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Friday, 5/30/97 Proposed bylaw would stabilize student groups' budgets USAC: Current council's amendment allows only small changes each year

By Stefanie Wong Daily Bruin Staff The end of the current Undergraduate Student Association Council's (USAC) administration will likely see the development of a bylaw amendment and additions to the Election Code. Academic Affairs Commissioner Max Espinoza is currently developing a bylaw that he believes will help USAC offices and student groups with their budgets. The Budget Stabilization Amendment will allow budgets to only increase or decrease by a certain percentage from year to year. "What's happened in the past is sometimes there have been dramatic cuts and dramatic increases, and these situations have not always been good ones for the USAC offices or student groups," Espinoza said. The goal of the amendment is to make the budgets more "predictable, reliable and stable, and enhance the offices and student groups' ability to do things," Espinoza added. But concerns have been raised by members of the council, targeting the idea that sometimes drastic budget changes are necessary. For example, if a USAC office or student group wants to be more ambitious than the following year's and therefore needs more money, the budgetary limits may restrict their ability to meet their goals. Also, some student groups that currently receive no money could be shut out by the new bylaw, which would not allow them an increase in funding. Council members are still researching the matter, and Espinoza is specifically looking at the budgeting trends of USAC and the student groups over the past 10 years. If the research shows that such an amendment will be beneficial, then Espinoza will propose the bylaw change this summer before budgets for the 1997-98 academic year are established. In addition, current USAC President John Du is working on election code guidelines that will enable USAC to recognize political slates. The controversy created during this year's student government elections over a USAC-paid advertisement in the Daily Bruin sparked Du's work on this issue. "In the history of student government, we have never had any type of guidelines that define what a slate is," Du said. "This has caused major confusion when it comes to campaigning. "What we're trying to do now is to take the initiative and come up with guidelines which will hopefully define what slates are," he added. According to Du, most council members have not expressed opposition to his idea and have been supportive. "I think council members see the need to take the initiative, and it's our responsibility to set up guidelines that will ensure fairness and efficiency," Du said. However, some members have expressed the need to be cautious about the matter. "I don't want to pass judgement on his proposal yet because I have not seen an actual copy, but we need to be careful when we attempt to change any of our guiding documents," Espinoza said. The proposed guidelines have not been formalized but may be ready to be voted on by USAC before the end of the year. Du may also decide to not present the guidelines this year and allow the new student council to address the issue. Many of the changes that the outgoing council makes to the bylaws are usually done at the end of the year, just weeks before the new USAC takes office. But USAC has the option of making changes throughout the year, which is what this year's council members have done. Some of the bylaw changes that have already been made include changes in student-group sponsorship by USAC and modifications to the duties of the general representatives office. The role of the general representatives was updated to create a "more clear concept of what the office does and the duties entail," said general representative Michelle Gosom. The changes were made before the Spring Quarter so that students running for the position during USAC elections would know exactly what the position required, Gosom said. Related Links:USAC Bylaws