USAC Recap – Aug. 13

The Undergraduate Students Association Council is the official student government of UCLA’s undergraduate students. Council meetings are Tuesdays at 7 p.m. in Kerckhoff 417 and are open to all students.

Agenda

  • Councilmembers decided to stand by their vote to increase their own stipends. They also discussed submitting an opinion piece to the Daily Bruin and holding a town hall to talk to students about stipend increases.

Special Presentations

  • A representative from the University of California Student Association presented to the council about the recent University of California Student Association Congress. Campaigns formed by students at the congress include those for a fossil-free University of California, a tax on oil companies drilling in California and an investment in helping students graduate.

  • USAC President John Joanino presented to the council about a campaign to encourage University of California schools to divest money from fossil fuels that the University of California Student Association recently adopted. Joanino said UCLA has a history of divestment campaigns.

Officer Reports

  • Joanino said he is going to send a letter to Chancellor Gene Block about UC fossil fuel divestment. Joanino also encouraged councilmembers to meet with members of the Graduate Student Association and form connections with them.

  • Internal Vice President Avi Oved said his office is looking to launch a campaign to make sure students know about the Student Organizations Operational Fund and how to apply for funding.

  • External Vice President Maryssa Hall told the council about other goals formed by students at the University of California Student Association Congress.

  • Zoe Sheppard, Academic Affairs Commissioner Darren Ramalho’s chief of staff, said the Academic Affairs Commission is revamping its website.

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1 Comment

  1. It’s a shame that there is no transparency mechanism for the University of California Student Association. At the Congress this past weekend, very few people I talked to knew that we had failed to complete BOTH of the campaigns voted on by students at last year’s Congress. The board made no attempt to defend or explain last year’s failure, and now we have come out of Congress with an exponentially more ambitious set of campaigns and no specific action plans for how to avoid more failed campaigns. It’s a good thing the Rosenberg Foundation gave us hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations to work on the prison reform campaign they wanted (then named FIRE, now IGNITE) or no progress would have been made on that either. Apparently membership fees, people-power, and good faith of the UC students are not enough to keep the board accountable to STUDENT CHOSEN campaigns.

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