Garin Hovannisian’s name was likely a familiar one to many
students on campus even before his candidacy for undergraduate
student government president.
After writing a column for the Daily Bruin’s Viewpoint
section his freshman year, he moved on to found another campus
publication ““ The Bruin Standard ““ which he describes
as “opinion, humor and cultural analysis” and
emphasized that its aim is not to deliver news.
“I see myself almost as a biographer of UCLA,” said
Hovannisian, a third-year history student and a member of Slate
Refund.
According to its Web site, The Bruin Standard’s editors
“are strongly opinionated and will tend to make their
opinions the prominent arteries of The Bruin Standard.”
Writings in the publication often express a conservative or
libertarian viewpoint on issues like affirmative action, economics
and national politics.
Hovannisian, who is both the publication’s editor in chief
and a regular contributor, has spent much of his time at UCLA
writing about campus issues and national politics, and said he has
loved every minute of it. He said he sees himself as deeply
involved in the campus community and ready to be a leader.
He admits he has little experience when it comes to the
Undergraduate Students Association Council, but he also believes he
is the better for it.
“Those of us who have not flirted with power can more
easily give it up,” he said.
The major platform of Slate Refund’s is refunding to
students their $39.91 quarterly Undergraduate Students Association
fee ““ money used to fund USAC. That would eliminate nearly
all of USAC’s funding, including money given to student
groups.
It his Hovannisian’s objective to “give back to the
students what is rightfully theirs.”
Hovannisian said he will not use his position as USAC president
to further his libertarian political views that he has publicized
in The Bruin Standard.
The underlying goal behind Hovannisian’s platform is to
bring USAC back to UCLA students. As a student himself, he said he
was meant to attend the university.
He rattled off a long list of family members who have attended
UCLA, including his grandfather, a professor emeritus and chair of
the Armenian Studies center.
Born in the UCLA Medical Center, Hovannisian grew up down the
street from UCLA on Sunset Boulevard, spending his childhood
running around campus.
He said he knew he wanted to go to UCLA and he knew he wanted to
write.
“Garin does a good job getting people excited about the
projects they are working on, and is also good at outlining a plan
and giving people jobs to fulfill it,” said Mark Lincoln, a
third-year physiological science student and friend and roommate of
Hovannisian.
Lincoln has spent years working with Hovannisian.
“We founded Bruin Standard together. … (He) was able to
motivate and recruit people to make the paper,” Lincoln
said.
“Garin has a very good sense of humor, and is very
cheerful,” he said.
Hovannisian describes the current USAC leadership style as
top-heavy, hoping to reverse that trend if elected.
“Thirteen people sitting around a conference table are
neither more elite or smarter than the rest of the students,”
he said.
Hovannisian said he hopes the students would take the money that
is refunded to them and invest it back into the campus.
“If students are invested in an organization, they will
fund it. This does not necessarily mean that student groups will
lose funding, it just means that they will have to work for
it,” he said.
Rather than initiating programming to support his own ideology
and goals, he will encourage students to come together and form
groups on their own.
If student groups come to him wanting help accessing the school
administration, or if they want USAC’s organizational help or
experience, Hovannisian said he would be more than happy to provide
it.
“I see myself as a leader in the sense that students will
come to me for help with their causes,” he said. “I
just won’t fund them.”
While he has not been involved with USAC in the past, he has
experience with community service, a component of USAC’s
programming.
Armine Hovannisian, Garin’s mother, said when he comes to
Armenia, he helps her work with poor Armenian children at a
privately funded foundation.
She said he has held leadership positions since high school,
such as commissioner of academics on his high school student
government, and he has helped to raise and take care of his younger
siblings.
Garin also has the highest respect for an individual’s
freedom of choice, she said.
“He is a person who prefers to take action at the price of
failing, rather than sit back and do nothing,” she said.