Every spring quarter it happens again. We are bombarded with a
sea of red and blue shirts asking us to take one of their flyers in
hopes of attaining the highest student positions in the land.
However, the election process for the Undergraduate Students
Association Council has and continues to be a sham.
The USAC election process has never given students enough time
nor provided enough avenues for candidates to truly express their
concerns about this school. The notion that the 32 candidates this
year can adequately tell the university their visions for their
future offices in the matter of a week is ludicrous. With no
scheduled debates and no time, these candidates run around like
chickens with their heads cut off trying to convince students (who
are not likely to know what USAC stands for) to vote for them. It
has made elections into a free-for-all circus incapable of meeting
the needs of the student body.
With this faulty process has come a propaganda campaign that
overshadows the issues. It should not matter whose signboard is
bigger, who used what theme on their flyers or whose shirt design
is the best. Issues, not slate names, should be made the top
priority. The current elections system allows candidates to put
their platforms on the back burner and bring short-lived
advertising campaigns to the forefront. Over the past two years
candidates have only killed more trees through handouts instead of
trying to truly educating people.
The situation gets worse year after year. At least in national
politics candidates can discuss their platforms. However, this year
there will not even be a debate for students interested in learning
more about the candidates. Instead we have glossy flyers of
students, who, assuming they have enough money, can buy their way
into offices through cheap tactics alone. The system has become a
virtual popularity contest of winners and losers who, because of
divisive politics, worry more about future funding for allies than
anything else.
Although a nice try, online voting won’t help this already
corrupted system. The number of voters may increase, but the true
reason students don’t vote isn’t because of a lack of
convenience. In fact, online voting can only make matters worse.
Those who want prospective funding can now hold parties to which
they’ll invite their entire clubs, organizations,
fraternities and sororities. Then, the partygoers can take a minute
to vote for whomever they are asked. Making voting more convenient
is only a band-aid remedy to a major problem.
Mistakes from the past have shown that UCLA needs election
reform more than Florida ever did. It is concerning that only three
years ago, a girl having only been at UCLA for two quarters, was
elected USAC president, thus representing the biggest UC in the
state.
It must shock even the most conservative students that our
current student body president, David Dahle, made a Nixon-esque
list considering half the campus enemies ““ particularly
students of color. Manipulation should not be the key to any
president’s agenda
The Election Board needs to re-evaluate their system. At some
point, caps on spending will have to be readily enforced and
old-fashioned debates will have to be reinstated so that students
can view, in plain light, their future representatives. There is
definitely a need for more space to campaign so that there can be
more forums, more discussion and especially more time for
candidates to adequately express their true beliefs. We need to
dismantle slates and begin from scratch with individuals, not
political parties, expressing how they will contribute to the
campus environment.
Before you vote today, ask the people running what principles
they truly stand on. Do not just look at a face and recklessly cast
your vote. Ask what these candidates really want to give you, what
they will do about the increase in student fees, and their goals
for their offices.
This is not the race for homecoming king and prom queen; it is
one that will determine the future of students on this campus. Care
for a minute, and you might be surprised at the outcome.
Smith is a fourth-year political science student. E-mail him at
rsmith@media.ucla.edu.