Melinda Gibson is more than qualified to be vice president internal. Gibson is running on the Unity slate, and says she truly believes in the ideals of uniting all students in the UCSD community and working to make Associated Students more accessible to and better representative of students.

In her past work for the university, Gibson has worked with the council, chaired the Student Leadership Engagement Service committee and participated on the Student Regulations Review Committee. She also focused her efforts on Revelle College Council and was the CalPIRG chair for one year, during which she organized students in defending the environment and consumer rights.

Gibson is adamant about unifying the entire UCSD student population, rather than focusing solely on those involved in student organizations. She wants to make such organizations (Associated Students included) more available to the average student who comes to campus, goes to class and then goes home. She proposes the creation of an online database of all student organizations that lists not only the groups’ contact information (as the current A.S. Council Web site does) but also the groups’ interests, movements the groups may be interested in joining, and events in which they would like to participate. She says that such a database would make it easier for students to better acquaint themselves with the interests of student organizations, allow student organizations to work together, and provide for greater communication among all students. Another goal Gibson has is to streamline the process to plan events; rather than visiting each college and numerous offices to fill out forms that are all different, she proposes to universalize all forms needed to plan an event and put them together in one packet.

Gibson has the savvy and experience to chair A.S. Council meetings, demonstrates extensive knowledge of past and present proceedings, and has worked with many students and organizations in her time at UCSD.

Cat Yapyuco, running on the Students First! slate, clearly brings enthusiasm to the position and has been involved with Asian American Pacific Islander Association, but has a limited scope of experience in dealing with the university.

Gibson is the best candidate for the position. She has experience chairing meetings, has goals to unify the campus and will be extremely capable as vice president internal.