USAC recap – Sept. 6

The Undergraduate Students Association Council is the official student government that represents the undergraduate student body at UCLA. Council meetings take place every Tuesday at 7 p.m. in Kerckhoff 417 and are open to all students. Watch a livestream of the meetings on the USAC Live! YouTube channel.

Agenda items

• External Vice President Rafi Sands and Community Service Commissioner Zack Dameron presented their plan to register 15,000 new students to vote with the BruinsVOTE! coalition. They also stressed the importance of young people voting and its impact on issues students care about, like support for higher education.

• Sands said different clubs that make up the coalition would be responsible for registering voters in different places. For example, Vote for our Future will knock on doors on the Hill this fall, while the external vice president’s office will hold events on Bruinwalk to encourage people to register, Sands added.

• Dameron said his office will emphasize the civic engagement aspect of getting involved in the election. He added members of his office will register first-years and transfers in line for buses at Volunteer Day.

• The council unanimously approved Dianna Cheung to the Campus Programs Committee, which oversees funding for educational or cultural programs of interest to the student body.

• The council also unanimously approved rising second-year political science student Jennifer Harbeck as Office Space Allocation Committee chairperson, who administers the periodic reallocation of organizational space within Kerckhoff Hall.

• The council approved by consent Marbella Avalos to the Student Conduct Committee, and Eleanor Hunts and Sophie Butler to the Sustainability Committee. They also approved Jack Guo as USAC Internship Engagement Chair, Leopoldo Albea and Jade Allison-Robles to the John Wooden Center Board of Governors and Mi So Kwak to the Committee on Disability.

Officer reports

• President Danny Siegel said he met with Roy Champawat, director of Student Union, about recycling uneaten food so it doesn’t go wasted. Siegel also said he met with representatives from Under Armour, an apparel maker that UCLA signed a multimillion-dollar deal with earlier this year, to see if there was a way to get the company to sponsor clothing for student organizations.

• Sands said he met with Rep. Loretta Sanchez, candidate for the U.S. Senate while she was on campus Tuesday to talk about higher education with UCLA faculty and students. He also announced his office will publish a regular newsletter so students can stay informed on his office’s work.

• Academic Affairs Commissioner Ashly Mohankumar said she spoke with members of the Graduate Students Association about the need for more teaching assistants in light of increased undergraduate enrollment. She added her office would collaborate with GSA on a survey in an attempt to find out which classes need more teaching assistants or discussion sections.