Despite the trouble and turmoil of this academic year, I am extremely proud to have led the 2014-2015 Undergraduate Students Association Council.
This year, we worked to safeguard the affordability of the University of California as we rallied, lobbied and petitioned to prevent another tuition hike. We also established measures to cut day-to-day costs for students through the creation of Lab Coat Loaner Library and the unveiling of the first transportation scholarship.
We implemented one of the first student-initiated mobile safety applications in the country with our UCLA mobile app, Circle of 6, which drew praise from the White House. We brought greater awareness to mental health on campus through the councilwide All of Us campaign. We partnered with students, alumni and faculty to win the 30-year fight to establish a diversity coursework requirement in the College of Letters and Science. We elected the first transfer student representative and displayed our commitment to making UCLA’s resources available to all students. We installed new solar panels on the roof of Ackerman Union and educated students about the California drought. We even made North Korea’s Kim Jong Un tremble as we screened a world-exclusive preview of “The Interview.” At its core, USAC’s mission is to make UCLA more excellent – more affordable, more safe, more inclusive, more sustainable and more fun. And this year, I believe we did just that.
As I look toward next year, I charge the incoming council to address two particular issues. First, USAC must work overtime to regain the trust of its constituents. Between inappropriate social media postings, appointment hearings that contained discriminatory lines of questioning or the recent allegations that a political slate used student government money to fund its campaign, USAC has been no stranger to controversy this year. Students are disillusioned with USAC, and it is up to USAC to win back the student body’s trust. In my view, there is only one way to regain this goodwill: to put forth relevant initiatives and programs that benefit the student body and communicate with transparency and integrity the resources that are being used to put these on. USAC has tremendous value to the student experience, and it must do a better job of communicating this value.
Secondly, USAC must actively strive to better our campus climate. In a world dominated by social media, a student’s negative experience quickly becomes the experience of an entire community. Further, conflicts around the world travel across borders, languages, Tumblr and Snapchat to become local conflicts right here on campus. Unfortunately, rather than serving as a platform to build cross-cultural connections, social media too often serves as a tool to reinforce the worldview that we already subscribe to and blast those who don’t agree. Whether we like it or not, social media is here to stay. We can’t turn the clock back now.
But in a world in which our connection to each other is reduced to a Facebook friend request and in which we interact through 140 characters, USAC can help better campus climate by pushing for deep, prolonged and in-person engagements between students from different value systems. Our individual stories are unique, and our identities are intersectional; however, the human ability to reflect, empathize and learn is universal.
The problems I have laid out do not have simple solutions. But to paraphrase John F. Kennedy, we choose to address issues not because they are easy but precisely because they are hard and will serve to bring out the best of our energies and skills. There are no better young people to face these issues than the Bruins of UCLA and the capable hands of the 2015-2016 council.
Baral was president of the Undergraduate Students Association Council for 2014-2015.