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Progress in fulfilling USAC resolutions vary

By Kat Bocanegra Speed

Sept. 18, 2015 9:15 p.m.

Each year, the undergraduate student government passes several resolutions to express its formal opinion on an issue, but councilmembers often have difficulty fulfilling the ideas expressed in the resolutions.

Resolutions aim to represent the student body’s views. Councilmembers use resolutions to signal to the administration that they want a change in campus climate or policy and use the resolution to pressure administration.

Last year’s Undergraduate Students Association Council passed 15 resolutions. Many resolutions call on the administration to enact changes that students desire, but some resolutions include a plan for how USAC will act on its opinion.

Three of the resolutions passed last year are in different steps in the progress of fulfilling their goals. A resolution in support of a non-denominational prayer space is in the progress of overcoming obstacles identified last year, while a resolution in support of a transfer center still faces problems with finding space on campus. A resolution to recognize the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr. has been followed up with action by student groups, but not from the student government.

Non-denominational prayer space

USAC passed a resolution in support of a non-denominational prayer space on April 14 and called on the UCLA administration to create this space on campus. USAC General Representative Aaliya Khan said she worked on the resolution last year with former General Representative Manjot Singh.

Khan said she and Singh presented a rough plan about creating a prayer and meditation space to Associated Students UCLA after the resolution passed. Singh said his office used the resolution as leverage in the meeting with ASUCLA to show students supported the creation of a prayer space. He added the board supported the idea, but did not have funds to create a new space dedicated to prayer. Khan said she is meeting with ASUCLA in the fall to discuss repurposing an existing room in Ackerman due to funding concerns.

Abdullah Haikal, Muslim Student Association President and fourth-year sociology student, said he met with Khan about two months ago to check on the progress of the prayer space. Haikal said students often have to pray outside in the heat because there is not a designated spot on campus where they can pray.

Haikal added he didn’t understand the delays in creating a prayer space because it could be housed in an existing room.

“This room is not just catered toward Muslim students, but also for Buddhists, Sikhs and for anyone that wants to meditate,” Haikal said. “Having a quiet and comfortable place to pray or meditate is very valuable.”

Transfer center

USAC passed another resolution on April 14 in support of creating a dedicated transfer center that provides additional resources to transfer students.

Rick Matsumoto, a fourth-year business economics student who worked in the office of former Transfer Student Representative Negeen Sadeghi-Movahed, said Sadeghi-Movahed met with the Student Activities Center Board of Governors and the ASUCLA Board of Directors about creating and finding space for a transfer center. He added that such a center would house existing resources and include new resources as well.

He said they wrote and passed the resolution to show the administration that a transfer center was something the transfer community needed and the student body wanted. Matsumoto said the biggest challenge is finding a large, physical space for the center to be housed.

Transfer Student Representative Ariel Rafalian said he envisions the transfer center described in the resolution as a place that centralizes existing resources to make it easier for students to access them. He said he has worked with Heather Adams, the transfer student program coordinator, to talk to administration about where a transfer center could be located on campus. He added that all of the resources for a transfer center exist and the only missing factor is the funding from the administration for a building or space.

He added some leaders in the transfer community were concerned the resources available are not being used and questioned whether the center would be worth the time and money. Rafalian said the problem that transfer students face is not a lack of resources, but difficulty finding and accessing them.

“The reality is a transfer center might not get here when we are still here, but we have to use the resources that we have,” Rafalian said. “The transfer office is trying to make accessing them easier for our transfer students.”

Honoring Martin Luther King Jr.

Members of the Afrikan Student Union wrote a resolution to honor the legacy of King, which was sponsored by USAC members, Singh said. It called for an educational program to be played at Janss Steps on the fourth Tuesday in April and for the campus tours to incorporate King’s speech into the script for every tour given.

Singh said he only co-sponsored the resolution and did not follow through on the positions it laid out. Janay Williams, a fifth-year ecology and evolutionary biology student who wrote the resolution, said it was mostly the Afrikan Student Union that wrote the resolution and is working to follow up with the administration.

Williams said the Afrikan Student Union will hold the program at Janss Steps this April, but will play a different speech than the one King gave at UCLA. She said the group has not spoken to campus tours yet because they are still figuring out how they would like King’s story to be told.

Undergraduate Admissions Director Gary Clark said references to King’s speech at Janss Steps have been incorporated into the virtual tour of UCLA and the training for new tour guides. Clark said his colleagues and staff thought King’s speech was an important historical event to incorporate into the tour of the campus. He said he did not believe that USAC’s resolution was responsible for the change.

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Kat Bocanegra Speed
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