The undergraduate student government and its umbrella
organization, the Associated Students of UCLA, are both entities
meant to address campus concerns, but some tension has arisen
between the two because the organizations have different opinions
of their relationship and functions.
There has been some tension this year because some members of
the Undergraduate Students Association Council do not believe
ASUCLA has sufficiently worked with council or represented the
student body, said Josh Lawson, general representative and
presidential candidate.
“ASUCLA makes a lot of decisions that affect students,
kind of on a day-to-day level. We want to make sure that’s
something we have control over,” Lawson said.
Allende Palma/Saracho, internal vice president and presidential
candidate, echoed a similar concern regarding council’s
relationship with ASUCLA, saying that he hoped to see a closer
relationship between the two .
“The problem is over the years is it’s become a
separate entity,” Palma/Saracho said, adding that this
mentality has led to overlapping programs and insufficient use of
campus resources.
President Anica McKesey also said she saw problems with ASUCLA
acting as an entity separate from both the graduate and
undergraduate student governments.
McKesey pointed to ASUCLA’s role in dealing with student
employees and campus eateries as issues in which students should be
involved.
“Ultimately, ASUCLA is accountable to the undergraduate
and graduate students association. That’s the only way we can
really say ASUCLA is an entity to serve the students,”
McKesey said, adding that council had moved in the direction of
building a closer relationship with ASUCLA.
Throughout the year, USAC has sought to play a more integral
role in the way ASUCLA operates, McKesey said, but this may not be
the most efficient way to to ensure both organizations work
successfully.
ASUCLA sees the two groups as separate entities with different
purposes which function most efficiently when somewhat distant.
“We really have the best of both worlds as a result of the
separation. There does have to be collaboration, but we each serve
a different purpose,” said Julie Orf, who serves on the
ASUCLA board of directors.
One of the primary differences between the two groups is that
ASUCLA serves undergraduates, graduates and faculty, where USAC
only works for undergraduates, Orf said.
Some councilmembers call for ASUCLA to act as an arm of the
students, but the role the organization plays in dealing with the
entire campus rather than just the undergraduate community makes
separation necessary, Orf said.
The two groups have also traditionally had different views of
the structure of ASUCLA.
Council sees ASUCLA as an organization that should be very
closely linked with the student body and accountable to USAC.
“ASUCLA overall is supposed to be a conglomerate of a lot
of organizations. … We are ASUCLA in the fullest sense,”
Palma/Saracho said, referring specifically to USAC.
But this is very different from how ASUCLA views its
relationship with the graduate and undergraduate student
governments.
“I think it’s a collaborative relationship … (but)
in a real sense they are directly beneath ASUCLA. They are an
entity of the associated students,” Orf said.
Lawson pointed to this idea on the part of ASUCLA as one of the
primary factors leading to problems with the organization.
“When you think of (the undergraduate and graduate student
governments) as a lower-down division, that justifies taking
actions that are not in the direct interest of students,”
Lawson said.
If elected, both Lawson and Palma/Saracho said they plan to work
toward closing the gap between USAC and ASUCLA, but given
ASUCLA’s stance on the relationship between the two groups,
this may be a challenge.