The slate that emerged in last year’s undergraduate student government elections to challenge the two dominant slates will be absent from this year’s elections.
Slate Refund debuted last year as a new coalition of students with similar ideologies and goals who pooled their campaign resources and ran together to challenge the dominant slates Students First! and Bruins United.
But David Lazar, an internal vice presidential candidate last year for Slate Refund and a former Daily Bruin columnist, said the members of the slate wanted to wait until the next election in order to produce a “solid campaign with candidates with experience.”
During last year’s elections, Slate Refund’s platform consisted of a proposed $120 refund of mandatory quarterly Undergraduate Students Association fees. Although there are no Slate Refund candidates running for the Undergraduate Students Association Council this year, the slate ran 10 candidates for office last year, none of whom won.
Alec Mouhibian, who was unofficially involved in the Slate Refund campaign last year, said there were potential candidates interested in running this year, but the slate never formed due to a lack of central leadership.
A former Daily Bruin columnist, Mouhibian is the editor of the Bruin Standard.
“(Slate Refund is) the type of thing that has a very specific and powerful idea behind it,” Mouhibian said. “People have to really believe in it and articulate it in order for it to persist.”
Mouhibian said Garin Hovannisian, last year’s presidential candidate for Slate Refund and a former Daily Bruin columnist, was the driving force behind the slate, and because he graduated, there was nobody to take his place.
In a message via Facebook, Hovannisian said he is currently in a remote Armenian village and unavailable for comment.
Gregory Cendana, current USAC external vice president and a candidate for president, said it was “unfortunate” that the slate will not be a presence in this year’s elections.
“They were able to bring interesting debates and bring useful questions of what USAC is for,” he said.
Lazar said he believes Slate Refund is important because the two dominant slates, Students First! and Bruins United, create a two-party system that divides the “spoils” among the winning candidates.
Mouhibian said he believes the current system of two dominant slates is corrupt because the political aspect of campaigning causes candidates to “lose sight of the bigger picture.”
He added that the two slates produce candidates who “conform to the demands of protocol” and have a “power-hungry mentality.”
But Cendana disagreed with the accusations of slates being too bureaucratic and said members of his slate, Students First!, voted against proposals that would take time away from their work.
However, Mouhibian said he believes candidates from the major slates are better able to navigate the intricacies of the USAC structure.
“People interested in Slate Refund are not “˜student council people,'” Mouhibian said.
If the slate returns next year and is successful, central leadership is required to organize candidates and navigate through the protocol involved, he said.
Lazar said the slate’s plan to be involved in the next USAC elections will be a serious attempt to reform the council’s structure and the slate has made a “big shift” in its platform.
“It’s no longer about giving (all of the) money back,” he said. “We’ve really switched our priorities.”
“Last year, we were having fun, we didn’t know what we are doing … (but) we’re no longer free-rolling renegades, we’re looking to make changes,” he said.
Instead of proposing a full refund of student fees, the slate members recognized that some parts of USAC should be funded, such as student group funding and the programs from the Campus Events Commission, Lazar said.
“Campus Events puts on many events that students are interested in,” he said.
Lazar estimated that the slate “could give back $90 per student without cutting any of the things students need.”
Lazar said the refund would require approval from the student body and he believes such a referendum to permanently reduce student fees would pass.
For this year, Lazar said members of the slate plan on supporting presidential candidate Jose Manaiza, a fourth-year mathematics and economics student who is running under the True Bruin slate, which he created. Manaiza is the only candidate of the True Bruin slate.
“Many members of (Slate Refund) do plan to campaign for Jose,” Lazar said. “Jose shares his ideals with the members of Slate Refund.”
Manaiza said USAC regulations prevent his platform from including a refund, which would require a major change to the council’s constitution.
“It’s not feasible at this point,” Manaiza said. “It’s out of my hands.”
While Manaiza said he accepts the endorsement from Slate Refund, he said he does not plan to align himself with Slate Refund or the other slates.
“They found my platform to be something that matches with them, but that doesn’t mean that my platform is totally affiliated with them,” he said.
Despite the lack of a formal alliance, Lazar said Slate Refund members are “gearing up” to support Manaiza.