Wednesday, 3/5/97
Unnamed slate
may challenge Students First!
Elections: New party seeks to reform government’s alleged
comprimises on ethics, ideology.
By Joshua Smith
Daily Bruin Contributor
Next quarter’s undergraduate student government elections mean
many things to many groups across campus.
But no where else is the issue so hotly contested than in the
very halls of Kerckhoff itself, where many student activist groups
are weighing the differences between a yet unnamed new party that
may be running against the current Students First! slate.
Some groups that support Students First! claim that their
student government is not broken and doesn’t need to be fixed.
Lacan De Leon, a fourth-year sociology and Asian American studies
student and a member of Samahang Pilipino, noted that Students
First! and his organization have many of the same goals.
"(Samahang Pilipino) believes in because they believe in better
access to education, lowering registration fees and making sure
students remain at this university," he said
Hugo Maldonado, a third-year psychology student and Movimiento
Estudiantil Chicana/o de Aztlan (MEChA) internal vice chair, said
that his and other groups that support the Students First! slate
promote the progressive agenda that most students want.
"We want a student government that is going to represent this
campus and also understands the need to work with underrepresented
student groups that do not always have the resources to address the
demands of our constituency," Maldonado said.
Maldonado noted that students of color face institutional racism
that inherently blocks their progress.
This creates the need, he said, for a slate like Students First!
that will address their concerns.
"The Chicano/Latino community has always been treated as
second-class citizens in this country," he said, "We … reject
those values of competition and assimilation and
individualism."
Maldonado said that instead of these individualistic and
competitive ideas, a student government needs to promote community
and diversity.
But members of the new party claim to have a much different view
of diversity than that of Students First!
"We should not have diversity just for the sake of diversity,"
said Ben Hofilena, a third-year physiological sciences student and
participant in the new party. "Diverse is not only on ethnicity,
but on political ideology."
Being a student of color himself, Hofilena noted that he is in
favor of the issues that address the needs of these groups of
students.
But for those outside of the student activist groups, Hofilena
said that there is currently no way for them to be involved in
student government.
"If that is not their thing, then how else do they get
involved?" he added. "We all have one need and that is access to
education, pursuing our degree and making sure our degree is worth
something outside UCLA."
But according Maldonado, the new party is not proposing anything
new at all. They "piggy back off of the Student’s First! issues,"
he said.
"They’re deceptively doing this so they can push their pro-Greek
agenda. They’re foolish if they think the progressive campus
community is going to buy it."
An outside focus, however, is exactly what Students First! has
taken this year with several programs from the external vice
president’s office, Maldonado said.
"External Vice President Alberto Retana registered over 1,000
students to vote before the Nov. 5 elections because there were
issues on the ballot that threatened access to education,"
Maldonado said.
Programs such as the drive for an ethnic and gender studies
requirement, the restoration of the dorm meal coupon program and a
self-defense workshop put together by General Representative Dora
Cervantes are all examples of how this year’s undergraduate council
has affected the student community, he continued.
While participants in the new party are quick to agree that
there are some pertinent issues that are being addressed by the
current student government, they maintain that this government is
riding on its past successes and not pushing forward toward issues
that are currently affecting all students.
"I believe that there has been good out of Student’s First!, but
there has been too much compromise on ethics, accountability, and a
lot of compromise on student government’s outreach to a lot of
students on this campus," Hofilena said.
Ultimately, however, the new party believes that it holds the
right alternative for campus student groups, said Angela Foster, a
fourth-year international economics student and participant in the
new party.
"This is a coalition of progressive students and student groups
who will address issues such as affirmative action, financial aid
and keeping the fees down, but we will do it with ethics and we
will also address on-campus issues that have been ignored by
Students First!"
But Students First! supporters challenge this claim because they
believe that this new party is merely a Greek wolf in sheep’s
clothing.
"We think that the new party is just a disguise for the old
Greek one," said Kandea Mosley, a fourth year African-American
studies student and chair of the African Student Union.
"We do not feel that they could represent the interests of not
only African students, but students in general."