Thursday, March 6, 1997
USAC:
Dominant party accused of lack of ethics, adequate
representationBy Stefanie Wong
Daily Bruin Contributor
Growing tired of a student government that it believed was not
inclusive, responsible or accountable, the Bruin Democrats recently
pulled its support for the political party that is currently in
control of the Undergraduate Student Association Council
(USAC).
Students First! has dominated USAC for the past two years and
has had the support of the Bruin Democrats for that time.
But marking an abrupt change in their club’s views of Students
First!, Bruin Democrats President Angela Foster and Political
Outreach Director Darrin Hurwitz announced late last month in a
letter to the Daily Bruin that their organization will no longer
support the party.
And instead of gearing up for the elections with the slate, the
Bruin Democrats are working with a currently unnamed political
party in order to form a coalition that will oppose Students
First!
"We were strong supporters of Students First! originally when
the coalition formed and last year as well," Hurwitz said. "We put
a lot of our club’s effort into supporting Students First! and
increasingly over the past year we have grown more and more
dissatisfied."
The Bruin Democrats pulled their support because they believed
the members of Students First! were not being ethical in the
decisions that they have made, and have compromised the beliefs of
students.
"They’ve shown a lack of concern for following general rules and
ethics of student government and we’re becoming concerned that this
is not a student government which represents UCLA students,"
Hurwitz said.
However, USAC Internal Vice President Glenn Inanaga believes
that the Bruin Democrats may be disagreeing with the politics of
Students First! and not questioning the ethics of the council as
they claim.
"We look out for students, we fight for students and we take
strong stands. In the process, we make a lot of allies and we do
make some enemies," Inanaga said.
"I question whether the Bruin Democrats really mean to disagree
with our politics and not our ethics. They shouldn’t mistake a
strong political stand as a violation of ethics."
The Bruin Democrats’ belief that Students First! has been
excluding many campus groups is another reason for the revoking of
their support.
"We feel that they haven’t been inclusive of student groups and
they’ve basically limited themselves to being a student government
of a few student advocacy groups and not being a student government
of the UCLA campus," Hurwitz said.
"We share a lot of common ideologies and views with them and we
feel that they haven’t been willing to expand their coalition to
include a broad group of progressive organizations like
ourselves."
But USAC President John Du feels that although the student
government may have different agendas from many of the
organizations on campus, it does not mean that they are being
excluded.
Instead, there is a focus placed on the few issues that the
groups do have in common and agree on, Du said.
"I don’t think it makes us exclusive because we disagree with
some of the priorities (of certain groups)," he said. "Our priority
is to focus on the issues that we can agree on and then bridge the
gap."
Du also described how Students First! ran on a platform with
issues that had a direct impact on underrepresented communities and
how USAC’s work with these issues and specific groups may have
created the image of exclusion.
"There’s no doubt that we work on these issues and there’s no
doubt that the underrepresented student organizations on campus are
going to play a much more integral part on these issues because
these are issues that we’ve prioritized," Du said.
"We have a common goal with certain organizations and that’s why
we’re able to form coalitions with them."
Inanaga further noted that the council made "an effort to
specifically outreach to the Bruin Democrats but I wondered why
they didn’t show up to some of the meetings."
Another reason that the club pulled its support from the slate
is because the Bruin Democrats believe that Students First! has not
addressed enough campus issues that are not political.
"We feel that access to education, affirmative action and
fighting registration fee hikes is a major component of what USAC
should do," Foster said. "We do not dispute that at all, but with
13 council members some of their effort can be focused on campus
issues that students feel are important."
Inanaga said that all 13 council members do work on individual
projects that affect the students.
He noted the general representatives’ work on women’s safety
issues on campus and the financial supports commissioner’s work on
the scholarship resource center as examples of projects designed
specifically for students.
But despite these examples, the Bruin Democrats feel that
Students First! has not served the student sufficiently and will be
working towards mobilizing those who want to make a change in the
student government.
"Right now, we’re trying to find other groups that feel shut out
of USAC and progressive students who want to be involved in the
student government but who haven’t had an opportunity to, in order
to form a coalition that will represent the average student,"
Foster said.
Members of Students First! do not see the coalition or the lack
of support from the Bruin Democrats as a problem in next quarter’s
elections.
"I think that (the lack of support) won’t affect Students First!
because all that students really have to do is look at the issues
that we work on and look at the concrete victories that we’ve had"
as proof of an active student government, Du said.
"(Students First! have) shown a lack of concern for following
…rules"
Darren Hurwitz
Bruin Democrat Director
Members of Students First! do not see … the lack of support
from the Bruin Democrats as a problem.