Friday, March 29, 2024

AdvertiseDonateSubmit
NewsSportsArtsOpinionThe QuadPhotoVideoIllustrationsCartoonsGraphicsThe StackPRIMEEnterpriseInteractivesPodcastsBruinwalkClassifieds

Submission: USAC slates should focus on effecting change, not party politics

By Aurelia Friedman

April 28, 2015 2:19 a.m.

The Undergraduate Students Association Council is supposed to be a place to affect change and create a good experience for all students. It is supposed to be inclusive. It is supposed to be inviting. It is supposed to be a positive and enriching environment.

I ran for USAC external vice president with the Bruins United slate last year to make the office more independent and inclusive. After I lost, I realized the flaw in that logic. As long as I was preaching my slate’s mantra, I was being neither independent nor inclusive. This is especially true because neither slates’ mission aligned with my vision for USAC.

I don’t regret having run for an office and fought for a cause that I am passionate about.

But in order to achieve my end goal, I cut my ties with my former slate and I did work with outside organizations, while working with my former opponent for the External Vice President’s office on a successful event. I didn’t think of ways to one-up him, but instead united to act on the change that we both envisioned.

While things did not turn out the way that I thought they would during elections, I do not regret how this year turned out.

As I see USAC becoming more and more dysfunctional because of party politics and especially after some very early negative campaigning, I have some advice for candidates this year.

Let’s be clear: The only people you are united with is each other, and the only people you are acting for is yourselves. If you really want to make meaningful change, stop name-dropping your slate every chance you get. Make genuine efforts to talk to everyone, not just the ones that support you. Wear your own shirt more often than your slate’s shirt during elections.

If you win, take it with grace and humility and don’t put your fellow Bruins down. On council, don’t meet with the councilmembers who were on your respective slates behind closed doors and strategize. When you do that, you are perpetuating the hate that was apparent during endorsements and a stigma that USAC is gridlocked in the same fashion that Congress is.

Spend more time working to act together, as a united council instead of a divided one composed of slates that are resentful of one another. And if you lose like I did, remember that there will be a space for you next year. You will find it and make that space even better.

USAC elections are for undergraduate students to choose who will best represent them. Not a popularity contest. Not a resume booster. Not an oppression olympics. Treat elections as a genuine desire to make UCLA a better place and maybe there will be a better voter turnout.

Friedman is a third-year political science student.

Share this story:FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Aurelia Friedman
COMMENTS
Featured Classifieds
More classifieds »
Related Posts