Katie Shepherd: UNITE committee needs constitution, specific goals

With several incidents of hate crime and slurs against various campus communities occurring in the past couple years, campus climate has become a major topic of discussion for students at UCLA.

Last March, student regent Jonathan Stein and former UC Irvine student Patrick Le co-founded Understanding New Identities Through Education, or UNITE, a committee that connects student representatives across University of California campuses in order to address topics of inclusivity, diversity and campus climate. The members of the committee, the only one of its kind, meet once a month through conference calls or in person to discuss problems on their respective campuses.

Although the committee is well-intentioned, the group lacks the structure and drive to sustain itself and create a tangible impact within the UC. It is hard to support an organization concerned with campus climate that has no intention of working to make improvements through action.

“(UNITE is) meant to be a discussion space; we’re not trying to change policy,” Stein said.

The committee intends to circulate experiences, concerns and advice across the UC campuses, Stein added.

System-wide discussion is important, but discussion alone is not enough. The complex nature of campus climate demands a more defined approach from those interested in bettering campus culture. UNITE can maintain its aim to be an equal-opportunity space for discussion while still establishing a distinct structure and plan of action.

UNITE lacks any governing constitution to outline its values and policies. Stein said that the committee is currently working on a potential constitution, but whether or not it will come to fruition is uncertain. Such indecision and lack of direction are detrimental to the committee and the students because they hamper action that can improve campus climate.

A more organized agenda will make UNITE more prominent on campus and will also help streamline goals for future members of the committee.

It is important not only to hold conversations about campus safety within the UC, but also to create and act upon goals that would tangibly ensure student safety and comfort. A constitution would establish a basic outline of UNITE’s principles, so that future committees will be able to continue efforts to address campus climate.

Although establishing concrete goals would deviate from the group’s current “discussion-space” model, it could provide more measurable benefit to students who are interested in making the UC a more tolerant community. These goals could be established by the committee as a whole, or individual sets of goals could be issued by the representatives of each campus. The fundamental benefit that goals would provide is direction, whether for the UC as a whole or for individual campuses.

The group approaches campus climate with the notion that steps toward improvement are not “one-size-fits-all.” The committee is a forum for discussion where no one voice has more sway than another, Stein said.

However, this flexibility sacrifices accountability. No measures exist for students across the UC to assess the success of the committee. By lacking particular common goals, the committee also lacks the ability to succeed.

Since the committee exists as a forum for discussion, rather than a venue for action, it does not boast any collective goals. Different campus representatives can focus on what is important to their respective student bodies, which theoretically allows for the freedom to address issues on a case-by-case basis.

In a previous Daily Bruin article, Le said that UNITE would be more effective than a similar committee made up of administrators because UNITE would be better equipped to “come up with solutions that can be implemented right away.”

Now, UNITE is not meant to implement solutions at all.

UCLA committee members Ana Davalos and Carlos Quintanilla are executing a plan to initiate Peer Education And Community Empowerment, or PEACE, trainings on campus based on similar trainings performed by UC Davis, but other campuses are not following the same actions, Stein said.

This example of the committee’s versatility in addressing the different needs of UC campuses illustrates why the group operates without collective goals. Although each campus has needs that must be addressed individually to effectively improve campus climate, having a unified objective would not diminish the emphasis on local, campus-tailored solutions. At the same time, the PEACE trainings demonstrate that progress can be made when the committee’s discussion coincides with action. Goals like these should become a fundamental part of UNITE’s operations.

While UNITE is presently a space where each member has equal input and freedom to act, this vision may be lost as current members graduate and new members are accepted.

Although Stein said a malleable committee that can adjust to address the values and concerns of a new class of representatives is part of the UNITE’s purpose, the committee needs a constitution to adhere to once current members leave to ensure continuity for future representatives.

If the values that the group upholds for the UC campuses are subject to change each year, UNITE may find itself lacking the longevity that a committee tackling an issue as complex as campus climate deserves.

Collaboration is a vital part of addressing campus climate. Opportunities for collaboration work well in terms of increasing diversity of students applying, enrolling and graduating, said Anne Dela Cruz, director of diversity, inclusion and admissions with the UCLA graduate division.

Working in tandem with other organizations concerned with campus climate leads to concrete successes within her department. For example, Dela Cruz’s office works with the Graduate Student Resource Center and other student organizations to produce programs like the annual Equity, Inclusion and Diversity Day.

UNITE certainly grasps the importance of collaboration, community and student voice. However, until the committee can put forth a clear purpose and set of values in the form of concrete goals and a constitution, it will not live up to its full potential.

Students across the UC should be able to evaluate the committee’s principles to gauge whether UNITE is successful or not. Currently, the committee’s values are simply too vague to inspire much faith.