Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down

Halt to fund freeze only temporary solution for student
groups

Thumbs up to Chancellor Albert Carnesale for preventing student
groups’ funds from being frozen after last week’s
Undergraduate Students Association Council meeting. Administrative
Representative Lyle Timmerman was going to freeze funds on Feb. 27
if USAC did not amend their bylaws regarding the process for
funding student groups by incorporating the language of
content-neutrality.

Though we’re glad Carnesale did not freeze student funds,
we are disappointed that he set another deadline for April 13.
Amending the bylaws will have far-reaching implications for this
campus and USAC should be given as much time as necessary to ensure
that interests of students and advocacy groups are not
compromised.

To get it accomplished, the council needs to work together.

Unfortunately, USAC just can’t stop being divisive. When
the overwhelming majority of council decided to ask Chancellor
Carnesale to remove the Feb. 27 deadline, Houston attached a note
explaining her dissent from the majority opinion. Such a note
should not have been sent to the chancellor, much less attached to
the council’s letter, thereby undermining their majority
vote. This was inappropriate, but so were the board’s actions
at the meeting. The majority of council should not have silenced
her by voting to end the discussion before she could speak. In
order to get anything done, USAC members will have to work with one
another ““ and it’s a shame that they can’t even
agree on that.

Two-faced court out of line with ruling against disabled
citizens

Thumbs down to the U.S. Supreme Court for reducing the rights of
the disabled. In a recent 5-4 ruling, the Court said the federal
government does not have the constitutional power to require states
to fully comply with the Americans With Disabilities Act of
1990.

The act helped the country move toward equal opportunity in the
workplace and allowed disabled workers to sue their employers in
federal court for discrimination. Now the Supreme Court’s
ruling will leave the country’s 5 million state workers with
an incomplete disabilities act.

Unfortunately, this ruling is not the first blow dealt to civil
rights by the Rehnquist Court. Among others decisions, the court
struck down the Violence Against Women Act, which would have
allowed rape victims to sue their attackers in federal court, and
ruled last year that states couldn’t be sued for age
discrimination.

The Court’s flagrant inconsistency reveals their partisan
motives. Though they ruled in favor of a stronger federal influence
in state matters when appointing George W. Bush as president, they
have now ruled in favor of stronger states rights by limiting
federal civil rights. Which one of our civil rights will their
hypocrisy strip away next?

Professor rating site a welcome resource

Thumbs up to UCLAProfessors.com, a new site
allowing students to rate their professors online. The site
averages student input to assess professors in terms of difficulty,
availability, effectiveness and concern for students. It’s
important for students to share information with each other
regarding professors, so that they can make more informed choices
about the courses they take.

Though the UCLAProfessors.com site provides a great service for
students, it needs a system to prevent abuses.

The current system does not prevent students from rating a
professor more than once, nor does it ensure that only students are
posting evaluations. A login system requiring the student’s
identification number would go a long way in preventing such
abuses.

The site should also be monitored to prevent libelous and
defamatory remarks from getting posted. We encourage fair criticism
of professors, but not character assaults.

The administration should have responded more proactively to
students’ requests for access to professors’
evaluations. Since they did not, we congratulate Student Media for
taking the initiative.

Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down represents the majority opinion of the
Daily Bruin Editorial Board. Send feedback to [email protected].