Dear fellow graduate and professional students:
I am running for the Graduate and Professional Assembly (GAPSA) president position. As current GAPSA Vice President for
Student Affairs, I have developed crucial experience to be an effective and innovative president. My position has
allowed me to build key relationships with students, faculty, and university staff members. These interactions are not
only crucial to diversify our membership but also to diversify our funding sources. Diverse membership and funding
resources are key elements to providing events catering to all students' interests.
I want to be president of GAPSA because I want us to define what it means to be a University of Minnesota graduate and
professional student. Graduate and professional school isn't solely about taking advanced courses in your discipline,
interacting with world-class faculty, and conducting research. It is about shaping an intellectual, cultural and moral
identity. Please learn more about my platform below. Help us help U!
As GAPSA president, I will strive to provide a nurturing and supportive environment to every graduate and professional
student regardless of gender, discipline, culture, religion, sexual orientation, and gender identity and expression.
According to the President's Office, African Americans have the lowest graduation rate of our student body. What's more
alarming is that they are one of most underrepresented students in graduate and professional school at the University
of Minnesota â€Twin Cities. We must be prepared to welcome students from all walks of life. They must feel included
and supported in order to perform at the highest level possible. Are all our bathrooms transgender-ready? Are we
acknowledging all religious holidays? To answer some of these questions and assist the university its colleges and
departments to be ready to host all graduate and professional students, I will strive to create a historically
under-represented students committee. The committee will work with the university and the major historically
under-represented students student groups to ensure that we are taking the necessary steps to provide the best
environment for all students.
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Graduate and professional school can be a stressful transition in itself. We don't need to make any more complicated
than it needs to be! As GAPSA president, I will push for a graduate and professional student guide to assist incoming
students with valuable information about life as a graduate and professional student (funding, housing, money
management, graduate/professional student organizations, etc.) I will also work hard to fund graduate and professional
student associations to foster a sense of community within our academic departments.
Finally, I will create an events newsletter to keep students up to date with graduate and professional student events.
Don't spend your time looking for events but rather being at events!
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As GAPSA president, I plan on representing students from the Twin Cities and Duluth campuses. To ensure that Duluth
students are included, I will appoint a Duluth representative to update us on graduate and professional events there. I
will have a Duluth Day where we would attend a GAPSA sponsored event in Duluth. Being approximatively 150 miles away
doesn't make you any less important!
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We have one of the most diverse graduate and professional schools in terms of fields of specialty and disciplines.
Clearly, the needs and challenges of a Master's student in electrical engineering are different from those of a medical
student. As GAPSA president, I will ensure that we are providing the necessary tools for success to students in all
disciplines and careers. This isn't an easy task, but I am confidant that with the assistance of our ten councils we
can have a strong support network for most disciplines.
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As the economy continues to flatter, state budgets are bound to decrease. According to the New York Times, at least
eight states are decreasing the budgets for higher education due to the current state of the economy. As a state-funded
university, U of M will suffer large budget cuts which will most likely raise tuition costs. We can't control the state
of the economy but we can prepare our students to face such adversity. As GAPSA president, I will ensure that we have
funding opportunities workshops for graduate students and internship assistance sessions for our professionals
students to help them secure summer employment opportunities. Similarly, I will propose a realistic plan to
financially support international graduate students without putting nationals to a disadvantage. Finally, I will working on increasing the amounts of our travel grants and making thme more accecible to all students.
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As a graduate and professional student, you want to get the most out of your educational experience. Classes, research
and free food aren't going to cut it if we want the U to reach a top-three public university worldwide status. As GAPSA
president, I will make a strong case to develop an arts and culture program. Such a program will provide our current
graduate and professional students to take advantage of the Twin Cities' active arts and culture scene. Whether you are
fan of contemporary, classical or children's art you will surely find something that suites you and your family!
Similarly, we would attend several theater plays and movies to satisfy the cravings of most our members.
For the politics buffs, we plan on hosting a US Senate candidates debate in the fall semester. As for our professional
students, we will help plan and organize networking events.
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Interdisciplinary education is one of the hype words in academia. Although the idea seems appealing, interdisciplinary
education is a complicated business! As a product of the national effort to foster interdisciplinary research (I
participated in some of the earliest interdisciplinary summer research programs sponsored by the NIH and NSF,) I will
strive to provide opportunities for interdisciplinary collaborations. As GAPSA president, I will urge conducting
interdisciplinary luncheons where graduate students meet and present their research in a relaxed environment. I will
also strive to keep all graduate student organizations connected and up to date to identify potential collaborations
between departments.
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As president of GAPSA, I will ensure that all our activities are
conforming with the university's effort to positively impact our
environment. I will work towards increasing the usage of U-Pass within
our graduate and professional students community. I will take the
necessary steps to ensure that all our events are environment friendly as
well (using less paper during our meetings, renting buses for our group
events such as museum visits, Duluth Day, etc.)
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In 2007, Forbes Magazine named Minneapolis "(the) Most Affordable Place To
Live Well." Being the most affordable
city in the US while being unsafe isn't much of a perk. As current member of the On Campus Late-Night Safety committee,
I will continue to strive to provide the safest campus possible. I will also work tirelessly to raise the awareness of
our graduate and professional students when it comes to security measures and the services available to them.
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