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USAC holds closed session to discuss Financial Supports Comissioner Rustom Birdie’s involvement with Jobbook

USAC MEETING DETAILS

The Undergraduate Students Association Council is the official student government of UCLA's undergraduate students. Council meetings are Tuesdays at 7 p.m. in Kerckhoff 417 and are open to all students.

  • President Jasmine Hill finished filming "A Day Without USAC," a documentary of the council's projects and its impact on everyday student life.
    Hill will also be meeting with Chancellor Gene Block to discuss the allocation of funds, specifically addressing the need to further support programs that directly support student learning.
  • External Vice President Cristopher Santos will be sending letters to local media to voice his concern with the national budget's limit on Cal Grants and express universities' need to decrease the cost of instruction.
  • Finance Committee Chair Isaac Rose's contingency allocations were passed with an unanimous vote of 12-0-0.

SOURCE: Undergraduate Students Association Council meeting
Compiled by Kate Parkinson-Morgan and Shoshee Jau, Bruin reporters.

By Kate Parkinson-Morgan and Shoshee Jau

Feb. 16, 2011 1:33 a.m.

Undergraduate student government closed a portion of its weekly meeting to reporters for the first time in the academic year.

The closed session was held Tuesday night in the middle of what became the longest meeting of the year so far for the Undergraduate Students Association Council.

During the closed session, USAC discussed a Daily Bruin article in which Financial Supports Commissioner Rustom Z. Birdie was reported to have accepted stock in a private company in return for promoting it ““ a move that is at odds with university policy.

At the beginning of the meeting, Birdie requested the article be discussed by the council, to which USAC President Jasmine Hill agreed.

According to the article, Birdie met with the creator of Jobbook.com, a website designed to match prospective employees with employers across the country. He told The Bruin in an interview Saturday that he would receive 1,000 shares of the company for his involvement in promoting the site.

After receiving advice from a paralegal service, Birdie decided to defer acceptance of the shares until after his term ends. In a second interview Monday night, he changed his mind, stating he had not yet decided if he will accept the shares and is not obligated to do so.

Because USAC’s discussion on Birdie’s involvement with Jobbook was closed to reporters, The Bruin could not confirm if any decision regarding the matter had been made, or what was said at that portion of the meeting. Hill said USAC and Birdie’s offices will issue statements within the next week.

Before the council moved to close session, it discussed a potentially significant policy change about election procedures.

In a special presentation, the Election Board announced a proposal to amend the election code. If passed, it would shorten USAC endorsement hearings to a single session and institute a plurality voting system for electing general representatives.

In past elections, general representatives have been selected according to a single transferable vote system, in which candidates who meet a certain quota are elected.

If a candidate has more votes than the quota requires, the excess votes go to the voter’s second and third preferences. If a voter’s preference has no chance of winning, the vote is similarly allocated to the second and third choices.

“This is a more direct system, and hopefully it will increase student voter turnout because it’s less confusing,” said Patrick Ahrens, election board chair and fourth-year political science student. “The old election system prolonged the election process and was more expensive because we had to hold a runoff election.”

However, some council members said they were concerned the plurality system would favor one slate and decrease chances for independent candidates. Slates are groups of candidates who pool their resources and run on similar platforms, comparable to political parties.

Because past election results indicate that students usually vote based on slate, the three winning candidates are likely to be from the same slate, said Thach Nguyen, fifth-year cognitive science student and former USAC general representative.

“In the (single transferable vote system), if the person you liked the most can’t win, you can still help No. 2 or No. 3 in your party,” Nguyen said. “The plurality system wouldn’t allow that to happen. Across the line, if (slate) Students First! wins, all their candidates will win, and that doesn’t really result in equal representation.”

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Kate Parkinson-Morgan
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