The LSA is pleased to announce the interim appointment of student member Z.L. Zhou (UCLA) as a member of the Executive Committee, for a term anticipated to conclude at the end of 2022. The special appointment was necessitated by a series of complications caused by the pandemic and related factors, outlined below.

We wish to thank the outgoing student member of the EC, Wunetu Tarrant, who served as the Bloch Fellow from 2019 – May 2022. We especially thank her for agreeing to extend her term of service by one year due to the postponement of the 2021 Linguistic Institute to 2023.

Since Zhou’s appointment is for an abbreviated term, the LSA’s Committee on Student Issues and Concerns (CoSIAC) is formally reopening the call for nominations for student members of the Society who are interested in serving on the Executive Committee. Nominations may be submitted to the Chair of COSIAC via email no later than June 5, 2022.

Biosketch

Z.L. Zhou is a PhD candidate in the Linguistics department at UCLA. In his time at UCLA, he has been consistently involved in the functioning of the department, having served as President of the department’s graduate students, as a student representative on both a recent job search committee and a departmental climate committee, as chair of the Open House and Faculty feedback committees, and as a member of the Colloquium committee. Having held these variegated positions, he has received the opportunity to observe and facilitate many different types of interaction between groups of stakeholders with varying levels of investment and strength of opinion.

As President of graduate students, he held regular office hours to hear student concerns, brought important issues to relevant faculty (e.g., DGS), and worked with the Chair and University administrators to design and create a space that would satisfy the needs of grad students TAing a wide range of courses. During the George Floyd protests, he supported the formation of a committee tasked with assessing the department’s emotional climate and culture; while sitting on that committee, he supported the creation of a long-term plan for the implementation of the department’s desires. As a longstanding member of the Colloquium committee, he has pushed for increased consideration of DEI issues and for increased nuance in how they are considered. As interim student representative for the LSA Executive Committee, he plans to continue to do as he has: identify issues relevant to students and work to resolve them — or at least make progress on their resolution.

Factors Impacting the Delayed Election of Student Representative(s) to the EC:

• Bylaw Amendments Approved as of Nov 6, 2021
• COSIAC Issued Initial Call for Nominations on Feb 15, 2022 with a deadline of March 10, 2022
• Slate of two nominations forwarded to the Secretariat to appear on the ballot on April 7, 2022
• One of two nominees withdraws on April 22 due to earlier than expected date of graduation
• After consultation with COSIAC and both nominees, Secretary-Treasurer and Executive Director recommend a plan on April 25, 2022 for interim appointment and postponing the special election
• LSA Executive Committee approves interim appointment and plan for postponing the election on May 8, 2022
• Renewed Call for Nominations issued on May 18th with a deadline for responding of June 5, 2022.