What’s USAC?
During last Tuesday’s USAC meeting, the council was briefed by several campus organizations, which included presentations on upcoming outreach efforts for minority students.
Both MEChA and the Afrikan Student Union are planning programs in a couple of months where they will bring accepted students to campus and try to create a community for them in an effort to increase the number of students who choose to come to UCLA.
The admissions office also made a presentation reviewing the new holistic admissions process, where each application is considered in its entirety rather than being read section by section by different readers.
This year there was a record number of people who wanted to be application readers, and the presenter mentioned the readers liked the new holistic method better because they were able to take into account hardships students experienced.
Much later in the meeting there was a presentation called “Leave your Mark” in which USAC members were encouraged to begin programs to help continue their work when they graduate.
It seems that every year councilmembers start innovative projects and then don’t have time to finish them. Then the next council comes along and all the projects started by the previous council fall off the map. Instead of letting this cycle continue it seems this year’s council is taking a step to, well, leave their mark ““ I sure hope this project doesn’t get tossed out next year.
There were also changes that needed to be made to the bylaws, but the council voted to postpone making the changes until after the conclusion of the Judicial Board case, because Tina Park, the external vice president, thought the changes might interfere with the case.
Shaun Doria, the Financial Supports commissioner, and PC Zai, the Facilities commissioner, have recently filed a Judicial Board case against Park for alleged bylaw violations.
Doria and Zai claim Park needs to have all student delegates to conferences approved by the council, and Park disagrees.
Doria and Zai have asked the Judicial Board to freeze all funding for Park’s office, and it looked as if councilmembers were taking sides on the issue.
The meeting seemed to drag on, ending well past 11 p.m. At least this time they didn’t spend over half an hour voting on a T-shirt design, although they did have a lengthy discussion on where the new printer should go (which will cost over $5,000). After four hours it was understandable that USAC voted to table most of the bylaw changes.