Taylor Bazley runs for USAC president as Bruin Alliance candidate

Taylor Bazley thought UCLA was out of his league.

He fell in love with the campus after touring it when he was in high school, but his grades and SAT scores were not the best.

Growing up with a single, disabled mother, he didn’t know if he could even afford the application fee.

But his cousin ended up convincing him to apply, and Bazley said he thinks his record of leadership in his high school’s student government swayed the admissions office to admit him.

This year, he is running for the Undergraduate Students Association Council president as the Bruin Alliance candidate, a slate he created.

Bazley’s compassion for others is influenced by his childhood, in which he used his birthday money to help his mother pay the bills.

“Taylor is very in tune to inequality issues, a quality which anyone in a leadership position needs to bring,” said Dena Sites, his older sister.

The third-year political science student said he served as class president for three years in high school and wanted to continue his involvement in student government at UCLA.

During his first year at UCLA, Bazley tried to join both the Bruin Democrats and the Bruin Republicans.

Even though he identifies as politically liberal, he wanted to be able to understand the other side.

While his schedule prevented him from attending Bruin Republican meetings until his second year, he is now a member of both political groups.

Bazley said he has joined 30 to 40 organizations since coming to UCLA, including the Roosevelt Institute, Theta Xi and First Step, an organization he founded for students who are members of both Greek life and the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender community. He has also tried to create a culture of giving at UCLA through his work with the Student Giving Committee, asking students for donations to UCLA.

Evan Freethy, Bazley’s friend and a third-year mathematics and economics student, met Bazley on his dorm floor in De Neve during their first year at UCLA.

He said he really saw Bazley become a leader in his work as president of the Roosevelt Institute, a think tank on campus.

While working at the Roosevelt Institute, Bazley said he was able to talk about solutions to USAC-related issues that affect UCLA students. He became so interested in USAC operations that he decided to read the entire 1,500-page political history of UCLA, he said.

He said he decided to form Bruin Alliance after running as an independent candidate for Financial Supports commissioner last year. The campaign was difficult to carry through alone.

Bazley said he thought creating a slate of people from independent perspectives coming together would unite the campus.

“(Bruin Alliance is) a bridge between different communities of UCLA that might disagree with each other,” he said.

Bazley’s platform includes increasing student engagement with USAC, making USAC activities more transparent for the student body, fostering a strong UCLA community through collaboration and seeking the input from students themselves, he said.

After losing in the Financial Supports commissioner race last year, Bazley became directly involved in USAC this year.

He is currently the student affairs director in the Facilities Commission and the Westwood revitalization director under the General Representative 1 office.

Bazley decided to run for USAC president as a way to give back to the UCLA community.

“UCLA saw (me as) a disadvantaged student who didn’t believe in himself, and they believed in (me),” Bazley said. “I feel compelled to return the favor.”