A Letter From the New Interim GSA President

Dear Graduate Students’ Association (GSA) Members,

At the February 2014 GSA Board Meeting, your GSA representatives, consisting of graduate, nursing and physical therapy students, approved my appointment as interim president of GSA, taking over for Joseph Foy, who stepped down as president due to taking a leave of absence from UCSF. I believe my multi-year experience in GSA and my experiences as a DDS/PhD student will help me in my new role as interim GSA president, a role where I aim to continue the work of my predecessor for the current academic year.

By now, you should be aware that GSA is in a transitional phase, due to the approval of the New Student Government Referendum by the UCSF student body in January 2014 (visit gpsa.ucsf.edu for more information). As a result, the responsibilities entrusted to GSA by graduate, nursing and physical therapy students will now be redistributed throughout a new structure that aims to better serve you. My main goal is to work with the student leaders of Associated Students of UCSF (ASUC) to ensure that the aspects that made GSA strong will continue within the new Graduate and Professional Students’ Association (GPSA), and the academic student governments of Associated Students of Graduate Division (ASGD), Associated Students of School of Nursing (formerly Nursing Student Council, NSC) and Associated Students of Physical Therapy (ASPT).

Although establishing the new student government structure is a large endeavor, it is not the only thing GSA has been working on this academic year:

• Housing – working with the Graduate Division to provide a student-moderated listServ that students can use to find housing opportunities.
• Insurance Premiums – working with Student Health to minimize increases in premiums and provide resources about how the Affordable Care Act affects UCSF students going forward now that the insurance exchanges are available.
• Conference Travel – developing a fair solution to maximize the number of awards we can provide to our members to attend conferences that might otherwise be cost-prohibitive.
• Community Building – partnering with ASUC to host monthly events, such as the All School Formal and Game Nights, as well as partnering with Registered Campus Organizations (RCOs) to build camaraderie throughout the student body.

While these are just a few of the issues, I will make sure these and any other active issues GSA is working on will not be lost during the transition to the new student government structure.

In closing, I encourage all graduate, nursing and physical therapy students to attend the monthly GSA meetings to learn more about the issues and provide your input. If you are unable to make the meetings, please visit gsa.ucsf.edu to learn more about GSA, or to contact us with any issues or opinions you may have.

Sincerely,
Michael Le
Graduate Students’ Association, Interim President