Thursday, January 9, 1997
MISSION:
John Du addresses how USAC works for the studentsBy John Du
Unfortunately, not too many of our politicians understand what
it means to stand for something. More often than not, we find that
politicians promise one thing during elections only to renege on
them during their term.
Remember George Bush’s infamous, "Read my lips, no new taxes"
battle cry during his 1988 presidential campaign. Oh, and don’t
forget, Bill Clinton, the "liberal" who ran on the platform of
improving Americans’ lives. I wonder how well the millions of
immigrants, women, children and the elderly are faring now that
Clinton has signed the Welfare Reform and Immigration Reform Bill.
What are we reforming when we abandon millions of innocent
people?
Fortunately, the Undergraduate Student Association Council
(USAC) officers believe that we must take difficult but principled
stances and follow through with our promises. Instead of building
our resumes, we have been committed to fighting for students.
Ironically, there have been several attacks on USAC because we are
willing to stand for something. Before I address the concerns that
some students have, I want to explain what our vision of student
government is. I hope this will clarify why we work on certain
issues and how effective we have been in winning concrete victories
for students.
Ready? Here’s our vision. When we ran for office last year, we
promised that we would fight to put students first! What does
putting students first mean? It means that the student government
must help students empower themselves so that we are an integral
part of the decision making process at the university, state and
national levels. In other words, decisions affecting our education
must be made by us and not for us. By organizing voter
registration, voter education and Get Out the Vote drives, student
government registered over 3,000 UCLA students to vote. We also
organized precinct walks and organized vans to drive students to
their voting booths.
Putting students first also means that student government must
work on relevant issues that keep the doors of education open for
ourselves and our brothers and sisters. These issues range from
fighting fee increases and saving financial aid to saving
affirmative action.
Now, for those of you who have always wondered why we work on
these issues and how they affect our education, read on …
As student government we believe that an accessible education
must be an affordable one. NO STUDENT should be denied an education
because they cannot afford it. Since 60 percent of UCLA students
(including myself) receive financial aid and ALL students are
affected by fee increases, student government focuses much of our
energy on fighting fee increases and pressuring the federal
government for more financial aid. Students have defeated the last
two fee increases, and have increased the level of financial aid
for next year. We still have several possible fee increases on the
horizon and we must continue organizing ourselves to defeat
them.
Affordability is only one way of making education accessible.
Before you skip to the next viewpoint, let me explain why the
student government must fight for affirmative action, since it
seems to be the one issue that students have the most questions
about. The reason why we fight for affirmative action is for the
same reason we fight against fee increases and financial aid cuts
— to keep the doors of education open. Affirmative action opens
the doors to women and underrepresented groups who have
historically and currently been shut out of universities and jobs.
Like all programs, affirmative action does not solve all of our
problems and there is no doubt that abuses exist. However
affirmative action is the only institutionalized program that
directly addresses the deeply rooted problems of institutionalized
racism and sexism in our society.
Recently, Proposition 209 thrust affirmative action into the
national limelight. Prop. 209 is an insidiously deceptive
initiative that hammers another nail into the coffin for equal
opportunity for women and underrepresented groups without replacing
it with an alternative. With the elimination of affirmative action
in UC admissions, studies show that there will be a 50 to 70
percent decrease in African American and Latino/a enrollment. In
addition, UCLA programs like the Women’s Resource Center, Academic
Advancement Program (AAP), the Campus Retention Committee and other
community service outreach programs such as Women In Support of
Eachother (WISE) are threatened.
Clearly, the passage of Prop. 209 hurts diversity and ultimately
our education. It threatens programs that are important to
students, and it disproportionately shuts out an already
underrepresented group of people. As student government, we had a
choice of waiting around while these programs, which took years of
struggles to establish, are wrenched from us. Or we could take a
principled stance against these attacks and fight for our education
like we promised we would when we ran for office. Seeing that over
70 percent of UCLA students who voted, voted no on Prop. 209, I
think most students would agree with our fight against Prop.
209.
Now to address the concerns that students may have about student
government focusing too much on affirmative action. Although
affirmative action is important, clearly it is not the only thing
that student government is working on. So, why is it that some
students argue that we are wasting too much time on affirmative
action and that we should stop working on it? I respect the fact
that some students may disagree with affirmative action and I also
respect their right to express their views. As elected officers, it
is important that we are accountable to students. However, we are
only emphasizing the issues that we were democratically elected to
work on.
For us to not work on ALL these issues including affirmative
action, would mean that as leaders we are not standing for
something. It would mean that we would have no vision or principles
to guide us so that we would fall for anything that the
legislature, UC Regents or administrators may dish out. Instead of
asking student government to stop working on issues that you
disagree with, try asking for funding so you can organize on the
issues that you feel are important. Just because we have taken a
position on certain issues does not mean that we will not support
your efforts.
I think this approach captures the spirit of diversity and
freedom of expression. Do you want a student government that just
sits around or do you want a student government that keeps its
promises and fight for students?
And FINALLY, putting students first means that student
government must provide services that directly affect our daily
lives. Why have a student government if it does not provide
tangible services that help students? That is the reason why we
created the Booklending Program. The Booklending Program is a
service provided by student government where students who qualify
for the program can borrow a book for FREE. The Booklending Program
was created as one way of addressing the increases in book prices
and the rising cost of education. Currently, we are seeking
additional funding from the university to expand the program so we
can serve more students.
Registering students to vote, fighting fee increases, saving
financial aid, saving affirmative action and lending students free
books is just the tip of the iceberg accomplished by council
members. Believe it or not, these are not the only things we work
on. Here are a few other things: the General Representative’s
office organized a self defense class, the Student Welfare
Commission organized the AIDS Awareness Week and the Campus Events
Commission brought Bill Gates to speak on technology. After
collecting over 3,000 petitions, the Internal Vice President’s
office helped the On Campus Housing Council restore the Dorm Meal
Coupons saving each student in the residence halls approximately
$66 per month. There are other things such as ASUCLA, concerts,
community service and academic issues that I do not have room to
talk about. There is no doubt that we work on most issues that all
students think are important.
"If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything."
This year, student government is taking a stance to put students
first  to fight for an accessible education, to strengthen
the student voice, and to provided students with tangible services.
That is what we were elected to do, that is what we have done this
quarter, and that is what we must continue fighting for.
Daily Bruin file photo
Undergraduate Student Association Council (USAC) President John
Du discusses affirmative action and other student concerns.