Chancellor extends deadline

By Barbara Ortutay
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Chancellor Albert Carnesale Wednesday extended the Undergraduate
Students Association Council’s deadline to amend its bylaws
to April 13.

As a result, student group funds will not be frozen and groups
can continue with activities as planned.

“Although with some reluctance, I am prepared to grant the
council’s request for more time to complete work on the
bylaws, particularly as they pertain to sponsorship of campus
organizations,” Carnesale stated in a letter to USAC
members.

USAC voted 11-1 at Tuesday’s meeting not to amend its
bylaws to comply with guidelines regarding student group
sponsorship and funding set forth by the University of California
Office of the President and UCLA. The council also voted to send a
letter of appeal to Carnesale asking for more time to review and
change the bylaws.

The letter, to which USAC President Elizabeth Houston attached
her dissent urging the administration to set a deadline for the
bylaw changes, requested the university allow the council “to
continue these discussions without the threat of making funds
inaccessible to student groups and USAC offices.”

Administrative Representative Lyle Timmerman had set a Feb. 27
deadline for the council to amend its bylaws. If council did not
amend its bylaws by the deadline, Timmerman said he would put a
freeze on student group funds.

During a press conference Wednesday morning, Carnesale said he
was prepared to get involved at this stage of the process.

“They certainly should not have waited until the day of
the deadline to act,” Carnesale said.

USAC Community Service Commissioner Fannie Huang said the freeze
would have hurt the day-to-day operation of student groups as well
as other programs. Projects in her commission, for example, depend
on the funding to pay for vans that take students to community
service sites. Planned field trips of various projects would have
also been hurt by the freeze, Huang said.

“We know this is a very real threat and we want to work
this through,” she said. “We have a lot of issues we
have to work through.

“There are people (on the council) who want to work on
finding a solution,” she continued. “I didn’t
feel everyone on council has been upholding the process.”

Houston said she was happy with the chancellor’s response
and the fact that he set a deadline.

“I feel it was exactly what I would have wished,”
she said.