Chancellor offers board harsh choice

Monday, May 13, 1996

Young pushes students association to remove elected student
officialsBy Michael Angell

and Patrick Kerkstra

Daily Bruin Senior Staff

His tone was conciliatory, but his message was hard.

Chancellor Charles Young, in a rare but significant visit to the
students’ association (ASUCLA) board of directors Friday, repeated
publicly an order issued over a month ago ­ remove elected
student office-holders from the board, or suffer the potentially
severe consequences of his personal involvement.

This same message was defied by a handful of undergraduate board
members last month. Attempting to placate Young’s demands with a
compromise, they agreed to remove student body presidents from the
board, but defeated a plan that would remove all elected
officers.

At Friday’s meeting, Young made it clear that he rejected that
compromise. Reaffirming his order to remove elected student
officials, Young also touched on the association’s historical
claims of independence from the university.

"I hope you’ll not try to turn this into some kind of power
struggle, because I don’t want to see you lose," Young told the
board. "And in a power struggle, I know who’s going to win."

Despite the association’s relative day-to-day autonomy, Young
has ultimate responsibility for the organization, particularly when
it involves its precarious financial situation.

Presently, the university and the association are discussing the
terms of a $20 million loan to the financially troubled
association, a circumstance which gives Young even further leverage
over the association.

Young is convinced that one root cause of the association’s
current instability is the "political milieu" it has operated under
in the past ­ an atmosphere he feels was worsened by the
presence of elected office-holders on the board.

"It is the increasing politicization of ASUCLA that has brought
it to the position we’re in," Young said.

"The board members need to be exercising their own judgements,"
Young said. "This will occur if there’s greater separation between
ASUCLA and student government."

While many board members support Young’s plan, a clear faction
remain strongly opposed to it. The group, comprised mostly of
undergraduates on the board, are enough to keep the board from
adopting Young’s plan.

"We’ve had an elected officer on the board this year and a
president on the board this year," said Dan Ryu, an undergraduate
student board member. "I would challenge anybody to point to a
fiscally irresponsible or political decision made by this board
because of their influence."

Their resistance to the restructuring plan may force Young to
step in and personally change the board to meet his standards
­ a move which could have massive implications for the
association.

"You guys are playing a huge game of chess and if you keep going
its going to be who flinches first," alumni board member Allen
Latta told the faction opposing Young.

"If the board refuses to change in position, I predict that the
chancellor will take over this board, and I think he has every
right to. You’re playing chicken and we can’t win."

Although Young acknowledged that he would take action if the
board refused his plan, he said repeatedly that was a situation he
would prefer to avoid.

"If I have to act, I will act reluctantly, I will act with
sadness, I will take the most minimal action I can take that will
resolve the matter," Young said.

Eager to avoid Young’s intervention as well, undergraduate
representatives proposed removing officeholders from the board and
making seats on the board themselves elected positions.

"It’s not necessarily that we want elected officials or student
government officers to sit on the board, but what we do want is
strong leadership and connection to the students," Ryu said, saying
this plan would keep board members accountable to students.

Although Young was initially receptive to the new compromise, he
appeared to back away from the idea towards the end of the meeting,
saying he would have to look at if further.

The current debate over restructuring ASUCLA’s board began over
a year ago.

Last year, an internal association restructuring committee was
formed to see what changes could be made to the board to increase
the association’s declining financial fortunes. The committee,
after months of exhaustive discussion, suggested that the board
implement the plans Young has now adopted.

But the full board narrowly rejected the committee’s
proposals.

Three undergraduate and three graduate students make up six of
the the 10 member board, which has become sharply divided over the
issue of restructuring.

All three undergraduate members, Ryu, Reyes Valenzuela and
Undergraduate President York Chang have been joined by Graduate
President John Shapley in fighting the proposed changes. At least
seven votes are needed to change the board’s structure.

Chang and the others believe that the power of the student
majority is being slowly eroded. Chang saw Young’s lobbying efforts
to change the board more as a further symptom of diminishing
student influence.

"The student-majority board made a decision (to remove
presidents from the board)," Chang said. "And now the chancellor is
coming to a meeting to tell us what to do."

But other board members argued that Chang and others were taking
an unrealistic position.

"We need money ­ period," administrative representative
Dorothy Webster said. "It seems to me that we need to remain
financially viable. It (a student majority ) becomes a moot point
if there’s no money with it."

The association’s Board of Directors will formally vote on the
restructuring proposal at their next meeting.

FRED HE/Daily Bruin

UCLA Chancellor Charles Young addressed the students
association’s financial problems in a special ASUCLA meeting held
Friday.