USAC puts certain Students First!

Tuesday, November 4, 1997

USAC puts certain Students First!

USAC

This week my words of wisdom take aim at the shortcomings of our
current Undergraduate Students Association Council (USAC). To be
more truthful, my words take aim at Students First!, for what else
can USAC be called when 11 out of its 13 seats are occupied by
so-called "student representatives"? To me, they are not adequate
representatives because they have turned their governing focus away
from most of the UCLA student body.

The most recent example of Students First!’s lack of focus was
the full-page advertisement placed in the Daily Bruin last Tuesday.
In the ad, USAC (a.k.a. Students First!) resolved that it "supports
the rights of individuals around the world to work in a safe and
healthy workplace at reasonable compensation" and furthermore
demanded "the removal of Nike from the student store." This
proclamation by our so-called representatives prompted me to show
Bruins that Students First! is not performing the job it was
elected to carry out.

Many UCLA students do not realize how much the Nike condemnation
cost them. For a full-page ad in the Daily Bruin, USAC paid $760 to
give students such "worthwhile" information. That money comes
directly from the registration fees that I, along with every other
student, paid this year.

Therefore, we the students paid $760 to be told that idealism is
the belief to adopt in dealing with workers on the other side of
the world.

Instead of editorializing about foreign workers, USAC could have
spent that wasted money more effectively by translating it into $50
discounts for books or supplies to 15 needy students. Who among us
could not use $50 off of the unbelievably high prices at the ASUCLA
bookstore?

What business does USAC have in preaching workers’ rights in
foreign countries? I thought that USAC was here to help university
students. Why is USAC worried about overworked foreign laborers
when there are overworked university laborers on our campus?

I know a student who takes a full load of classes and manages to
work at North Campus, staying until 11 some nights and braving the
sexual barbs of her employer in order to pay the enormous tuition
and housing costs at UCLA. Shouldn’t our elected representatives
look out for their student constituency instead of foolishly
preaching about other subjects?

Besides calling for the rights of foreign workers, USAC also
called for the removal of Nike products from the student store
until Nike cleans up its act. Nike is one of the UCLA Store’s
largest revenue sources, and I do not believe that ASUCLA will kill
their golden-egg-laying goose in order to conform to the
out-of-touch-with-reality wishes of Students First!

Besides, if Nike suddenly does raise its workers’ wages, would
the CEO cut the added costs from his salary, or would he pass them
on to the consumers?

As if the student store prices weren’t high enough, USAC wants
ASUCLA to sell conscientiously made, albeit more expensive,
products. Are the hard-working, money-conscious, misrepresented
students of UCLA willing to pay $50 more for a pair of shoes just
to follow the professed mantra of their tyrannical council
members?

USAC should place its focus on legitimate problems which plague
our campus every day.

One of the largest issues is campus parking. Several hundred
students were denied parking this quarter because of an
overwhelming imbalance of applicants and parking spaces.
Notwithstanding that many off-campus students living in Westwood
falsified their applications by writing their family residence
addresses, and that many students wrote exaggerated work hours on
their papers. Students First! continues to turn a blind eye to a
problem that affects the campus more directly and more notably than
some foreign sweatshop.

UCLA is not doing much to deal with the parking quagmire. The
administration’s answer is to build an international dorm to bring
in more students (as if 35,000 students do not suffice). More
students equal more federal aid dollars for UCLA from Washington,
but the site of the international dorm could have easily been made
into a new parking structure. With the present circumstances, we
will see even more students applying for a stagnant number of
spaces. Sure enough, Parking Services promises another expanded
structure, but I don’t believe that many UCLA students will see it
in their collegiate lifetime.

Another problem that should be dealt with is the endless
onslaught of solicitors that bother students on a daily basis.
Every student knows what I’m talking about. Each week, there is a
different face asking for a donation for an abused women’s and
children’s shelter. For convenience’s sake, the "legitimate
shelter" is not funded by federal grants, and the kind solicitors
say that the shelter doors will remain open only with cash
donations.

What business do these people have being on our campus? Although
UCLA is a public institution, the students on campus have enough
midterms, classes and studies to worry about without being harassed
by a con-artist. Besides, students barely have enough money to pay
for tuition, books, housing and food, and don’t have any money left
to donate to a bogus charity. Why doesn’t Students First! focus on
ridding our campus of these unwanted solicitors?

Rather than eliminate the problems with solicitors and parking,
Students First! instead decides to eliminate educated students. As
the "Stop Prop 209" stickers on their doors can attest, USAC is
more interested in letting in underqualified students via
affirmative action and letting go of other qualified students than
in taking some positive action. Whether through their support of
affirmative action programs or their indifference to campus-wide
problems, Students First! shows that it prefers to work for a
privileged group of students.

For what is USAC in the hands of Students First! but an
oligarchy? I would like my readers to know that Students First!
works only in the interest of a few, choice campus minority groups.
Organizations such as MEChA and the African Students’ Union are
given sought-after office spaces in Kerckhoff and uneven financial
backing from USAC compared to other campus groups. If USAC was
comprised of some type of Greek slate running the school in the
same fashion as Students First!, it would be knee-deep in
discrimination allegations.

Our university representatives are indeed looking out for the
interests of a few groups, for why else would they campaign for the
return of race-based programs that benefit only certain minority
groups? Students First! does not represent and, in essence, does
not care about the Western and Eastern European, Middle Eastern and
Asian students on this campus.

If USAC truly wished to work for its constituency, the council
would have been better off protesting the endless construction at
our school.

Does Students First! honestly think that UCLA will fill the
entire international dorm with students from Africa and Latin
America? I can just see the flood of European students coming in to
our campus as I write this column. We already have enough of a
problem deciding which native California students get into our
campus, so why should we go out and recruit new students from other
countries?

If USAC wants a tree to bark up, they should look no farther
than the international dorm. The exorbitant amounts of money spent
on building the new residence, advertising their causes in the
Daily Bruin and placing a 40-foot inflatable gorilla in front of
the student store could have been allocated to funding positive
programs like the WATTS Tutorial program, or to lowering textbook
and supply costs. Additionally, USAC could have hired security
guards to escort the bothersome solicitors from campus.

With my words, I mean to show that Students First! should be
renamed Certain Students First! The majority of Bruins on this
campus, comprised of "undeserving, non-minority" students, have
been placed on the back burner for far too long. Three long years
of ignorant Students First! leadership under York Chang, John Du
and current President Kandea Mosley have taken their toll on our
campus.

We should make USAC work for the majority of students on campus.
If Students First! does not begin to widen its focus to the entire
campus and its pressing problems, then I suggest we let them know
our dissatisfaction by voting them out of office next spring.