Students who have been quietly grumbling about the housing fee
increases will soon be able to make their voices heard as far as
Sacramento.
In late March or early April, the On-Campus Housing Council
plans to give dorm residents pre-stamped postcards with a simple
statement expressing student concern over housing prices.
If students agree with the statement, they will simply sign the
postcard and drop it off in the nearest mailbox. Or, they can give
it to OCHC members who are to be stationed in front of dining hall
entries. All postcards turned in will be sent to the state
capital.
To strengthen their lobbying efforts, OCHC hopes to gain the
support of the Undergraduate Students Association Council.
“We are still looking into the logistics, checking the
feasibility of it, and talking to the student regents,” said
OCHC Chair Michelle Sivert.
The actual statement that will be printed on the postcard has
not yet been finalized and will be discussed at OCHC’s
meeting tonight.
The specific location and government official to receive the
postcards has also not been decided.
“We (USAC) will probably have a sit-down with OCHC to
discuss strategic targets, such as people on the budget committee,
to send the postcards to,” said USAC External Vice President
Christopher Neal.
“We might also send them to the regents to get support for
the issue,” Neal said.
By instituting the postcard program, OCHC ultimately hopes to
gain outside support for UCLA housing in the form of subsidies.
“We want to make student voices louder about how (housing
fee increases) are a very large burden to bear,” Sivert
said.
“There has been pressure from the university on Housing to
expand, but in order to meet those expectations the students are
paying for it,” Sivert said.
The chances that these postcards will instigate some sort of
change in housing fee increases are very good since sending
postcards and using similar lobbying tactics, including call-in
days and e-mail days, shows that there is mass support for a
certain issue, Neal said.
“They will definitely instigate discussion. These kinds of
lobbies have been successful in the past … It’s a very
tangible way to show support for an issue,” Neal said.
Using postcards as a medium to instigate changes and discussion
is new to OCHC, Sivert said, but USAC has used them in the past to
try and lower student fees.
“It’s one of the only ways we can show student
concern for these issues,” Neal said.
OCHC has also discussed drafting a resolution to keep housing
fees down and presenting it to USAC. If USAC passes the resolution,
it will show that OCHC has USAC support regarding this issue.
Although OCHC does not have an actual resolution yet, many USAC
members back OCHC’s plans for the postcards.
“We definitely support this effort that the OCHC is
undertaking. The entire vice president office has worked actively
with them,” Neal said.
In addition to these postcards, OCHC representatives will also
accompany USAC to Sacramento for the April lobbying.
April 7 is the University of California Student Association
state lobbying day, during which students will be able to voice
issues important to them in Sacramento.
“We are going to try to bring a large contingency of
students to Sacramento with us,” Neal said.
Both OCHC and USAC stress that student participation, with the
postcards as well as the lobbying in Sacramento, is key in
instigating changes on campus.
“We hope students will actively participate because
without them nothing can really happen,” Neal said.