2013-2014 USAC Evaluations
Each year the Daily Bruin evaluates the Undergraduate Students Association Council members on how they have completed the platforms they set out when running for office. This year, to give our readers a more complete evaluation of the USAC officers, The Bruin’s editorial board has taken into consideration not only platform completion, but also the quality of the councilmembers’ platforms, how well they fulfilled their respective roles as mandated by the USAC bylaws and their commitment to transparency and accountability.
For each factor, the board voted to assign councilmembers a score from 1 to 5, 5 being the highest. The final scores represent the majority opinion of the board.
- Platform quality: We took into consideration the benefit and feasibility of each councilmember’s goals.
- Platform completion: Based on interviews with the councilmembers and outside reporting, we evaluated how well the officers completed their campaign promises.
- Fulfillment of responsibilities: Using USAC bylaws, we evaluated how councilmembers fulfilled the responsibilities and expectations of their offices, aside from their platforms.
- Transparency: As elected officials, accountability is important. We ranked each councilmember in this category based on his or her actions relating to transparency.
Also part of this package are the results from a student poll to gauge satisfaction with each councilmember’s performance.
Note for Community Service Commissioner: The Bruin did not evaluate the performance of former Community Service Commissioner Omar Arce because we were not able to interview him about his accomplishments this year as he is no longer in office and faces criminal proceedings on charges of sexual battery, battery and false imprisonment.
John Joanino
PRESIDENT
Student feedback
Undergraduate Students Association Council President John Joanino led a council marked by hasty decisions and tainted by divisive politics inside and outside the council chambers.
For his part, Joanino succeeded in completing the majority of his platforms.
But the USAC presidency is a position that should be judged by its work in facilitating a cooperative council as well as its fulfillment of internal and inter-office objectives.
In the fall and the spring, Joanino’s office successfully established the expansion of late-night study spots, notably opening Charles E. Young Research Library to students 24 hours a day in the run-up to finals week.
Other successes include Joanino’s collaboration with the Student Wellness Commission, another USAC office, to advocate for improved sexual assault reporting and his work with the university to redesign the back of the BruinCard to be more useful.It should be noted that the BruinCard initiative was initially an election platform of General Representative Sam Haws, who did not get to work with Joanino on the project.
The Office of the President received a $5,000 grant from the LA2050 initiative, a group bringing together institutions across the city to discuss the future of the greater Los Angeles area.
Joanino’s office also renewed the John Hoang Sarvey Leadership in Service Award and helped raise thousands of dollars for Typhoon Haiyan relief efforts.
Despite these successes, Joanino fell short in his principal role of running a unified council.
Among the most frequent missteps at the council table were procedural errors and violations of Robert’s Rules of Order, popularly adopted guidelines for running meetings and the USAC bylaws and constitution.
At other moments, Joanino failed to quell flare-ups of slate politics, toed the line of conflict of interest in the appointments process and violated basic principles of good governance by approving his own pay raise and opting to vote by secret ballot.
Avi Oved
INTERNAL VICE PRESIDENT
Student feedback
Throughout the year, Internal Vice President Avi Oved has shown a consistent commitment to completing his platforms and making USAC a more transparent and accountable body.
However, his otherwise solid performance stood in contrast to shortcomings in actually completing his platforms and fulfilling his responsibilities as IVP.
In his platforms, Oved managed to strike a balance between large, meaningful initiatives, such as his mobile panic button application, and smaller, easier-to-achieve goals, such as the student group marketing/design team he institutionalized through UCLA.
His weakness was in seeing these platforms through to completion. The mobile panic button application is still in the process of being funded after the council voted to revoke a surplus allocation. Oved said he feels confident that the application will be completed by the end of the school year.
In his role at the council table, Oved advocated strongly for transparency, voting against both the stipend increase and the use of a secret ballot in the divestment vote. With a platform dedicated to transparency, Oved merits even greater scrutiny than other councilmembers.
We withheld a perfect score because Oved’s transparency measures sometimes lacked teeth: He did not vocally advocate for recordings of USAC meetings in addition to a live stream and his quarterly budget of USAC offices was published late and failed to shed light on USAC finances.
Oved largely fulfilled all the roles outlined in the USAC bylaws. But he did not succeed in one of his weightiest responsibilities: facilitating an open relationship between councilmembers and student groups.
For instance, when bringing forward the “positive investments” resolution regarding the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Oved failed to reach out to relevant groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine. At other times, the council’s disconnect from student groups as a whole has been apparent; for instance, members were blindsided when groups objected to the council’s use of surplus funds, a problem that could have been avoided had Oved been more active in reaching out to campus leaders.
To his credit, Oved spoke out for transparency and positive change during his term. Some mistakes and shortcomings along the way, however, resulted in an overall middling score.
Maryssa Hall
EXTERNAL VICE PRESIDENT
Student feedback
External Vice President Maryssa Hall met the expectations of her office and set out worthwhile goals, but she faltered when it came to serving as a transparent, cooperativecouncilmember to the student body.
Within her office, Hall pursued important topics with a wide reach and balance of issues, including a focus on student-centered state legislation, long-term funding for the University of California, increased student engagement with the UC Board of Regents and a stronger connection between students and L.A. city officials.
Despite the quality of her goals,Hall fell short of accomplishing all of her platforms. Instead of focusing efforts on creating state legislation to meet specific student needs, Hall channeled her energy into advocating for the oil extraction tax bill and a ballot initiative transparency bill.
Hall also joined the UC Student Association to advocate for Proposition 13 reform in conjunction with the Fund the UC campaign, changes that would free up significant revenue for the state’s general fund. However, such reform would not directly translate to a long-term funding solution for the UC. Hall would have done well to shift her focusto more feasible funding solutions.
Still, Hall emerged as a leader in UCSA, spearheading the IGNITE campaign. IGNITE aims to promote diversity in higher education through initiatives such as retention and outreach centers.
As per her bylaw-mandated responsibilities, Hall fulfilled her role as external vice president. However, she sometimes further drove divisions among this year’s council, often accentuating slate politics rather than resolving them.
Hall’s obstinance was perhaps most evident in her active attempts to obstruct and delay the creation of the quarterly budget report, a project that originated with Internal Vice President Avi Oved, who ran with the Bruins United slate.
In addition, Hall consistently undermined standards of transparency with her decisions at the council table, including voting to approve a personal stipend increase, voting in favor of the use of secret ballots and taking issue with the live streaming and archiving of entire council meetings.
Despite failing in basic principles of transparency and a shift in her original priorities, Hall was a consistent advocate for the few key issues she chose to focus on.
Darren Ramalho
ACADEMIC AFFAIRS COMMISSIONER
Student feedback
Darren Ramalho executed his responsibilities as Academic Affairs commissioner effectively over the past year while upholding a high standard of transparency.
Ramalho’s platforms aimed to tackle important problems in a practical manner.
He met every goal set during elections last year, clearly and impressively fulfilling not only his promises to student voters but also the requirements of his office in the USAC bylaws.
Ramalho’s platforms highlighted critical academic issues including online education, advocacy for a diversity requirement and access to administrators with a realistic approach.
The online education advisory board has potential to continue as an institutionalized part of the AAC office. While some programming such as Appetizers with Administrators will likely not carry into the next academic year, other events like programs geared toward relieving student stress may become a recurring staple of the office. A hallmark of Ramalho’s tenure was the well-attended diversity requirement town hall, which gave students a chance to express their wishes for a diversity-related general education requirement to faculty members directly.
While most of his platforms managed to balance feasibility with value, the latter half of his platform to introduce transfer workshops and an academic how-to guideverged on insignificant. Transfer workshops are a worthy aim. But the how-to guide will likely prove difficult to disseminate and be of relatively limited use to students despite its comprehensive nature.
More than 120 applicants applied to the 34 open academic appointed positions this year because of more active outreach by the AAC office. Ramalho made several academic appointments, which were vetted at the council table for the first time this year – an institutional change to USAC procedure set in motion by the previous AAC that Ramalho upheld fully this year.
This added step within the appointment process showed a commitment to transparency and accountability that was valued highly by this board.
In addition to bringing appointments before council, Ramalho was vocally against the summer’s stipend increase that marred the council’s reputation early on. He fully supported live streaming council meetings. Ramalho came out publicly against secret ballots when the vote took place and issued an official statement at the following council meeting denouncing the secret ballot vote.
Overall, Ramalho demonstrated a clear understanding of his role as a commissioner and as a councilmember. He executed his platforms and position duties to the fullest extent of his abilities, given the constraints of his office’s budget and resources.
Jessica Kim
CAMPUS EVENTS COMMISSIONER
Student feedback
Jessica Kim kept the Campus Events Commission strong at its core and fulfilled her duties by continuing to organize high-quality events but failed in expanding beyond that single platform.
In the past three years, the Campus Events commissioner has brought forward lackluster platforms that only set out to continue the work of previous years. This trend in platforms does little to expand and improve the commission as a whole.
Kim aimed a bit beyond that of her predecessors, but not by much.
While Kim’s idea to cater events to international students was the most promising on her platform, she executed little programming aligned with this goal. Other than one event held at the Dashew Center for International Students and Scholars, the only events that saw a high international student turnout were those not intentionally catered to those students –like the speaker event featuring Steven Yeun from “The Walking Dead.”
Looking back, Kim admitted that she underestimated the difficulty in gauging international students’ interests and addressing their needs through her office.
Kim said she wanted to emphasize better engagement with the campus community. However, her attempts to increase interactions with students did not go far past holding office hours, something many councilmembers already do.
Kim accomplished bringing Bruin Bash back to Pauley Pavilion. However, the change was completed hastily and risked student safety because of inadequate security.
Kim does deserve praise for continuing to produce high-quality events and catering them to a diverse audience. Events like the “The Grand Budapest Hotel” sneak peak and the speaker event featuring RJ Mitte from “Breaking Bad” followed the high standards set by the commission and succeeded in generating large student audiences.
Kim also succeeded in strengthening her events through co-programming. The Bruins Night Out events, co-programmed with Sam Haws, drew in a high student turnout with a combination of film and television premieres and student deals at restaurants and shops around Westwood.
On the council table, Kim had a mixed adherence to transparency. While she deserves credit for being a strong proponent against using a secret ballot to vote on the divestment resolution in February, other actions spoke to a lack of regard for transparency. She voted in favor of raising the council’s own stipends, and most notably, she alone voted against live streaming the weekly Undergraduate Students Association Council meetings.
Kim’s inability to expand her commission and her lack of transparency as a councilmember shadowed her ability to fulfill her roles.
Jessica Trumble
CULTURAL AFFAIRS COMMISSIONER
Student feedback
The original version of this article contained an error and has been changed. See the bottom of the article for additional information.
Jessica Trumble’s performance and programming as Cultural Affairs commissioner this year are emblematic of a commissioner that understands her role within the UCLA community: to consistently plan and run events with a “cultural, political or social relevance” to students.
Trumble’s office successfully completed its own rendition of Art Walk, an event that has taken place in downtown Los Angeles for years and featured the artistic talents of many UCLA students in its first year on campus. The Word on Wednesday poetry series moved from the Kerckhoff Art Gallery to the Ackerman Union Global Viewpoint Lounge because of consistent attendance, and UCLA’s first-ever slam poetry team reached the semi-finals of the Association of College Unions International Poetry Slam Invitational earlier this year.
Other platforms, however, fell short.
Trumble’s goal to focus on “sustainability issues in cultural expression” was limited to two notable events – Bruin in the Kitchen, which focused on raw food during winter quarter, and an art gallery made entirely out of found objects earlier in the school year.
Her goal to expand the Campus Affairs Commission Mini Fund to help student groups pay for costumes and venues was likewise compromised by the constant budgetary needs of the JazzReggae Festival. Trumble’s attempt to expand the amount of money available to students groups was admirable, but not entirely feasible for a fund that has struggled to grow beyond its base level of $15,000 in recent years. Trumble did, however, digitize the Mini Fund application process to make it more accessible to students.
To its credit, Trumble’s office expanded student ticket availability for the JazzReggae festivaland took advantage of its professional contacts to secure a quality lineup well in advance of the event. On the other hand, CAC, in conjunction with the Campus Events Commission, initially struggled in the production of Bruin Bash, only securing $5,000 from one sponsor by Sept. 12, a mere 10 days before the event. This forced USAC to allocate an additional $40,000 of projected surplus money to fill the gap.
Though Trumble voted in favor of live streaming USAC meetings, she also voted in favor of a secret ballot following the council’s Feb. 25 divestment resolution hearing as well as an August proposal for the council to raise its own stipends. Trumble said her stances were taken with student safety and office support staff compensation, respectively, in mind, but both showed a lack of transparency.
Still, Trumble managed to consistently organize concerts and art gallery presentations throughout the year, holding firm to her office’s commitment and central purpose to emphasize art and cultural activism at UCLA.
Correction: Trumble put the CAC Mini Fund application online in an effort to reach more students.
Sam Haws
GENERAL REPRESENTATIVE 1
Student feedback
Despite some progress, General Representative Sam Haws made little headway with his platforms, many of which stagnated after hitting logistical roadblocks.
While Haws attempted to initiate projects such as establishing a non-denominational prayer space and revamping the BruinCard to include more functions, he failed to accomplish any movement on these fronts. Haws stopped advocating for the prayer space after being turned away by the John Wooden Center, which previously had a room designated for prayer, unable to find a different location.
Haws planned on incorporating Arthur Ashe Student Health and Wellness Center informationonto the BruinCard. But Haws was ultimately unsuccessful, as his BruinCard revision platform took a backseat to a similar project by President John Joanino. Haws said he reached out to Joanino about combining efforts but didn’t hear back.
Haws was more successful in completing other platforms, most notably the implementation of the Suit Closet, a collection of donated business-casual attire available to students set to launch in May. His office collaborated with the Alumni Association, the Career Center and student group Furnish the Homeless.
In addition, Haws’ office co-programmed with the Campus Events Commission for two Bruins Night Out events, which include a movie screening and discounts at Westwood eateries. He also worked with the Academic Affairs Commission to put on Stress Free days, which are intended to help students cope with stress.
Also commendable are his recent efforts to survey students about USAC. Haws said he instituted the online feedback survey, called Pulse, as a response to the divisive climate following the council’s vote on a divestment resolution in February, a wise instance of outreaching to understand student needs.
As a councilmember, Haws sometimes voted in ways that negatively affected transparency, like voting to raise councilmembers’ own stipends and to use a secret ballot to vote on the divestment resolution.
Haws’ tenure as a general representative was a case of admirable but unmet ambitions blocked by logistical shortfalls and candidates for that position should learn from his missed opportunities.
Sunny Singh
GENERAL REPRESENTATIVE 2
Student feedback
General Representative Sunny Singh used his office to put on several beneficial programs but failed to create a vision for his office or accomplish the platforms he outlined at the start of his term.
Singh spread himself too thin with the variety of programs his office put on, stifling any substantial headway on his main platforms of strengthening the relationship between UCLA’s governing bodies, fostering a greater connection between students and Associated Students UCLA and addressing campus climate issues through cultural events and educational panels.
When asked about how he strengthened the relationship among governing bodies, Singh cited his programming efforts with campus entities such as the Arthur Ashe Student Health and Wellness Center and the Office of Residential Life as examples.
We can give a nod to Singh’s efforts, involving campus entities like the Ashe Center and ORL in initiatives such as the Student Wellness Commission’s sexual education program Sexperts and the Bruin Connect! program to help first- and second-year students with professional development. But it would be a stretch to see any effect on the relationship between UCLA’s governing bodies as a result.
The ASUCLA T-shirt design competition through Singh’s office saw substantial student participation and has sold more than 600 of the winning designs so far. But, the only other ASUCLA-related event was a poorly attended panel where one undergraduate representative from the ASUCLA board of directors discussed his role.
Singh put on numerous cultural events including the Holi festival and an event geared toward bringing the Hindu and Jewish communities together called Namaste Shalom. However, he did little to directly address campus climate issues, at a time when campus climate is a visible problem at UCLA.
Outside of his platforms, Singh’s office put on some well-received programs, most notably Late Night Landfair, where he brought food trucks to the North Village with 10 percent of the proceeds going to the Undergraduate Students Association contingency programming fund.
At the council table, he mostly adhered to principles of transparency, speaking out against the summer vote to raise the council’s own stipends and the secret ballot at the February divestment meeting. Though Singh at first supported USAC’s original lackluster live-stream guidelines, he now supports the full recording and archiving of the public meetings.
Overall, while Singh fulfilled his bylaw-mandated responsibilities as a general representative and executed several worthwhile programs, he fell short when it came to adequately completing his original platforms or creating a cohesive vision for his office.
Lizzy Naameh
GENERAL REPRESENTATIVE 3
Student feedback
Lizzy Naameh was elected to serve as a general representative on a platform that emphasized social justice and personal wellness on campus, initiatives this board felt were both achievable and relevant. However, in working to achieve her goals, Naameh fell flat.
After a dormant fall and winter, most of Naameh’s best work has come during spring quarter. But, a late push wasn’t enough to buoy an otherwise forgettable term.
While Naameh’s idea of bringing student art to Arts ReSTORE LA, a project aimed at promoting independent artists throughout Westwood, was promising, her efforts were derailed by a lack of foresight into the scheduling process. By the time elections were over, the art for the project had already been chosen.
Her attempts at expanding mental health resources through a series of stand-alone programs lacked any long-term effects. Programs, such as Take a Seat, Make a Friend, in which participants sat in a foam pit with a stranger, and LOVE, where students wrote themselves letters on Valentine’s Day, proved inconsequential in moving the needle much on mental health outreach and education.
Naameh has a Mindful Meals initiative planned for this week in which students can get dinner with UCLA Counseling and Psychological Services counselors. But it is unclear how much impact an event like this will have so late in her tenure.
On the social justice front, Naameh’s attempts to institutionalize People of Color tours, while easily the most successful and potentially enduring initiative, caps off an otherwise uninspiring tenure overall.
On the issue of transparency, Naameh fared poorly.She voted in favor of increasing council’s own stipends, although she did express regret in doing so once the financial effects for student groups became clear. She also voted to use secret ballots during the council meeting on the divestment resolution in February.
Overall, this board found Naameh’s fulfillment of her responsibilities as general representative lacking.The primary objective of a student representative is to engage student groups and solicit feedback as to their particular needs and issues. While Naameh did reach out to groups, she failed to take effective steps with the information allotted to her.
Armen Hadjimanoukian
FACILITIES COMMISSIONER
Student feedback
Armen Hadjimanoukian achieved most of his goals as facilities commissioner, despite having to navigate the complicated bureaucracy of campus and city governing boards.
Going into his term as commissioner, Hadjimanoukian’s aims of creating a reusable cup and creating charging stations were well intentioned and feasible but not truly impactful to the UCLA community. He successfully partnered with ASUCLA to revamp their reusable cup. He also worked with facilities to bring charging stations to different areas of campus, although such efforts were already in the works before he came into office.
His most successful and worthwhile platform was a campus thrift shop, which he continued from last year’s commission. This year’s shop focused on sustainability efforts and the relatively successful turnout helped achieve its goal of providing funding for student groups. Hadjimanoukian said that he hoped to lay the groundwork for institutionalizing the thrift shop on campus – a goal that, given his limited time and resources, could not be accomplished in his term.
Hadjimanoukian also mentioned improving bike safety on campus, but he did very little toward this end. Although he did not makeany notable changes for his last goal – improving campus safety – he did work extensively with different city officials to advocate for improved lighting in Westwood and additional crosswalks on Gayley Avenue.
Regardless of his weaker platforms, Hadjimanoukian’s dedication to his position cannot be doubted. He advocated for student needs on numerous campus boards as well as the Westwood Neighborhood Council, of which he is a member. As a commissioner he went above and beyond his traditional role to navigate campus bureaucracy, which is generally difficult and slow-acting.
At the council table, Hadjimanoukian failed to uphold transparency and act as an effective councilmember.
He voted to increase councilmember stipends over the summer, when many students and other councilmembers were unable to attend the meeting. He also advocated for a secret ballot on a controversial divestment resolution and said he would support anonymous voting in the future if the situation called for it.
It is commendable, however, that Hadjimanoukian supported the recording of council meetings and archiving the recordings.
Although Hadjimanoukian fulfilled his role as a commissioner well and advocated for students to the best of his ability, he was often a hindrance to the council’s transparency and did not set completely worthwhile goals.
Lauren Rogers
FINANCIAL SUPPORTS COMMISSIONER
Student feedback
Lauren Rogers completed her tenure as Financial Supports commissioner with due diligence and progress, fulfilling her platform ideas and taking additional steps to address students’ financial concerns by providing concrete resources.
In the fall, she successfully created and institutionalized the iClicker Loan Library, which made 300 iClickers available for students to rent for free on a quarterly basis. In collaboration with the Office of Instructional Development, Rogers was impressively able to secure $15,000 for the project, establishing it without using student fees.
As promised in her platform, Rogers initiated an alumni-led course on financial literacy and personal finance, which will continue beyond her tenure for at least one additional year. With support from the Career Center, she secured free locations for the eight-series course on topics such as budgeting, loans and retirement savings and made course materials available online for students who could not attend.
In addition, Rogers published a comprehensive financial resources guide as well as a financial aid calendar to help students better navigate the funds available to them. She also put on workshops for understanding financial aid for summer sessions, which operates on different guidelines than financial aid for the regular school year.
Under her leadership, the Financial Supports Commission executed several other programs such as the On-Campus Jobs Fair and Financial Literacy Day Fair, both of which were launched by Rogers. Not only did she initiate these programs, but she also institutionalized them through commitments from various administrative departments like the Career Center, ensuring that they will be maintained following the end of her term.
Much of Rogers’ programming spoke to her proficiency as a liaison between students and administration by bringing together various institutional resources and exposing them to students.
On transparency, Rogers performed much better than her peers. She could not vote during the summer on the issue to increase stipends for sitting councilmembers as she was unable to attend the meeting, but voiced her dissent during the meeting through Skype. She did not support using a secret ballot to vote on the divestment resolution, citing the need for transparency as elected officials. In addition, she voted in favor of live streaming the Undergraduate Students Association Council meetings.
Receptive of students’ needs and conscious of her office’s role in responding to financial concerns, Rogers centered her work around advocating for affordability and financial literacy through practical and creative approaches.
Savannah Badalich
STUDENT WELLNESS COMMISSIONER
Student feedback
Though her tenure was far from perfect, the Undergraduate Student Association Council’s Student Wellness commissioner can take credit for an initiative that several councilmembers independently pegged as the student government’s greatest accomplishment this year.
Savannah Badalich’s term was defined by the 7000 in Solidarity campaign, an admirable effort to highlight the issue of sexual assault, empower survivors and advocate for better handling of their cases by the university.
Her advocacy on that issue was USAC’s most prominent success, garnering widespread local and national attention.
The main area where Badalich faltered was her stance on the council’s transparency. Not only did Badalich vote to raise the stipend of sitting councilmembers, but she was also an outspoken advocate for the use of secret ballots in the council’s divestment vote, even suggesting the idea in the first place.
Badalich qualified her position on the use of secret ballots by saying that she was worried for councilmembers’ safety following the contentious vote. While councilmembers are right to be concerned for their own safety, hiding votes from the public is unconscionable for elected officials.
Her failings as a councilmember stand in stark contrast to her success in completing the duties ascribed to her by the USAC bylaws: namely, to advocate for the health and wellness of the student body.
In addition to the 7000 in Solidarity campaign, Badalich was instrumental in establishing the Student Health Network, a collective of groups dedicated to student health operating under the banner of the Student Wellness Commission. This new arm of the commission helps advance the body’s effectiveness by eliminating redundancies created by multiple student groups pursuing similar goals.
In pushing forward her platform of expanding mental health resources, Badalich’s office instituted Super QPR training in the winter, teaching students to “Question, Persuade and Refer” when learning that one of their peers is at risk of suicide.
However, it is apparent that Badalich’s focus on 7000 in Solidarity distracted her from her other platforms, leading her to delegate or postpone work discouraging fad dieting and promoting mental health awareness. While this focus is justifiable given the momentum 7000 in Solidarity garnered, Badalich could have delegated some of her responsibilities with the campaign to focus on the other platforms she promised to carry out.
Ultimately, Badalich’s shortcomings are eclipsed by her success in stoking conversation and activism around one of the most important issues facing UCLA and the nation’s campuses today.