USAC recap – March 31

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 a resolution for USAC to collaborate with Assemblyman Rob Bonta on AB 7, a bill in the California legislature to establish a day celebrating Larry Itliong, a leader of the Delano farmworkers movement alongside Cesar Chavez. A Resolution To Recognize the Contribution of Pilipino Farm Workers in the Delano Labor Movement also says that USAC will work with Pilipino/a student groups for the establishment of Pilipino Studies at UCLA.
• Councilmembers approved changes to the election calendar to ensure groups can endorse candidates before publicity campaigns launch. Candidate debates moved from April 24 to April 26 to avoid conflicts with the JazzReggae Festival. Group endorsement orientation moved up to April 8 to give student groups more time to prepare for endorsement hearings later in the election process. The endorsement slips deadline also moved up to April 22. Campus sign boards will now go up on April 27.
• The council voted to delay the approval of fund allocations to the election board and reserved $1,000 of discretionary funds to potentially allocate at its next meeting. The funds were requested to establish voting incentives for the 2015 spring undergraduate elections.
• Councilmembers approved contingency programming fund allocations of about $4,600 with a vote of 10-0-1. Cultural Affairs Commissioner Irmary Garcia abstained.
• Council allocated about $190,000 of Associated Students UCLA Board of Directors funds to student groups. The highest allocation was about $7,000 to the American Indian Student Association. Budget Review Director Justine Pascual changed the formula she uses to determine fund allocations, separating groups by the size of their request before dividing a portion of ASU/BOD programming funds to them.
• Councilmembers discussed former Facilities Commissioner Carlos Quintanilla’s resignation March 26 and the deadline for applications for his vacated position.

Special presentations

• Jodutt Basrawi made a special presentation about Syrian Revolution Week this week, which will focus on fundraising for the the Syrian Sunrise Foundation and creating cultural awareness by commemorating the Syrian people.

• Representatives from the Academic Affairs Commission office and External Vice President’s office made a special presentation on the diversity requirement student rally. Their offices are working on e-mailing professors and encouraging them to vote in favor of the diversity requirement. The rally will be on Thursday and a UCLA teach-in educating students about the importance of taking classes representative of other cultures and lifestyles will take place Tuesday.

Officer reports

• President Avinoam Baral said he and other UC student government members will be meeting in Gov. Jerry Brown’s office to hear his perspective on Friday. The UC Office of the President will be hosting a round table for students to express their concerns to Janet Napolitano Tuesday.
• Internal Vice President Heather Hourdequin said her office is holding the Spring Activities Fair on April 1. She added that her office completed the common funding application and is waiting for it be approved before student groups can use it to request USAC allocations.
• External Vice President Conrad Contreras said that UC President Janet Napolitano will be hosting a national summit about undocumented students issues on May 7 to 8.
• General Representative 1 Manjot Singh said he will be helping with educational events about Holi to increase cultural awareness about the festival.
• Academic Affairs Commissioner Allyson Bach asked all councilmembers to support and attend the diversity requirement student rally. She added that there will be an online education forum on Thursday at 5pm in Ackerman 3508.
• A proxy for Student Wellness Commissioner Savannah Badalich reminded councilmembers that week five is not only voting week, but also Bruin Health week.
• Transfer Student Representative Negeen Sadeghi­-Movahed said her office is working on developing resources for students post-graduation to reflect feedback from transfer students.
• Administrative representative Debra Geller said UCLA will be hosting a series of focus groups in late April to get student input on policies about sexual violence, prevention and response.

Compiled by Catherine Liberty Feliciano, Bruin senior staff.