At its meeting on Friday, the Associated Students UCLA Board of Directors should approve a proposal to issue coupons allowing customers at the UCLA Student Store to donate 10 percent of their purchases to the Typhoon Haiyan relief effort.
The proposal, put forward by the ASUCLA services committee and the student relief effort community, would allow ASUCLA to contribute to a cause students care about while avoiding complications that accompany direct donations.
The Board of Directors originally rejected a request from UCLA’s Typhoon Haiyan Relief Committee to use student fees to match about $6,000 in donations the committee had raised. The relief committee is made up of more than a dozen student groups, and the money they raise will be sent to aid relief efforts in the Philippines through nonprofit organizations.
Lump sum monetary donations such as the one originally requested would establish a potentially risky precedent for ASUCLA.
While the Typhoon Haiyan relief effort is entirely apolitical, others might not be. If ASUCLA were to match funds directly, it would open the door for groups raising money for potentially divisive or politicized causes to seek money directly from student fees, leaving ASUCLA to make tricky value judgments.
The opt-in coupon donations that ASUCLA will vote on are a more appropriate solution than direct contributions from both ASUCLA and students using ASUCLA as a vehicle to support important causes.
Relief effort campaigns are not new to ASUCLA. During the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, the student store sold patriotic merchandise, with proceeds benefiting the American Red Cross. Following Hurricane Katrina, ASUCLA gave student store gift cards to UCLA students who had been displaced by the storm.
UCLA’s student body has the compassion and political wherewithal to respond when tragedies occur around the world, and ASUCLA can expect that it will continue this tradition. The student union should account for this spirit of activism by crafting its policies about contributing to humanitarian causes.
So as ASUCLA considers a more comprehensive policy regarding its philanthropy, the board should move to institutionalize these opt-in donation and merchandise campaigns as an alternative to purely monetary donations.
If students still want to seek a lump donation, the Undergraduate Students Association Council would be a better place to look.
While ASUCLA is tasked with providing services, facilities and programs for students and the UCLA community, USAC is tasked with soliciting and representing the student voice and interest.
ASUCLA’s slogan is “It all comes back to you!” If the Board of Directors seeks to be true to that maxim while still maintaining a consistent policy about donations, the proposal being presented on Friday is a suitable middle ground.