Council asks Carnesale to step in, halt fund freeze

  CHRIS BACKLEY/Daily Bruin Students packed the
Undergraduate Students Association Council meeting in Kerckhoff
Hall Tuesday night as USAC members voted not to amend their funding
bylaws.

By Scott B. Wong
Daily Bruin Staff

Freeze. That may be the word of the day if Chancellor Albert
Carnesale chooses not to address a request from the Undergraduate
Students Association Council to appeal an administrative deadline
““ which, according to Student Union Director Jerry Mann, will
place an indefinite hold on student advocacy group funds by 5 p.m.
today.

Tuesday night, the council voted 11-1 against the proposed
amendments that would have placed student group sponsorship
guidelines in compliance with current UC policy. Facilities
Commissioner Steve Davey was the only dissenting vote.

A letter of appeal to Carnesale was added to the agenda instead
and passed. The letter, to be sent this morning to the chancellor,
requested he overrule Administrative Representative Lyle
Timmerman’s freeze of SAG funding in case the council failed
to amend its bylaws regarding funding and resource allocation by
last night’s meeting.

“We are concerned that, by making changes in the absence
of thoughtful and comprehensive review, we will negatively impact
programming and the educational experience here at UCLA,” the
letter stated.

President Elizabeth Houston, who was silenced by a majority
council vote to end discussion on the proposed amendments, said the
fact that council members voted down the amendments, boycotted ad
hoc committee meetings and set no deadline in the latest letter to
the chancellor indicates the council has ulterior motives.

“They are allowing their professional actions to be
dictated by territorial student advocacy groups,” Houston
said.

“Tonight, I saw a blatant agenda on the part of council to
silence the opinions of me specifically and any dissenting
voices,” she said. “Council acted less like a
democratic body and more like a manipulative political
machine.”

But according to Internal Vice President Elias Enciso, council
members weren’t trying to silence Houston’s opinions,
but rather, trying to move the meeting forward.

“Everyone had made their point and people were starting to
say what they had already said,” Enciso said. “It was
appropriate to move on.”

Houston said she intends to send the council’s letter
““ which asks the chancellor for an unspecified amount of time
to complete bylaw revisions ““ along with her own letter,
which requests a deadline of three weeks.

Asian Pacific Coalition Chair Kei Nagao said SAGs were only
recently notified of the space allocation issue.

“Having an extension allows adequate time for dialogue and
discussion for council to come together with a collective
decision,” she said.

MEChA Chair Elizabeth Serna said the council has shown poor
leadership.

“Council is supposed to have a certain degree of autonomy
and it seems the administration has imposed on that,” Serna
said.

Enciso said, as an administrative representative, Timmerman
cannot adequately represent the council’s stance on student
group sponsorship.

Timmerman refused to comment.

Campus Events Commissioner Jared Seltzer said he was disturbed
by some of the events the council carried out during the
meeting.

“I’m disappointed in a large faction of council
members who misrepresented their intentions at the table tonight
““ everything from altering the agenda to blatantly promising
they would review the guidelines,” he said.