but candidates for the
2001-02 Graduate Students Association are pushing for a high voter
turnout in GSA’s first-ever online elections.
Charles Harless is running unopposed for the presidential seat.
Meanwhile; the position of vice president internal is being
challenged by Dorothy Kim and Emily Kwong; and the vice president
external seat is being contested by Alain Dang and Thomas
Johnson.
Harless, Kim and Johnson are running under Slate A, which is
comprised of all in-house candidates.
As the lone presidential candidate, Harless, a fifth-year
graduate student in biomedical engineering and computer science,
plans to increase the number and types of social functions
available for graduate students.
Harless said he hopes that once the graduate student apartment
complex under construction on Veteran Avenue is built, it will be
available for hosting social functions. He would also like to
ensure affordable housing and equal opportunities for living
there.
“I know graduate students who chose not to attend UCLA
because no same-sex couple housing was available,” Harless
said. “Other UCs offer it; UCLA needs to offer
that.”
During the 1999-2000 academic year, Harless served as a GSA
representative for the Campus Programs Committee, which allocates
funding for campus events. He is the current director of
information for GSA and is responsible for improving technology and
communication.
Currently serving as vice president internal, Dorothy Kim is
running for the same office again this year.
Citing the success of grad bar, a new program GSA launched this
year that allowed students to meet others outside their department
in monthly social gatherings, Kim said she’d like to create a
cabinet position in charge of all graduate interactions.
With previous experience on the Graduate Council, which is part
of the Academic Senate, Kim said she would like to focus on the
issue of ethnic and gender diversity in professional schools.
After the threat of discontinuing the BruinGo! bus program,
which provides free transportation for UCLA faculty and students,
Kim said she wants to ensure the program remains in the future and
that it expands to include bus lines in Culver City and the
MTA.
“(The university) needs to keep it for financial reasons,
for reasons of attractiveness for graduate students,” she
said.
Also running for the position of vice president internal is
Emily Kwong, a third-year student at the Dental School, where she
served as class secretary.
Kwong’s main concern is that graduate students
aren’t receiving an adequate dental health coverage plan from
the university, forcing many to pay out of their pockets or to seek
dental care off campus.
“I want to find a better dental care plan so the dental
students don’t lose patients and (students) can get good care
here,” she said.
Kwong said she would like to see South Campus students more
integrated with the rest of the school.
“We don’t have good or adequate representation
within the Graduate Students Association,” she said.
Alain Dang, a first-year student in urban planning, is vying for
the position of vice president external.
He has served on the board of directors for the United States
Student Association for two years, lobbying for hate crimes
policies and increased financial aid. He has also been a regional
coordinator for the University of California Student Association,
where he participated in the “Reclaim Your Education”
campaign of 1996.
USSA is a Washington-based student lobby group, and UCSA is the
UC-wide association of graduate and undergraduate student
governments.
As vice president external, Dang said he would advocate the
repeal of SP-1, a policy set by the UC Board of Regents in 1995
that banned affirmative action in the admissions practices.
“SP-1 may be in place now, but even the symbolic effort of
repealing that really sends a message that UCLA is welcoming of
diversity,” he said.
Dang said he would like to see more monetary support for student
organizations involved in outreach efforts.
Dang’s opponent for the seat of vice president external is
Thomas Johnson, a third-year graduate student in the English
department and current director of discretionary funding for
GSA.
“As a member of this year’s GSA cabinet, I have had
the good fortune to work closely with the current administration
and possess a clear vision of both how the organization functions
and the particular demands of the office of Vice President of
External Affairs,” Johnson said in his candidate
statement.
Like Dang, Johnson said he wishes to advocate for diversity and
is concerned about the proposed increase in graduate fees. He also
said he would like “to bring a strong and focused voice to
the heavily undergraduate UCSA on behalf of all graduate and
professional students at UCLA.”
Graduate students who wish to vote can do so until midnight
Wednesday by logging on to their My.UCLA Web page.