Slate politics have dominated undergraduate student government
elections in recent history, and with the advent of a new slate,
along with a slew of independent candidates, this year promises to
be no different.
Slates are coalitions of students with similar ideologies and
goals who pool their campaign resources and run together.
In the past, slates have gained power in elections by recruiting
specific student groups to vote for their candidates.
The two slates that dominated last year’s elections will
be back: Students First! ““ formerly Student Power! ““
will run eight candidates this year, and Bruins United will run
nine.
But both groups will have to face Slate Refund, a new slate
focused on refunding student fees. Slate Refund will run 10
candidates.
Including independent candidates, there are 41 candidates
total.
All three slates made affordability a top priority, though they
outlined different plans for attaining it.
Third-year history student Garin Hovannisian, Slate
Refund’s presidential candidate and a former Daily Bruin
columnist, said his party is committed to returning students’
$120 yearly Undergraduate Students Association Council fees.
Refunding these student fees would mean USAC could no longer
fund student groups.
Instead, Hovannisian said, individual students should have the
freedom to fund groups of their choice.
“If (Slate Refund candidates) are elected, we will invite
students to continue to support any campaign or group they like,
but not for a moment would we assume that that money is
ours.”
Students First! and Bruins United have different plants for
improving affordability.
The Students First! presidential candidate, third-year American
literature and culture and Chicana/o studies student Lucero Chavez,
said she thought one of her slate’s biggest achievements this
year was pushing for the fee freeze promised by Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger.
She said Students First! will continue to push for fee
reductions in the future.
“We’re definitely about challenging the status
quo,” she said.
Bruins United is dedicated to making UCLA affordable on an
everyday basis, said presidential candidate Marwa Kaisey, a
third-year neuroscience student and a current USAC general
representative.
“We want to work with the administration on that, but also
with Westwood businesses to make Westwood more of a college
town,” she said.
Both the established slates also highlighted the importance of
greater student involvement in USAC.
“We’ve made things a lot more transparent and open
to students, and next year is going to be about increasing advocacy
and diversity,” Chavez said.
Kaisey said she wants to see students become directly involved
in USAC.
“We need to increase shared governance, to allow students
a voice,” she said.
Shared governance would mean giving students greater input in
administrative decisions and more seats on campus committees.
Kaisey said the greater number of candidates is a step in the
right direction, since it means Bruins United has succeeded in
making USAC more accessible to students.
“We’re really happy with the changes we were able to
make to student government this year. The UCLA campus has really
responded to our vision,” she said.
But one independent candidate said the larger number of
candidates is indicative of students’ dissatisfaction with
USAC.
“I think everybody saw what happened during last
year’s elections,” said presidential candidate Troy
Isaac, a political science student. “There was no room for a
voice ““ it was just a process.”
Isaac is one of 14 independent candidates ““ an unusually
large number. Last year there were only three.
He stressed the importance of investigating individual
candidates’ positions on the issues, rather than simply
voting along slate lines.
“You have students who go into student government sworn to
their (slate) ideology and won’t listen to other
arguments,” he said. “That’s so disheartening for
me because they’re not listening to the issues.”
Like the slate-aligned candidates, Isaac made lowering student
fees a top priority and said he would push Schwarzenegger to commit
to a permanent fee freeze.
Like Students First!, Isaac said he would work toward greater
diversity and would put student needs at the forefront of his
agenda.
“We need to put student issues first and hold both the
administration and the students accountable,” he said.
“Students don’t feel connected to their university,
and that’s why they’re not involved. That hurts us
all.”