After a week of hearing pitches on Bruin Walk from each of the three slates in this year’s Undergraduate Students Association Council election, we can finally walk to class without having to stuff several campaign flyers into our pockets as we pass.
However, the candidates – whether victorious or not – should continue to work to realize their platforms and proposed reforms for our undergraduate student government. Many candidates put forward platforms that addressed similar issues or would span more than one office. Just because a candidate failed to win office does not mean their ideas should be forgotten.
Adopting the best platforms of losing candidates will help the newly elected USAC officers better serve students and send a message to those students disillusioned by the partisan nature of USAC elections.
Bruins United presidential hopeful Carly Yoshida lost her race Thursday night, but her positions on USAC finances – especially in regards to the surplus and newly incepted endowment – make important points about fiscal stability. Yoshida, a third-year English student, told the Daily Bruin this week that she believes if the surplus surpasses $150,000, the excess should be placed in the endowment fund.
This funding model offers USAC much-needed financial stability. Next year’s council president, John Joanino, a third-year sociology student, would be wise to adopt Yoshida’s approach on this issue because the financial stability of USAC affects not just UCLA’s student government but also campus programming and student groups.
Joanino’s approach to the surplus would put off making a decision about excess funds that should be made early on. Yoshida’s concrete ideas about excess funds would provide confidence in USAC’s ability to maintain its future funds.
Newly elected USAC president Joanino should also consider some of presidential hopeful Taylor Bazley’s ideas to combat the divisiveness of slate politics in the council. Bazley proposed several checks in order to ensure that appointed positions were not subject to favoritism. Joanino should adopt Bazley’s idea to involve a third party to review each candidate for appointed positions such as student seats on the ASUCLA Board of Directors and the Student Fee Advisory Committee.
“We really need to set a vision that we can all agree on and work towards,” Joanino said. “It’s not about party politics, it’s about serving students.”
Neither Yoshida or internal vice president hopeful Lana Habib El-Farra, a third-year political science student, were elected, but the new council should adopt some of their platforms concerning sexual health, including El-Farra’s ideas to expand consent education in the alcohol education program administered to first-year and transfer students.
The race for Academic Affairs commissioner also provides a unique opportunity for collaboration. Darren Ramalho, a third-year political science and English student and the newly elected commissioner, should work with his former opponent, Uyen Hoang, on key issues.
Although Hoang, a third-year international development studies student, did not win the election for Academic Affairs commissioner, Ramalho should consider Hoang’s platform to implement diversity-themed quarters, in which groups would put on weeklong series of events to address issues including campus climate. This would serve as an excellent supplement to his goal to advocate for an academic diversity requirement at UCLA.
These changes present an opportunity to promote diversity at UCLA in the short term, a needed supplement to Ramalho’s efforts to work toward a diversity requirement, which could take several years to develop.
The newly elected council must look to their former opponents as resources to become the most effective student government possible for UCLA. Many candidates stated in hearings and debates that they were in this election because of their passion to create a better UCLA. The disappointment of defeat should not quell that enthusiasm, nor should a victory insulate officers from the perspectives of others who share the drive to improve UCLA for all students.
Email Shepherd at kshepherd@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to opinion@media.ucla.edu or tweet us @DBOpinion.
Do you really think the republican will support diversity? He publicly stated he thinks LGBT education is synonymous to beastiality and polygamy. Am I the only one that thinks this is unsafe?