New officer to take UC-wide role

UCSA ORGANIZATION Original by JACOB LIAO/Daily
Bruin Web Adaptation by MONICA KWONG/Daily Bruin Senior Staff

By Noah Grand
Daily Bruin Contributor

While the Undergraduate Students Association Council is often
considered the main student government, there is another body
looking out for all UC students: the University of California
Students Association.

Composed of representatives from each campus’s graduate
and undergraduate student governments, UCSA lobbies for students at
UC Board of Regents meetings and in the state legislature.

“This year’s action agenda is to increase financial
aid for undergraduates and graduates, reform UC admissions policies
to make them more accessible to historically underrepresented
students, and to increase support and resources for student
retention services on campus,” said Blinker Punsalan-Wood,
Field Director of UCSA and a former UC Santa Barbara student.

UCLA’s representation in UCSA is due to change with
today’s election of a new USAC external vice president.
Former External Vice President Portia Pedro was one of 19 students
on the UCSA board of directors.

Part of the external vice president’s duties are to
represent or appoint someone to represent UCLA in student interest
groups USAC is a member of such as UCSA, according to the student
government bylaws.

“It’s a really important position to this campus.
Because of the very nature of the position, it deals with outside
organizations and because UCLA is such a prestigious university and
has such an impact,” said USAC President Elizabeth
Houston.

The EVP also works with the United States Student Association to
work on national issues. USSA is a Washington, D.C.-based student
lobby organization.

“The EVP’s role is to listen to the students and let
UCSA and USSA know,” Houston said.

Graduate Students Association External Vice President Kinshasa
Curl is UCLA’s other representative on UCSA.