Editorials

EDITORIAL BOARD Editor in
Chief  Timothy Kudo

Managing Editor
 Michael Falcone

Viewpoint Editor
 Cuauhtemoc Ortega

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 Maegan Carberry
 Edward Chiao
 Kelly Rayburn

Editorial Board Assistants
 Maegan Carberry
 Edward Chiao

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Harless’ abilities merit second term
Having successfully served as this year’s GSA president,
Charles Harless is more than equipped to tackle a second term.
Graduate students need someone who will fight for campus-based
housing and transportation. They need someone committed to bringing
the largely polarized graduate departments together so that
students can feel a sense of community. Harless is committed to
these things. He has already met with ranking administrators to
discuss expediting the Southwest Graduate Student Housing project
that was postponed earlier this year. He has met with those same
administrators to prevent the possible termination of the BruinGo!
program that allows students to ride the Big Blue Bus for free. He
is interested in expanding outreach efforts to increase graduate
student diversity. He wants to expand GradBar, and with his
charismatic leadership, he will get the job done.

Kim lacks real plan, but solid choice The GSA
internal vice president needs to be familiar with students’
campus-oriented needs, and Dorothy Kim certainly knows what the
issues are. She wants to see student services like housing,
transportation and health care operating effectively ““ and
make them clearer so that students can understand what is happening
and what they are being charged money for. The problem with Kim is
that despite her admirable notions of how things should be, she
doesn’t have any solid plans other than talking and working
with other groups for change. If she wants to see progress this
year, she should devote more time to formulating a comprehensive
plan with specific strategies. Her ideals are, however, correctly
aimed at improving student services. And her experience as this
year’s IVP make her an acceptable candidate. Voting for Kim
is a solid move, but hopefully next year she will be able to back
up her talk with action.

Rathod lacks experience for job Hanish Rathod
is a new player to campus politics. He admittedly has little
experience or knowledge regarding University of California policies
and issues. This is unfortunate, since, as external vice president,
he will be working intimately with the UC and other campuses.
Rathod did display a real interest in educating himself on matters
of the UC and becoming an effective leader, but The Bruin cannot
conscionably endorse a candidate who does not understand the
position he is about to take on and has no solid ideas for change.
While he did mention an idea for developing an alumni network to
open opportunities for graduate students in securing jobs and
contacts, Rathod’s other ideas focused on campus-related
issues that should be handled by the internal vice president.
Rathod may wind up doing a good job as EVP, but he needs a crash
course in UC politics. For the sake of GSA and the graduate
community, we hope he recognizes the need to get up to speed
immediately. And, as we wouldn’t stand for an uniformed and
unprepared candidate for an important office in the federal
government, we won’t condone Rathod’s lack of
preparation here simply because he is running unopposed.