Wednesday, October 15, 1997
Affordability, accessibility
just two issues
on new agenda
UC Students Association to focus on broad-reaching issues
By Stefanie Wong
Daily Bruin Staff
Students’ concerns range from clean bathrooms to affirmative
action, and the University of California Students Association
(UCSA) has the difficult task of choosing which issues to work
on.
Each year, UCSA establishes an agenda of advocacy issues based
on the needs and concerns of students at the nine universities in
the UC system.
"Not every agenda item is an intense campaign, but they are
different issues at different levels," said USAC External Vice
President Stacy Lee.
This year, UCSA has decided to concentrate on six issues, some
of which are new to the organization’s list of concerns while
others have been continued from last year.
An issue that has been carried over from last year is
affordability, once known as fees and financial aid.
"We wanted to encompass the whole idea of education being
affordable," Lee said.
With the constant threat of increasing fees and shrinking
availability of financial aid, UCSA’s concern is that there may be
a "decline in enrollment of lower and middle-income students."
In connection with affordability, the issue of instructional
technology is another item on UCSA’s agenda.
With the growing need and use of technology at universities,
there is a concern of access to this technology and the threat of
campus-based fees to pay for it.
UCLA implemented the Course Materials Fee, which charges
students a certain amount per unit in order to maintain web sites
for all courses offered.
The next agenda item is in response to the recent implementation
of Proposition 209 and Regent’s Item SP-1, which banned the use of
affirmative action in UC admission policies.
Without the use of affirmative action in admissions policies,
the diversity of the schools in the UC system may be
threatened.
UCSA is increasing focus on outreach and community service in an
effort to help ensure diversity at the universities.
"There is a need in the community for people to go out and help
others along with the system," Lee said.
"Part of it is mentoring and tutoring and the other is to help
people with the process (of applying to schools)," she added.
The fourth agenda item is student unions and the
administration’s refusal to acknowledge collective bargaining
rights of student employees.
The addition of this issue to the agenda means that UCSA will
help gain university recognition for unions such as UCLA’s Student
Association of Graduate Employees (SAGE).
This commitment also signifies that UCSA has recognized student
workers’ right to organize and collectively bargain.
The next issue is student immigrants and their ability to attend
universities in the UC system.
According to UCSA, recent welfare reforms could prevent
immigrants from attending universities in the system, therefore
shutting out talented international students from higher education.
For example, the recent welfare reforms bars immigrants from
receiving some forms of financial aid.
UCSA would like to address the issue of immigrants’ rights and
to help promote political involvement among this group.
The final issue on the advocacy agenda is campus crime, safety
and police accountability.
This includes the general concern of campus safety and specific
crimes committed against students of color, women and lesbian ,
gay, bisexual and transgender students.
All six of these issues will be dealt with over the course of
the year and USAC intends to address these issues at UCLA by
directly meeting with the administration or involving students in a
much larger approach.
"One of the huge points of this is not that the board of UCSA is
doing things for students, but that this is a responsibility of
every student to learn about the issues and then do something about
them," Lee said.