“˜Apathy’ not apt to describe voters
I am surprised and disappointed that the day after UCLA’s StudentsVOTE! coalition completed one of the largest student voter registration drives in our school’s history the Daily Bruin ran a front-page article titled “Voter turnout low, apathy high among youngest age bracket” (Oct. 21).
In the months leading up to Monday’s voter registration deadline, USAC’s Office of the External Vice-President, CALPIRG and numerous other student groups joined together to register more than 8,500 UCLA students to vote.
Hundreds of student volunteers spent long hours tabling, knocking on doors and making announcements in classes in order to ensure that our peers vote in record numbers on election day.
Does that sound like apathy to you?
The fact is, youth voting is on the rise. Between 2000 and 2004, youth turnout increased by 11 percent ““ that’s three times more than the general population.
In 2006, youth turnout increased by two million votes, while turnout among the general population only increased slightly.
This striking trend continued in this year’s primaries, when the youth vote doubled in Massachusetts, tripled in Georgia and quadrupled in Tennessee.
I, for one, refuse to allow our generation to be written off as apathetic. We are excited about, and engaged in, this election, and I can’t wait to see that energy translate into a historic surge in youth-voter turnout this November.
Sarah Dobjensky
Third-year, political science
Coordinator, CALPIRG New Voters Project
Case filed against USAC member
On Friday, Boris Lipkin and I filed a case with the Judicial Board against Facilities Commissioner Galen Roth. We allege that Roth violated multiple bylaws by making changes to the Office Space Allocation Committee (OSAC) guidelines.
OSAC, which currently stands empty, was designed to be an independent, nonpartisan committee that has sole jurisdiction in proposing changes to how it operates.
Unfortunately, Roth chose to disregard the committee’s independence as well as the rules governing USAC in order to inject her own partisan politics into the process. We felt that it was our responsibility and duty to the students of UCLA to do everything we could to reverse these corrupt and unethical changes before Roth and the Students First! majority on council could completely destroy the fair and independent nature of office space allocation.
Roth was elected to be a leader and set an example for other students. We think she has failed in this regard and has instead chosen to use her power to destroy the ability of the OSAC chair and committee (once they are appointed) to operate without interference from the politics of USAC.
We want the limited office space in Kerckhoff to be distributed fairly to the most deserving groups, which relies heavily on the independence and impartiality of the committee.
We will do our best to hold our elected officials accountable and ensure that student interests are protected.
Addison Huddy
Third-year, economics