Editorial

EDITORIAL BOARD Editor in
Chief Cuahtemoc Ortega

Managing Editor
 Corey McEleney

Viewpoint Editor
 Cody Cass

News Editor
 Kelly Rayburn

Staff Representatives
 Edward Chiao
 Amy Frye
 Derek Lazzaro
Robert Salonga
Amande Schapel

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Incoming students should know there is no hand-holding at
UCLA.

Last year, many of the organizations on campus meant to help
students ““ the administration, the Associated Students of
UCLA, the on-campus Housing Office and student government ““
did the exact opposite by either adopting measures that will hurt
this year’s incoming class, or failing to advocate on the
students’ behalf. Since the root problems these organizations
were trying to resolve will persist this year, it is especially
important that incoming students are made aware of what went wrong
in order to prevent the further erosion in students’ quality
of life, academics and services.

The administration tried to alleviate the burden of overcrowding
at the university by reducing general education requirements,
increasing the unit value of many classes, and requiring students
to take more units per quarter in order to stay in good academic
standing. While these changes aim to make students graduate faster,
none of them directly addresses current students’ need for
better academic conditions, such as smaller classes and more
interaction with experienced faculty.

Having students take on larger course loads will not only
sacrifice extracurricular involvement, but also continue diluting
the already overly general and basic instruction they get in a
rushed quarter system. While these changes may help ease
overcrowding in the long term, students will pay dearly in terms of
the quality of education UCLA provides now. This is especially
problematic since there are other, better methods of both reducing
overcrowding and retaining the quality of education ““ capping
enrollment, for example.

But the administration was allowed to stray from its
responsibility of providing a quality education because, outside of
a few student organizations, no one raised a whisper of opposition
to the changes it instituted.

Regrettably, the administration was not the only one to stray
from its mission ““ so did ASUCLA. The purpose of the
organization is to fund student programming and groups through
various means including campus stores and restaurants. Instead,
ASUCLA is in a financial hole because it will likely have to
provide previously neglected benefits for many of its workers in
the process of unionizing. ASUCLA’s answer to its money
problem is to have students pay for it: the antithesis of its
intended purpose. Instead of giving funding to students, the
organization is demanding money from them to stay alive.

If any campus entity surpasses the administration’s and
ASUCLA’s neglect of student interests, it’s the Housing
Office, as evidenced by its atrocious disregard for student input
in the past. Because of Housing, many students lived in study
lounges for almost two quarters, people were forced to move into
different rooms ““ sometimes in different buildings ““
during finals week to maximize revenue, and housing costs were
increased by 7.5 percent for this year.

The On Campus Housing Council is a group of students in place to
guard against these unfair policies. But a lack of active resident
support, coupled with mediocre advocacy by council members, made it
impossible for them to do their job effectively last year. It
didn’t help that the Housing administrators made several
important decisions without first consulting the council.

The Undergraduate Students Association Council and the Graduate
Student Association ““ which serve as the student government
and the official voice of the student body ““ have attempted
to help remedy the situation by making proposals to the Housing
office, but without student participation their continuing efforts
will be in vain.

USAC has pledged to solicit more student input this year since
many complain the council tackles issues most students don’t
feel strongly about. Holding the administration, ASUCLA and Housing
accountable means students must demand an exhaustive amount of
advocacy from their student government on the issues directly
affecting them at UCLA.

The Viewpoint section of the Daily Bruin is meant specifically
to allow you this opportunity. It is a public forum for debate
between opposing parties, but most of all, a forum for you, the
reader, to voice your concerns about every aspect of university,
including The Bruin itself. The Bruin will do its part by keeping
students informed of how they will be affected by changes the
university proposes.

Though student interests were largely ignored last year,
incoming classes should view this, not as a grim outlook for the
upcoming year, but as a sign that opportunities for students to get
involved in the university abound. No one should sit idly by and
let agencies designed to work for them run roughshod all over their
best interests, especially since students have the potential to
foment change that will turn last year’s trends around in
order to make them more student-friendly. Students can do this, not
only by writing to The Bruin, but also by voicing their concerns
during their student government’s public meetings, and by
participating in rallies and protests sponsored by campus student
advocacy groups. Don’t ignore invitations to these events,
because they’re often the only chances you’ll get to
speak out about changes that will directly affect you.

Incoming classes have myriad opportunities to make a difference
this year ““ they must embrace them if they are to prevent a
sequel to last year’s embarrassment.