Graduate students elected new officers, voted for $18 in fee increases and approved changes to the Graduate Students Association constitution in the 2026 GSA election.
GSA Elections Commissioner Kimia Kamal announced and certified the election results at an April 30 GSA meeting. Kamal, a doctoral student in behavioral neuroscience and cognitive psychology, said in a presentation shared at the meeting that 1,393 graduate students voted in the election – which amounted to a 10.68% voter turnout.
Voting for the GSA Election closed April 27.
Graduate students will pay a new $13 quarterly fee for the Graduate Opportunities and Leadership Development Referendum to support ASUCLA-operated facilities, increase ASUCLA student employee wages and fund graduate engagement and academic programs starting in the fall, according to the ballot. GOLD passed with a margin of 26 students – with 649 students, or 51%, voting for the measure, and 623 students, or 49%, voting against, according to a presentation created by Kamal.
Graduate students also passed the BruinFresh Referendum, a $5 quarterly fee that would fund a university-administered food-access program for graduate students experiencing food insecurity who are excluded from CalFresh, according to the ballot. The referendum passed with 66.1% or 837 voting yes, and 33.9% or 429 voting no.
The Undergraduate Students Association Council rejected the undergraduate student version of BruinFresh at its Feb. 24 meeting, which officers attributed to vague language.
[Related: Fee-increasing referendums pass USAC, await chancellor approval for May ballots]
Any change to student fees – like a referendum – requires a minimum 10% graduate student turnout, according to the GSA website.
Naomi Hammonds, the 2025-26 GSA president, will serve as president for another term. Jack Feng, the 2025-26 vice president of external affairs, and Jonathan Vidal Contreras, the 2025-26 vice president of internal affairs, were also re-elected.
Benjamin Heronimus, a graduate student in aerospace engineering, will replace Setara Nusratty as the 2026-27 vice president of academic affairs.
Hammonds, Vidal Contreras and Heronimus all ran unopposed for their positions.
The vice president of external affairs was the only contested race – with Feng defeating Kosi Ogbuli, a graduate student in business administration, by 214 votes. Ogbuli, who previously served as the director of equity, inclusion and campus engagement for Hammonds’s office, received 549, or 41.8% of the votes, while Feng received 58.2%, or 763 votes.
Hammonds will make $1,337 monthly in her role, and Vidal Contreras, Heronimus and Feng will make $1,113 monthly.
Graduate students also approved changes to the GSA constitution that would remove language about fees because they change annually, rename all GSA Codes to GSA Bylaws and add information about specific GSA councils, according to the ballot.
The constitutional amendments would also clarify the voting versus non-voting members of the GSA, reword pronouns to be gender inclusive and remove unapproved language in the constitution, according to the ballot.
The GSA had not updated their constitution since 2020 and hired an external parliamentarian to make suggestions about necessary changes, according to the ballot. The changes passed with 86.2% or 1,110 graduate students voting for the measure, and 13.8% or 177 voting against it.
The GSA meets biweekly Thursdays at 5:30 p.m., both at the Bruin Viewpoint Room and on Zoom. Meeting recordings are posted on the GSA Youtube, but GSA has not yet uploaded their April 30 meeting recording.
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