The undergraduate student government voted Tuesday night to appoint Kyle Kleckner as Elections Board chair following a discussion of his previous and current affiliations with politically focused organizations on campus.
The fourth-year political science student also currently holds positions as the president of Bruin Democrats, as the captain of the mock trial team and as an associate chief justice of the Student Judicial Board.
Undergraduate Students Association Council President Gabe Rose explained during the meeting that he had received Kleckner’s application the previous night and that he was pleased to have seen interest from such a qualified candidate.
Rose then forwarded the application to the other members of the council for review.
“I don’t have any concerns about Kyle’s ability to execute the responsibilities of the job. He’s one of the more qualified people on this campus,” Rose said.
“We were really lucky to find someone with his qualifications. Kyle is fiercely unbiased and will do the job in that manner.”
During the discussion about Kleckner’s appointment, during which they questioned him directly, many councilmembers expressed concerns about his ability to act in a nonpartisan manner when directing USAC elections next quarter.
Kleckner, along with fellow justice from the Judicial Board Michael Kelso and Chief Justice Aaron Israel, defended his integrity before council. Citing the Judicial Board bylaws from memory, Kleckner promised to preclude himself from any Judicial Board rulings that might come before said body following the elections.
“We talked it over as a judicial board and we feel that Kyle would be able to maintain that separation through his leave of absence,” Kelso said.
Kleckner and the other justices present also discussed the Judicial Board’s integrity when dealing with matters pertaining to USAC elections, insisting that their judgment, even of Kleckner’s actions should they come into question, would not be influenced by any previous experience with him.
“If a case comes and Kyle is involved, I’ll judge Kyle just like any other person. Whether or not he or the other is right, all I care about is whether or not the law was followed,” Kelso said.
But not all councilmembers were convinced of Kleckner’s impartiality, even following the extensive dialogue at the meeting.
“The fact that he’s going to preclude himself from decisions on Judicial Board that have to do with elections helps, but the fact still stands that he has been involved with J-Board and I can say that the students at UCLA would call into question the rulings of the Judicial Board in regard to elections or the elections code,” said Bernice Julie Shaw, Cultural Affairs commissioner.
Rose said that Kleckner’s experience on the Judicial Board proves his ability to act in an unbiased manner.
Kleckner said that he will not dismiss his responsibilities to Bruin Democrats or any other organization with which he is affiliated in order to take on the role of Elections Board chair.
He explained that he will be extending invitations to individuals of all slates and political affiliations when selecting his staff as one his first actions of nonpartisan election planning.
“I really want to help the student body by ensuring that there are fair and democratic elections,” Kleckner said. “I want to ensure that they’re efficient and that getting involved is simple.”
The council also approved part of the ballot language for The Green Initiative Fund student referendum, which will appear on the ballot in this spring’s USAC elections, assuming all components meet USAC approval. Students will vote on the referendum, which would call for a $4 per quarter increase in student funds which would gradually increase to a $5 fee over the program’s initial 10 years.
The initiative collects and disperses funds and manages grants for various environmentally friendly projects on several college campuses. Similar programs have been instituted at other UC campuses in recent years, including Berkeley and Santa Cruz.
Though the final draft of the referendum is not complete, council decided to pass the section in question so that it can move forward to the administrative bodies that must also approve it before the elections next quarter.