The Daily Lobo spoke with GPSA President Katie Richardson about her vision for the future of GPSA and the University. Richardson said her primary concerns are: holding UNM’s administration accountable, keeping costs low for students, and improving graduate students’ quality of life.
Keep tuition and fees low:
Richardson said GPSA actively participates in budget processes and meetings held by the Office of Planning, Budget and Analysis to advocate for keeping costs low.
“My No. 1 long-term goal is to keep tuition and fees low on campus,” she said. “UNM, as a public university, should be in the business of supplying a higher education both at the undergraduate and graduate level to New Mexicans, and it’s important that UNM continues to be a majority/minority university. (It should) disproportionately serve Hispanics and first-generation college students, and if we can’t keep the cost of education down, UNM cannot be those things.”
Richardson said she hopes to stop students’ tuition from funding auxiliary services such as Athletics and Popejoy Hall. She said GPSA also advocates for increased funding for teachers and low administrative salaries.
Increase funding for graduate students:
Richardson said funding for graduate student programs is severely lacking, and 60 percent of graduate students at UNM do not have assistantships.
“When programs are not able to provide multi-year funding support for graduate students they are not as able to compete with other world-class research institutions for the best students,” she said. “We are hoping to make faculty more aware of including graduate students in their budget requests to federal agencies.”
Richardson said GPSA has plans to ask the New Mexico Legislature to create specific funds for graduate students and ensure that the state is fully funding UNM through formula funding. She said GPSA is also working on a website that features a guide to help researchers write proposals that include funding for graduate students.
Create an academic plan:
Richardson said the UNM administration focused on creating real estate plans, but does not currently have an academic plan, something GPSA hopes to work with the administration to create.
“A critical way that GPSA seeks to be heard is in keeping the administration accountable for executing the academic mission,” she said. “It’s a tragedy that UNM has not had an academic strategic plan. It’s not just ‘How do we allocate real estate?’ but ‘How do we allocate resources to serve students?’ ”
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Graduate scholarship fund:
GPSA has several fundraising initiatives in the works. Richardson said GPSA hopes to raise money through phone banking with United Way during the holiday season to raise money for $1,000 scholarships for graduate students.
“When people consider their charitable giving for the upcoming break, we hope that they will remember the needs of graduate students,” she said.
Create a dispute resolution service specifically for graduate students:
Richardson said the University needs a dispute resolution system specifically for graduate students because graduates face unique problems.
“There is tension between teaching, research, learning and getting a degree,” she said.
