The undergraduate student government at UCLA has been grappling
over whether the council should fund politically or religiously
based student groups for several years.
The Undergraduate Students Association Council may be the only
student government in the University of California system that does
not fund independent groups.
USAC voted last week to table a discussion to amend its bylaws
that would allow the council to fund independent groups.
Under the current bylaws, the council can only fund those
student groups that are registered with the Center for Student
Programming and are not politically or religiously oriented. These
groups are termed Officially Recognized Student Organizations.
Many councilmembers believe USAC should wait until the UC Office
of the President updates its own guidelines.
First drafts of the updated guidelines were released last
spring. After these drafts were released, UCOP officials solicited
input from all of the UC campuses, and they plan to release the
second round of drafts before winter quarter.
The UCOP has been spending so much time updating its guidelines
in order to ensure a “thorough review process,” said
UCOP spokesman Hanan Eisenman.
But during the five years in which the UCOP has been in the
process of updating its own guidelines, most other student
governments in the UC have not shied away from updating their own
guidelines.
The Associated Students of UC Berkeley has been funding
independent groups for more than four years.
“Of course I think (this policy) is fair. … It
contributes to a marketplace of ideas and values,” said Anu
Joshi, Berkeley’s vice president of external affairs,
expressing surprise that USAC does not follow the same policy.
The undergraduate student governments at UC San Diego and UC
Riverside have also followed suit.
At UCSD, the only qualification student groups need to receive
council funding is to be registered with the university, said
Brittany Bendix, a freshman senator on the university’s
student government.
The Associated Students of UCSD has been funding political and
religious groups for at least the last three years, Bendix said,
adding that it is an issue of student groups having freedom of
speech.
The council bylaws at UCR do not prohibit funding unless the
student organization restricts its membership.
Likewise, the bylaws of the UC Irvine student government do not
prohibit funding of independent groups, though it does prohibit
allocation of funds to political candidates.
However, USAC bylaws explicitly state that USAC mandatory
student fees can only be allocated to officially recognized
groups.
General Representative Josh Lawson proposed to amend these
bylaws, saying the current policy was unfair to the hundreds of
student groups that are not officially recognized.
Lawson also pointed to a series of U.S. Supreme Court rulings
that mandate student governments to fund groups on a
viewpoint-neutral basis.
Most councilmembers still opted to look to the UCOP for
direction and to wait until their guidelines were officially
updated.
“My only concern is being consistent with UCOP,”
said Matt Kaczmarek, USAC external vice president.
As the chief negotiator between the UC student governments and
the UCOP in the guideline discussion, Kaczmarek talked with
university officials this past weekend and said he believed the
talks went well.
Some student groups, however, may not want to receive USAC
funds, even if they were eligible.
Jeff Lau, a leader of the religious organization Grace on
Campus, said that, though he could use the additional funds, he is
not sure if it would be politically acceptable.