UC advocates lobby legislators

  BRIDGET O’BRIEN/Daily Bruin Senior Staff California Lt.
Gov. Cruz Bustamante (right) speaks in front of
the State Capitol Tuesday in support of repealing SP-1 for UC
admissions use.

By Kelly Rayburn
Daily Bruin Reporter

SACRAMENTO “”mdash; Students, staff and alumni met with elected
legislators Tuesday to lobby for the University of California.

UCLA students and alumni agreed UC day was as successful as it
could be: they came, they made their requests, legislators listened
““ but the funds may still be hard to come by.

“My sense is that it went very well,” said Dennis
Slon, associate vice chancellor of development. “We really
had a unique opportunity to meet face to face with legislators,
which doesn’t always happen in this day and age.

“This sort of activity is as valuable as it possibly can
be ““ but the millions of dollars aren’t going to
manifest out of nowhere,” he continued.

Throughout the day, UC advocates filed in and out of legislative
offices at the State Capitol to convey their message.

Melanie Ho, a fourth-year policy and media student, said she is
not too sure how much of an impact student lobbyists really had,
but nevertheless it is important that their presence be made.

“It is important for the legislators to see our
faces,” said Ho, who is also president of the Bruin
Democrats.

Ho also said she was inspired by the UCLA Alumni Association
members who came and argued on behalf of UCLA.

UCLA Alumni Association President Larry Seigler, who graduated
in 1959, was also impressed with his group’s turnout.

“Seven members on the alumni board have taken time off
work and paid their own way up here ““ that’s
impressive,” he said.

UC day lobbyists were asked to focus their requests in three
specific areas at an orientation Monday night.

“¢bull; First, they were asked to request that legislators
support a state budget plan that will account for UC’s
expected 8 percent growth.

“¢bull; Second, because of Tidal Wave II, they were asked to
push for a bond measure that UC advocates are trying to get on the
2002 ballot. The $330 million for new facilities the measure would
call for would be split among the UCs, California State University
schools, community colleges and K-12 schools.

“¢bull; Third, they were asked to lobby for monetary support for
four new UC science institutes.

Team leaders stressed these points again today when groups met
with legislators from their districts.

In a legislative meeting Slon asked Sen. Sheila Kuehl, D-Santa
Monica, for support for the science institutes, in particular for
UCLA’s Nanosystems Institute. Kuehl said she was
interested.

“I am a Star Trek fan, so obviously I’m very
familiar with nano-science,” she said. “I intend to
support these expenditures.”

But because funds may be needed for other state projects, Kuehl
said she could not guarantee support.

And Kuehl did not promise to endorse the effort to get new UC
facilities paid for by the state either.

When Julie Plotkin, an undergraduate counselor for UCLA’s
department of economics, asked for funds for new facilities, Kuehl
asked, “Is there any space?”

Kuehl also did not give her full backing to the UC Merced
campus’ construction.

“It’s going so slow, it’s not going to solve
our problem in the next couple of years,” she said.

A more realistic plan is for community colleges to take on a
greater role by working out guaranteed admission plans with UCs,
Kuehl said.

Like Kuehl, Assemblyman Paul Koretz, D-West Hollywood, and his
chief-of-staff Scott Svonkin, listened to requests, but made no
promises.

When Ho and UCLA alumnus C.R. Van Dyke asked Koretz to support a
UC-friendly budget, Koretz addressed the importance of education,
but also mentioned that the state is spending a lot money on energy
right now.

“The Senate and the Assembly told (Gov. Gray Davis) to go
make a deal with certain parameters,” he said. “I think
we’re already wondering how much of the surplus has been
eaten up in energy costs,” he said.

But Koretz ensured UCLA advocates the
“appropriately-named” Tidal Wave II, the anticipated
influx of a large number of students to the UC, is a high priority
for him.

While the repeal of SP-1 was mentioned only briefly in
Koretz’s meeting, both he and Kuehl took part in a small
rally on the steps of the state capitol to overturn the
regents’ measure which outlawed the use of race, gender and
ethnicity in admissions.

Koretz, Kuehl, other legislators, Lt. Governor Cruz Bustamante
and Student Regent Justin Fong stood in front of a line of students
holding signs reading “Equal Education, not
Segregation” and “Support Diversity, Repeal
SP-1.”

“This is about fairness,” Bustamante said in a brief
speech, “This is about having an un-welcome mat at the
doorstep of the highest and most prestigious university system in
the world.

“No more talking, let’s have action ““ repeal
SP-1 and give every Californian the chance for a world- class
education,” he continued.