Holding the reins
Wednesday, 4/30/97 Holding the reins Candidates for the USAC presidency reveal their platforms for the upcoming year. Ideas range from improving student safety and outreach programs to privatizing UCLA and making it a clothing-optional campus.
By Stefanie Wong Daily Bruin Contributor As the Undergraduate Students Association Council (USAC) elections draw near, six candidates are hoping to loosen the incumbent Students First! slate's two-year grip on the USAC presidential suite. But not if Students First! presidential candidate Kandea Mosley can help it. She hopes to continue the Students First! reign with programs such as the book-lending program and the diversity requirement campaign. A new idea that Mosley wants to initiate is a welcome week for new and returning students. The event would give students an opportunity to visit the student government offices and learn more about USAC programs. "We're outreaching to the community so that they know that they can come to student government and learn about the resources UCLA has," Mosley said. An internship program would also be held to further educate students about the workings of USAC and the community. "We want to, specifically with the internship program, pull in community organizations who have a lot of resources and skills to teach students," Mosley said. Another program Mosley plans to hold is a campuswide teach-in where students can learn about immigrant rights, welfare reform and how the privatization of UCLA may be dangerous. But besides these programs, Mosley would also address more direct services like the potential lunch voucher program and increased safety on campus, especially for women. The services and issues that Mosley feels should be addressed are "things that just make everyday life on campus a little bit easier for students," Mosley said. Mosley isn't the only candidate concerned with the students' needs. A main concern for Bruin Unity '97 presidential candidate Ruben Garcia is also campus safety. If elected president, Garcia would like to limit the traffic on Circle Drive in order to ensure the safety of students. To address student organizations' cry for funding, Garcia is advocating the use of outside funding sources. "There's tons of money out there for each one of these groups only if we as USAC utilize these services and work in conjunction with groups outside," Garcia said. He believes holding grant-writing classes would help students in their quest for funding outside of UCLA, thereby reducing the demand for money from the council. Garcia is also championing the idea of passing out voter registration forms with all official university documents in order to get students registered to vote. But Garcia believes that students should take part in all issues that affect them, and that his proposed student senate would give the rank-and-file student a voice in their government. The senate would be a group of elected officials or an interclub council with representatives from student organizations. "The combination of so many different campus groups could have a stronger voice with the administration," Garcia said. He also sees the senate as a legislative body that would adequately represent the diverse views of students. "If you see a group that's not represented in your government, you have to ask why and make an extra effort and go to that group and say we need you here at the table - there's room for everybody," Garcia said. Independent presidential candidate Jihad Saleh also believes in the creation of a student senate to ensure diversity, but feels that the representatives should come from existing student organizations as well as the different schools and departments. "I'm very structured on institutionalizing ways to guarantee that (the student government) is more diverse and more friendly toward students," Saleh said. "Institutionalizing diversity besides just the 13 members of USAC." In order to better serve the students, Saleh is proposing a bi-quarterly survey of random students to be conducted by the Daily Bruin. The survey will ask students their opinions about USAC and the results would be published in the newspaper. "(The survey will show) how students feel about what (the student government) is doing, are we effective are we not and are we reaching them," Saleh said. "At least this way it gives us a feel of what people are thinking." To increase student involvement in USAC, Saleh believes that the student government needs to be more inclusive and have an "open field." "When I was working with the African Student Union, you get trapped up in Kerckhoff if you're an official and you lose time with the masses out on campus," Saleh said. "We need to start spending more time on North Campus, South Campus and we need to have office hours outside so that we're going to the people instead of them coming to us with issues," he added. Independent candidate Justin Horey also believes that a student government should be visible and actively working on campus. "If I win, I want to set up a table there on Bruin Walk next to CALPIRG or whoever and just have people be able to stop and say whatever they want," Horey said. Horey does not have an established platform with issues to address, but instead is focusing his campaign on the concerns and issues that students feel a government should work on. "Instead of coming up with a plan of what I want to do, I want to open it up to students and find out what students expect from student governments," Horey said. "If anybody has any ideas of what they want, I'd rather do that then say I'm going to do X, Y and Z," he added. Horey would like to emphasize in his campaign that a student government and administration should be open and visible to the students. "I wouldn't be able to recognize (current USAC President) John Du if I saw him. I wouldn't recognize (Chancellor) Charles Young if I saw him. An administrator or representative from student government needs to be in touch with the students," Horey said. "That would be my No. 1 priority, to be on campus," he added. To facilitate good relations between the students and the administration, Access Coalition presidential candidate Ben Hofilena wants to reinstate the Student Participation in University Governance (SPUG) program that was developed four years ago. This program was created to increase students' voice in the university governance committees. A new event Hofilena hopes to hold is a campus involvement fair where student organizations can come together in a career fair-like fashion. "(The fair) will help recruitment for groups and let the student government really see who their real constituents are," Hofilena said. Another idea Hofilena would like to see come to fruition is a UCLA community outreach program where students from underrepresented and impoverished communities would visit UCLA. "I want to work as a council and put all our resources together and make a day-long seminar where student can feel empowered and get excited about coming to college," Hofilena said. "This time, it's UCLA working together to outreach and retain." Hofilena is also addressing the issues of increased campus safety, which includes more perimeter lighting and emergency phones. The current financial situation of the students' association (ASUCLA) is also an issue with Hofilena. "Let's work together, let's be accessible to students, that's what we're about," Hofilena said. "We want to make sure we have a healthy ASUCLA and a more student-friendly ASUCLA." Liberty '97 presidential candidate Justin Sobodash is also addressing the condition of ASUCLA. To alleviate the association's financial problems, Sobodash is championing the idea of privatizing certain services. "I would suspect that generally, some of the services could be made much more efficient by privatization," Sobodash said. If elected, he will also address issues that deal with UCLA's gay and lesbian community. "Gay and lesbians at this university have been short-sided," Sobodash said. "Gay and lesbian students who have domestic partnership should be treated like they're married by the university." Other issues Sobodash will address are making UCLA a clothing-optional campus and increasing students' right to freedom of speech. But the main area that Sobodash is working on is making student government fees voluntary. He believes that by making the fee mandatory, students are forced to pay for programs and ideologies that they do not necessarily support. "Our campaign has been about taking power out of the hands of pressure groups on campus and giving it back to the individual students," Sobodash said. By contrast, Bruin Vision's presidential candidate Chris Hecht believes the way to empower students is for USAC to address a broad base of issues. "If you broaden the scope, you'll get more students involved," Hecht said. A primary area Hecht will be addressing is the decreasing aesthetics of the campus. With the destruction of Towell, Hecht believes that the area should be returned to its original grassy state. "We want to make sure that area remains grassy or if it becomes an underground parking lot make sure that it is as least visible as possible," Hecht said. Campus safety is also an issue, especially in the area of increasing the number of community service officers (CSOs). The main concern of Hecht's platform is to increase cultural exchange between groups. While Hecht is not against the individual cultural organizations, he feels that the groups should co-program to educate each other. "The reason that ignorance is prevailing is because people aren't educating everyone else," he said. Previous Daily Bruin Story: Voting begins for USAC elections, May 3, 1995
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