Division in GPSA's court could have been avoided

Editor,

As a former justice of the GPSA Court of Review, I am greatly disappointed that Joshua Allison and Christopher Shank resigned from the court. This would have left me as the sole justice on the court, except I, too, resigned from the court on Saturday.

For the record, I want graduate students to understand that I would have preferred to serve them on the Court of Review, but I accepted the position of Chairman of the Special Research Allocation Committee because it had to be filled by someone familiar with the process who could get the grant proposals turned around in a timely manner. Given the importance of getting SRAC grants awarded to graduate students, I considered the SRAC chair position a more pressing need.

On the other hand, the resignation of former Chief Justice Allison and former Justice Shank, just weeks from the expiration of their terms, strikes me as being politically motivated. In addition, the open letter written by them and the interview given by Allison were divisive in effect, if not in intent. I truly believe that all the court's woes could have been resolved by meeting face-to-face instead of the inflammatory e-mail mentioned in the Daily Lobo article published Monday.

It is true that the GPSA is at a crossroads, and there are factions within the organization that are not working well with each other right now. I am hopeful that Council Chairman Christopher Ramirez can remedy some of that. But it should be noted that at every turn of the controversy, mediation was offered to both the GPSA administration and its detractors. The administration accepted each offer, but its detractors did not.

Without getting into details that are confidential at this point, I feel safe in stating that Justice Lisa Tsuchiya also offered mediation as a route through which the fractured court could become whole. Allison took this as an affront to his authority and his leadership. He refused the offer. Therefore, if the court has been fractured, Allison should share some of the blame. Engaging in the process - not withdrawing from it - is the only way the Court of Review can be made whole again.

Danny Hernandez

GPSA SRAC chairman