The Undergraduate Students Association Council has set a variety
of lofty goals for the upcoming year, though disagreement within
the council has already stalled some of its work.
USAC’s two main goals are to increase student
representation within the administration and increase campus
safety. Other goals include facilitating the freshman and transfer
adjustment process and making life at UCLA more affordable.
Council members also have plans to deal with broader issues,
such as working to ensure that gear sold at the UCLA Store is not
made in sweatshops.
The council is already in full swing and developing plans to
carry out these goals by setting up working groups to address each
goal and set out ways to achieve them, said Tina Park, the USAC
external vice president and a fourth-year political science
student.
Many of these issues have concerned council members for some
time.
“Strengthening the student voice is an issue that
I’ve talked about with just about all the UC student body
presidents,” said USAC President Marwa Kaisey. “Often
students feel ignored or that they don’t have a vote.
Hopefully, working UC-wide, we can give students greater
representation.”
In order to strengthen the student voice, Kaisey said the
council is planning to work with administrators to promote more
representation of students, create the Off-Campus Residence
Association to mirror the On-Campus Housing Council, and encourage
students to vote in the November election.
Kaisey also said the council has plans to change the USAC
election process to an instant runoff system, allowing students to
rank candidates in order of preference, which she said would save
time and resources.
Gregory Cendana, the USAC internal vice president, is
spearheading a crime awareness campaign as part of the
council’s plan to increase campus safety.
“We’re … working with MyUCLA and UCPD to develop a
reporting mechanism so that students can know what’s going on
in the community,” Cendana said.
But despite an abundance of ideas and plans for the upcoming
year, council members have encountered disagreement due to
USAC’s division along slate lines.
Five of the council members are affiliated with the slate
Students First!, five with the slate Bruins United, and three are
independent. A slate is a coalition of students who pool their
resources to further similar goals.
At the Aug. 23 USAC meeting, all of the Students First! council
members present walked out of the room. They were protesting the
students Kaisey, a member of Bruins United, had chosen to appoint
to campus committees. The interruption cut the meeting short and
forced the council to resume where it left off on Sept. 4.
“The division has been felt the most in the appointment
process, which is taking much longer than it has in past years and
is much more contentious,” said Nat Schuster, the Academic
Affairs commissioner and a fourth-year neuroscience student.
Such a division has presented a relatively new problem for the
council ““ until last year, USAC was dominated by a majority
slate for a decade.
“This half-and-half (division) is relatively new, so the
problems we are having are to be expected,” Kaisey said.
“When you have one group that thinks the same, of course
you’re going to get things done well.”
“But if there was no tension, I wouldn’t be pushed
the right way or made to work harder and do my best,” she
added.
Other council members view the conflict as fuel for generating
new ideas and encouraging collaboration.
“I don’t think we can avoid (disagreement), but I
think it can help us compromise and develop more complete
goals,” Cendana said. “I think that this is going to
create a lot more dialogue in finding ways to work with each
other.”
Though the walkout was a striking example of the council’s
division, Park said she has seen other interactions that bode well
for the year.
“It’s definitely a possibility that (our
differences) might interfere with getting things done, but after
the retreat we saw that it didn’t matter who proposed an
idea. Instead, everyone seemed enthusiastic,” Park said.
“That’s a good sign for the year ““ regardless of
the fact, we’ll be able to work together.”