As the undergraduate student government election cycle draws to
a close, both the candidates involved and most of the general
student body are exhausted with the process ““ but there
remain two key executive positions yet to be filled.
Voting for the Undergraduate Students Association Council runoff
elections lasts until 7 tonight, with students casting votes for
the top two candidates from last week’s primary elections for
the positions of president and external vice president.
Student Power! candidate Jenny Wood, a current general
representative on council, and Bruins United candidate Alex
Gruenberg, the current Financial Supports commissioner, have
advanced to runoffs for the position of president in what is
expected to be a close race. Wood led Gruenberg in the primaries by
less than 3 percentage points.
Jeannie Biniek of Student Power! and Jesse Melgares of Bruins
United will also face off for the position of external vice
president. Melgares had a nearly 10 percent lead over Biniek in
last week’s primary elections.
Many students say they simply want elections to be over
already.
“I’m tired of people chasing after me on Bruin Walk
whenever I go to class,” said Mai Vo, a second-year political
science and sociology student.
Candidates and their supporters are still out in full force,
encouraging students to cast votes for two of the most influential
positions on council.
The administration often looks to the USAC president as the
representative of undergraduate students’ concerns and
interests.
The president has unparalleled access to university and state
officials, and through these networking abilities can address
student concerns, said current President Allende Palma/Saracho.
He raised the example of ASUCLA’s SAFE referendum, passed
by both graduates and undergraduates in recent elections. At its
conception, SAFE was only about refurbishing aging campus eateries.
But when Palma/Saracho led other councilmembers in pushing for
additional clauses, such as raising the minimum wage for student
workers, ASUCLA listened.
While the few defined roles of the presidency are vague, one
clear source of power for the president is appointment power.
The president makes over 50 appointments, subject to council
approval, to a variety of entities including the Associated
Students of UCLA Board of Directors, the Wooden Center Board of
Governors, the Undergraduate Students Association Budget Review
Committee and Judicial Board, Transportation Services Advisory
Board, and Student Fee Advisory Committee.
These appointees are often the only undergraduate voice on
campus advisory boards.
The president also serves as the head organizer of the
Presidential Empowerment Internship program, which serves as an
in-depth training for students looking to get involved in student
government. By facilitating these classes and workshops, the
president takes an active role in shaping future council
leaders.
While the president is the primary representative of students on
campus, the external vice president serves as the representative of
students to the UC system, the state and the nation.
The external vice president and his or her staff are the primary
advocates for student interests and the bridge between students and
elected officials.
They “allow students at UCLA a chance to advocate on
issues they believe in that really affect them,” said John
Vu, the current external vice president.
The external vice president appoints UCLA delegates to the
University of California Students Association and the United States
Students Association, which lobby for students’ interests in
Sacramento and Washington, D.C., and lead USAC’s own Lobby
Corps.
This year, UCSA focused on issues like lowering eligibility
cutoffs for admission to the UC system and ensuring prioritization
of education by raising the outreach budget and reinstating
return-to-aid to 33 percent. Return-to-aid is the portion of
student fees that go into the financial aid pool to be
redistributed.
Despite student efforts, many large-scale lobbying ventures have
proven ineffective ““ the state continues to raise student
fees and make cuts to programs such as outreach due to the state
budget crisis.
USSA has recently focused its efforts on the Higher Education
Act Reauthorization, urging Congress to increase grant funding,
lower student loan debt, and increase university access through
measures such as repealing drug-related suspension of financial
aid.
On the national level, efforts have largely focused on ensuring
the continuation of programs the Bush administration has tried to
cut from the budget, such as the Pell Grant.
Another issue of current and future lobbying interest is the
DREAM Act, which fights for immigrants’ rights to higher
education.
The external vice president in many ways directly influences
which issues everyone from USAC staffers to lobbyists in the
nation’s capital focus their efforts on.
“We have a lot of influence on the state and national
level because of the leadership we take,” Vu said.