Students pass referendum funding arts programming
Irmary Garcia, just elected Cultural Affairs commissioner, celebrates her win with Devin Murphy, the USAC president-elect. Garcia will now be in charge of administering the newly created “Arts Restoring Community” fund for student groups’ cultural and arts-related events.
By Jasmine Aquino
May 9, 2014 5:56 p.m.
This post was updated on May 11 at 10:30 p.m.
Students approved a $1.55 quarterly fee increase Friday to create a specific pool of funds for cultural and arts-related programs.
The ballot measure passed with 54.5 percent, or 4,030 votes, in this year’s undergraduate student government election.
“I honestly didn’t think it would pass because we didn’t do as much outreach as we could have,” said Carlos Quintanilla, a student who helped draft the ballot who was elected USAC Facilities commissioner on Friday. “It’s important in preserving the arts programs already on campus.”
The Arts Restoring Community referendum will increase student fees each quarter starting in the fall. The fee will not apply during summer and will be adjusted in line with inflation every academic year according to the Los Angeles County’s Consumer Price Index.
As dictated by university policy, 25 percent of the fee will be returned to students in the form of financial aid.
The referendum will provide about $40,000 more each quarter for the Undergraduate Students Association Council Cultural Affairs Commission to fund programs that educate students about arts- or culture-related topics.
A proposed fee increase on last year’s undergraduate student election ballot that sought to increase fees by $9.93 every quarter was rejected by 52.1 percent of the vote.
The Social Awareness Network for Activism through Art, an organization that addresses social issues through artistic expression, and the USAC Cultural Affairs Commission drafted the referendum amid what they said were financial struggles for students hosting cultural and arts programs.
The organizations said they don’t think existing funds, such as the USA Contingency Programming Fund, are sufficient to pay for cultural events, which can cost more than other student group events.
“It was in the air, something you’d hear a lot about,” said Youmun Alhlou, a third-year international developmental studies student who attended the announcement of the USAC election results with Bruins United. “It’s something that needed to happen.”
Some students opposed the referendum because they said they felt student groups already have enough funding programs to apply to. They added that student groups could aim to be more self-sufficient or eco-friendly to cut down on programming costs.
Revenue from the referendum will be directed to the USAC Cultural Affairs Commission, which will allocate the money to different student groups under the guidance of a committee within the commission. The guidelines for distributing the funds are still tentative.
Irmary Garcia, the newly elected Cultural Affairs commissioner from LET’S ACT!, said she does not have specific plans on how to allocate the money to student groups yet. She plans to meet with Quintanilla and her committee chiefs soon to formulate a plan.
“My tentative idea is to put that money into our mini-fund that is allocated to art and cultural based programming, but I also want to hear what (Quintanilla) envisioned for it,” Garcia said.
