Our community pleas for your help

Monday, September 28, 1998

Our community pleas for your help

OUTREACH: Group

seeks new members, support for referendum

Since the passage of Proposition 209 last year, this campus has
seen its share of heated debate and protest. The controversial law
has pitted student against state, student against administration,
and even student against student. With the issue constantly being
raised at rallies, debates, arguments, Daily Bruin Viewpoint
articles and chancellor inaugurations, it is difficult for people
to see, or even know, if anything is actually being done to help
the under-served, under-privileged communities that this law
affects most. I am here to tell you that there is an organization
here on campus that currently provides assistance to these
communities and has done so for over 30 years. That organization is
UCLA’s Community Service Commission (CSC).

Composed of 23 student-run, student-initiated groups and with a
volunteer base of about 2,000 students, it is the largest program
of its kind in the country. In the past three decades, CSC has had
to adjust to constantly shifting political policies and structures,
yet its primary goal of aiding the needy communities of Los Angeles
has endured. This year is no exception.

Now that Proposition 209 is law, CSC will continue to serve Los
Angeles, yet some of our focus this year will change.

CSC will continue to collaborate, as well as strengthen
relations, with the Community Programs Office (another community
service organization comprised of about 25 projects).

Working together, we can share resources, network and gauge the
long-term effects of Proposition 209 on both of our offices.

During the drafting of each project’s base budget proposals this
past summer, groups were encouraged to stress recruitment of all
UCLA students, rather than primarily ethnic or gender specific
groups, to avoid accusations of "preferential treatment."

This year, CSC hopes to push to the top two major issues of our
general community service advocacy. These issues are outreach and
the proposed Community Service Referendum of 1999.

During last year’s campus elections, the Community Service
Referendum of 1998 was placed on the ballot. It sought to increase
funding for student-run community service groups on campus by
raising student registration fees by $1.50 per quarter. Due to poor
voter turnout, inadequate publicity and overall voter cynicism and
ignorance, the referendum failed to pass.

This year, we hope to place the referendum again on the ballot,
re-wording it so that students clearly understand that the
registration fee raise will go directly to student-run groups.

We hope to start raising campus awareness of this issue so there
isn’t complete ignorance of the bill come May.

Outreach is going to be our second major concern.

Because of Proposition 209, admittance of minority and
under-privileged students has declined at all UC campuses.

In response to the low admittance rates, the UC Office of the
President (UCOP) established an Outreach Task Force to research and
investigate the exact effects of Proposition 209 on high school and
transfer student acceptance rates.

The task force discovered an increase in overall academic
competitiveness but a decrease in overall student diversity. They
also found a decrease in application and acceptance rates from
under-funded, inner-city high schools.

Based on the task force report, UCOP allocated funds to all UC
campuses to bolster existing outreach efforts.

This allocation prompted the formation of the UCLA Outreach
Steering Committee, which is composed of representatives from all
major outreach efforts on UCLA’s campus.

As community service commissioner, I am the designated
representative for all student-initiated outreach efforts. It is my
hope that, along with the Community Programs Office, the
Undergraduate Student Association Council president’s office and
the Academic Affairs office, CSC projects can use the UCOP funding
and resources available to establish strong outreach
components.

The commission would like to create an extensive documentation
and tracking system that would allow projects to update a student’s
progress.

With continued support from the administration and the student
body, CSC wishes to increase application and acceptance rates from
the communities we serve, which suffer from a lack of inadequate
college counseling and resources.

This year is going to be a challenging one for the Community
Service Commission. However, with the dedication and determination
of our volunteers, project directors and staff, we will be able to
overcome all obstacles.

I hope that you, the students, realize and understand the need
to give back to the community and invite you to become involved
with the commission or any other community service effort.

Balabis is a fourth-year psychobiology student and the
Undergraduate Student Association Council community service
commissioner. He can be contacted at

[email protected].

Comments, feedback, problems?

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