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Let the race begin: a final approach…

By Daily Bruin Staff

April 30, 1996 9:00 p.m.

Tuesday, April 30, 1996

Students First! slate has proven vision, experience ­ and
results

By John Du

It’s springtime. The birds are singing. The bees are buzzing
away. Amidst the beautiful weather and chirping birds, though, a
team of students called Students First! is campaigning hard for the
Undergraduate Student Association Council elections to ensure that
the council continues to put Students First!

Putting students first does not mean talking a big game without
proven experience and proven results to show for it. It does not
mean starting to care about issues only one month before student
elections when you have been inactive all year long. Finally, it
does not mean dividing the campus by attacking students of color
and their issues while calling for a false sense of unity.

Putting Students First! means having proven experience. It means
consistently fighting for students even when we are not running for
office. It means being principled enough to take difficult stances
without compromising our beliefs.

Putting Students First! means really working on relevant issues
such as decreasing reg fees so students don’t have to work 30 to 40
hours a week and mortgage our futures by taking out more loans. It
means advocating for financial aid so that over 60 percent of UCLA
students who receive financial aid can afford an education. It
means fighting for affirmative action so that students who have
suffered from historic and current discrimination will have a right
to attend a university.

It means negotiating a $6 per hour student minimum wage to
conform with new university guidelines which require that all
financial aid recipients make at least $6 per hour in order to even
be eligible for financial aid. It means fighting for lower prices
by restructuring ASUCLA towards fiscal stability ­ not by
firing student employees and cutting student services.

It means establishing more student services. It means defending
the 5,000 UCLA students who are legal immigrants against proposed
legislation which will deny them financial aid and fundamental
human rights.

This year, the Students First! council has effectively fought to
keep the doors of education open. Here are some of our successes.
We:

* CREATED a campus-wide Booklending Program

* SAVED $700 per student by defeating two proposed fee hikes

* LOBBIED to restore $17 billion in financial aid

* PRESSURED regents to delay elimination of affirmative
action

* DEVELOPED four new student-run outreach programs

* INCREASED funding for all student groups

* FOUGHT for flexible dorm meal plans, and

* IMPLEMENTED a Scholarship Resource Center at no extra cost to
students.

These victories were achieved because Students First! was able
to organize students and utilize our strength in numbers to hold
administrators and decision-makers accountable to the needs of
students.

The so-called "United Students," composed primarily of
fraternity and sorority candidates, has run an incredibly venomous
and dishonest hate campaign to smear these real victories. When
people attack Students First!, they are attacking you, the student
body, because the victories above were achieved by you ­
registering to vote, signing postcards, calling your regents and
coming out to rallies.

Next year is going to be a very decisive year for students
because it is a U.S. presidential election year. The fate of our
reg fees, financial aid and our overall access to education is at
stake. We need a student government that has experience in
organizing students on a campus, state and national level. We need
a student government that has a clearly articulated plan instead of
just name-calling and empty rhetoric. We need a student government
that will put Students First!

Du is a candidate for undergraduate president.

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