By the conclusion of the undergraduate student government
meeting on Tuesday, the appointment of the election board
chairperson was still not established. In fact, the overdue issue
was not addressed at all.
Though originally planned for discussion at the meeting, Allende
Palma/Saracho, president of the Undergraduate Students Association
Council, announced that the issue would have to be pushed until the
next meeting because he was unable to finish evaluating all the
candidates and their applications for the position.
The election board chairperson is important because he or she is
the principal facilitator of anything pertaining to elections.
USAC bylaws state that the election board chair must be
appointed and approved by the council before the first week of the
fall quarter.
It is now nearing the end of the third week of winter quarter,
and the position is still open.
In a meeting on Jan. 18, Alex Gruenberg, USAC financial supports
commissioner, made it a point to remind Palma/Saracho and the
council of the urgency of appointing an E-board chairperson.
Though at Tuesday’s meeting, Palma/Saracho was not
prepared to present those appointments, he said he hopes a proposed
candidate will be available for approval at next week’s
meeting.
Gruenberg, in an interview after the meeting, stressed the
importance of the appointment of an E-board chairperson because the
election season, spring quarter, is close and much preparation
needs to be done.
“The reason why this hasn’t been addressed earlier
is because the chairperson doesn’t have much responsibility
until around election time, so it really hasn’t been much of
a priority,” Palma/Saracho said.
Another time pressure USAC faces in appointing a chairperson is
the MyUCLA administrators’ deadline imposed on them during
the summer.
MyUCLA has established a Feb. 15, 2005 deadline for an E-board
chairperson so that the details of the upcoming election can be
worked on thoroughly and in conjunction with both USAC and the
appointed election chair.
The primary reason for MyUCLA’s concern is to determine if
the Web service will once again be used as a host service for the
elections.
The appointments proposed by Palma/Saracho must be submitted to
the Appointments Review Committee, which is established to review
all recommended applicants and thereafter, the committee must
forward its recommendation to the council for final approval.
The bylaws state that the primary purpose of the ARC is to
expedite the appointment approval process.
The president was responsible for making the proposed
appointment over 18 weeks ago and has not yet done so.
“The bylaws outline a lot of different things that are
meticulous. The USAC constitution is a little stringent and
unrealistic, so I rather follow the common practice from my
experiences, which has been that the E-board chair has not been
appointed until winter quarter,” Palma/Saracho said.