USAC recap – Feb. 20

Agenda:

• The council decided not to allocate any funds over $1000 or make appointments because it did not have enough members present to meet quorum.

• The Undergraduate Student Association Council gave the Financial Supports Commission chairperson permission to make two $500 allocations within his own office for a retreat and workshop next week.

• Cailyn Nagle, California Public Interest Research Group campus organizer, said the group is recruiting students for voter registration coalitions that register student voters for midterm elections and graduating students for community organizing positions in CALPIRG next year.

• The council held a moment of silence for the victims of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting that occurred in Florida on Feb. 14.

Officer reports:

• USAC President Arielle Yael Mokhtarzadeh said her office met with Chancellor Gene Block last week and discussed various issues impacting students, including Westwood Forward Neighborhood Council initiatives, how to improve Wi-Fi connectivity on campus and the university’s ability to encourage students to take a stance against tuition hikes and present legislators with a way to allocate more funding to higher education.

• Mokhtarzadeh added her office will meet with University of California President Janet Napolitano March 1 to discuss UC-level issues.

• Mokhtarzadeh said she will meet with Associate Vice Chancellor and Interim Director of Budget Administration Jeff Roth to talk about university accounting errors with student fees. A UCLA accounting error led to USAC not receiving thousands of dollars in students fees over the past three years.

• Mokhtarzadeh asked the council to collectively plan an event to highlight gun violence in schools and encourage students to engage in advocacy against gun violence.

• Internal Vice President Vivy Li said her office is organizing Food Trucks for Finals for March 17 to 21.

• A proxy for External Vice President Chloe Pan said Westwood Forward will be holding a town hall Monday to review the coalition’s subdivision application. Westwood Forward is a coalition of students, business owners and homeowners advocating for a new neighborhood council for Westwood Village. She added the EVP office is accepting applications until Thursday for students to join this year’s delegation for the UC Student Lobby Conference.

• Facilities Commissioner Zahra Hajee said her office will be moving final’s week’s study nights from Pauley Pavilion to the first floor of the John Wooden Center because of basketball playoffs.

• Hajee added her office will to hold the first Know Thy Safety Week, a program aimed at teaching students how to combat discrimination, during Week 9 in the Carnesale Commons Hermosa room.

• Hajee added FEM magazine and voidLab, an intersectional feminist and LGBT group that expresses its identities through art and technology, will host a teach-in about gentrification in Boyle Heights at Perloff Hall on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.

• General Representative 2 Kayla He said the Dashew Center for International Students and Scholars has started focus groups to talk about how the iSTART fee and online orientation is structured. All incoming international students are required to pay an iSTART fee, which funds an online orientation, on top of their New Student Orientation fees during their first quarter at UCLA.

• He added she and Alexander Fung, the Graduate Students Association’s vice president of internal affairs, are meeting with University police Wednesday to discuss a new federal policy that could lead to international students losing their visas due to minor criminal infractions.

• Campus Events Commissioner Nedda Saidian said her office held a free screening of “Dunkirk” on Tuesday. Saidian added her office and Bruin Film Society will host a question-and-answer session with actress Zoey Deutch and screen the movie “Flower” in the James Bridges Theater on March 5.

• Cultural Affairs Commissioner Malik Flournoy-Hooker said rappers Rico Nasty and Siya will perform in Ackerman Grand Ballroom for Hip Hop Explosion on Thursday.

• Community Service Commissioner Adriana Hardwicke said her office has a scholarship open for two weeks to give $1,000 to student service organizations.

• Hardwicke added Bruin Dine had its first event last week but future events are suspended because UCLA Dining Services wants to ensure the program is following health codes.