Change comes from identifying our most pressing problems and implementing innovative solutions. The biggest problem facing graduate and professional students is finding post-graduation employment. I will fight to expand Career Services for graduate and professional students. A minimum of one-third of Career Services' resources should provide direct services to graduate and professional students. It is time for UNM to address this problem.
I will establish a network that connects students with careers that require a higher knowledge base. I will work with the recently established Higher Education Hiring Network, a project aimed at centralizing employment opportunities and publicizing them to current and former students. The Graduate and Professional Student Association will join forces with the nonprofit Albuquerque Economic Development and the State Labor Department to connect students that are completing advanced degrees with high-paying local positions. For those who wish to go into academia, I will work with the Office of Research to enable graduate students to be primary investigators on funded projects, and I will sustain a recurring source of revenue for research funding by using my connections and experience at the State Legislature to prevent further sanding of the GRD endowment.
The current crisis of confidence in the UNM administration is another issue that greatly concerns graduate and professional students. According to an article in the Daily Lobo, the faculty has been expressing concerns about the governance of the University for more than a year, well before Lehman Brothers filed bankruptcy. It is important that student leaders do not adopt the administration's talking points. I will advocate for a university that practices and models shared governance through consensus-building, open office hours, and student, staff and faculty representation on key decision-making committees. I strongly believe we need to support the faculty and staff to improve education, research and service on campus. I will continue to voice the concerns of graduate students with regard to the behind-closed-doors decision making, to the Board of Regents, the administration and the Student Fee Review Board. I will advocate for specific changes in meeting protocol such as webcasting meetings and moving public comments to the beginning of the meetings, and I will make abiding by the New Mexico State Open Meetings Act a top priority. Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and those officials who continue to keep stakeholders in the dark must be held accountable.
GPSA also needs to clean its own house. This past year GPSA spent more than $11,000 on food for committee meetings. To add insult to injury, much of this food was not eaten as is evidenced by more than 30 e-mails sent to notify students they had extra food in the GPSA office. How an administration spends its money reflects its values. I will end GPSA administrative waste and re-evaluate the wasteful spending of years past. By decreasing the number of unnecessary committees, I will free up more funds to support the research grant processes, and I will decrease the volume of e-mail pollution on the GPSA listserv.
A year ago, the GPSA had a large surplus that is now largely gone. The money should have funded tutoring, grant writing training or been put in the hands of student-run organizations such as MALSA, BGPSA, SNAGS, MADRES, RGSA, ALPFA, PANDA, PNMGC, SHRM, TEGSA, Lambda Law, MEGA, MSA, SPGSA, WLC, PALS, Net Impact, etc. A culture of saving and prioritization needs to be instituted.
As GPSA president, I will continue to get things done. In order to achieve change, a leader needs to have an understanding of the system, have a vision and have the courage to make that vision a reality. This last year, I led the effort to reverse a state regulation that excluded income-eligible graduate and professional student/parents from receiving child care subsidies. I also chaired a committee that made expanding the UNM Children's Campus a priority. To date, the plans have been drawn, and funding is being secured. On a local level, I have worked with the Albuquerque City Council and the Bernalillo County Commission to train student advocates and to outlaw the sale of puppies from puppy mills. As part of this effort, three city councilors, the mayor and two of the top lobbyists in the state accepted my invitation to campus. As GPSA council chair, I facilitated a graduate and professional student advocacy team that lobbied in Santa Fe for issues pressing to graduate and professional students.
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If you are a graduate or professional student, please vote during the online elections April 6-10. The votes of confidence in our administrative leaders, the call for a programmatic audit and the call for a restructuring of decision-making protocols are all on the ballot. Building on the momentum of our recent accomplishments, I believe we can and will make a difference. Please visit my blog at GpsaPres.blogspot.com for more information on me and my platform. Thank you for your support.
Lissa Knudsen is running for GPSA president.
