GAPSA elects new chair, vice-chair

There was a changing of the guard in the Graduate and Professional Student Assembly last night, as the top two Executive Board positions fell into new hands in an unusual mid-year shake-up. Yesterday's elections, held in Houston Hall's Graduate Student Lounge, resulted from the resignation last month of GAPSA chairperson Victoria Tredinnick. The meeting's minutes indicated that she resigned "to devote sufficient time to her degree." GAPSA's No. 2 officer, Sanjay Udani, won the election for Tredinnick's seat, defeating relative unknown Chris Adams, a first-year Wharton graduate student, 25-3. Udani had served as the body's first vice chair/treasurer and, since December 10, as acting chairperson. GAPSA General Assembly members, who represent the University's 12 graduate schools, as well as the separate Fels Center of Government, voted in the elections. Udani, an Engineering graduate student, said Tredinnick's duties as regional coordinator for the National Association of Graduate-Professional Students and other time commitments led to her resignation. Tredinnick, a Linguistics graduate student, did not return repeated calls for comment this week. When asked by a GAPSA member to identify the current "hot topic" facing the organization, Udani said it was the persistent General Fee issue: graduate students receive less funding per student than undergraduates from the $28 million in annual fee revenue. "Potentially, all the grad students are paying several hundred dollars going to undergrads," he said, adding that he has been working on the issue for most of his 1 1/2 years on GAPSA. Udani and new First Vice-Chair/Treasurer Doug Hagan plan to talk with administrators later this semester about the allocation of General Fee funds to student groups. Graduate student health insurance, the proposed vending ordinance and the shortage of graduate student space in on-campus facilities are Udani's other priorities for this semester. After Udani's election, Adams was nominated to fill Udani's vacated seat, but lost to Hagan, another first-year Wharton graduate student, by an 11-8 margin. Fels graduate student Drae Jones finished third with five votes. Both Udani and Hagan expressed confidence that the mid-year change in GAPSA leadership will not slow the group's agenda. "These are issues that the whole group has been involved in," Hagan said. "GAPSA is very tight-knit." "I think based on the interest shown today, I'm much happier about next year," Udani added. "It hasn't affected the day-to-day operations yet. I don't think it's going to."