An untenable housing balloon. An administration intent on raising student fees. A counseling center with precipitous staff turnover. A campus bereft of child care facilities for most student parents.
UCLA is lacking in many ways. And Zak Fisher, the apparent dark horse presidential candidate for the Graduate Students Association, is intent on changing that.
The law student and member of the Student Fee Advisory Committee aims to get university administrations to lower university apartment rent dramatically, below $1,000 per month. He wants to double the number of Counseling and Psychological Services Center employees to cope with the university’s mental health crisis. He wants to expand the campus’ affordable child care resources so every student parent has access to help. And he wants to initiate the process of decrementing student fees.
Those are big words. But Fisher might just be able to pull off some of that.
He has authored bills in the GSA forum, including one to limit the salaries of administrators to be no more than that of the governor of California – which sits hundreds of thousands of dollars less than that of current administrators at just over $200,000 a year. As a member of SFAC, he has been unapologetic about his attempts to hold the chancellor accountable for allegedly violating university policy when disseminating fee money. He has voiced concerns about student privacy given UCLA’s new policy of installing security cameras throughout campus. He has spoken to vice provosts about graduate students’ mental health needs. He has made ties with the UC’s teaching assistant union.
Fisher means business. And his interview with the board made clear he is not one to bow out of a disagreement with this university’s leaders over its treatment of students and services.
That kind of willingness to be adversarial is a necessary facet of any candidate running for GSA president – especially at a time when it’s clear administrators don’t have an understanding of student needs nor a care for how to adequately address them. The GSA president is the campus lobbying machine of the graduate student body, and Fisher’s uncompromising, self-critical and matter-of-fact conduct makes him the best candidate to fill that seat.
Of course, Fisher’s opponent, Ernesto Arciniega, is of a similar caliber and has experience working with the cabinet of Michael Skiles, the current GSA president and a seasoned negotiator with administrators and the City of Los Angeles. Like Fisher, Arciniega has the qualifications necessary for the role of GSA president, a plan to participate in the North Westwood Neighborhood Council to ensure graduate student needs are met and many connections within GSA that give him the know-how to navigate the space. In fact, Arciniega has more pronounced plans to better engage the graduate student body via GSA socials and events.
But making dents in issues like affordable housing requires an emphatic and focused effort. GSA has tossed around big ideas like affordable housing for several years now, and while it is an issue that deserves attention, it more importantly deserves action.
Fisher has demonstrated a stronger ability to work within the bureaucratic system the president operates in to achieve their goals. And he seems most capable of delivering on the promise of at least lowering graduate student university housing costs given his penchant for questioning norms and strongarming administrators into paying heed to student needs.
At a time when this university is gearing up to drown out the noise with its centennial celebrations, the graduate student body needs leadership that is unabashedly willing to go toe-to-toe with Murphy Hall and demand more commitment and resources. Fisher has already proved himself willing to do that in his current capacity.
The graduate student presidency would only enable him to do what he has already set the stage for.