Editorial: USAC should stick to its office space statutes

The undergraduate student council cannot seem to stop waffling ““ and it’s only three weeks into its tenure.

At last week’s meeting, the Undergraduate Students Association Council briefly considered granting the Disabled Students Union an office in Kerckhoff Hall ““ the trouble is, the union is ineligible for an office according to USAC’s office space allocation guidelines.

The guidelines were created over a period of two years and the Office Space Allocation Committee is charged with reviewing applications and recommending which groups should receive space.

At this point, council has decided not to give DSU an office, but might give the group a mailbox or locker ““ both of which the union is also ineligible for.

Though in the past few weeks Bruins United has professed its willingness to work on the issue of office space allocation in a bipartisan manner, it looks as though they are willing to abandon that effort for a special interest group.

This week, council also decided it needed to create an ad hoc committee composed of four councilmembers to further review the issue of office space allocation.

And on another front, council decided to pass the first irrelevant resolution of its tenure ““ supporting the idea of a Democratic presidential candidate debate on campus ““ and in that spirit this board has decided to speak to council in a language it can understand:

RESOLUTION IN SUPPORT OF USAC MAKING POLICY BASED ON RATIONAL JUDGEMENT AND ADHERENCE TO ITS OWN STANDARDS

WHEREAS, guidelines for the allocation and distribution of Kerckhoff Hall office space have already been developed,

WHEREAS, those guidelines outline concrete eligibility criteria for student organizations seeking office space,

WHEREAS, an Office Space Allocation Committee already exists,

THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED THAT council should make a practice of following its own office space allocation guidelines when making office space decisions,

LET IT BE FURTHER RESOLVED THAT if council wants to make decisions that do not follow its office space allocation guidelines, council should first reevaluate those guidelines and then make its decisions based on a new set of guidelines,

LET IT BE FURTHER RESOLVED THAT if USAC plans on changing the guidelines, council should reopen the application process so it could then consider all previously ineligible groups,

LET IT BE FURTHER RESOLVED THAT the council should not create a random ad hoc committee to evaluate office space when a committee already exists with overlapping jurisdiction,

LET IT BE FURTHER RESOLVED THAT any committee created by USAC, including the new committee to evaluate office space, should include representatives from all relevant constituencies on council from the outset, not after a long, unnecessary debate,

LET IT BE FINALLY RESOLVED THAT when making important and controversial decisions impacting the way student organizations operate, council should first establish a set of guidelines it is happy with, and then enforce those guidelines diligently.

Respectfully submitted by: the Daily Bruin Editorial Board, 2006-2007.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *