Wednesday, May 1, 1996
Students First! ignores needs of non-sponsored USAC
organizationsThe following viewpoint was submitted on behalf of the
Business Investment Society, the Undergraduate Business Society,
KLA radio, the Neuroscience Undergraduate Society and Hillel Jewish
Student Association.
We, the "other" student groups on campus, find the repeated
slogan and campaign claim of Students First! to be reprehensible
and offensive. These alleged promoters of student power do not,
have not and, we fear, never will represent any student interests
beyond the closed ethnic circle made up of the Asian Pacific
Coalition, Samahang Pilipino, African Student Union and Movimiento
Estudiantil de Chicano y Chicana de Aztlán.
Students First!, in their vivid imaginations, claim that these
four groups deserve close to 50 percent of the funds that go to
student organizations sponsored by the Undergraduate Students
Association Council because they represent 60 percent of the
student population. However, their accounting and mathematics
skills need a large improvement.
First, all of the active members in these four groups fall
ridiculously short of numbering 14,000 people (which is about 60
percent of the student population). In fact, the active members of
these groups number well below even 1/20 of the student population,
or 1,000 members. Yet, their claim is that while the membership
numbers are not directly representative of the student population,
only these groups promote the interests of 60 percent of the
student body. Once again, they have confused reality with
fantasy.
If you take the number of students in another four groups: the
Pre-Med Society, the Pre-Law Society, the Undergraduate Business
Association and the Engineering Society, wouldn’t they also
representatively comprise well over 60 percent of the student
population? Aren’t the career opportunities and educational goals
of Bruins important to Students First!? But Students First! has
shown us that we as students, we as Bruins and we as simple human
beings, do not deserve the simple invitation to participate in our
student government.
In the past year, Students First! has not actively sought to
include over 300 student groups to give them access to funding for
programs, use of facilities and participation on campus. They have
consistently refused to notify us of the funding meetings and have
not allowed us to apply for adequate funding until nothing but
spare change was left in the budget.
Why are we, the students of UCLA, forced to beg for table scraps
and crumbs that Students First! feels fit to throw us after they
have butchered the funds for their own personal gain? We are Bruins
and students at UCLA as well, and it is high time we were
recognized as such.
Although affirmative action issues and programs of a national
scale are important to UCLA, they should be secondary to
representing every student group on campus. We do not expect
everyone’s interest to be the number one priority, just simply a
priority. We do not want to monopolize the student budget, but we
would appreciate being included in the funding process.
The correct numbers and figures of Students First!
representation means simply that over nine out of every 10 students
does not benefit directly or indirectly from Students First! Are
you one of the 90 percent of underrepresented or ignored
students?
Once again, we would like to emphasize that although affirmative
action is an important issue, we also feel as if we were simply cut
out of student government and left with no options for redress.
In short, all we ask is a fair and opportune chance to petition
for the funding we as student groups need to continue our programs
for every single Bruin on campus regardless of race, color, sex,
religion or creed.
Other Viewpoints by:
Mike Bourdaa
Veronica Jordan
The African Student Union, The Asian Pacific Coalition,
Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano y Chicana de Aztlán and
Samahang Pilipino.