The undergraduate student government will vote at a meeting tonight to determine whether a student fee referendum drafted by a coalition of student groups will appear on the spring election ballot.
The referendum, called “Practicing Leadership and Empowerment to Develop Growth Thru Education,” would increase student fees by $12.75 per quarter if it is approved by the Undergraduate Students Association Council and passed by students in the upcoming election.
Eight student groups on campus collaborated to prepare the referendum, which is primarily focused on preserving student-run services, said Thuy Huynh, one of the referendum’s organizers and president of the Vietnamese Student Union.
“This is the first referendum that has this many collaborators. … I just want to make sure that we protect services that (the) university isn’t prioritizing that are essential to student life at UCLA,” she said.
Some of the groups on the referendum include the USAC external vice president’s office and the UCLA Communications Board, which is the publisher of Student Media titles, including the Daily Bruin.
Other participating groups include the UCLA marching band, the Campus Retention Committee and the Student Initiated Access Committee.
Several of these groups house other student-run groups and organizations.
“The big thing we really want to look at are the services initiated by students that now need to be protected by students. Everything is student-initiated and student-run, and the funds are monitored by students,” Huynh said.
In the past few years, the university has shifted more financial responsibility to the committees in charge of funding student groups. In light of the budget crisis, organizers saw the need for the additional source of funds, Huynh said.
“We don’t have enough money because the need is growing at a rate that we can’t provide for,” said Patty Alfaro, another organizer of the referendum and chair of MEChA at UCLA.
One of the main changes the university implemented several years ago that affected student groups was the decentralization of liability insurance, Alfaro said.
She said that groups have the responsibility of helping pay for the retirement and benefit plans of full-time student and staff workers, which was previously paid for by the university.
The divestment of risk management and liability insurances places the financial burden of purchasing the insurance on each group, which further constricts their budgets, she said.
It also deters participants from activities requiring the insurance because the legal liability falls on the individual student, rather than the university, she said.
“Chancellor Block’s main point is that students should give back to community, but (the) university won’t even provide insurance for students who want to go out and volunteer,” Huynh said.
USAC Internal Vice President Evan Shulman said that to approve the referendum, the council reviews the language of the measure and then votes on whether or not they support it.
Before seeking approval from USAC, the wording had to be approved by Chancellor Block, Alfaro said.
The referendum needs to have a majority vote by USAC in order to be approved. The vote will take place tonight at the 8 p.m. USAC meeting.
Cynthia Mosqueda, the chair of the Student Fee Advisory Committee, said the student fee referendum could make a significant difference in the budgets of many student organizations, but voters should examine how the funds will be distributed.
“Students should look at the language of the referendum and supporting evidence … because they’ll get a sense of where their funding is going,” she said.
“The big impact is that (the referendum) will alleviate the current budget cuts. (It) will help them keep up to the level that they have been at in the past so they don’t have to cut so many services,” she added.