USAC recap – Jan. 6

The Undergraduate Students Association Council is the official student government representing the undergraduate student body at UCLA. Council meetings take place every week on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. in Kerckhoff Hall 417 and are open to all students. Watch a live stream of the meeting on the USAC Live! Youtube Channel.

Agenda

• Council unanimously approved contingency fund allocations.
• Academic Success Referendum Fund of $13,439 was approved by consent.
• Council unanimously approved to change next week’s council meeting time to 8 p.m. in Carnesale Commons.

Special presentations

• A special presentation was given by Cultural Affairs Commission staff members informing councilmembers about the Jazz Reggae Festival’s funding last year, which encountered unexpected costs of almost $80,000. In order to have a buffer and to cut costs, the festival will be shortened to one day on April 25 and will be held in the Los Angeles Tennis Center, which has a capacity of 7,000 as opposed to the IM field which accommodated about 12,000 people. Cultural Affairs Commission staff members said profits are held in a Jazz Reggae reserve to make the festival more sustainable and cover unexpected costs and lost money.

Officer reports

• USAC Internal Vice President Heather Hourdequin said Consent Week and Transfer Appreciation Week will be held during third week. Transfer Appreciation Day is on Jan. 20 and will have resources such as study abroad representatives present at the event.
• External Vice President Conrad Contreras said there will be a legislator day-long meet and greet to address and work toward tangible solutions to campus climate issues.
• Academic Affairs Commissioner Allyson Bach said there will be a survey about MyUCLA launched by third week that will ask students to suggest improvements on the site and extending the class planner. The Undergraduate Student Initiated Education program, which offers students the opportunity to develop and teach a class with the help of a mentor, is accepting applications for recruitment. This year, Bach said she wants to webcast the information session to allow more students to have access to the opportunity and find more qualified candidates. On Thursday, Bach will meet with the Academic Senate to discuss the new vote on the diversity requirement and ways to advocate for the requirement. The vote on Feb. 12 will be a faculty-wide vote.
• Student Wellness Commissioner Savannah Badalich said she will be meeting with a legislator to ask for increased funding for mental health services because they directly relate to sexual and domestic violence, and for those services to go beyond college campuses. Badalich reiterated that consent week will be held during third week and will include an art gallery and photo series investigating men and masculinity and how it relates to sexual violence, a day fair and LGBT day, among other events each day of the week. Badalich also said that express yourself week will be held on fourth week and will aim to encourage students to express themselves and their mental health through creative writing, spoken word, dance and fitness. On Jan. 24 there will be a “stress less” fair, and CPR and first aid classes will be made available for students. Week seven will be “I love my body” week and there will be a breast series in the Kerckhoff art gallery related to the “free the nipple” movement.
• Transfer Student Representative Negeen Sadeghi-Movahed reiterated that Transfer Pride Week will also be held during third week. Events will include a scavenger hunt on student involvement day on Wednesday as well as the toast to transfers, a business casual mixer. On Thursday, there will be a transfer success and support day focused on post graduate success. Sadeghi-Movahed said the new website for UCLA transfer students is still being developed and will include a page of resources for transfer students and the #bruintransfer project which will feature transfer students.

Compiled by Alejandra Reyes-Velarde, Bruin contributor.