The undergraduate student government plans to vote at its meeting tonight on whether to formally support a campaign that calls for state leaders and the University of California to invest more funding and resources into education rather than in prisons.
The resolution asks for the Undergraduate Students Association Council to advocate for a campaign called Invest in Graduations, Not Incarceration, Transform Education, commonly referred to as IGNITE. The vote is set to take place at 7 p.m. in Kerckhoff 417.
IGNITE is one of the University of California Student Association’s campaigns for this year. The campaign is aimed at promoting diversity in higher education and ensuring that members of underrepresented communities are not disproportionately represented in state prisons.
External Vice President Maryssa Hall wrote the resolution and brought it to council. She said she thinks the campaign should be a council initiative since USAC aims to represent students at UCLA, which is part of the University of California Student Association.
About 4 percent of UCLA undergraduate students are black and about 17 percent are Hispanic, 36 percent of undergraduate students are Asian or Pacific Islander and 29 percent are white, according to 2012 UCLA enrollment statistics.
Hall said she thinks the campaign and resolution are important steps to ensure that students feel safe on campus.
“Students who come from underrepresented backgrounds don’t feel safe on their campuses,” she said. “If I’m in a classroom and don’t see anyone that looks like me, I don’t feel safe on campus.”
The campaign pushes for the support and creation of retention and campus outreach programs at UC schools, the establishment of resource centers for youth who were previously incarcerated and the consideration of race, ethnicity and gender in higher education programs.
IGNITE also calls for the passage of multiple bills, one of which would lessen the criminal punishment for the possession of specific substances.
The resolution also asks councilmembers to support the efforts of Student Regent Cinthia Flores to obtain $10 million from the UC Office of the President and direct those funds toward the establishment of academic preparation and retention programs.
Hall said she hopes that this resolution will express council’s support for the campaign and ensure that all of the council will be working on the campaign.
Community Service Commissioner Omar Arce, Cultural Affairs Commissioner Jessica Trumble and General Representative Lizzy Naameh are also sponsoring the resolution.
Trumble said she supports the resolution because she thinks having diversity on campuses improves students’ educations.
“The quality of my education is lacking and the quality of other students’ education is lacking because we’re missing the true diversity we should have (at UCLA),” Trumble said.
She added that the diversity in the UCLA student body does not reflect the diversity in the Los Angeles community, and that she thinks students benefit from hearing a diversity of opinions and thoughts, which stems partially from having different backgrounds.
Trumble said she plans to integrate the campaign goals with her office’s programming and participate in efforts to outreach to students and publicize IGNITE.
Compiled by Amanda Schallert, Bruin senior staff.