Submission: Students must commit to respect, civility during USAC election season

With the 2017 Undergraduate Student Association Council elections in full swing, tensions between campaigns are starting to flare. But we need to remember a few important things between social media filled with campaign photos, election board hashtags and Facebook posts longer than most essays I’ve written during my four years in college.

First and foremost, we are all UCLA students – but more importantly, humans. The candidates running for council, their campaign teams, the electorate and every single person who walks the UCLA campus are all human beings.

As we saw at last week’s debates and this week’s controversy surrounding the USAC president Danny Siegel, candidates and their supporters are attacking one another and taking attention away from the actual issues. No one wants to see that from the future student representatives of this school. Look past the personal attacks, and focus on the issues and making the right decision, because ultimately, serving this campus – the human beings who seek to earn an education here – outweighs personal gain.

Yes, it’s important to raise your voice and make your concerns heard. But it’s just as important to raise your voice in a respectful manner. That goes not only for the candidates themselves, but their supporters, and the electorate who will vote for these candidates.

If UCLA has taught students nothing else, hopefully it has ingrained in them the True Bruin values. I like to remember them as RAISE: Respect, Accountability, Integrity, Service and Excellence. Rather than stooping to the level of the personal attacks we saw in Donald Trump’s presidential campaign last year, we should rise to the occasion of this election and be representatives of those Bruin values.

More often than not, UCLA’s campus climate becomes more negative during election season. But UCLA’s best quality is its diversity. You can find people from every race, every ethnicity, every gender and every nationality on campus. That’s the beauty of our campus. Let’s not let that beautiful diversity be affected by a few weeks of deteriorating campus climate through this election.

The sad fact is that it is put to risk during these few weeks of elections and that has been a trend throughout recent years. Instead of focusing on the platforms and qualifications of the candidates running, the election becomes a contest between various communities at UCLA, which does nothing but hinder the diversity UCLA so proudly holds dear.

Historically, some races and some ethnicities have faced more discrimination than others. Let’s not let that discrimination continue at UCLA. When one thinks of UCLA, the first thing that comes to mind is diversity. At UCLA, we must remember: No matter what religion, race, ethnicity or gender, everyone here is equal. You have as many rights as the person sitting a few feet from you.

Let’s work together to ensure a welcoming campus climate at UCLA. By letting election season get out of control, not only are we risking making the campus climate more contentious now, but also for future Bruins. Stay civil everyone, because humanity and respect are more important than putting someone in a seat in Kerckhoff 417.

After all, elections are temporary, but humanity is permanent.

Abbasi is a fourth-year political science and international development studies student.