Imagine, for a moment, that you’re on an operating table about to have a quadruple bypass. You have to choose the surgeon who will hold your life in her hands. One surgeon has three years of experience performing bypasses; the other surgeon has never performed a bypass in her life. Which one would you choose? For the person lying on the operating table, the answer is clear ““ experience is key.
While the decision UCLA’s student body needs to make during the ongoing Undergraduate Students Association Council elections may not be life or death, the answer should be just as clear. For the position of Student Welfare commissioner, Lucy Wu is the obvious choice.
Many of us have heard that the Bruins United candidate for the position, Myles Hamby, has decided to challenge the traditionally uncontested USAC position of student welfare commissioner.
Usually, the commissioners for the Student Welfare Commission, Community Service Commission and Campus Events Commission are chosen from within these organizations and run unopposed. There’s good reason why the political slates have left these positions uncontested for the past nine years: The commissions are more effective when their leaders understand the organization from the inside out. Hamby would be approaching the Student Welfare Commission from the outside in.
Jonathan Tsai, the current Student Welfare commissioner, expressed his concern that Hamby, if elected, would not be ready to lead the organization.
“Lucy Wu is ready to serve UCLA on day one, whereas, if her opponent is elected, the staff of SWC will have to spend the remainder of the quarter instructing him on how to do his own job,” said Tsai.
Jesse Rogel, Bruins United presidential candidate, told the Daily Bruin that Hamby would be ready to lead. He said Hamby’s background in health-related issues, his work at commission events and his experience in programming in the USAC General Representative 1 Office have prepared Hamby to take on the role of commissioner.
Experienced as Hamby might be, he has not held a leadership position within the Student Welfare Commission. In fact, he is not even a member. It is naive and shortsighted to believe that Hamby could step in and take control of an organization that he is utterly unfamiliar with.
Lucy Wu, a third-year molecular, cell, and developmental biology student, has worked her way up through the commission and has demonstrated dedication through concrete action.
“I’ve been working with SWC for three years now, mainly in health, nutrition, and fitness, and this year I stepped into the role of director for that committee,” said Wu. “As director, I’ve worked with the entire executive board and all the other directors in SWC, and so we’ve really formed a bond and a synergy, and I know we’ve worked really well together.”
Synergy is exactly what Lucy Wu has that Myles Hamby lacks. In an organization that so frequently uses a vast array of networks to achieve its goals and relies heavily on interaction between different parts of the commission, having existing connections is extremely important. It’s part of what makes Lucy Wu qualified to run the commission.
It’s this commitment to nominating truly qualified candidates that led SERVE, the slate that the three commissions formed in response to Bruins United, to partner with Students First! and establish QUALIFIED, a coalition aimed at promoting candidates with the expertise necessary to run USAC as efficiently and as effectively as possible.
“We feel that Students First! understands the importance of experienced candidates for our commissions,” said Penson Liu, the current campus events commissioner. “They understand maintaining the integrity of USAC.”
Yet Bruins United continues to defend its decision to contest the position by asserting that it is making the position more accountable to the students and to the democratic process. However, upholding accountability to the students cannot come at the expense of choosing a candidate who will be fully prepared to face the challenges of leading one of the largest student groups on campus.
“None of the commissions believe that there shouldn’t be a democratic process, but at the same time I feel like students would be greatly disserviced if someone came in who’s unqualified to run the commission,” said Liu. “It should be in every candidate’s best interest to join the commission first and really see all that goes into putting on the programs and services and events that the commissions do.”
Hamby, is running for the wrong position at the wrong time.
Those of us who aren’t first years will recall Bruins United’s landslide loss in last year’s USAC elections. The loss left them with only two seats on the USAC board and a huge deficit to rebuild in this year’s elections. Placing an underqualified candidate in a previously uncontested position to try to regain a majority in USAC is unprofessional and unwise. Selecting a candidate to contest the commissioner position is Bruins United’s right, but making sure that candidate is qualified to do the job should be its priority.
SERVE has recognized this priority by nominating Lucy Wu. Now the students of UCLA need to recognize it by voting for her.
If you love qualified candidates, e-mail Fitzpatrick at cfitzpatrick@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.