There are 13 elected positions on the undergraduate student
government. Next year, there could be nearly 800 members
influencing, discussing, debating, and being more directly involved
in the council’s actions with the approval of a new
proposal.
Jenny Wood, Undergraduate Students Association Council
president, has proposed a new advisory council composed of student
representatives chosen from student groups to offer input on
USAC’s decisions.
The group would be called the Student Advisory Council, already
tagged “SAC” by councilmembers, and would meet with
USAC councilmembers to discuss salient issues.
SAC would be open to all of UCLA’s almost 800 student
organizations on campus. Each organization would be allowed one
representative on SAC.
Though members would be elected or chosen by their individual
student groups, none would hold voting powers on USAC, but would
meet with other student group representatives at least twice a
quarter to discuss USAC-related matters.
The purpose of SAC is to bring students together and foster
greater student voice, student programming and involvement in USAC,
Wood said.
“There’s no space right now for any organization to
come forward with a policy recommendation, but by providing an
avenue that will be open to every student organization, they will
now have a voice,” Wood said.
“This is a step in a positive direction because it’s
open to everyone,” added Wood.
Wood said SAC is also intended to allow USAC to better
understand the issues that are most important to students and
consequently act as more informed advocates.
The proposal has prompted mixed feelings from some
councilmembers, including General Representative P.C. Zai, who
expressed her concerns regarding the setup of the body.
Zai said she does not believe it is realistic to motivate all
student groups to attend, and said larger groups will be able to
send representatives more often and thus hold a voice over smaller
groups.
“I do have some concerns about how (SAC) would be
implemented, because you can barely get student groups to register.
Logistically, you can potentially get anywhere from zero to 800
student representatives to show up,” Zai said.
Zai also said she disagrees with the idea to mandate a quorum
for SAC, since it could be hard to gather all representatives
consistently.
Originally proposed during the council’s first meeting
three weeks ago, the adoption of SAC was planned to come to a vote
during tonight’s meeting. However, because of mixed feelings
on the council, voting on the creation of SAC will be postponed
until more student input is generated.
Facilities Commissioner Joe Vardner said though he lauds Wood
for the idea of wanting to garner more representation and student
voices on council, he has concerns similar to Zai’s.
While both Zai and Vardner were wary of the council’s true
representation, Wood emphasizes that the meetings will not be held
consistently so there is no great time demand.
Wood foresees SAC meeting about two times a quarter for a few
hours, with early reminders for meetings so accommodations can be
made within the groups for the designation of representatives.
In this way, Wood hopes to answer the concerns for holding the
mandatory quorum.
Rick Tuttle, administrative representative to USAC, said he
commends any attempt to extend the opportunity for involvement to
students.
The concern for student voice and representation on USAC was
visited earlier this year with General Representative Brian
Neesby’s senate proposal, in which he advocated the adoption
of a 20-member legislative body.
Neesby’s proposal also incited mixed feelings. Some
believed it would be less representative of the student body, with
elected members having to garner smaller percentages to win a seat,
rather than a 50-plus-one majority.
Wood said she would work with Internal Vice President Kristina
Doan to reach out to student groups who attend mandatory budget
funding workshops today, Wednesday and Thursday to hand out a
survey for feedback on the proposal.
Questions on the survey will ask if the groups would be willing
to participate on SAC, what issues the groups are concerned with
most, and whether they think SAC is an efficient means to create
more representation on USAC.