The undergraduate student government voted on Tuesday against office space allocations that would have removed student groups from their offices.
In a 6-2 vote, with three abstentions, the Undergraduate Students Association Council voted against the recommendations by the Office Space Allocation Committee, which would have led to the removal of four student groups.
During the meeting, the groups said they did not receive notification to reapply for office space. The four groups included Latin American Student Association, Iranian Student Group, Chicanos/Latinos for Community Medicine and Afrikan Student Union.
Although OSAC’s recommendations were rejected, action to a potential solution was tabled until the next meeting. Possible solutions included revisions to the OSAC guidelines and finding office space outside of Kerckhoff Hall.
“OSAC is a fledgling committee this year ““ it is expected that there would be a lot of mistakes this year,” said Facilities Commissioner Galen Roth.
The dissenting groups said they failed to receive an e-mail from the Center for Student Programming warning them of the looming February application deadline. During the past week, Chicanos/Latinos for Community Medicine sent out letters to council members explaining its point of view. In the letters, the organization said it should not be penalized for a mistake. Other groups have expressed the same sentiment.
Administrative Representative Berky Nelson made an inquiry about the e-mail controversy.
Internal Vice President Evan Shulman said during the meeting that the e-mails were indeed sent out, but there was no way to know if the groups received them. He said no one involved was really to blame.
However, Academic Affairs Commissioner Jeremiah Garcia said he looked at the OSAC guidelines to find ways to revise a process that he deemed a “corrupted and tainted system.”
“Throughout the year I’ve been very disappointed with the process,” Garcia said. “There were problems with the judicial board case, and there were problems with OSAC.
“If OSAC really reached out to each organization, this wouldn’t be a problem right now.”
Garcia said that the meetings OSAC held earlier in the year were politically charged.
Two Bruins United-affiliated councilmembers, General Representatives Natalie Gonzalez and Monica Kohles, voted in support of the allocations. Kohles said groups should not receive preferential treatment and must adhere to the application’s deadline.
“I think it’s unfair for the groups that initially replied and went through the interviews,” Kohles said.
“The deadline makes the process valid,” Kohles said. “If you were to extend it, then it should be open to all the groups who missed the deadline.”
Up until two years ago, rooms were reserved for a number of student advocacy groups selected by USAC.
The guidelines for the allocation of office space were formulated in February 2006, when a committee was established, and it created an application process open to all student groups that met criteria.
The criteria included a point system in which OSAC would allocate spaces to groups that scored the highest.
All of the groups that met the deadline were awarded offices.