It is without hesitation that this board endorses Rustom Birdie, the candidate with the most concrete and well-considered plan, for Financial Supports commissioner. Birdie can bring the energy and detailed planning needed to make the Financial Supports Office a more valuable service to the undergraduate student body. His opponent, Lucy Garcia from Students First!, had many ideas to increase the transparency and usefulness of the commission, but she was unable to articulate them convincingly and did not show nearly as much drive as Birdie did.
Birdie spoke at length about using his position to help students right here, right now. This board is pleased to hear that his plans to increase the buyback value of textbooks in the form of offering cash or gift cards are backed by the Associated Students UCLA.
Some of his other ideas include working with the UCLA Career Center to give free BruinView access to students for the first year after graduation, putting on a financial-aid fair, and increasing the transparency and usefulness of the commission’s textbook-loaning program. Each platform has been supported by the appropriate agency. Birdie is not trying to work outside the duties of his office, but he is instead seeking to use his own skill set and ideas to get UCLA to work for its students.
As one of the more obscure offices of the Undergraduate Students Association Council, the commission has a great opportunity under Birdie’s leadership to be a more visible, useful agency.