USAC recap – Sept. 8

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 417 and are open to all students. Watch a live stream of the meeting on the USAC Live! Youtube Channel.

Agenda

• The council unanimously appointed Leila Reyes, a rising fifth-year political science student, as the chair of the Student Initiated Outreach Committee.
• The council unanimously appointed an allocation of $1,066 from the Contingency Programming Fund.

Officer reports

• President Heather Rosen said she met with legislators to discuss about SB 376, which was introduced in February. The bill would force the University of California to only hire contractors who are will receive the same benefits and pay as UC workers who do similar work.
• Internal Vice President Heather Hourdequin said that the state senate and assembly passed SB 695, which requires high schools with existing health classes to teach students about affirmative consent. She said that she discussed this bill with Assembly member Richard Bloom a few weeks ago. Hourdequin also added that Herstory, a campaign to celebrate womanhood at UCLA, has relaunched their page and are looking for potential interviewees to be featured on the website. Hourdequin said that she had a meeting with Pamela Cysner, a Student Organizations, Leadership and Engagement advisor, to discuss planning for a SOLE resource fair for student groups.
• Academic Affairs Commissioner Trent Kajikawa said that he met with Corey Hollis, director of academic advising, to discuss plans to create a website where students can schedule counseling appointments online. Kajikawa said that Hollis’ department is looking to hire an additional counselor because he said the wait to see a counselor can be as long as one to two hours. Kajikawa said that he is working with University Registrar Frank Wada to create a focus group which will help students navigate the new MyUCLA class enrollment system. A long-term goal Kajikawa said he is working on is to create a virtual, live counseling website on MyUCLA, where students can ask a question and will be directed to the right sources. Kajikawa said that he met with Patricia Turner, the vice provost of undergraduate education, to discuss retention efforts. Kajikawa said he met with Chair of the Academic Senate Joel Aberbach to review the new minors which students can take. Kajikawa said he will be meeting with staff from the Associated Students UCLA Communications Board to discuss plans to improve the BruinWalk website, a site run by Student Media which allows students to rate their professors. Kajikawa said that currently some professors are hesitant to have the resource available to students. Kajikawa said he met with the Tony Sandoval, the director of the Community Programs Office, and wants to make sure his commission is supporting the various committees under the CPO. Kajikawa said he wants to improve UCLA’s Wi-Fi infrastructure but is still awaiting a response from information technology staff.
• Student Wellness Commissioner Marvin Chen said he met with Dr. David Baron, the executive director of the Ashe Center, and Rena Orenstein, a lecturer from the Department of Community Health Sciences, to come up with strategies to improve the Ashe Center’s outreach to students. Chen said he talked with Mick Deluca, the assistant vice chancellor of campus life, and discussed plans to install sunscreen dispensers over campus.

Compiled by Nicholas Yu, Bruin senior staff.