Bruin Diversity Initiative receives surplus of signatures, garners consideration for spring ballot
About 50 students gathered in front of Kerckhoff Hall Wednesday, as backers of the Bruin Diversity Initiative handed off about 5,000 signatures to an undergraduate student government election official.
By Daily Bruin Staff
April 10, 2013 7:53 p.m.
The original version of this article contained an error and has been changed. See the bottom of the article for additional information.
About 50 students gathered on the grassy lawn of Meyerhoff Park in front of Kerckhoff Hall Wednesday, as backers of the Bruin Diversity Initiative handed off about 5,000 signatures to an undergraduate student government election official.
The initiative proposes a $9.93 quarterly fee increase to provide funding for on-campus programs that address issues such as campus retention, access to education and campus climate.
The rally was in support of the student-initiated Bruin Diversity Initiative, which received enough signatures for the initiative to be added to the undergraduate student government ballot this spring. Supporters of the initiative held the rally to celebrate gathering more than the required number of signatures to place it on the ballot.
The 5,000-signature estimate was reached around noon, said Brittany Bolden, a fourth-year sociology student, retention coordinator for the Afrikan Student Union, vice chair of the Campus Retention Committee and former Daily Bruin video contributor.
During the rally, the organizers gave all of the signatures to the Undergraduate Students Association Council Election Board chair Dana Pede.
USAC members in support of putting the referendum on the ballot, including external vice president Lana Habib El-Farra and General Representative 2 Carly Yoshida, spoke at the rally and encouraged students to hold their student government accountable.
“Students have the right to vote for things that affect them directly,” Yoshida said at the rally.
USAC officers who voted down the proposal last week said they did so because there was not enough time to review it. Some of them also questioned whether the proposal would be beneficial to the majority of the student body, according to Daily Bruin archives.
Moving forward, the Election Board will stamp the signatures to designate that they received them, and will then send the signatures to the Dean of Students for verification, Pede said.
The Dean’s office will then verify that the initiative received the minimum number of student signatures, Geller said.
After verifying the signatures, the office will send the initiative to the University of California Office of the President General Counsel, which will make sure the language of the initiative is in agreement with university policies and laws, Geller said.
From there, the initiative will go to Chancellor Gene Block for approval, and can then be placed on the ballot, she said.
USAC plans to finalize the ballot next Tuesday and will only be able to confirm and authorize the ballot, not remove the initiative from it, Geller said.
Correction: USAC external vice president Lana Habib El-Farra and General Representative 2 Carly Yoshida support putting the referendum on the ballot.
