Internal Vice President Evan Shulman is responsible for the Undergraduate Students Association Council’s internal affairs office, facilitating dialogue between USAC and campus organizations. He also oversees the weekly agendas of council meetings. His office reaches out with its own programming as well. Assistant News Editor JJ Yang sat down with Shulman to discuss his responsibilities.
Daily Bruin: According to USAC bylaws, you have a lot of responsibilities ranging from assisting the president on a host of issues to being a representative to campus groups. What are some of the most important issues you work on?
Evan Shulman: It doesn’t look like we’re doing much from the outside because it’s mainly an in-house position, so many people don’t know what’s going on with the office. All the other offices have a specific niche that they’re working on. There’s a lot to the position, and it’s as not apparent as some of the other offices.
The way I interpreted it is two ways. One, because I’m the administrative side, I was responsible for planning and organizing the USAC retreat as well as creating the agendas. It’s making sure that USAC (as) a whole is functioning properly.
Anytime we have extra resources, whether it be time, energy or funding, we can look to collaborate with the other offices as well as foster ideas internally.
DB: One of the more important responsibilities as Internal Vice President is being the Appointment Review Committee Chair. How does that fit into your role as an administrator?
ES: It goes under the roles of assisting the president. Appointments can be highly contested, and the process has taken a lot of my time and for good reason as well. In terms of what committees need to be staffed, it’s specifically defined that I’m the chair of that committee, It’s explicitly stated.
DB: Do you have your own programming and how does that fit into your role?
ES: One of my responsibilities is being the liaison and connection between USAC and the student groups. All these programs are to either directly or indirectly provide for the groups. All this programming goes to benefiting their life on campus.
Specific programs I’m working on are green sustainable housing. UCLA has made a lot of progress with certified programs. We want to make sure that we continue to make that priority not just on campus but off campus as well. We want to make sure as part of the plan to acquire apartments buildings that they make it sustainable.
We’re starting to develop a system in which we measure the water and energy uses of individual floors on campus and off campus. Also to get a contract for students to sign and have external services support them.
Another program is maximizing student effectiveness on campus. One would be student leadership training, which is one of the reasons I got involved with the office. Throughout my UCLA career I’ve been involved with campus groups and it has crafted me as a person … I can be that extra support and extra resource for them.
We also want to work with student media … this office is going to get DBTV to get more of a presence on campus. Because currently right now their biggest medium is online. We’re looking to get the big screen at the Cooperage to have DBTV packages. If students missed a rally or a cultural event, DBTV shows up and it gets played on the Cooperage video wall and fosters a feeling that things are happening on this campus.
DB: You mentioned earlier that being involved with student groups has crafted you as a person. Can you elaborate?
ES: I see university education to not solely be focused on the classroom. I think if students were to limit themselves to purely focusing on their classes and their grades then they would limit the opportunities that a campus like UCLA could give to them. So many things are happening on this campus and a lot of them are student-run. This is experiential education. It’s a much different learning experience.