USAC recap – Nov. 30

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. Watch a live stream of the meeting on the USAC Live! YouTube channel.

Special presentations

• Appointments directors from the USAC Office of the President made presentations on their appointed boards and committees along with updated reports. However, seven of the offices failed to submit completed update forms on time and were not included on the presentation.

• External Vice President Rafi Sands responded to the missing update reports by suggesting the council implement a system for the appointed offices that enforces deadlines for better transparency and accountability.

Agenda

• The council approved an allocation of $1,615 to the Contingency Programming Fund.

• The council approved a total of $9,565 to different student groups to the Arts Restoring Community Fund.

• The council approved the USAC discretionary funding allocation of $1,280 for each office for the rest of the year for the purpose of stipends.

Officer reports

• Sands said he wrote a letter that he plans to send next week to voice concern about the Westwood Neighborhood Council changing its term length from two years to four years.

• Academic Affairs commissioner Ashly Mohankumar said she held a committee meeting with the Graduate Students Association about a survey that began in summer to determine which classes need more TAs or discussion sections. She added she plans to institutionalize communication between USAC and GSA.

• Facilities commissioner Sandra Rhee said her office will hold a Food for Finals event on Thursday to help combat food insecurity on campus.

• Rhee added her office aims to develop a system to increase transparency and reach out more to the student body throughout the winter quarter.

• General representative Zoe Borden said there is a significant amount of food wasted by Greek houses that could be donated to campus food closets. Borden said she plans to connect the Community Programs Office’s food closet with the Greek house chefs to help reduce food waste.

• Divya Sharma, Transfer Student Representative, reported on the achievements his office has made throughout the 10 weeks of this quarter. He said he plans to focus more on academic advocacy for transfer students through academic counseling in the future.

• Sharma followed up with the council about the proposed USAC reform and he said it is still under discussion, but expects to form an ad hoc committee with about 4 council members.