GET TO KNOW: Joseph Dworak

DL: What do you see as the biggest issues facing the graduate community?

JD: One of my biggest concerns is about the direction of the University and what our focus is going to be. It is my priority to make sure we focus on graduate student concerns. There are a lot of graduate students at UNM. I don’t think all universities have such a large graduate student percentage.

Everybody has concerns about government. GPSA has even had more issues because it seems argumentative a lot. This is why the law school tried to secede in the past. There is a long history of lack of participation because people don’t feel like GPSA is meeting the purpose that it has set out to complete. It needs to work on focusing on the bigger picture instead of one-item agendas put forth by individuals within an organization.

DL: If elected, how will you work to address these?

JD: My opponents keep talking about transparency and being inclusive, and while those are great ideas, and the ideas alone constitute a great platform, they are not necessarily realistic.

I would focus first on fixing the funding processes within GPSA. I would make sure there is a standardized process because right now students and organizations come in and want money, but they have no direction on where to go. There needs to be one form that they can fill out.
Also, ensuring more student involvement in the organization. It seems there are many, many people that are filling multiple positions, so I would make sure the same people aren’t being selected for more than one
role.

DL: What attracted you to the position?

JD: At the beginning of last semester, people asked me if I was interested, and I said, “Absolutely no.” My reason was that I didn’t want to get caught up in the politics because the politics within the organization is the biggest problem.

Then I was selected by the GPSA Council to work on the GPSA Constitutional Committee. We literally took apart the constitution and analyzed the structure. There were a lot of things we could make better. Working with constitution made me realize that there were things we could do to make a difference, so that was the driving factor for me to enter the race.

I’ve been the one advocating the most for stronger voice for council. Their influence over budget is critical because it is not fair for one person, the president, to review and approve budget.

DL: Would you be willing to work with ASUNM?

JD: I was involved with ASUNM for three and a half years as an undergraduate student, and I know the strengths and weaknesses of it. There are a lot more commonalities between undergraduates and graduate students that people don’t focus on enough. The benefit of being involved with ASUNM previously — I understand those differences, and I come to the table with both perspectives. I can recognize where to meet undergraduate interest and where we need to stand up and make sure we advocate for the graduate students’ best interests.

DL: What is your opinion of tuition increase?

JD: In reality, it is really important to understand that it is inevitable. It is like gas and groceries — commodities always increase. What is most important for GPSA to focus on is to make sure the increases are minimized, and we know exactly where that money is going.
Make sure it is going to instructional endeavors, and not going to pay administrative salaries.

That money has to come from somewhere. It can’t just come from cuts, so increases are necessary to pay salaries and provide students with teachers. You just need to be realistic about it.

DL: What are your thoughts about UNM?

JD: UNM is a really big university. I am very surprised how many opportunities UNM has for students. A lot of people complain about it being inaccessible, but I have found that as long as you go in with good attitude there are a lot of faculty, staff and administration that are really open to working with students.