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Councilmembers have raised concerns regarding the proposed establishment of a legislative body and structuring a senate in the undergraduate student government.

The proposal, authored by Brian Neesby, advocates changing the current 13-member council structure of the Undergraduate Students Association Council, and creating a 20-member senate in its place.

Currently, UCLA is the only UC campus without a legislative structure in its student government.

Details of the proposal are scheduled to be released fifth week. The proposed change will likely become the focus of spring elections.

The proposal’s two major goals are to separate the legislative and executive aspects of student government, and to enact a more representative voting system.

Neesby is the current chief of staff of the Financial Supports commission, though he is not speaking on its behalf.

The proposal is the latest attempt of the leaders of the Equal Access Coalition, a slate created last spring to challenge Students First!, a slate that has dominated USAC for the last decade.

A slate is a coalition of students with similar goals who campaign together to win seats on council.

Alex Gruenberg, Financial Supports commissioner, blames the slate-dominated current council structure for general undergraduate apathy toward student government.

“Why should students care when one group is going to dominate council, and represent only a small group of students?” he asked.

“I have yet to hear a reasonable, well thought-out argument that demonstrates why we should retain the council system as it is. I don’t believe it’s representative, I don’t believe it’s efficient or effective, and I don’t believe that it promotes the kind of student involvement that we want with our student government,” Gruenberg said.

In the opinion of other council members, however, changing the council structure to a senate will create more harm than good.

Eligio Martinez, Academic Affairs commissioner, called the proposal “a waste of time.”

“It’s harder to get things done, it’s very problematic,” Martinez said. “Everyone seems to like the commission structure that we have here.”

He believes changing the structure of the council would limit its effectiveness as the undergraduate governing body.

“The way that the commissions are set up is that everyone has a certain role, and can focus on one thing,” Martinez said. “When you have a senate structure, who’s going to do what?”

Jenny Wood, general representative, said the current system is highly effective at providing the services and programs students want.

“To lose that would be a bad thing, for UCLA and for the entire student body,” she said.

Several of the commissioners say they support whatever would be best for the future of their commission.

Jason Gaulton, Campus Events commissioner, said changing the council structure to the proposed senate would “just be a waste of 40 years of progress,” referring to how many years the current commission system has been in place.

“The commissions have worked hard to establish themselves in their current form. Any legislative bodies that would be adopted would take years to come into their own, and it would set the commissions back at a time where we really can’t afford that,” Gaulton said.

Opponents of the proposed change include Allende Palma/Saracho, USAC president, who has stated that a 20-member senate would be less representative than the current 13-member council, because slates would simply run more candidates and potentially gain more seats.

Jason Avila maintained that the current system adequately provides for the goals of his Student Welfare commission.

“It’s working out for the commission – we have all the available resources we need to put on programs,” Avila said.

Avila maintains that his primary goal is to protect the future of his commission.

“Whatever would work best for the commission is what I would support,” he said.

Neesby says that the proposal is highly supportive of the commissions. It aims to depoliticize them and allow them to focus solely on programming.

“The commissions are probably the most efficient part of student government, and I would not want to compromise them at all,” he said.