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GSA repeats initiative to raise fees

Referendum rules require 10 percent voter participation

By Betty Song

This year, two old initiatives reappear on the 1995 Graduate Student Association (GSA) ballot along with a new one.

In addition to a $1 fee referendum and a money pledge to the California Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG), this year's ballot also includes an initiative for a new Public Policy and Social Research council in the GSA forum.

Last year, the Graduate Students Association election ballot favored a 75 cent membership fee increase. Although the measure garnered a clear majority of the votes, officers wouldn't have minded if 100 more voters rejected the initiative.

Sound confusing? It isn't when rules dictate that an initiative needs at least 10 percent of the voter population to cast their ballots in order to be implemented. Although the measure won, last year's nine percent turnout rendered it ineffective.

However, having about 100 more votes would have broken the 10 percent mark and still given the fee increase initiative a majority.

This year, an item to increase membership fees is back on the ballot, along with two other initiatives. It proposes to tack on $1 to the fee, raising it to $6.50. Decreased graduate enrollment, inflation, higher staff costs and less money from the Associated Students of UCLA are some reasons the increase is needed, said current graduate association President Tim Beasley.

The graduate newsletter, election funds and some sponsoring may fall to financial hardships if the increase is not approved, graduate student officers said.

The current fee has remained steady for the last six years, reflecting only a minor increase within the past 10 years, said Peary Brug, who has been affiliated with GSA for five years in various cabinet offices and other posts.

GSA has received only $33,333 from the student union in the past two years in contrast to $150,000 four years ago. The proposed $1 increase would benefit everyone, Brug maintained.

"It's not an outlandish amount," added Brug, who is now a graduate student representative to the students' association board of directors. "Everyone will benefit because more money will help for services like a better newsletter and there will be more money to different councils."

If the initiative passes, 50 cents of each student's dollar will go to the GSA office, while the other half goes to their council. Each of the eleven graduate student councils ­ which represent groupings of related academic departments ­ now receives $2 of their students' membership fees. The initiative would raise that figure to $2.50.

Another ballot initiative asks that a new council of Public Policy and Social Research be added. The item emerged from the need to restructure the GSA hierarchy to reflect the administration's restructuring efforts last year.

Out of the administration's Professional School Restructuring Initiative which reorganized professional schools and programs to save money, a new school of Public Policy and Social Research was created. The departments of Urban Planning and Social Welfare were placed under this school while a new department known as Policy Studies will begin in the fall of 1996.

However, Urban Planning is currently under the Fine Arts Council while Social Welfare is in the Social Sciences Council. The initiative would allow all three departments to exist under one council.

"It makes things easier because the lines of communication are better (between related departments in one council)" said Geoffrey Gerdes, social sciences council president. "That social welfare sees itself as more a part of the other group makes sense. The problem with social welfare in the social sciences council is that we haven't been able to contact them (easily)."

In addition to the fee increase item, the graduate ballot also finds a repeat visit from the California Public Interest Research Group initiative which calls for a voluntary quarterly fee of $5 to support the environmental and consumer research group. Although this passed with the undergraduates last year, it lost with slightly less than 40 percent of the graduate vote.

Unlike last year's mailing of ballots, graduate students will vote for the initiatives along with the three cabinet positions ­ President, Vice President Internal and Vice President External ­ on campus Tuesday and Wednesday. Absentee ballots are now available in the GSA office at 301 Kerckhoff Hall.

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