Student-led committee UNITE hopes to address campus climate issues in the UC

University of California student leaders have created a new system-wide committee to address campus climate issues for the upcoming academic year, though some students have expressed concerns about the effectiveness of the committee.

“Campus climate ““ how inclusive or hostile a campus environment is ““ has long been an unresolved problem at the University of California,” said Student Regent-designate Jonathan Stein, who is heading the project.

The committee, UNITE, had been in the works since late January. Recent incidents such as the racist and sexist vandalism of an apartment near UCLA, as well as the defacement of an Israeli flag at UC Riverside, are further proof campus climate must be addressed on a large scale, Stein said.

There is currently a separate system-wide steering committee made up of UC administrators and faculty that works on campus climate issues, said Patrick Le, the undergraduate committee chair of the University of California Student Association who also worked on creating UNITE. Le and Stein serve as the two student representatives on the steering committee.

The committee discusses and looks to improve campus climate throughout the year, said Dianne Klein, spokeswoman for the UC Office of the President.

Currently, members of the steering committee are working to create a survey for all UC students to collect and assess data regarding campus climate, which would guide their efforts for a more inclusive and welcoming environment, Klein said.

UNITE will favor a different approach, one geared toward immediate solutions, Le said.

“The administrators’ committee is well-intentioned, but I think they’re not able to address immediate issues,” Le said. “(The survey) is going to be helpful, but they are not doing much to come up with solutions that can be implemented right away.”

He also said UNITE will be more successful because it is purely student-led.

“Campus climate is a student issue; the administrators or faculty members cannot feel its impact the way we do,” Le said.

Three to five students from each UC campus will be chosen for UNITE, Stein said. The students will be selected after an application process this spring. The committee will hold monthly conference calls to discuss campus climate and possible solutions, he said.

“The idea is to create a forum for these students where they can share ideas and strategies regarding campus climate,” Stein said.

UNITE will produce an annual campus climate report starting in the 2012-2013 academic year. It will be presented to the UC Board of Regents, UC President Mark Yudof and all UC campuses in May of each year.

Some student leaders at UCLA expressed concerns about the effectiveness of UNITE. Tierra Moore, a fourth-year global studies and political science student and co-chair of the Afrikan Student Union, said she is unsure how much the committee will accomplish.

“They can discuss ideas, but what are they going to do to be more relevant and goal-oriented?” Moore said. “Something concrete, an actual action has to come out of this.”

UNITE must be more permanent than past efforts to improve campus climate, said Luis Roman, a fifth-year Chicana and Chicano studies and women’s studies student.

“Campus climate always becomes a popular issue for student leaders when something big happens that garners a lot of attention, like the apartment vandalism,” Roman said. “But it always fades away with time. People forget.”

By having regular meetings, Stein said he hopes UNITE will act as a sustained force to improve campus climate.

Additionally, campus climate is usually a local issue, but the committee will work to help implement changes beyond the campus level by coming up with solutions that will affect the entire UC system, Le said.