USAC recap – March 12

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

Public Comments

• Several students said they felt the removal of Richard White from the election chair position was unfair. The students also said they wanted Internal Vice President Robert Blake Watson to resign.

• A Jewish student said he found the previous Instagram bio of election board chair candidate Kyana Shajari to be anti-Semitic. Shajari said her bio was a response to bullying in the past and was not intended to be anti-Semitic.

• The chapter chair for California Public Interest Research Group said the organization is continuing their campaign for clean transportation. Another representative from CALPIRG said it is moving forward with initiatives to reduce food waste at UCLA.

Special Presentations

• Jeremy Wildman from Bruin Media Group said BMG is an advertising group that wants to consult with the election board about increasing turnout in elections.

• A representative from UCLA Transportation said it was increasing the parking fee plan to fund more public transportation options for UCLA students and staff.

Agenda

• The council allocated a total of $4,569 from the contingency programming fund to USAC and non-USAC groups.

• The council appointed Kyana Shajari, a third-year psychology student and previous investigations member of the election board, as the replacement election board chair.

Reports

• President Claire Fieldman said her office will host a workshop Thursday with free mini pies if students give feedback about the Bruins Safe app.

• External Vice President Jamie Kennerk said her office is investigating the $15 million the University of California Office of the President wants to invest into a financial aid plan. She added her office is lobbying UCOP to invest $15 million into programming instead.

• Academic Affairs commissioner Nidirah Stephens said her office is working on adding a bachelor’s degree in music to the degrees a music major from UCLA can graduate with. She added AAC is also looking to push professors to BruinCast more classes. She added AAC and the Cultural Affairs Commission will host an event highlighting multidimensional experiences of Central Americans in the Kerckhoff Hall art gallery Thursday 7-9 pm.

• Campus Events commissioner Alley Madison said her office will host a free screening of “Teen Spirit” on Thursday. She added the Shorttakes film festival is now accepting submissions.