Members of the University of California Students Association met at UCLA over the weekend to prepare for the upcoming UC Board of Regents meeting in November and to discuss other student issues, such as voter recruitment and further actions to take regarding the Dream Act.
UCSA, a UC student advocacy group funded by student fees, meets regularly throughout the year and has representatives from most of the graduate and undergraduate associations affiliated with the UC system.
The association approved students to the task force on affordability, set plans for future meetings and discussed what individual campuses would do to increase voter registrations.
However, the UC Davis Graduate Student Association recently voted to withdraw from the association and addressed a letter to the board stating issues with the organization such as a need for a nonpartisan approach to lobbying for student rights and a disregard for dissenting opinions.
In response to UC Davis’ GSA’s withdrawal, a motion was passed at the meeting to have all associations review and sign a letter written by the executive director and board chair of UCSA to show solidarity.
The UC Davis undergraduate association left UCSA in 2006.
Outside of the agenda, UCSA President Oiyan Poon expressed disappointment that UCLA’s External Vice President Justin Hotter was not present for a majority of the board meeting because it left the UCLA undergraduate student association without a voting member. Hotter said this was his first absence at a board meeting and does not plan to miss future meetings.
Poon said Hotter’s absence at this meeting would have a notable effect on undergraduates since UCLA students did not have a say on decisions made, such as what the board wanted to communicate to the regents to prevent fee hikes. Poon added that Monica Sanchez, the GSA external vice president at UCLA, would draft a letter expressing concerns about Hotter and submit it to Undergraduate Students Association Council President Gabe Rose.
Hotter came to the final hours of the meeting on Sunday in time to vote for certain motions and said he had set up proxies to come in his absence, though his proxy was unable to attend Sunday, leaving UCLA undergraduates without a voting member for most of the day. Hotter added that he believed his absence had a minimal impact on UCLA students because he is only one person on a 17-person voting board.
UCLA students were in attendance at the meeting but did not have voting rights. Jesse Melgar, UCLA’s representative liaison for Hotter’s office, and Gregory Cendana, a member of the Board of Directors for the U.S. Student Association, were in attendance at the meeting to represent UCLA.
Cendana said he attended the meeting specifically to work on the federal Dream Act.
The association also discussed what steps would be taken at the regents’ meeting next month regarding the vote to be taken about the 7 percent increase in undergraduate fees and a similar fee hike for graduate students.
Graduate External Vice President Rob Martin noted that regents are often already decided about what their vote will be on the issues before the actual meeting.
Members discussed tactics that would possibly persuade regent members to vote against the fee increase such as recruiting parents and high school students to attend the meeting, but plans are tentative.
Raymond Austin, university affairs director of UCSA, said the association targeted swing voters because of their voting history on fee increases. The board considers Judith Hopkinson, Sherry Lansing and Monica Lozano as some of the swing voters they will have to sway in November.
Student Regents Ben Allen and D’Artagnan Scorza also discussed financial worries and environmental issues with the association.
Allen said he is concerned about a potential professional school fee increase and wants to push deans for more loan forgiveness programs and increase marketing about financial aid options to students.
“I’m very concerned about our model that continues to raise fees. I (want to) make sure the fees don’t prevent students … from going into public service,” Allen said.
He added that the student regents also spoke about environmental issues such as looking into energy savings and other cost-effective solutions.