EDITORIAL BOARD Christine Byrd
 Editor in Chief
Michael Litschi
 Managing Editor
Jonah Lalas
 Viewpoint Editor
Barbara Ortutay
 News Editor
Amy Golod
 Staff Representative
Timothy Kudo
 Staff Representative
Brian O’Camb
 Staff Representative
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Recently, the Students United for Reform and Equality slate has
raised important questions regarding the structure of the
Undergraduate Student Association Council and proposed a drastic
change: the creation of a senate system.
Their proposal ““ largely fueled by the perception that
USAC does not adequately represent all students on campus ““
is vague, unrealistic and unnecessary.
Of course, in theory, the 500 student groups should serve the
role of a senate by representing the various facets of campus to
USAC. Unfortunately, in recent years, the small number of Student
Advocacy Groups have taken the majority of the student
government’s resources.
So while change is needed, the fact that S.U.R.E. has not made
an effort to clearly inform the student body about the specifics of
their plan makes us doubt their understanding of the logistics of
implementing a massive overhaul like this.
Some candidates defend the proposal’s ambiguity by saying
they don’t want to “alienate voters” by revealing
the details of their plan. It’s as ridiculous as a political
party running with no platform and expecting to get voted into
office.
We question whether a senate system would really be efficient.
Weekly issues such as funding for student groups are already
complicated but could become impossible if required to go through a
senate debate and approval.
We wonder, how many people would actually serve on the senate?
S.U.R.E. is unsure about this. In interviews with the Daily Bruin
Editorial Board, different S.U.R.E. candidates suggested as few as
20 senators and as many as 200. Voters should know if they’re
voting for a senate that is supposed to be more representative of
the campus yet only has seven more members than the current council
or if they’re getting an unwieldy group of up to 200
senators.
The most immediate problem with this senate idea is that it
could halt all other council action ““ much like this
year’s USAC bylaw revision did. If S.U.R.E. wins the majority
on the council, they would likely ignore the day- to-day council
issues while tinkering with their senate idea.
Students who believe a senate system is necessary don’t
need to get elected to make a proposal. All they have to do is get
a plan, start a petition, and send the signatures to USAC.
If they get broad student support, USAC will have to listen to
the students, or else they won’t be doing their job.
S.U.R.E. is right about one thing: there are problems with the
council’s current structure.
Commissioners, for example, spend most of their time working
with their respective offices. In theory then, should they really
be elected by the entire student body? Also, because they’re
so involved with their own commission, they’re frequently
complacent at the council table in approaching the broader
issues.
On the other hand, the general representatives are often
complacent as well, but for the opposite reason. There position is
so broad and undefined that they can be active in many aspects of
council, or get away with doing nothing. And it’s true, three
general representatives cannot possibly represent the thousands of
undergraduate students.
But if slates like the old Praxis were more receptive to the
diverse needs of this huge student body, we wouldn’t be
seeing campaigns to overhaul USAC.
The entrenched leaders of student government should take
heed.