Friday, May 8, 1998
Praxis makes perfect in elections
USAC: Former Students First! coalition dominates Sanity ’98 in
spite of low voter turnout
By Dennis Lim
Daily Bruin Contributor
With a drop in voter turnout of about 40 percent from last year,
Praxis, the political slate formed from the demise of Student’s
First!, swept the elections, taking all 10 positions they fielded
candidates in, including president, internal vice president and
external vice president Thursday night.
"I’m really excited. I think it’s going to be a good year," said
Stacy Lee, the new president. "Next year we’re going to show the
campus lots of new things."
The opposing political slate, Sanity ’98, which includes members
from the Bruin Republicans and Bruin Libertarians, took only the
one General Representative office for which their candidate, John
Strelow, stood unopposed.
Winners in the election included Lee for president, P. J.
Gagajena for internal vice president, and Graciela "Liz" Geyer for
the external vice president.
For the presidency, Lee beat out Sanity ’98 candidate Martin
Chippas and independents Ben Geer and Chris Ihara with 63 percent
of the vote. Chippas took 21 percent of the vote, Geer 11 percent,
and Ihara 5 percent.
Geyer won the external vice president seat, with 69.7 percent of
the votes. Praxis candidate Daniel Rego took 30 percent.
"This is a real victory for students. It shows that students
really care about issues of diversity," said Geyer, former chief of
staff for the internal vice president’s office.
"This is a victory for the minority of opinion at UCLA. If you
look at the numbers, not the percentages, you’ll see that only
about 1,700 people actually voted for Lee. That’s all of their
Student Advocacy Groups put together," Rego said about his
loss.
Faced with these results, independents and candidates from
Sanity ’98 expressed dismay at their loss to Praxis.
"We had a lot of public support, but there was a low voter
turnout, we were outspent and outstaffed," Chippas said.
At 3,276 votes, this year’s election brought out 2,200 fewer
voters than last year, and was one of the lowest voter turnouts in
UCLA history, according to Mike Cohen, Center for Student
Programming advisor.
Anthony Brockington, the Election Board chair, explained the low
turnout as resulting from less effort from the student slates
compared to last year.
"There weren’t as many candidates, and this was reflected in the
turnout, in that there wasn’t as much campaigning," said
Brockington. "But the numbers were different this year. Last year,
the numbers were much more even."
Lee, the first Asian-American woman ever elected USAC president,
explained the victory by saying that the -students believed in what
Praxis fought for.
"We work on student issues, the real problems that this campus
cares about. Students are the ones that make change in this world,
no one else," Lee said.
Praxis proved that it has survived the breakup of the coalition
of Students First! earlier this year, when one of its main
components, MEChA (Movimiento Estudiantil Chicana/o de Aztlan),
dropped support.
The three other main groups, the Asian Pacific Coalition (APC),
the African Student Union (ASU), and Samahang Pilipino, have
pledged to include more student groups in their coalition. MEChA
did not endorse any candidates for the election, except Omid Shaye
and Joe Balabis.
The Community Service Referendum, the initiative that would have
raised USAC fees by $1.75 per student per quarter, failed in the
elections, with only 52.73 percent of the students voting for the
referendum.
With reports from Hannah Miller and Mason Stockstill, Daily
Bruin Senior Staff.
1998 USAC PRIMARY ELECTION RESULTS
PRESIDENT
Chris Ihara
4.54%
139
Stacy Hae Lim Lee
63.06%
1929
Ben Geer
10.89%
333
Martin Chippas
21.51%
658
INTERNAL VICE PRESIDENT
P.J. Gagajena
66.03% 1922
Paul C. Mim Mack
33.97% 989
EXTERNAL VICE PRESIDENT
Graciela "Liz" Geyer
69.63% 2036
Daniel B. Rego
30.37% 888
GENERAL REPRESENTATIVE
Mike de la Rocha
41.05% 1886
Kei Nagao
34.00% 1562
John Strelow
24.95% 1146
ACADEMIC AFFAIRS COMMISSIONER
Zuhairah Scott 100% 2323CAMPUS EVENTS COMMISSIONER
Charles Ku 100% 1932COMMUNITY SERVICE COMMISSIONER
Joe Balabis 100% 1920CULTURAL AFFAIRS COMMISSIONER
Melissa Flores Bullard
34.31%
938
Marselle Washington
65.69%
1796
FACILITIES COMMISSIONER
Trinh Huynh
59.49%
1627
Telly Tse
11.12%
304
Ryan Ozimek
29.40%
804
FINANCIAL SUPPORTS COMMISSIONER
Tram Linh Ho
58.84%
1681
Douglas Antonio Novoa
7.77%
222
Shayla Kasel
6.37%
182
Marc Olson
27.02%
772
STUDENT WELFARE COMMISSIONER
Omid Shaye 100% 1779COMMUNITY SERVICE REFERENDUM OF 1998
Yes 52.73% 1437 Failed to meet turn out requirement for
passage.
No 47.27% 1288CHILD CARE SERVICES SURVEY – ADVISORY ONLY
1. Do you or any students you know require child care needs?
Yes 28.18% 610
No 71.82% 15552. Are your, or any other student parent that you
know of, child care needs being met at present?
Yes 40.19% 590
No 59.81% 8783. If you answered NO to question #2, why not?
(Mark all that apply)
Affordability Issues 31.01% 338
Quality of Child Care Services 11.47% 125
Availability Issues 24.59% 268
Other 32.94% 3594. Are you aware of the Child Care Services at
UCLA?
Yes 36.15% 710
No 63.85% 12545. Would you support at a later date, a slight
increase in the mandatory fees, to meet the needs that are
necessary to provide UCLA Child Care Services for more student
parents?
Yes 44.85% 840
No 55.15% 1033