Elections for UCLA’s Undergraduate Students Association
Council are coming up. And though most students do not care, you
certainly should because the future of our university is at
stake.
The incumbent slate, Students First!, a group of mainly
“minority” students who want to change the world, has
offered Allende Palma/Saracho as its candidate for president.
Palma/Saracho, the current internal vice president of USAC and a
member of the radical Chicana/o organization MEChA, indeed has the
experience. But for UCLA students, it has been an experience marred
by unfulfilled promises and hollow ideas.
Around this time last year, SF! candidates were making big
promises to student voters. They wanted to improve housing and
transportation services. They wanted to keep BruinGo! free for all
students. They wanted to repeal the minimum progress requirement
and implement a diversity requirement.
For Palma/Saracho and SF!, promises did not translate into
reality. One year later, we find housing and transportation
services unimproved, BruinGo! still costing money, the minimum
progress requirement intact, and a diversity requirement
unrealized.
But you see, Palma/Saracho has apparently learned from his
mistake. He has learned not to make promises where success or
failure can be objectively measured. In his submission to the Daily
Bruin on Monday, he made no specific promises, (“Stop the
drop: Take action to solve admissions “˜crisis,'”
May 3).
Instead, the USAC presidential hopeful veiled his agenda in
brave, new words like “community leadership,”
“the right to a higher education” and, most important
of them all, “diversity.” I could not reach
Palma/Saracho for a phone interview, but I bet he will do a
marvelous job fighting for this stuff.
Personally, I think profound political causes, humanitarian
efforts and social endeavors should be left to hippies, clergy
members or the United Nations. Like a city council, USAC is not the
place for political pontifications or the discussion of issues that
do not relate to the community itself.
The council is supposed to be the voice of UCLA students.
Josh Lawson, currently a general representative on USAC and also
a presidential candidate in the coming election, understands this
well. His slate, the Equal Access Coalition, is dedicated to
solving structural inequities in USAC’s funding process.
The problem with the funding process is twofold. First, cultural
and unofficial religious organizations are funded while admitted
political and religious organizations are not. Second, the
organizations that are closest allies with SF! have somehow ended
up with the most money. This biased allocation of funds flies in
the face of two Supreme Court rulings and UC guidelines.
“I think the focus of USAC has to be readjusted,”
Lawson said in a phone interview. “If they are pressing
social matters that are political and we must, in the interest of
students, comment on these issues, that’s fine. But
USAC’s primary objective must be to represent the interests
of students at UCLA.”
I would not hesitate to say Lawson’s cause is the single
most important one. Corruption in USAC and inequities in funding
are serious problems that must be dealt with seriously. But they
are not the only ones.
The only presidential candidate who has gotten this part of the
picture is Doug Ludlow. He has had no experience with USAC or with
UCLA governance bodies. Perhaps this makes him the best choice.
In a phone interview, Ludlow demonstrated a rare balance between
a political vision and a practical plan. He said, “There is a
very small place for Democrat/Republican politics in student
government now. I’m tackling universal issues. UCLA has a lot
of problems that need to be tackled by practical solutions.”
His three points: reduce cost of education, improve quality of
life, and reform government.
As for specifics, Doug Ludlow plans to spearhead a ballot
initiative limiting general student fee increases, reduce textbook
costs by hosting “Textbook Fairs,” and instituting an
online textbook sales system, and work with UCLA Transportation
Services to make campus parking more affordable.
At the same time, Ludlow will build on Lawson’s
foundations and fight for funding reform in USAC.
But what makes Ludlow’s situation all the more interesting
is that the chairman of the Bruin Republicans, Christopher Moritz,
and the new president-elect of the Bruin Democrats, Kristina Doan,
have both expressed strong support for Doug Ludlow, making his
campaign a truly non-political one.
“Doug Ludlow’s candidacy, more than anything else,
has proven that USAC is a place of student representation, not
elitist politics,” Moritz said. “On this, Democrat and
Republican, communist and capitalist can agree.”
The bottom line is this: If you want a president who makes bad
promises and cannot keep them, vote Allende Palma/Saracho. If you
want a president who has worked hard to make USAC a fair and free
organization, vote Josh Lawson. If you want a president who will
focus on campus issues, vote Doug Ludlow.
Whatever the case, in these elections, break the monopoly of
Students First! and restore dignity to UCLA’s undergraduate
student government once again.
Hovannisian is a first-year history and philosophy student.
E-mail him at ghovannisian@media.ucla.edu. Send general comments to
viewpoint@media.ucla.edu.