The Undergraduate Students Association Council is the official student government representing the undergraduate student body at UCLA. Council meetings take place every Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Kerckhoff 417 and are open to all students. Watch a livestream of the meetings on the USAC Live! YouTube channel.
Public Comments:
- Student representatives from various campus organizations such as the UCLA Undocumented Student Program, urged council members to allocate the $149,000 USAC surplus fund to programming and resources for undocumented students. Council members suspended USAC bylaws to extend the public comments session.
Agenda:
- The council unanimously allocated a total of $100,000 to the UCLA Undocumented Student Program from the surplus funds.
- The council approved holding a town hall Tuesday from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. to receive student input and discuss how to allocate the rest of the surplus funds.
- The council also voted 7-1-1 to allocate $16,000 of the surplus funds to cover the remainder of the Cultural Affairs Commission Bruin Bash balance.
- The council made various appointments to the Election Board, including Mher Mkrtchian, a third-year political science student, as vice chair. Jayesh Menon, a second-year microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics student, was appoitned as finance director. Matthew Dunham, a third-year political science student was appointed as investigations director. Sabria Tawfik, a second-year political science student, was appointed as as endorsements director. Isabelle Bock, a fourth-year political science student, was appointed as external relations director. Dickson Chen, a third-year neuroscience student, was appointed as publicity director.
- The council allocated $5,100 from the Contingency Programming Fund to various student groups.
- The council allocated $107.86 from the Student Wellness Programming Fund to various student groups.
- The council allocated by consent $1,950 from the Bruin Advocacy Grant Fund to various student groups.
Reports:
- The proxy for the USAC President Arielle Yael Mokhtarzadeh said her office is hosting a research fair event for South Campus students interested in research opportunities Feb. 12 from 6 to 8 p.m.
- External Vice President Chloe Pan said her office collected 25,000 signatures asking the University of California Board of Regents to vote against a proposed tuition increase. The UC is proposing a 2.5 percent increase in tuition for the 2018-2019 school year.
- Facilities Commissioner Zahra Hajee said her office has been working with facilities management to create an app that would allow students to report facility problems, such as leaky faucets, by taking a picture and sending it directly to facilities management.
- Financial Support Commissioner Aaron Boudaie said the application for spring parking permits is due Feb. 9. He added he is working with the Facilities Commissioner’s office on creating a flat rate for UberPool within a five-mile radius of campus and added it would start sometime next week.
- General Representative Kayla He said her office will be releasing a student focus group application to get feedback on how students feel about the iSTART fee, an additional summer orientation fee for international students.
- Transfer Student Representative Sayron Stokes said her office will be releasing transfer student scholarship applications Friday and students will have the option to send in different submissions, such as an artistic piece or film, when applying. She added her office is also working with the Career Center to put together a BruinView workshop for students.