OCHC plan democratic, fair way to reach decision

Harmetz is chair of the On Campus Housing Council.

By Adam Harmetz

In response to the Daily Bruin’s editorial
(“Students
must vote down OCHC plan,” Viewpoint, March 6) last
Wednesday, I would like to clarify any misunderstanding about how
the On Campus Housing Council came to present the Newspaper
Readership Program in last week’s meeting.

The NRP was a plan offered to the OCHC by the USA Today, and it
was discussed in one of our weekly meetings. The program would
provide the USA Today, the Wall Street Journal, and the L.A. Daily
News for free pick-up in the residence halls and would start next
year. This program would be funded by a $9 increase in
residents’ annual activity fees.

The discussion for this particular proposal was involved, yet
focused. A majority of the representatives at the meeting were
given specific instructions from their respective associations on
how to vote. Many associations had been debating the topic for
weeks and the OCHC had been researching the logistics for months.
We had received letters from passionate residents and heard
testimony from concerned student groups. In the end, however, the
OCHC did what any responsible and professional government would
have done: we put the fate of the program in the hands of the
residents.

The role of the OCHC in this process was to work with the USA
Today and housing administration to bring this proposal to the
residents. We worked with the USA Today to provide a “pilot
program” free of charge so residents could experience the
program first-hand. We were careful to remove our personal bias
about the program from our decisions. Our duty was to debate if we,
as a responsible government, should give the residents a chance to
decide. Lastly, our ad hoc committee worked out the logistics with
the housing administration to provide a referendum to increase
activity fees.

Right now, our ad hoc committee has set the voting date for a
student fee increase of $9 to April 2.

If 55 percent of the voting residents approve the referendum,
the OCHC will implement the Newspaper Readership Program with the
new fund. The fund is tied to the readership program and can only
be used to provide the most complete and best program possible.

If the referendum does not pass, then no extra money is
collected and activity fees remain at $24.

The OCHC is a student group you can turn to to provide a wide
range of views on the issue. We are facilitators who have created
an environment where residents can decide if this program is a
positive factor for the residential community.

By the end of the week, the OCHC will have provided an abundance
of informational flyers detailing the situation to all residence
halls. In addition, the OCHC Web site
(http://www.orl.ucla.edu/ochc) will have a special section
dedicated to information on the referendum and the NRP. The Web
site will provide a copy of the referendum, the pro and con, and
also links to a wide variety of other information.

This issue has invoked passion in both supporters and detractors
of the program. I, for one, find OCHC’s actions both
wholeheartedly democratic and effective in taking a non-partisan
stance to create an environment where the residents ““ the
people affected the most ““ can weigh their options and decide
for themselves.