Letters

Student groups provide unique opportunities

In his column, Simon Perng said campus groups have no academic
value (“USAC must stop non-academic funding,” Daily
Bruin, Nov. 27). But student groups in fact have extremely
important educational value. They bring programs, training, and
resources to students not offered in classes.

It is part of the educational mission of the university to
provide a marketplace of ideas ““ this is exactly what student
groups do. And the beauty of this system is that all students have
an equal opportunity to express their views on campus or to start a
group of their own.

Unlike Perng, I definitely do not feel that student groups
preach “socialist dogma.” In my experience student
groups are well informed and justified in the campaigns they
run.

Everyone has the right to express their own opinion, and Perng
has every opportunity to present his own beliefs ““ which is
what he should do instead of merely generalizing about how other
people are “wrong.”

I also feel Perng’s rude comments about Karren Lane are
unjustified. I have found her and all the USAC officers to be very
open and responsive to student needs and ideas. Even if a student
does not consider himself or herself to be an
“activist,” or is opposed to some of the issues student
groups work on, we should all still be open to and learn from
differing viewpoints.

No matter what your major, we are all affected by community,
state and national issues and student groups are essential to
ensuring that students are educated on what is going on around them
and have the opportunity to shape the issues affecting them.

Alyssa Scullion

Third-year

International development studies

Bruin’s criticism of ORL misdirected

This letter is in response to the editorial titled
“Housing problems need real solution” (Daily Bruin,
Dec. 3).

While I agree with the editorial’s complaint that DeNeve
should have been constructed more rapidly, and that it is
outrageous that students be housed in study lounges, the solutions
presented are all wrong.

Guaranteeing housing to only first-year students will do nothing
to alleviate the housing problem. It is simply a way for the
university to push a problem into the laps of its students. UCLA
has a vested interest in a strong, local, on-campus community of
students.

Denying housing to even more students simply pushes students
farther away from their campus. And according to the law of
supply and demand, this will increase the cost of rent in
apartments close to campus, pushing less wealthy students farther
away from UCLA, thus limiting access to the campus community.

UCLA has vast plans to expand housing availability to compensate
for Tidal Wave II. The Bruin’s assertion that UCLA
should just give up and banish all non-first-year students to the
apartments is irresponsible, and bad for the university. We
should not be striving to create a university of commuters, but a
community of learners.

The article also criticizes the Office of Residential Life,
saying that this office should rebate students who live in lounges.
Unbeknownst to the Bruin, on-campus housing exists in a bifurcated
system. The Housing Office deals with the facilities of
on-campus housing, and ORL deals with the people who live in
on-campus housing. ORL does not set housing prices, nor does it
have the ability to dole out rebates or price cuts to
residents. 

Your attacks would more accurately be directed toward the
Housing office; maybe you should do a little research before
writing your articles.

My final point of contention with this editorial is your attack
on Program Assistants and Student Leaders. If you take the monthly
salary of a P.A. and divide it by the number of residents they
serve, it comes to less than $2.75 per resident, per month.

Which means that over the course of a year, each resident
contributes less than $30 to the stipend of their P.A. If you do
the math, this accounts for less than one half of one percent of
the total cost of housing.

Does the Editorial Board of the Bruin really think that this
will make a difference to average residents? ORL staff such as
P.A.s do not simply provide ice cream and Magic Mountain trips as
your article suggested. They plan and implement academic
programs, personal growth activities, leadership building
activities, and community building activities. While the Bruin
believes this function is “nonessential”, for $30 a
year, it is definitely a worthwhile program.

I ask that for the sake of the readership of your paper, that
you please educate yourself before you attack.

Jeff Hale

Fourth-year

Political science