General Representative Emily Resnick to initiate two new campus programs
Undergraduate Students Association Council General Representative Emily Resnick’s gym-traffic project, which will take photos of gym areas and link them to the UCLA Recreation website, will launch this quarter.
By Shoshee Jau
March 31, 2011 1:46 a.m.
In her election campaign, Emily Resnick promised the student body that she would provide easier access to healthy living through gym-traffic displays and a weekend farmers market.
Nearly a year later, Resnick, a general representative for the Undergraduate Students Association Council, confirmed the date of the first farmers market, which will take place April 20 from 3-7 p.m. in De Neve Plaza, providing fresh produce, displaying UCLA’s sustainability efforts and showcasing performances by student groups.
Originally, Resnick planned for the farmers market to take place each weekend in Bruin Plaza beginning November.
The event took longer than expected for her office to plan, and the past two quarters involved meeting after meeting, with the end seemingly far from sight, said Nicole Klein, a third-year linguistics and psychology student and the office’s farmers market director.
“I started meeting with administration and staff advisers in early August, and from there it has been a series of an endless amount of meetings,” she said. “Each time we took a step forward, we took a few steps back.”
Although efforts to launch the farmers market began early, the program encountered obstacles involving event safety. Because Bruin Plaza is a fire zone, the farmers market was moved to the Hill. Resnick’s office also discovered there were more details to the event than they expected, and they had to determine a safe, feasible means of relocating the Westwood farmers market to campus.
“There were various administrative requests, and the different groups we were working with had critiques and advice, and now it’s changed into something that all parties found more appealing,” Resnick said.
Resnick’s gym-traffic project is also launching this quarter, after two quarters of preparation. She said past quarters have been spent gauging student interest for the project, which will take photos of various gym areas every five seconds and link them to the UCLA Recreation website.
During winter quarter, Resnick’s office sent a survey via Facebook to measure interest and gather suggestions. Resnick said 800 to 900 students responded, and most expressed positive feedback.
“We wanted to make sure that this was not something that was just thrown together, so we sent out the survey,” she said. “We then made sure all parties involved were satisfied, and it’s been a constantly changing process for improvement.”
Kenn Heller, associate director for the Center for Student Programming, said many student-organized programs run into unforeseen logistical concerns as a result of students’ lack of familiarity with the programming process. Because UCLA will not allow events to run until they have been fully funded and adhere to specific school guidelines, student organizations may have to modify their ideas or abandon them altogether.
“It’s wonderful that people come here with ideas,” Heller said. “Is anything possible? Sure, but if you want to do something on a weekly basis, we’d say let’s do it once first and see how you can expand it later. There are some things that can only be done through commitment over time.”
Both the JazzReggae Festival and Dance Marathon began as small student-organized events that developed into annual programs.
It is difficult to bring events into full fruition in the first year because students must work around university policies concerning time, place and manner, said Berky Nelson, director of the Center for Student Programming. For example, groups cannot raise funds through gambling events or hold large programs open to the public, which may be in danger of getting out of hand.
“We evaluate the kind of event it is and see if it’s possible, so it’s not typical to have a large, amplified event on Tuesday night in Bruin Plaza,” he said.
Though both programs are expected to begin this quarter, it may take years for them to grow in scope and popularity, Klein said.
“It’s been a wild and eventful ride, full of surprises ““ you just can’t think of everything,” she said. “I’m really hoping (the farmers market) will be a huge success and that someone takes up this project next year. It would be a total waste if we didn’t do it again.”
