Wednesday, 4/30/97 Holding the reins Candidates for the USAC
presidency reveal their platforms for the upcoming year. Ideas
range from improving student safety and outreach programs to
privatizing UCLA and making it a clothing-optional campus.
By Stefanie Wong Daily Bruin Contributor As the Undergraduate
Students Association Council (USAC) elections draw near, six
candidates are hoping to loosen the incumbent Students First!
slate’s two-year grip on the USAC presidential suite. But not if
Students First! presidential candidate Kandea Mosley can help it.
She hopes to continue the Students First! reign with programs such
as the book-lending program and the diversity requirement campaign.
A new idea that Mosley wants to initiate is a welcome week for new
and returning students. The event would give students an
opportunity to visit the student government offices and learn more
about USAC programs. "We’re outreaching to the community so that
they know that they can come to student government and learn about
the resources UCLA has," Mosley said. An internship program would
also be held to further educate students about the workings of USAC
and the community. "We want to, specifically with the internship
program, pull in community organizations who have a lot of
resources and skills to teach students," Mosley said. Another
program Mosley plans to hold is a campuswide teach-in where
students can learn about immigrant rights, welfare reform and how
the privatization of UCLA may be dangerous. But besides these
programs, Mosley would also address more direct services like the
potential lunch voucher program and increased safety on campus,
especially for women. The services and issues that Mosley feels
should be addressed are "things that just make everyday life on
campus a little bit easier for students," Mosley said. Mosley isn’t
the only candidate concerned with the students’ needs. A main
concern for Bruin Unity ’97 presidential candidate Ruben Garcia is
also campus safety. If elected president, Garcia would like to
limit the traffic on Circle Drive in order to ensure the safety of
students. To address student organizations’ cry for funding, Garcia
is advocating the use of outside funding sources. "There’s tons of
money out there for each one of these groups only if we as USAC
utilize these services and work in conjunction with groups
outside," Garcia said. He believes holding grant-writing classes
would help students in their quest for funding outside of UCLA,
thereby reducing the demand for money from the council. Garcia is
also championing the idea of passing out voter registration forms
with all official university documents in order to get students
registered to vote. But Garcia believes that students should take
part in all issues that affect them, and that his proposed student
senate would give the rank-and-file student a voice in their
government. The senate would be a group of elected officials or an
interclub council with representatives from student organizations.
"The combination of so many different campus groups could have a
stronger voice with the administration," Garcia said. He also sees
the senate as a legislative body that would adequately represent
the diverse views of students. "If you see a group that’s not
represented in your government, you have to ask why and make an
extra effort and go to that group and say we need you here at the
table – there’s room for everybody," Garcia said. Independent
presidential candidate Jihad Saleh also believes in the creation of
a student senate to ensure diversity, but feels that the
representatives should come from existing student organizations as
well as the different schools and departments. "I’m very structured
on institutionalizing ways to guarantee that (the student
government) is more diverse and more friendly toward students,"
Saleh said. "Institutionalizing diversity besides just the 13
members of USAC." In order to better serve the students, Saleh is
proposing a bi-quarterly survey of random students to be conducted
by the Daily Bruin. The survey will ask students their opinions
about USAC and the results would be published in the newspaper.
"(The survey will show) how students feel about what (the student
government) is doing, are we effective are we not and are we
reaching them," Saleh said. "At least this way it gives us a feel
of what people are thinking." To increase student involvement in
USAC, Saleh believes that the student government needs to be more
inclusive and have an "open field." "When I was working with the
African Student Union, you get trapped up in Kerckhoff if you’re an
official and you lose time with the masses out on campus," Saleh
said. "We need to start spending more time on North Campus, South
Campus and we need to have office hours outside so that we’re going
to the people instead of them coming to us with issues," he added.
Independent candidate Justin Horey also believes that a student
government should be visible and actively working on campus. "If I
win, I want to set up a table there on Bruin Walk next to CALPIRG
or whoever and just have people be able to stop and say whatever
they want," Horey said. Horey does not have an established platform
with issues to address, but instead is focusing his campaign on the
concerns and issues that students feel a government should work on.
"Instead of coming up with a plan of what I want to do, I want to
open it up to students and find out what students expect from
student governments," Horey said. "If anybody has any ideas of what
they want, I’d rather do that then say I’m going to do X, Y and Z,"
he added. Horey would like to emphasize in his campaign that a
student government and administration should be open and visible to
the students. "I wouldn’t be able to recognize (current USAC
President) John Du if I saw him. I wouldn’t recognize (Chancellor)
Charles Young if I saw him. An administrator or representative from
student government needs to be in touch with the students," Horey
said. "That would be my No. 1 priority, to be on campus," he added.
To facilitate good relations between the students and the
administration, Access Coalition presidential candidate Ben
Hofilena wants to reinstate the Student Participation in University
Governance (SPUG) program that was developed four years ago. This
program was created to increase students’ voice in the university
governance committees. A new event Hofilena hopes to hold is a
campus involvement fair where student organizations can come
together in a career fair-like fashion. "(The fair) will help
recruitment for groups and let the student government really see
who their real constituents are," Hofilena said. Another idea
Hofilena would like to see come to fruition is a UCLA community
outreach program where students from underrepresented and
impoverished communities would visit UCLA. "I want to work as a
council and put all our resources together and make a day-long
seminar where student can feel empowered and get excited about
coming to college," Hofilena said. "This time, it’s UCLA working
together to outreach and retain." Hofilena is also addressing the
issues of increased campus safety, which includes more perimeter
lighting and emergency phones. The current financial situation of
the students’ association (ASUCLA) is also an issue with Hofilena.
"Let’s work together, let’s be accessible to students, that’s what
we’re about," Hofilena said. "We want to make sure we have a
healthy ASUCLA and a more student-friendly ASUCLA." Liberty ’97
presidential candidate Justin Sobodash is also addressing the
condition of ASUCLA. To alleviate the association’s financial
problems, Sobodash is championing the idea of privatizing certain
services. "I would suspect that generally, some of the services
could be made much more efficient by privatization," Sobodash said.
If elected, he will also address issues that deal with UCLA’s gay
and lesbian community. "Gay and lesbians at this university have
been short-sided," Sobodash said. "Gay and lesbian students who
have domestic partnership should be treated like they’re married by
the university." Other issues Sobodash will address are making UCLA
a clothing-optional campus and increasing students’ right to
freedom of speech. But the main area that Sobodash is working on is
making student government fees voluntary. He believes that by
making the fee mandatory, students are forced to pay for programs
and ideologies that they do not necessarily support. "Our campaign
has been about taking power out of the hands of pressure groups on
campus and giving it back to the individual students," Sobodash
said. By contrast, Bruin Vision’s presidential candidate Chris
Hecht believes the way to empower students is for USAC to address a
broad base of issues. "If you broaden the scope, you’ll get more
students involved," Hecht said. A primary area Hecht will be
addressing is the decreasing aesthetics of the campus. With the
destruction of Towell, Hecht believes that the area should be
returned to its original grassy state. "We want to make sure that
area remains grassy or if it becomes an underground parking lot
make sure that it is as least visible as possible," Hecht said.
Campus safety is also an issue, especially in the area of
increasing the number of community service officers (CSOs). The
main concern of Hecht’s platform is to increase cultural exchange
between groups. While Hecht is not against the individual cultural
organizations, he feels that the groups should co-program to
educate each other. "The reason that ignorance is prevailing is
because people aren’t educating everyone else," he said. Previous
Daily Bruin Story: Voting begins for USAC elections, May 3,
1995