Because of his highly detailed plan, pragmatic ideas and relevant past experiences, this board endorses John Christian De Vera from Students First! as the next Facilities commissioner.
This board finds it encouraging that De Vera has already begun to make significant progress toward making his plans a reality, having met with and obtained verbal affirmation from several university officials relevant to his platform, such as Jack Powazek, associate vice chancellor of general services and member of the UCLA Sustainability Committee.
De Vera’s biggest change to the office would be to codify sustainability as part of the commission’s actual responsibilities. This has the potential to centralize sustainability efforts by turning the Facilities office into an informational and expediting system.
De Vera also proposes providing more spaces on campus for student use by seeking out underutilized rooms, such as those in the Wooden Center.
He plans to increase awareness of sustainability on campus with a fall Earth Day-type event and quarterly forums to discuss actionable sustainability efforts that involve all relevant stakeholders.
Finally, De Vera hopes to recognize the facilities workers on campus with appreciation days.
Each candidate had good ideas, though De Vera has pursued his with the most energy and commitment, using his background in event planning and participation in USAC to quickly forge connections and build partnerships.