USAC recap – Nov. 10

The Undergraduate Students Association Council is the official student government representing the undergraduate student body at UCLA. Council meetings usually take place every week on Tuesdays at 7 p.m. in Kerckhoff 417 and are open to all students. This week’s meeting took place on Thursday. Watch a live stream of the meeting on the USAC Live! YouTube channel.

Special presentations

• Zehra Abbas, a fifth-year history student, talked about her struggles as a parenting student due to the lack of resources available at UCLA. Abbas suggested changes to improve the lives of parenting students at UCLA, such as giving parenting students priority enrollment, increasing access to childcare options or providing scholarships like those at other UC campuses.

• USAC President Danny Siegel responded that part of the Social Justice Referendum fund will go into supporting students with dependents, but a committee is still in the process of finding out how to effectively distribute it.

Agenda

• Siegel appointed third-year psychology student Brian Kohaya to the Faculty Welfare Committee.

• The council approved an allocation of $5,555 for the Contingency Programming Fund.

Officer reports

• Siegel recognized the unprecedented results of the presidential results, and thanked all members of the council for creating healing spaces within their offices.

• Internal Vice President Sabrina Zeigler said the USAC finals study hall might change to either Thursday or Sunday of week 10 due to scheduling conflicts.

• External Vice President Rafi Sands said University of California Student Association will hold a Students of Color Conference at UC Irvine. He said he thinks the conference will create an important space in light of the election results.

• Academic Affairs Commissioner Ashly Mohankumar said that focus groups for transfer and non-traditional students will be be held Monday at Murphy Hall, to evaluate how students engage in their online academic environments. She added that there will also be a resume critique workshop from the Career Center on Tuesday, and academic appointments available from various groups Thursday.

• Student Wellness Commissioner Christina Lee said SWC will hold a free oral health fair at De Neve Plaza, and free dental screenings and products will be given to students. She added that SWC will also be working with the Student Committee for the Arts for the Silent Disco in Powell Library on Wednesday of finals week.

• Facilities Commissioner Sandra Rhee said the commission hopes to grow the Food Waste Recovery Program next year. With the help of the UCLA executive chef, they will begin working with perishable foods once they get refrigerators from the Community Programs Office and the Student Activities Center. She added that her commission is also working to provide food at two campus locations Thursday of week 10 as part of the Library Food for Finals event. They have also been working with the head of UCLA Transportation about the use of an app for the Community Service Officer Van service, and potentially including extensions with the Bruin Bus service.

• General representative Zoe Borden said that the General Representative 1 Office has been working with the Scholarship Resource Center to give students more access to scholarships, especially those from low-income and non-traditional backgrounds. She added that Counseling and Psychological Services has been working to provide more counselors on the Hill in response to the suicides that occurred in the past weeks.

• Inan Chowdhury said a Non-Violence and Social Movements Teach-In Day will take place next week to talk about the importance of non-violent protest, and how to respond in certain events. The panel will be held Tuesday from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m in the Bruin Reception Room.

Announcements

• Transfer Student Representative Divya Sharma proposed a USAC reform to open more offices to share access with diverse groups of students on campus. He said the reform is necessary to provide representation for students at the highest level possible through USAC.

• Community Service Commissioner Zack Dameron said it is important for council members to follow the steps of the founding members of USAC by being exposed to and engaging with outside communities. He added that this will help with effectively restructuring USAC.

• The council discussed the possibility of restructuring USAC to have a Senate system similar to that of UC Berkeley’s student government.