Undergraduate student officials are struggling to find funds to continue paying membership fees to an organization that advocates on behalf of students, after returning about $14,000 in surplus funds last week.
The Undergraduate Students Association Council’s External Vice President’s office does not currently have concrete plans on how to fund UCLA students’ participation in the United States Student Association.
USSA is a national student-led organization that organizes students and trains them to lobby on student issues at national, state and local levels.
The External Vice President’s office runs on a budget of about $100,000, but USSA funds are not built into that budget, said Roy Champawat, director of the UCLA Student Union.
Instead, the external vice president must use the office surplus to pay for the summer conferences, which can cost more than $20,000. USAC External Vice President Maryssa Hall said the cost of membership fees, attending conferences and programming USSA-related projects and campaigns is growing each year. She said her office is trying to organize more campaigns and bigger projects.
At the beginning of winter quarter, Hall asked for about $14,000 to cover the cost of student membership fees for USSA, which allows select UCLA students to attend the workshops offered by the organization during the summer.
“I would (like to) set aside money from my budget so that my successor wouldn’t scramble around to pay out of her office funds … (because) we want to take as many students as possible on the trips,” Hall said.
Though the council allocated Hall about $14,000 during the first week of winter quarter, she returned the requested money from surplus last week because more than 100 students showed up to protest the council’s allocations.
“I voluntarily voted to give back the funding but it was a tough decision, (and) until today I’m wondering if it was the right decision,” Hall said.
Jaimeson Cortez, a member of the National Affairs Staff for the External Vice President’s office, said he was disappointed about the decision to return the funds.
“I want student government to give something a little bit more substantial and I don’t know what is more substantial than going to the capitol and lobbying,” Cortez said.
Because of the lack of funding, Hall said there will not be enough funds left for the next external vice president to pay for the USSA membership fees if she does not come up with them now.
Hall said she is considering creating a fee referendum to go on the ballot in USAC’s spring elections next year, though she may not hold office during that time. The initiative was suggested to her by last year’s external vice president, Lana Habib El-Farra, who tried to create the USSA referendum after experiencing similar funding problems.
Hall is also considering setting aside $7,000 for next year’s external vice president, or raising around $14,000 to establish a separate fund to pay for the USSA registration fees for the next conference cycle.
El-Farra and Hall said the External Vice President’s office struggles to find funding for USSA membership fees each year, partially because of the timing of the summer conferences.
The external vice president is elected in May, but receives the office budget Aug. 1.
The timing forces incoming external vice presidents to pay for summer conferences before even receiving their own office budget. In recent years, external vice presidents have not left enough money for their successors to pay for the conferences.
For example, Hall was working on a $2,000 leftover budget from El-Farra to fund her office’s USSA membership fees, but she said she spent more than $20,000 to send students to the summer conferences.
Hall had to appeal for the extra funding last summer, which she thinks is an unreliable way of obtaining it.
Hall said she thinks USSA helps students to learn direct action and lobbying skills at conferences, such as the National Student Congress and the National Grassroots Legislative Conference that take place over the summer.
“UCLA is a national university. … Things that happen here affect the entire country. It makes sense for UCLA to be a part of (USSA),” said Chirag Bhakta, USSA’s West Coast national field associate.
If Hall does not find the funds to accommodate this summer’s conferences, she is worried that the cycle will continue and cause UCLA’s membership in USSA to end.