Vice President of Communications & Events

Statement: Dear colleagues, my name is Alexander Luckmann (he/him). I am a third-year MA/PhD student in the History of Art and Architecture Department. I am seeking your vote for Vice-President of Communications and Events. I would bring to this position my experience in representing grad students, organizing events from professional spheres to grad school, and a keen interest in the workings of our University (and how to improve them!) Last year, I served as President of the Art History Graduate Student Association, overseeing all of my department’s graduate events, student affairs, and interactions with the university and faculty.

This year, aiming to expand the scope of my administrative involvement, I have served as my department’s GSA Representative. Next year, I hope to take the next step as student representative by joining the GSA Executive Board. The key points I would advance as Vice-President of Communications and Events revolve around better receiving and communicating your (my fellow grad students’) ideas. By getting your ideas for what types of events you would be most interested in, I hope to better tailor events to your desires. I would continue clearly passing on information through GSA emails, but I hope to also more widely share calls for this information so that all events that grad students are involved in or might be interested in are widely circulated. As someone who has done both an MA and now a PhD at UCSB, I particularly want to make sure that MA students are part of the GSA’s communication network. I didn’t know much about GSA as an MA student, and I feel that this is a crucial gap to bridge in order to ensure that GSA can advocate for all grad students.

Finally, although I am a humanities PhD, I want to ensure that GSA is not dominated by one discipline or disciplinary cluster. Part of ensuring that the University works for us just as much as we do for it is acknowledging the diversity of concerns and perspectives throughout our graduate student population. As VP of Communications and Events, I would use my administrative and professional experience to advocate for and share the needs of all graduate students.

Thank you for reading my campaign statement; please reach out to me at aluckmann@ucsb.edu if I can answer any further questions about my goals or anything else.