2024 Election Candidates

2024 GPSC Election Candidates

Scroll down to read more about each candidate and their interest in serving with GPSC, relevant qualifications, and how they would like to contribute to the improvement of the graduate and professional student experience at the University of Arizona.

Please note the following: 

  • For positions with more than one candidate running, candidates are listed alphabetically by last name.
  • Photos and statements were posted only from candidates who wished to provide one or both. 

Candidates for GPSC President 

Jeremy Bernick, College of Law

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Jeremey Bernick- 2023 GPSC President Candidate

Candidate Statement:

My name is Jeremy Bernick (they/them/theirs) and I am a first year J.D. Candidate in the College of Law running for the GPSC Presidency. I am a current At-Large GPSC Representative and a union organizer and the only union-endorsed candidate for UArizona President. 

As a double wildcat (former undergraduate), I understand the cause of our stagnant wages, inflated tuition costs, and negligent health care policies for graduate and professional students. And since arriving back on campus last Fall, I have been personally fighting to change things both inside and outside the Grad. Council.  

I will bring the fighting spirit of today’s labor movement to our campus’ graduate offices. In pursuing law school, I returned to school to support the upsurge in the new American Labor Movement. This year, I have chaired our campus’ own fighting labor union, the United Campus Workers Arizona, Local 7065, as the Student Chair for our University and as the sole student on the Executive Committee. Further, I’ve also been assisting in the national labor movement as a law clerk for Amazon Labor Union (ALU), the first labor union to successfully unionize an Amazon warehouse in the U.S. 

For far too long, graduate workers across the U.S. have been exploited for our labor. Over the last year, graduate students at the California Public Universities, Indiana University, Temple University, Harvard, Yale, and Michigan have increased the public imagination for what’s possible for graduate workers. I will drive our cause as workers forward in the fight for our rights and benefits.  

I promise I will continue to fight for better healthcare protections like dental and vision care and dependent care! 

I promise I will continue to fight for higher wages across all graduate colleges! 

I promise I will continue to fight for a complete student fee waiver so you don’t have to pay to work! 

I promise I will continue to fight for a first contract enshrining these rights into a legal contract between the University of Arizona and all its graduate workers who make this University WORK. 

 

Candidates for GPSC Administrative Vice President

Samuel David Jesse, College of Engineering

Candidate Statement:

Real talk? Our appalling material conditions demand radical action. We need a lower cost of attendance, better stipends, guaranteed funding, affordable housing, childcare, crisis services, and health insurance that covers dental and vision. The list could go on and on; you know just as well as I do! We require an immediate response because we’re struggling to meet our most basic needs of groceries, housing, utility, and medical bills. Therefore, it is time that we demand these critical items from the University, as they rely on us to teach classes and conduct research in our assistantships. Without us, UA would not get tuition or grant money; it’s imperative that they start acting like it. 

Structurally, GPSC is not a labor union and could never legally authorize a strike, but it is a legitimized site of real contestation that administrators cannot ignore. As the Administrative Vice President, I would focus on using our resources as GPSC to help our Representatives better organize and educate our constituents within the University. I’ve served on the 2023-2023 GPSC Executive Board as Secretary and chair of our Social & Marketing Committee. I hope to continue and expand our social events, which allow us to gather students together, meet folks we’d never normally meet in our jobs, honestly discuss our work conditions, and collaboratively make plans to pressure our Colleges and the University at large. Additionally, I’ve served on the first Steering Committee for United Campus Workers of Arizona as a graduate student representative, helping to start our unionization efforts here on campus. I remain a proud member of UCW-AZ and know that my experiences and connections there will inform my approach going forward. I hope to build solidarity amongst ourselves; when we as graduate & professional students have each other's backs because we know we’re in the same fight, that’s real power. 

Furthermore, I seek to address inequity. I am neurodivergent, disabled, and queer; I know that real systemic barriers exist for my own and other marginalized communities. At a time when there are escalating threats of stochastic violence and state repression, graduate and professional students at UA deserve to live without fear of violence on and off campus. Our university has repeatedly failed to deliver on this basic premise.  

If elected to this position, I assure you I will fight tooth and nail to enact substantive change. We deserve better and we know it! 

Candidates for GPSC Executive Vice President

Maya Braun Yoon 

Candidate Statement:

My name is Maya Braun Yoon (she/her.) I am a first year J.D. Candidate with a strong passion for equity and justice for all. I am a union backed candidate for Executive Vice President, running with the support of United Campus Workers Arizona, Local 7065. 

There are so many stressors that come with graduate programs- a heavy workload, balancing work and life, financial stressors, and trying to find balance to engage in self care. I want to support fellow students by addressing these stressors to make our lives easier, and reduce the financial impact that getting an advanced degree carries. 

My background as an administrative and policy level social worker will give me the ability to fight for justice and fair representation of the graduate student body. My background and experience in diversity, equity, and inclusion allows me to recognize my privilege and that my lived experience may not represent that of all students. I have the ability to advocate fiercely on behalf of fellow students. I have served on the boards of several local and national non profits, developing skills that lend themselves well to serving on the GPSC board. In addition, I have had to learn to balance being a parent to four children while attending law school, and understand better than many the difficulties of being an “atypical” student. 

I care deeply about fair wages for graduate assistants, access to fair and appropriate benefits, and fee waivers for student workers. Graduate assistants perform incredibly essential tasks for our campus, and yet the work and effort they put in is not recognized in a meaningful way. Stipends and fee waivers for graduate assistants do not accurately reflect the work that is done, and does not significantly contribute to reducing financial stress. I promise to bring the energy carried by the labor movement to advocate for fair pay for graduate workers on our campus. 

I want to advocate for fair representation of the diverse student body that U of A recruits, and increase safety and care for all on campus. This includes increasing access to appropriate mental health care, supportive responses to stressful situations on campus, addressing the financial concerns of graduate students at U of A, and increasing representation of the global majority on campus. I will also address fair access and accommodations for students with children or extenuating outside circumstances- school should be accessible for us all, and U of A can do better to make that a possibility for graduate students. 

Candidates for At-Large Representatives 

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Candidates for the College of Architecture, Planning, and Landscape Architecture Representatives

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Candidates for College of Education Representatives

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Candidates for College of Engineering Representatives

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Candidates for College of Fine Arts Representatives

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Candidates for College of Humanities Representatives

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Candidates for College of Law Representatives

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Candidates for the College of Management Representatives 

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Candidates for College of Medicine - Phoenix Representatives

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Candidates for College of Nursing Representatives

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Candidates for the College of Pharmacy Representatives

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Candidates for the College of Science Representatives

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GPSC's Needs: 

Do you care deeply about the needs of your peers? Are there issues within your department and/or college that need to be brought to light and changed? Do you enjoy advocating for fellow peers? GPSC would love to ask YOU to consider running to represent your college.