With only a few months remaining in their terms, elected
undergraduate student government representatives are quickly
running out of time to fulfill the promises they made to students
in their campaigns last spring.
The three general representatives and seven commissioners are
responsible for a variety of student programs, and some have yet to
begin work on their proposed individual projects.
Undergraduate Student Association Council bylaws define the job
of the general representatives to primarily serve and meet the
needs of the collective interests of students and initiate programs
and legislation.
The general representatives were “heavily involved in the
Get Out the Vote campaign and plan to continue our involvement with
the upcoming mayoral campaign,” said general representative
Jenny Wood.
The office as a whole also contributed to activities during
fall’s Welcome Week and the Expected Cumulative Progress
campaign, which aims to repeal minimum unit progress
requirements.
Wood plans to continue the momentum of Worlds AIDS Day to
establish a Get Tested Week before her term ends. In addition to
working with Campus Events commissioner to bring in speakers,
“we’re planning on having testing units available
throughout the week, both on-site as well as off campus” Wood
said.
Through selected individuals, Wood has also tried to establish a
communication link between USAC and the UCLA community to represent
the student body more effectively.
Also on Wood’s agenda is a Web site designed to garner
support and involvement for community service projects.
“Ideally I would have had it done at the beginning of the
school year,” Wood admitted. She hopes the Web site will be
up this month.
Like Wood, general representative Anneli Villarin has worked to
create new programs and make changes to existing ones, like
incorporating an educational aspect into Hip Hop Appreciation Week.
The festivities are planned to bring artists from the community to
showcase their work and “show everybody that culture and art
thrives within the inner city” Villarin said.
“Rooted in hip hop is this consciousness about letting
people know about issues within these communities. We could really
mobilize people to face these problems,” Villarin added.
During her campaign, Villarin pushed to create an women’s
conference at UCLA, to address abortion rights, same-sex marriages,
and sexual violence. Her plans include publicity and outreach at
UCLA for the Women of Color Conference, planned for April at UCSB,
but are slim as far as actual programming.
Like the two other general representatives, Tommy Tseng has also
worked on autonomous projects that he feels to be of
importance.
Tseng had promised to create an “investment in
California” project aimed to encourage students to become
advocates for education.
“No significant organization has taken place in regards to
the “investment in California” project because I have
taken on the ECP project,” Tseng said.
“I feel like the ECP project is simply a part of my job,
that’s why I decided to take it on and step up to the
plate,” Tseng added.
Tseng proposed a program at the time of election last year to
teach students effective organizing skills and develop
consciousness, but it has been combined with the leadership class
for USAC interns, under the advisory of USAC President Allende
Palma/Saracho.
Tseng’s promised student-labor conference is set for
February 15, 2005.
“I’m pretty proud of all that I have accomplished
and I’m definitely optimistic about the progress that will be
made,” Tseng said.
Eligio Martinez, Academic Affairs commissioner, is responsible
for representing students on educational policy issues. His primary
focus has been the diversity requirement, which would require an
ethnic or religiously based class to be taken as a GE.
UCLA faculty voted against the proposed requirement on Dec. 19,
2004.
Martinez has also organized his proposed student task force
comprised of his office staff to fight for access to higher
education.
This year, the task force’s essential concern is the
admission by exception process “”mdash; an acceptance to the
university with disregard to minimum eligibility criteria for
special case students. Martinez wants to make sure the admission by
exception option is used properly and to its full capacity.
Martinez has sought ways to fight for a student vote on the
Academic Senate, but feels it is more urgent to work at the state
level so other UCs lacking a student vote on their academic senates
get involved.
In his second year in office, Campus Events commissioner Jason
Gaulton hopes to increase campus spirit and unity among the student
body.
Gaulton expanded the traditional welcome week to one
encompassing a carnival and film component.
His office is working on a concert scheduled for February at
Westwood Plaza and on hosting more comedy programs and bands at the
Cooperage.
“I want to continue to plan events that bring a lot of
Bruins together so at the same time,” Gaulton said.
“The best is yet to come.”
Community Service commissioner Crystal Lee’s office helps
carry out projects every week for the 21 community service groups
on campus.
Lee has been working at fundraising, as her sponsored projects
have been recently threatened financially.
Lee’s request for $10,000 was appropriated to her office
out of the USAC surplus fund to temporarily satisfy her
office’s needs.
By working on publicity and getting involved in orientation, Lee
said it has helped increase visibility to the student body so that
students know their community service options.
“People are starting to know about us, which is not
something that we’ve had before,” Lee said.
Shantanu Bhuiyan states that his Cultural Affairs commission has
“not only maintained consistent programs from the past, but
we’ve also thought about having more programming.”
An independent film series is in the works in conjunction with
On Campus Housing Council and the Office of Residential Life, as
part of Bhuiyan’s plan for “more programming catering
to students that live in the residence halls.”
One of Bhuiyan’s primary platform goals was to create a
committee working on publicizing and promoting events.
“I think of outreach in terms of generating more interest
for our events and making the student body more aware of what we
do,” Bhuiyan said.
Bhuiyan has noticed increased attendance at the Jazz Series and
Eclectic Music Night at Kerckhoff Coffee House.
Another of Bhuiyan’s promises was to establish a
“supplemental fund put into place for student groups.”
Funds are available to student groups through an application
process, and can be used for costs beyond the USAC-alloted base
budget.
The fund has been established, but “I don’t think it
was utilized.” Bhuiyan said. “There weren’t a
great number of groups asking for funds” due to a lack of
awareness among student groups.
Facilities Commissioner Pavan Tripathi has seen progress stalled
on his shortsighted promise to work towards adding MTA to the
BruinGo! subsidized bus fare program.
Tripathi said that the Transportation Services Advisory Board
holds closed meetings, barring progress, but he is seeking approval
for representatives to attend.
No work has been done to reinstate the Ackerman shuttle stop on
the campus express lines, but Tripathi plans to make this a goal
this quarter. The stop was removed last spring to facilitate budget
cuts.
Tripathi has altered the focus of his proposed quality of life
survey, from construction mitigation to campus wide safety concerns
of all students.
Tripathi also promised to improve the campus perimeter, via
lighting and water fountains, focusing on the stretches along
Sunset Boulevard and Veteran Avenue.
The proposed improvements are scheduled to be under review in
January by UCLA Facilities Management, and an engineering study is
planned to occur.
The commission is also planning a Campus Safety Awareness Week,
which will hold workshops and demonstrations on various
safety-related topics.
Alex Gruenberg has spent much of his time in office revamping
the Financial Supports commission to maximize its utility to
students.
Much of summer and fall was spent “laying the groundwork
for making relationships with lots of campus organizations, doing
co-programming, building from the ground up” Gruenberg said.
“You’re really going to see the fruition of my
council’s planning in winter quarter.”
This quarter his office plans to launch a Web site to guide
students with financial concerns to resources to help solve their
problems.
In lieu of a proposed financial fair, the commission plans to
hold workshops on preparing the FAFSA and completing scholarship
applications.
As the commission has the dual responsibility of advocacy and
programs, Gruenberg plans to work to get a student representative
on the OCHC pricing review board to get a more active voice in the
pricing of student housing.
Gruenberg’s primary program focus has been the expansion
of the book lending program. A major challenge for the financial
supports commission is ensuring effectivity despite space and
resource constraints.
Because the majority of council members are with the Students
First! slate, Gruenberg, a minority with the Equal Access
Coalition, expressed his disappointment in being unable to push
through any substantive reform or gaining a position on any
standing committee.
A slate is a coalition of student groups that have a similar
ideology and form to help win seats on the council.
Despite these roadblocks, “I’m extremely confident
that my office goals will be accomplished by the end of year, and
we’re on track to do that” Gruenberg said.
So far this year, Student Welfare Commissioner Jason Avila
reports certifying over 100 students in CPR and a record 555 units
of donated blood, as well as the unprecedented success of World
AIDS Day, which student welfare put on with the help of a number of
campus groups.
As far as platform goals, the commission’s performance is
somewhat less impressive.
The commission has scrapped their push to hold a benefit concert
for USAC’s philanthropic events. Avila said they will likely
“just bring it down to a battle of the bands.”
Bringing a big name band to campus was too cost intensive, which
Avila admitted they failed to take into account during his
campaign.