Editor,
The cynical attacks against GPSA's Student Research Allocation Committee are trumped-up charges that a small agitated group is fabricating as an excuse to ruin the standing of GPSA. Wednesday's article in the Daily Lobo attributes to Jason Thomas the statement that students should have received the SRAC grant award notifications in mid-September. Given that applicants did not submit proposals until the Sept. 21 deadline and GPSA has yet to procure a time machine, it would have been impossible to deliver results before applications arrived.
Thomas knows how wildly unfair his accusations are. He relies on people unfamiliar with the facts to ride his hysterical wave of blame to an unfounded conclusion. The GPSA constitution does not establish a time period for releasing results. The GPSA announced SRAC results 7.5 weeks after the application deadline.
Thomas and his accomplices wanted them in six weeks. For a 10-day differential, they want to recall the GPSA president? Clearly, they are contriving this artificial grievance to provide cover for their personal grudges and political ambitions. As Thomas and his fellow finger-pointers well know, SRAC results cannot be determined until all applications have been scored by at least three different volunteer readers. This fall, the SRAC results were released the day after the last reader returned scored applications. If more people had answered the repeated calls for volunteers, then the burden falling on those who did volunteer would have been lessened. If only Thomas and other detractors had dedicated their time to helping the SRAC process instead of launching longwinded complaints against it.
This brings me to a broader point. These bitter agitators do nothing more than complain - as we have seen with the SRAC case - concocting baseless indictments in order to sully the organization and taint its leadership.
Why do they channel their energies into dividing GPSA and tarnishing its hard-earned reputation instead of participating collaboratively? Opportunities for involvement are abound. There are many GPSA committees and Faculty Senate committees that need graduate and professional student representation to work toward goals such as specifying curriculum requirements and developing 24-hour library space. There is the work of the Student Fee Review Board, which GPSA needs to approach with a united front, lest the undergraduates railroad us into forking over hundreds of thousands of dollars of our student fees to trivial matters such as athletics that do not benefit graduate and professional students.
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I invite people to bury their senseless hatchets and focus on the important work ahead, rather than instigate childish infighting for personal political gain. In closing, I would like to thank the students who volunteered to score SRAC applications. When others criticized, you rolled up your sleeves and helped out.
Max Ashbrook Fitzpatrick
SRAC chairperson
