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----- '''Vice Chair''' - Jordan Carroll I would be honored to serve the Graduate Student Association as the Vice Chair. As Vice Chair, I would strive to increase student involvement with campus councils. In the past year as a GSA representative, I have served on the Campus Council on Community and Diversity, the Academic Senate Library Committee, and the GSA Ad Hoc Police Committee. During that time, I have seen that input from graduate students can shape campus policy. Because graduate students often act as mediators between students, faculty, and administration, I believe we are uniquely positioned to provide an honest, critical perspective on our campus. Therefore, I will do all I can to place graduate students in committees. In order to accomplish this, I will actively contact relevant campus organizations in search of interested and engaged graduate students. I will also emphasize the benefits of committee work for graduate student professionalization. In my own discipline, English, job candidates are increasingly being asked to speak about their academic service work during interviews. If elected, I will organize a panel event in which graduate committee members and newly hired faculty talk about the benefits of their service on the job market and explain exactly what is involved in committee work. By demonstrating the incentives to participation and showing that serving on a committee is not as time consuming as one might think, we can increase graduate student representation on committees considerably. Furthermore, as Vice Chair, I would do everything I could to make grievance assistance openly available to students. More students should be aware that the GSA Vice Chair is there to help them negotiate any disputes they might have with faculty, colleagues, and departments. Through things like flyers and e-mail reminders, I would publicize my services as Vice Chair. This is particularly important because any graduate student in need of this help is already in a stressful and often isolating situation and the last thing anyone wants to do in that predicament is to e-mail around trying to find out whom to contact. Finally, during grievance assistance, I would work hard to provide graduate students with the counseling and resources they need. From my own personal experience, I know that graduate students are in a difficult place. We as graduate students play competing and often conflicting roles, acting as students, instructors, workers, and apprentices. The very position that makes us good mediators between campus constituents can also sometimes make the power dynamics of our different jobs confusing to navigate. Therefore, I will do all that I can to act as an advisor and advocate for graduate students on campus. Thank you for your consideration. |
Current Roster of Candidates for 2012-2013 UC Davis GSA Officer Positions
Chair - Ethan Evans
Vice Chair - Jordan Carroll
External Chair -Meredith Niles
Treasurer -
Secretary - Marissa Hirst
Campus Organizing Director - Erin Legacki
Public Relations Officer -
_ * Candidate Statements * _
Secretary - Marissa Hirst
My name is Marissa Hirst, and I am a fourth year Microbiology PhD student. This is the end of my second year being involved in the Graduate Student Association. Throughout the last year, I served as the Public Relations Officer (PRO), and in the prior year (2010-2011) I served as the assistant to the PRO.
My first duty as the PRO was to organize the Week of Welcome barbecue on the East Quad of campus. This was a huge endeavor that involved ordering and purchasing food for 500 people, renting and utilizing gas grills, coordinating with the Food Safety Officer at EH&S and the UC Davis Fire Department, recruiting and organizing volunteers, transportation to and from the event, setting up the event, and cleaning up. The volunteers were invaluable to making this event a success; this year we had the largest turnout for the event in years! I was able to cut costs and waste by following in Katie Kolesar's footsteps (former GSA PRO and current GSA Chair) by using refillable jugs of ice water and lemonade, ordering food through the Silo, and utilizing compostable plates and cutlery. These changes reduced our overall costs and waste production and let us purchase plenty of food for the graduate students that attended the event!
As you all know, November 18th was a day on campus that few of us will forget. The GSA Executive Committee (EC) felt it was imperative to get a statement out promptly regarding the pepper spraying incident, and after putting out this statement, we organized a separate special meeting so that we could obtain feedback from the rest of the GA. The entire EC was involved in planning, organizing, and putting on this special event as well as combining the GA's feedback into motions that could be voted on for the following general meeting. After the GA meeting, Ethan Evans (Secretary) and Colin Murphy (External Chair) organized the passed motions into a document that was sent to Chancellor Katehi, presented at the Graduate Student Town Hall Meeting, emailed to the reps, and placed on our GSA Wiki page. We appreciated everyone's feedback at the special meeting and involvement in the task forces that were organized following the GA meeting.
I have put on a couple of social events throughout the year including a happy hour at Sudwerks and a pizza night at Woodstocks. I am working in conjunction with the Assistant PRO, Jeremy Smith, to put on the First Annual Homebrewer's Festival on May 19th, which will feature beer made from graduate students as well as a home brewing tutorial for those of you that want to learn how to brew beer. Lastly, I will finish off the year with a picnic at Central Park on May 29th from 5 - 7 pm! These have all been wonderful opportunities for graduate students to meet each other, interact, and socialize with students in different disciplines.
While I think I have been successful in the PRO position, I would like to switch gears and run for the GSA Secretary position. My role as Secretary, if elected, is to disseminate information to graduate groups and/or departments on campus about what the GSA is doing, what our positions on specific issues are, and what special events are occurring across campus. If I am elected, I plan to post minutes from the GA meetings within a few days of the meeting so that all graduate students are informed quickly.
One of the other roles of the Secretary is to be familiar with the GSA bylaws and be a member of the bylaws committee. I have had the opportunity this year, as a member of the EC, to understand the bylaws and begin to explore ways in which we can improve them so that they more accurately reflect the roles of the officers within the EC. I would like to continue to pursue these changes to the bylaws if I am elected as Secretary. I would also like to continue on this year's trend of keeping our GA meetings organized, efficient, and effective.
Vice Chair - Jordan Carroll
I would be honored to serve the Graduate Student Association as the Vice Chair.
As Vice Chair, I would strive to increase student involvement with campus councils. In the past year as a GSA representative, I have served on the Campus Council on Community and Diversity, the Academic Senate Library Committee, and the GSA Ad Hoc Police Committee. During that time, I have seen that input from graduate students can shape campus policy. Because graduate students often act as mediators between students, faculty, and administration, I believe we are uniquely positioned to provide an honest, critical perspective on our campus. Therefore, I will do all I can to place graduate students in committees.
In order to accomplish this, I will actively contact relevant campus organizations in search of interested and engaged graduate students. I will also emphasize the benefits of committee work for graduate student professionalization. In my own discipline, English, job candidates are increasingly being asked to speak about their academic service work during interviews. If elected, I will organize a panel event in which graduate committee members and newly hired faculty talk about the benefits of their service on the job market and explain exactly what is involved in committee work. By demonstrating the incentives to participation and showing that serving on a committee is not as time consuming as one might think, we can increase graduate student representation on committees considerably.
Furthermore, as Vice Chair, I would do everything I could to make grievance assistance openly available to students. More students should be aware that the GSA Vice Chair is there to help them negotiate any disputes they might have with faculty, colleagues, and departments. Through things like flyers and e-mail reminders, I would publicize my services as Vice Chair. This is particularly important because any graduate student in need of this help is already in a stressful and often isolating situation and the last thing anyone wants to do in that predicament is to e-mail around trying to find out whom to contact.
Finally, during grievance assistance, I would work hard to provide graduate students with the counseling and resources they need. From my own personal experience, I know that graduate students are in a difficult place. We as graduate students play competing and often conflicting roles, acting as students, instructors, workers, and apprentices. The very position that makes us good mediators between campus constituents can also sometimes make the power dynamics of our different jobs confusing to navigate. Therefore, I will do all that I can to act as an advisor and advocate for graduate students on campus.
Thank you for your consideration.
