Student government inherently uses power for both good, evil

Monday, November 10, 1997

Student government inherently uses power for both good, evil

USAC: Despite possibility of corruption, self interest, it also
carries out its established purpose: to meet students’ needs

By Abi Karlin-Resnick

Over the past few weeks there have been a few allegations
against USAC, claiming that it is corrupt and full of people out to
fulfill their own political agendas at the expense of meeting
students’ needs. Well, I am here to tell you that you are all
right. (What?! Someone from USAC actually admits that they are not
always righteous and noble?) Well, duh!

Welcome to the real world, people! I challenge you to give me
one example of any government that hasn’t been corrupt, had one of
its members be corrupt or attempt to fulfill a political agenda
meant to further themselves and not their constituents’ needs. The
point is, issues such as these arise in every government. It is the
product of giving people power. Some people simply don’t know how
to use it. To those of you who have questioned USAC, I commend you
for holding us accountable; however, also remember it is important
to pay attention to the good things that go on in student
government offices and not just the bad.

Right now, you may be thinking to yourself "What good things?"
Well I’m going to tell you. Did you know that currently the
president’s office and the Community Service Commission (CSC) are
in the process of giving a workshop series for the Watts Tutorial
Program about historical and political empowerment that will be put
on for Prison Coalition next quarter?

Another project that the president’s office and CSC are working
on is a campaign to get at least 3,000 signatures from students to
support more funding for student-initiated, student-run community
service and outreach programs to give to the administration. Did
you know about the Speak-Up project that the internal vice
president’s office is working on to allow you to get straight
answers (theoretically, at least) to all of your complaints (and
compliments) for USAC?

How about Welcome Week? Did you know that there were over 20
community organizations at UCLA to educate students about solutions
to problems in the real world? Did you know that the general
representatives’ office has put on four self-defense workshops for
women since the beginning of school? What about the ethnic and
gender studies requirement? Students are finally, after about 10
years of campaigning, going to have required classes in the GEs
that will educate about different ethnicities, cultures, and gender
issues.

The list goes on, but there isn’t time or space to tell you
every good thing that USAC does. Point being, those who have chosen
to continuously bash USAC for all of the alleged horrible things we
have done have completely ignored the valuable programs and
activities that come out of these offices all the time. It is your
responsibility not only to look for the bad things, but the good
things too (even though I know that isn’t nearly as much fun).

I am not here to argue any of the allegations against USAC’s
conduct over the last few months. I am here to tell you that we are
human and we do stupid things (some more stupid than others) all
the time … just like you. But we also do good things, too.

I have a crazy idea. Come to our meetings. Then you might
actually find out the good and the bad that goes on in USAC. I have
a second challenge for you. I challenge you to come to the USAC
meetings and find out for yourselves what USAC is and what it does.
Our meetings are every Tuesday night at 6:30 in Room 400 of
Kerckhoff Hall. For those of you who live in the dorms and are
thinking, "That is just way too far to walk," don’t despair. USAC
will be having their meetings on the hill in every dorm (on a
rotating basis) about every month or month-and-a-half.

You are encouraged to come and voice your opinions to USAC about
things on the agenda or major issues that affect your life as a
student. It is not only your right, it is your responsibility.

And now a response to Mr. Balekian’s column from Nov. 4.
Generally when I read the Viewpoint articles against USAC, I can
say, "OK that’s a valuable argument." I wasn’t able to do that with
Mr. Balekian’s viewpoint simply because it was grossly mistaken and
readily obvious that he had not put any effort into researching the
false allegations he made of USAC. Let me take a few sentences to
address some of the most ignorant statements. First of all, just
for the record, we spent $560 on the full page ad for the Nike
Resolution, not $760 as he claimed.

Second, USAC does not "turn a blind eye" to the issue of campus
parking. If he researched his claims, he’d know that Capital
Programs is currently in the process of adding more parking spaces
to Structure Four. Guess what: We don’t like the construction any
more than you do, but, being that we are a top-ranked university,
the administration likes to keep our campus up to par or ahead of
other prestigious campuses. Thirdly, your gross lack of knowledge
was nicely displayed when you contended that USAC could have better
allocated funds for worthwhile programs like the Watts Tutorial
Program as opposed to the 40-foot gorilla in front of the ASUCLA
Store.

Talk to ASUCLA Marketing and Sales if you are so concerned with
that money. Also, if you had researched you would know that 1.
Watts Tutorial Program, like all the other community-service
projects in the Community Programs office and Community Service
Commission, is funded by the Community Activities Committee, which
is in no way financially connected to USAC, 2. USAC does fund the
Community Service Commission, which provides extensive resources
and support to all of our projects, including Watts Tutorial
Program, and 3. as I mentioned earlier, the president’s office and
the CSC are in the process of putting on a workshop series for
Watts Tutorial Program.

A suggestion to Mr. Balekian: Come to our meetings once in a
while so that you have proper information and, more importantly,
can ask questions in a forum where we can address the many
"problems" you seem to have with USAC and our priorities. Finally,
in response to your question of relevancy for USAC’s Nike
resolution, I would like to make it clear, that one of USAC’s
fundamental responsibilities, along with providing student
services, is to educate and empower students about current issues
to prepare them (and us) for fire in the "real world."