The University of California Students Association voted to rejoin the United States Student Association on Sunday to help improve USSA as an organization that advocates for student issues.
In the 12-2-4 vote, Zach Helder, the external vice president of the UCLA student government, and Marium Navid, external affairs vice president of UC Berkeley student government, voted against the resolution.
Helder led an effort to have the Undergraduate Students Associated Council to withdraw from USSA in August. USSA is a national student-led organization that aims to organize students to address issues at the local, state and federal levels.
The USSA membership was terminated earlier this year at a previous meeting of the UCSA Board of Directors because the board had concerns about the effectiveness and institutional organization of the USSA.
UCSA President Kevin Sabo, who sponsored the resolution, said he thinks a lot of changes need to be made in the USSA charter and bylaws.
Sabo, a fourth-year peace and conflict studies student at UC Berkeley, added however, that he thinks UCSA being a part of USSA will allow the organization to make substantial changes in terms of improving communication, campaign accountability and appointing members to serve as representatives for USSA.
Currently USSA has one representative for all its members on the West Coast.
“We need to understand the state government in California is not at all as hostile to students as the federal government is to students in other colleges,” Sabo said. “We needed to be considerate of those other members of USSA when taking this decision.”
Helder said he voted against the resolution as he thinks limited student resources and funding should not be used to help reorganize USSA and efforts should be focused on developing federal advocacy power of UC students.
“The problem is that USSA is comprised of professionals; however, they are not good at their job,” said Helder.
Navid said she voted against the resolution as she thinks the resolution should have allowed UCSA to be a part of USSA without paying any fees for a year.
“A lot of the fees we saved from last year were being used for state level lobbying, and I think that was a better use of the funds than being a part of improving USSA,” Navid said.
Navid added she thinks now that UCSA has become a part of USSA, the board of directors will be focused on establishing the ad hoc committee to develop and improve USSA.
According to the resolution passed at the meeting, USSA will establish a working group of non-board members to recommend changes to the administrative system of USSA.