Students First! Slate Second: Organizations should prioritize a strong political voice and platform over internal disagreements

Our upcoming Undergraduate Students Association Council elections, already marked by the withdrawal of several organizations from the Students First! coalition, are starting on an unnecessarily factional tone.

The internal struggles of Students First! aside, a potentially uncontested election for student government will accomplish little when left with no challengers to provoke new, progressive ideas for the UCLA community.

In such an atmosphere, political efficiency is difficult to find.

To highlight this, I direct your attention to two over-arching observations: The vagueness of the American Indian Student Association, the Pacific Islands Student Association and the Vietnamese Student Union’s public explanations of their withdrawal from the Students First! coalition, and the recent decision made by members of Students First! not to run a slate in the upcoming USAC elections.

According to a submission run in the Daily Bruin last week authored by the presidents of the groups that seceded from Students First!, they feel that partners of SF! have forced political viewpoints onto them and that SF! has fallen short of its mission and adherence to community engagement, access and diversity.

The withdrawn organizations stated they continued to support such values and communal principles.

But an emphasis on divisions among coalition members rather than on an effort toward mediation and unity amounts to a dodging of different perspectives and challenges.

These groups might ask themselves: Is a withdrawal from Students First! on the basis of seemingly vague, unspecified reasons worth the loss of a formal political platform once found in the coalition?

It does not seem to matter much to know the details of the fallout since coalitions come together and fall apart often, said Daniel Tully, a first-year law student.

But if the organizations have withdrawn because such an action allows them to uphold access and community engagement, then it is necessary for them to abide by these same standards and communicate transparently the reasons that prompted a split.

None of the presidents undersigned on the submission could be reached for comment.

Student government is also confronted with potential challenges from upcoming USAC elections.

The possibility of numerous uncontested positions in student government would be unprecedented, said Berky Nelson, a USAC administrative representative.

One of the most effective and practical ways of representation and active participation on campus is through student government. Given Students First!’s decision not to run candidates in the upcoming elections, it may be minimizing the organization’s political voice.

Also, student organizations that would have supported SF! may now be left without a voice in the elections.

But Students First! has sought out other methods of student engagement to push forth issues that students on campus care about, said Matt Spring, an alumnus and the Students First! presidential candidate last year.

A movement away from a prominent political office, however, constrains the options with which Students First! can engage with the student community.

Spring added that although Students First! chose not to run candidates, there will nonetheless be a strong, progressive presence involved in the election process since there are always independents or new slates that emerge each year.

But the strength of independents and newcomers remains shaky if we consider that the strength of any slate comes from the block of voter support and financial funds.

Nelson said there is no platform for an opposition coalition, since issues related to prior platforms were not sufficiently strong enough to get a group of students to band together and create a new coalition.

Internal issues have transcended what the normal party issues would be, and there is no dominant concern that was able to mitigate the internal disagreements for what would have been an oppositional slate, he added.

Running uncontested removes the backdrop against which a candidate can sharpen his or her own voice. It also reduces the political liveliness that accompanies competition and interest in student government.

To remedy the trivially factional atmosphere surrounding student government, it is necessary to substitute it with a more concrete emphasis on practical issues such as affordability and academics that relate to all students rather than a select few organizations once part of a whole.

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