David Bocarsly is the incoming president of the Undergraduate Students Association Council. The fourth-year economics student sat down with Daily Bruin Campus editor Jillian Beck to discuss his plans for the year, the council’s finances and issues facing public higher education.
Daily Bruin: Ten of this year’s council members ran unopposed in the spring USAC elections ““ including seven from your slate, Bruins United. How will you ensure that USAC represents the entire student body?
David Bocarsly: Everyone on council, I think, has the ability and the passion to represent the entire student body. It’s definitely a prerequisite for applying to run for student government. I see that everyone who went through elections has an extreme passion for this school and to really push it in the right direction. While we all come from our own communities, we are all here for the right reasons. But it’s also a goal of mine, in my job, to push everyone to really think about all 27,000 undergraduate students in everything that we do.
DB: In light of the failed student fee referendum last spring, which would have increased funding for student groups, how does USAC plan to address the recurring surplus funds problem and make sure student groups are adequately funded throughout the year?
Bocarsly: The first thing that we must all do is make sure we are educated on the situation. Whether you were on USAC last year or not, everyone needs to be on the same level in terms of knowledge of what happened and why it happened. And therefore no matter what situations arise this year we can address them appropriately.
I think there are a lot of potential solutions depending on what we see with surplus this year and we need to do a lot of work to just think critically about the situation and propose solutions that will divert the problem away from surplus and create more sustainable solutions for the future.
DB: If Gov. Jerry Brown’s tax measure fails to pass in November, conditions will likely lead to midyear tuition increases. What does USAC plan to do to address the uncertain financial situation of the UC and the rising costs for students?
Bocarsly: The key is, I think that you said, if the tax measure doesn’t pass and that’s why a huge initiative for us is the Get Out the Vote campaign education on the initiatives on the ballot. We can figure out what we do in November in response to what happens then, but in the meantime we can take action now and a huge priority for all of us is to ensure that students get out and vote and fight for issues that are important for higher education.
We always say that the 18 to 24 age range is the (age range) with the lowest voter turnout and it’s unfortunate because there are issues on the ballot ““ especially Prop. 30 ““ that directly affect every single student and will affect whether we have a $2,000 fee increase this year or not. Lana (El-Farra), our external vice president, has a goal to register 5,000 people to vote before the deadline of October 22. I think we can surpass that. But beyond that, we have to make sure we educate people about the initiatives and make sure they go to the polls and vote on Election Day. Assuming that happens, hopefully we can have a stronger voice and fight for the issues that will affect higher education.
DB: How will you use your experience as a general representative last year in your term as USAC president?
Bocarsly: One thing I’ve learned about this position and being on USAC is that we’re here for such a short time ““ we’re only in office for 12 months ““ and there’s so much to learn and so much to know to be able to be the best resource for students and be as efficient as possible with your initiatives. I sometimes notice that it takes a couple months to become acclimated to the position ““ to get off your feet and get over the learning curve.
I think that having a year on council has given me a big jump start to knowing what I need to know to be effective this year and I think that right off the bat I was able to start moving with things, start conversations that needed to be happening, meet with administrators that were important, because I already had that knowledge from being on council last year. So I hope to take the momentum from last year and the knowledge base that I formed over the past year to get as much done in the short time that I have in office.
Email Beck at jbeck@media.ucla.edu.