When people first hear that transfer students make up one third of the students at UCLA, according to Transfer Student Support, they are usually quite surprised.
Many have thought of transfers as a small subset of the student population, and as fitting into an equally narrow demographic. The reality is, however, that transfers at UCLA are not easily labeled, and as a whole, they encompass an extremely large, incredibly diverse, dynamic and important part of the Bruin family. As referendum supporter Alyssa Nunez put it in her Facebook response to the Daily Bruin Editorial Board’s surprising non-endorsement of the referendum (it claims among other things that it “attempts to create the only demographic-specific office”):
“Transfer students from this university do predominantly come from California community colleges, but they also come from international institutions, other UCs, Cal States, the Armed Services, and (other varying) non-traditional backgrounds. They are every ethnicity and skin color. They are straight, they are queer, and every other sexual orientation. They are every gender identity. They are mothers and fathers, and quite typically, the students of this university who have 40-plus hour workweeks and full-time school schedules.”
I would add to the transfer description: people starting second careers, older students, first-generation college students, traditionally aged students looking for an economically viable option to baccalaureate attainment, lower socioeconomic status students, part-time students and undocumented students. This 30 percent of the Bruin family brings with it the richness, character, diversity and inclusiveness that represents the ideals that UCLA stands for. They are also the members of the Bruin family that unfortunately, up to this point, have not had an official voice.
The upcoming referendum can begin to create a shift at our university, a shift that needs to occur at UCLA as it has at other UC campuses. It can give a voice to transfer students who have been shut out of student government, despite the fact that they provide one third of the Undergraduate Student Association Council budget generated by student fees. Thirty percent of the population who provide 30 percent of the USAC budget deserves a seat at the table – as campuses across the nation and indeed other UC campus have come to realize.
There has not been a move from student government to address transfer student issues at UCLA, surely not out of animosity but rather because there is not a representative who is privy to transfers students unique set of needs as Bruins.
According to research done by the Transfer Student Task Force, the majority of UC undergraduate programs in the state have at least one transfer student in their student government. But all undergraduate programs champion more direct accessibility to governmental positions for transfers (if not offering an official transfer student position or institutionalized transfer committee), and less institutionalized elitism favoring traditional students in student government leadership positions. Other UC campuses are well ahead and UCLA lags woefully behind. As one of the system’s flagship universities we need to first catch up, and then become the leader in this area.
I end with my fellow Transfer Task Force representative (and UCLA graduate) Alan Absalon, as he said it best when he and many others were initially addressing the USAC board about putting this initiative on the spring ballot as a referendum:
“In order to truly champion equal representation, in order to be able to advocate for more transfer student resources, to have a transfer resource center (since UCLA is also the only UC without a transfer center) there is a unanimous consensus in the transfer community: Transfers must be represented in student government, there must be someone raising a voice and a vote for this one third, and growing, part of the Bruin family.”
Although there are numerous reasons that the Transfer Student Representative Referendum on this week’s ballot is a measure of vital importance, the fact that there is no official, institutionalized transfer student voice taken into consideration when important decisions are made that affect transfers is the principal one. I enthusiastically encourage all UCLA students to support the Transfer Student Representative Referendum, which will create a position on USAC for an official transfer representative in student government.
Adams is a fourth-year psychology student and the co-chair of the Transfer Student Task Force.