Students First! provides leadership backed by experience

Tuesday, 5/6/97 Students First! provides leadership backed by
experience Coalition’s long history of advocacy, proven results
warrant student support

By Betty Song "Revolution is not a one-time event." True
progress takes years, often decades of hard work, perseverance,
passion and dedication. Every spring, UCLA suddenly sees a dramatic
increase in the interest of student issues among those who have
been silent all year. While the Students First! council has been
dedicated to successfully working on issues such as the fight to
maintain a 0 percent fee hike, restoring $13.5 billion to federal
financial aid, restoring meal coupons to the residence halls, and
fighting for a diversity requirement, opportunistic student
government hopefuls suddenly appear on the walk spouting their
well-versed rhetoric on issues they were clueless on less than a
month before. Two years ago, students expressed their discontent
with a bureaucratic and nonactive Greek-dominated student
government when they elected Students First! candidates into
office. Last year, students again made their voices heard when they
elected Students First! for a second time in order to continue the
fight for a relevant and accessible education for all students.
With a proven history of working on relevant issues through student
empowerment and grassroots organizing, Students First! is the only
coalition that can effectively meet the challenges that next year
will bring. With the passing of Proposition 209 and its subsequent
effects on the Academic Advancement Program, the Campus Retention
Committee, ethnic studies centers and student advocacy groups, we
need a strong student government that is not afraid to take a stand
on issues in order to protect students’ interests. With the arrival
of a new chancellor, students deserve an experienced Students
First! council that can effectively advocate for student needs and
increased student voice. For the third year in a row, our
organizations have put our trust behind Students First! because we
share a common vision. Our organizations are founded on a history
of progressive students, student activism and community
involvement. We fought for and won the high-potential program in
the ’60s that ultimately became the Academic Advancement Program,
and we were integral in the creation of ethnic studies centers and
the Campus Retention Committee (CRC). In fact, it was a progressive
student government in the early ’90s that created the academic
success referendum which enables the CRC, a student-initiated and
student-run peer counseling, mentorship and resource retention
program, to operate. Through years of struggle we have faced only
attacks on people of color by previous student government councils
where it was necessary to justify the importance of cultural and
educational programming and where it was necessary to beg for the
right to use our student fees to actually address real issues
affecting our communities. Through years of struggle, we have found
that students have only gotten their voices heard and had their
educational conditions improved at the university through
grassroots movements and student activism – two key components of
the Students First! agenda. For these reasons, we put our
confidence behind this year’s Students First! candidates: Kandea
Mosley, Carol Lee, Stacy Lee, Darnell Grisby, Jo Anna Ley, Joe
Medico, Max Espinoza, Mike Hamilton, An Le, Juan Aguirre and
Samantha Gilardi – the most qualified team to continue the struggle
to keep the university accountable to students and to the
community. In the coming year, Students First! will continue to
expand on its accomplishments by working toward an 11 percent fee
rollback, domestic partnership rights, improved campus safety,
increased student outreach and academic success through campus
interaction forums and the expansion of college tutorials. Most
importantly, with strong working knowledge of student issues and
student government, Students First! candidates are not only
equipped to handle the challenges of next year but have the ability
to push the university into a progressive direction where students
have a relevant education, and a medium in which to address their
concerns. Finally, Students First! members have always fought for
students and their issues whether or not they are in office and
will continue to advocate for issues regardless of titles because
they believe passionately that a progressive ideology can only be
truly manifested through hard work and principled stands. Don’t be
fooled by pseudo progressive students and rhetoric that has no
concrete backing. Students First! is the only coalition that has
proven experience and the ability to provide strong leadership and
direction next year. Support a long history and tradition of
student advocacy and activism – let your voice be heard again and
vote Students First! This letter was co-submitted by the African
Student Union, the Asian Pacific Coalition, El Movimiento
Estudiantil Chicana y Chicano de Aztlan (MEChA) and Samahang
Pilipino.