Slate makes changes to advance transparency

Leaders of the undergraduate student government Bruins United slate are changing their group’s internal structure to address issues of transparency that surfaced in last year’s student government elections.

“In the past there had been a disconnect in terms of transparency within the party and also with the party and the school,” said Ken Myers, a third-year mathematics and economics student and Bruins United chair.

Last year, Bruins United supporters submitted endorsements for the slate on behalf of several student groups without their permission.

“It’s important that we take responsibility for what happened but show the steps we’re taking to make sure it doesn’t happen again,” said Norma Boster, a third-year human biology and society student and internal chair of the slate.

Since the beginning of the school year, Myers and Boster have created a new culture of openness and transparency that did not exist before in the group, said Sunny Singh, a second-year economics and history student who has regularly attended Bruins United meetings for a year.

Last year, a select group of Bruins United members who had strong knowledge of USAC and ties to the council chose who would run in the spring elections, said Anh Nguyen, a UCLA alumnus and former Bruins United campaign manager. The committee sought opinions from some other general party members, and there were party-wide votes, but in the end it was the committee that chose the candidates, Nguyen said.

This year, however, the party as a whole will decide the candidates, instead of just the committee.

“I think that is important because those 60, 70, 80 people that come to meetings, those are the people that are there every week, those are the people that really care,” Singh said. “It’s essentially changed from … an oligarchy to a democracy.”

A committee of Bruins United members will also mentor those who want to become candidates and make sure candidate hopefuls do not stack the room with supporters when the slate takes a vote, Myers said. The general party elected some members to the committee, while Myers and Boster chose the rest of the members with input from the party, Boster said.

Myers and Boster also changed the style of Bruins United’s meetings this year.

In the past, meetings mostly consisted of candidates talking to the party about their platforms, Myers said. Now, meetings have more party-wide involvement and discussion about issues affecting students, he said. At its latest meeting, many members offered suggestions and points about topics ranging from Bruincards to the University of California Student Health Insurance Plan.

Singh said this kind of discussion did not happen last year, and Bruins United members who are not a part of leadership have more opportunity to speak up this year, he said.

Bruins United is also looking to increase interaction with student groups by asking them for input about what they want from USAC, Myers said.

He said Bruins United also reached out to Moneythink, Circle K and the Theta Xi fraternity, the groups who were misrepresented in last year’s elections as endorsing Bruins United candidates.

He wanted to tell these groups that the current Bruins United leadership was not involved in the endorsement issues last year and that he wants to make sure the issues do not happen again, he said.

But Circle K president and third-year biology student Alex Pham said he did not receive any email from Myers or Bruins United.

After hearing Circle K had not received any emails from Bruins United, Myers said he would try to contact Circle K again.

Moneythink could not be reached for comment.

Myers spoke with Taylor Bazley, a member of Theta Xi and a third-year political science student, about election code reform and collaboration between the parties. Bazley is also the co-chair of the Bruin Alliance party, a new slate that is planning to run candidates in the spring elections.

Myers and Boster said Bruins United plans to keep in regular communication with all groups that endorse Bruins United in the spring.

“We want to have an openness because we have nothing to hide,” Myers said. “We want UCLA to feel they have the ability to come to us and be welcome.”