UCSA votes to recommend delay in confirming student regent-designate

The original version of this article contained an error and has been changed. See the bottom of the article for more information.

The University of California Student Association Systemwide Affairs Committee voted 10-0-2 in a closed session meeting on Thursday to recommend that the UC Board of Regents hold off on the confirmation of student regent-designate nominee Avi Oved until September.

The committee, which consists of voting external vice presidents, also voted to have an impartial entity independent of UCSA investigate various allegations against Oved further. The board recommended that UCSA staff look for impartial ways to hold the investigation and return with a recommendation by the end of the month.

“As UCSA, we have a duty to ensure that our students’ concerns are being met,” said UCSA President Kareem Aref in a statement released Thursday. “While the process for (appointing) student regent(s) is not perfect, it has not failed us in the past. This new information just requires that we take a closer look to ensure Avi is the candidate we believe him to be.”

Oved, who was elected Undergraduate Students Association Council internal vice president for the 2013-2014 academic year, was nominated by a committee of UC Regents in May to serve as the non-voting student regent-designate for the 2014-2015 academic year and as the student regent for the 2015-2016 academic year.

The UC Board of Regents is set to confirm Oved’s nomination during its meeting in two weeks at UC San Francisco’s Mission Bay campus. It is rare for the board to reject a student regent-designate nomination.

UCSA recommends student regent-designate candidates to the regents, but does not have any official power in approving the student regent-designate.

The UC and Oved could not be reached for comment.

On Saturday, students at a UCSA Board of Directors meeting presented an email that was sent from Oved and other members of the Bruins United slate to Adam Milstein, a noted donor to many pro-Israel organizations, thanking him for a campaign donation during last year’s USAC election. The email was first presented by Amal Ali, the former president of Students for Justice in Palestine at UC Riverside.

Students running for USAC offices typically fund their campaigns with donations from external organizations, fundraisers and personal contributions.

In the email, Oved said he will work to “make sure that UCLA will maintain its allegiance to Israel and the Jewish community” and that he will represent the Jewish voice in student government.

Conrad Contreras, the USAC external vice president and a member of the UCSA Board of Directors, said Oved confirmed that he wrote the email thanking Milstein for his donation at UCSA’s closed session meeting on Thursday. Contreras said the confirmation led him and other board members to recommend a delay in Oved’s appointment.

In a public written statement he released minutes before a teleconference UCSA held Tuesday, Oved called the allegations “baseless” and “nothing more than an attack against me as a pro­-Israel student.” In the statement, Oved did not mention the email that was leaked Saturday, which he confirmed two days later as having written.

Contreras added that Oved said he was thanking Milstein in the email for donating to Hillel at UCLA’s internship program, in which Avinoam Baral, the current USAC internal vice president, also participated.

Neither Milstein nor Baral could be reached for comment.

In the email, Oved said that Lana Habib El-Farra, his competitor for internal vice president in the 2013 USAC election, “has displayed a record of silencing the Jewish voice on council” as a member of the Muslim Student Association. Contreras said this was particularly troubling for him.

Another leaked email shows that Baral allegedly sought donations from Milstein on behalf of the slate when he ran for USAC general representative last year. In the email, Baral allegedly said he was “very concerned about the growing legitimacy of the Boycott, Divest(ment) and Sanction(s) movement on UC campuses.”

In a different email leaked to the Daily Californian on Thursday, Milstein allegedly requested that pro-Israel leaders donate money through Hillel at UCLA to support Oved, Baral and the Bruins United slate in the 2013 USAC election.

Milstein’s alleged email directed leaders to donate money to Rachael Petru Horowitz, the director of development at Hillel at UCLA, under the earmark “UCLA Student Government Leaders.” Horowitz and other Hillel at UCLA employees could not be reached for comment at press time.

Furthermore, Milstein said in the email that he would donate $1,000 to the slate. Contreras said he was not aware of the emails during Thursday’s closed session meeting, and board members will review the emails and try to verify them.

In a previous statement released on Tuesday, Milstein claimed he did not donate to Oved or the Bruins United slate.

An IRS Form 990-PF for the Adam and Gila Milstein Family Foundation for the 2013 fiscal year showed that the foundation donated $10,500 to Hillel at UCLA, but did not specifically donate money to Oved or the Bruins United slate.

Hillel at UCLA is part of the greater national organization Hillel, which is a 501(c)(3) organization. 501(c)(3) organizations are not allowed to donate money to support a candidate who is running for an elected public office, although some experts have said they are not sure whether student government at the UC level can be considered an elected public office.

Amid the surfacing of these documents, Contreras said his main concern is not the legality of Oved’s actions under the Election Code, but rather what students think about them.

“This is not a campus issue, but a statewide issue,” Contreras said. “Allowing this to happen is a danger to student democracy.”

Details regarding the investigation are still to be worked out, Contreras said.

Correction: The UCSA Systemwide Affairs Committee voted 10-0-2.