USAC recap – March 14

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

• Student Fee Advisory Committee representatives Kaitlyn Kim and Ashraf Beshay gave a presentation explaining the purpose of their committee and what their permanent budget is.

Agenda

• The council unanimously approved first-year political science student Katelyn Cabrera to the Judicial Board.

Officer reports

• USAC President Danny Siegel said he met with the Senior Class Giving Campaign to discuss how to give back to the university after graduation. He added he presented at the UCLA Foundation’s board of directors’ meeting and advocated adding a student representative for future meetings.

• Internal Vice President Sabrina Ziegler said her office is hosting a Finals Study Hall on March 20.

• External Vice President Rafi Sands said his office has been holding interviews with students facing financial difficulties. Sands added the office sent a student to Sacramento to advocate keeping the Middle Class Scholarship, and finalized applications for students to attend the Student Lobby Conference.

• Academic Affairs Commissioner Ashly Mohankumar said she met with the associate vice chancellor for capital planning and finance to discuss the feasibility of incorporating more after-hours studying spaces. Her office also worked with IT services to discuss improving Wi-Fi services on campus.

• Student Wellness Commissioner Christina Lee said her office will host a Love Your Body yoga event March 15, and weeklong de-stress events. Lee added her office has also been talking with administrators to advocate for student involvement on the Peer Review Committee under the Title IX office.

• Financial Supports Commissioner Ariel Rafalian said he met with the Financial Wellness Program to plan for Financial Literacy Week, which is April 10-14. He said he will also be meeting with members of California Public Interest Research Group to bring more open-source textbooks to UCLA.

• General Representative 1 Zoe Borden said she met with the assistant to the director of the Community Programs Office, to discuss better serving nontraditional students on campus. She said her office will be planning an event about searching for scholarships on campus and is creating a comprehensive list of scholarships.

• General Representative 2 Ruchit Majmudar said his office will be hosting a resume workshop during week two of spring.

• General Representative 3 Inan Chowdhury said his office will be co-programming a trauma yoga lesson that will teach students act as support systems for victims of sexual assault. He added this week’s Sigma C.H.A.I. event will be about how the education system functions.

• Transfer Student Representative Divya Sharma said transfer scholarship applications for spring will open week one, and his office has raised about $4,000 for the scholarships. He added his office will host events like the Transfer Student Alliance’s PILOT Day in spring quarter.

• Community Service Commissioner Zack Dameron said his office is working with the North Campus Student Center on updating and increasing transportation for student volunteers.

Fund allocations

• The council approved an allocation of $2,558 to the Contingency Programming Fund.

• The council approved an allocation of $340 from the Contingency Programming Fund to the General Representative 2 and IVP offices.

• The council approved an allocation of $1,029.90 to the General Representative 2 office.

• The council approved by consent allocations to the EVP Bruin Defenders, Arts Restoring Committee Fund, AAC Travel Mini Fund, SWC Programming Fund and Academic Success Referendum Fund.

• The council approved an allocation of $232,518.68 to the 2017 Associated Students UCLA Board of Directors Programming Fund.