This board strongly endorses Jason Youdeem from Bruins United as the next Academic Affairs commissioner. His experience, namely as an orientation counselor and ASK Peer Counselor, affords him a nuanced view of the oftentimes complex academic landscape at UCLA, and this experience has translated into a platform that is both comprehensive and creative.
While in-house experience is valuable, Youdeem possesses relevant, transferable experience.
His opponent, Suza Khy from Students First!, spoke about some ideas about enrollment and postgrad preparation but lacked the specifics and was unable to outline her platform ideas thoroughly.
Youdeem, however, thoughtfully articulated his goals about those two pressing issues, which this board finds both realistic and within the scope of the Academic Affairs office.
His progress in talking to administrators such as Judith Smith, vice provost for Undergraduate Education, and Kathy Sims, director of the Career Center, regarding a syllabus preview as well as a revamped enrollment system is encouraging and demonstrates his dedication to issues that will have the most wide-ranging benefit.
Lastly, Youdeem’s ideas about postgrad preparation are concrete and tangible: extended access to BruinView and decreased costs for internship classes.