Friday, April 24, 1998
USAC election kicks off with Praxis, Sanity ’98
USAC: New groups strive to change status quo as 16 try for eight
positions
By Dennis Lim
Daily Bruin Contributor
Candidates for the 1998 USAC election were announced Wednesday
night during the candidates’ orientation. Sixteen candidates have
applied for the eight positions available in the elections.
Of the 16 candidates, 12 are running under two newly-formed
slates, Praxis and Sanity ’98.
The candidates for the positions include:
For president: Martin Chipas; Ben Geer; Chris Ihara; and Stacy
Lee, the current USAC External Vice-President.
For external vice president: Liz Geyer and Daniel Rego.
For internal vice president: P.J. Gagajena, and Paul Mack.
For the general representatives: Kai Nago, Mike de la Rocha, and
John Strellow.
For academic affairs commissioner: Zuhairah Scott. For cultural
affairs commissioner: Melissa Flores-Buller and Marcelle
Washington.
For campus events: Joe Balabis.
For student welfare commissioner: Omid Shaye.
For community service commissioner: Joe Balabus.
There were no applicants for the facilities commissioner and the
financial supports commissioner. Deadlines to apply for these
positions have been extended to Friday at 3:00 p.m., and
applications are available at the Election Board office at 309
Kerckhoff.
Applications for offices saw a dramatic drop from last year’s
election which totalled 41 applicants.
However, last year’s election, one of the largest in UCLA
history, was very exceptional, according to Anthony Brockington,
the Election Board chair.
"Last year’s election saw a lot of community action with
Proposition 209, and that helped lead to the extraordinary large
number of applicants," Brockington said.
The structure of the elections has also seen a change with the
collapse of Student’s First! and the formation of two new slates,
Praxis and Sanity ’98.
Praxis, composed of Samahang, the African Student Union, and the
Asian Pacific Coalition, includes Lee, Gagajena, Geyer, de la
Rocha, Nagao, Washington, and Scott. Their platform is based on
increasing student awareness of student power to change their
surroundings.
Bullard, Chipas, Mack, Rego, and Strellow compose Sanity ’98, a
new slate which proposes making mandatory USAC fees optional, and
focuses on on-campus issues.
Each of the candidates proudly declared their stance on issues
affecting the campus.
"I want to make student government more accessible to the
students and reduce student fees," said Chipas, who is running on
the Sanity ’98 slate.
"I’m going to do that by making student government focus on more
general things that affect more of the students," he continued.
Flores-Buller focused her campaign on more specific things
affecting the UCLA campus.
"There are some issues like campus safety, evening vans, the
escort service, and a student fee cut that I definitely want to
address," Flores-Buller said.
Each of the candidates received a copy of the election code
by-laws and signed a contract binding them to follow the laws.
Looking back on the evening, Anthony Brockington, Election Board
chair, believed the orientation was a success.
"I’m very enthusiastic about this year’s election. The
candidates seem very active and they were really eager and asked a
lot of questions," Brockington said.
"By the end of the night, many of the candidates came up to me
and told me that their questions were answered, so in that sense I
think that tonight was a success," he said.