Secretary Candidate

March 29, 2004

Dear Fellow Graduate Students:

My name is Angela Palmer and I am running for secretary of the Graduate Student Assembly for the upcoming 2004-2005 school year.

While I am relatively new to the GSA, I have a great deal of past experience with numerous organizations, committees, meetings, etc. but I would like to increase and broaden my activities here at UT to include this important campus wide organization where I will come in contact with other graduate students from various different programs. Often, we become very isolated within our own programs and parts of campus but such interaction is vitally important as it allows us as a group to maintain a voice in the administration, concerns, and direction of this university. One example of a current issue of importance to the GSA I am interested in, besides the ever present rising cost of tuition and maintaining an effective voice, is the trend toward appointing TAs, GAs, and GRAs to 19 hour positions. These 19 hour appointments eliminate the need to provide benefits for the graduate students that must take these positions in these lean financial times.

Currently, I am a MSIS student in the School of Information where I am completing my second semester of the program and a Library Assistant at the Benson Latin American Collection. In my MSIS program, I am focusing on academic librarianship, particularly in the fields of science and technology, and have special interests in women in librarianship, collection development, diversity, and information literacy. I have a MA and BA, both in biological anthropology, from Southern Illinois University and I also completed four years of work on my Ph.D. in the same field here at UT before deciding that I wanted a different academic path. I have experienced graduate school and being a graduate student on varied levels and I think that these experiences strengthen my ability to be an effective and committed GSA officer.

I would be very happy to discuss any questions that you might have for me and would also be happy to discuss any concerns and issues that you have as a graduate student here at the University of Texas. Feel free to contact me anytime through e-mail (akpalmer@mail.utexas.edu or palmer@ischool.utexas.edu) or by phone (479-5905 or 784-7127). I would be happy, proud, and honored to serve as the GSA secretary for the upcoming year and I pledge to be an effective and concerned officer for all UT graduate students.

Sincerely,

Angela Palmer