USAC hard at work to meet major objectives

Working with professors, administrators and peers for the past
four years has given me a strong voice as an advocate for the UCLA
community. When a vacancy opened up for a general representative on
the Undergraduate Students Association Council, I felt the position
would give me a chance to address current issues at UCLA.

Though taking on this responsibility halfway through the year
has left my staff with little time to achieve tangible goals, we
have been working tirelessly to achieve three main aims before the
term is over.

First, we have been working on the goals USAC set for the year
last summer. The “No on Proposition 54″ campaign was
already a success last fall, when voters defeated it and allowed
the state to continue tracking individuals by race, ethnicity or
national origin.

USAC’s ongoing goals include repealing the current
expected cumulative progress requirements for undergraduates,
instituting a diversity requirement as part of the undergraduate
general education (UCLA is the only UC to not have one in effect),
and stopping the increase of student fees ““ which rose 40
percent since 2002-2003 and are slated to rise 10 percent for the
2004-2005 fiscal year.

Second, we want to make theories taught in the classroom actual
practice through the Service Learning Partnership. UCLA currently
advocates a three-part mission of academics, research and service.
The goal of the Service Learning Partnership is to bring
service-learning to a classroom setting ““ connecting student
community outreach programs with classrooms and professors.

We are also working to disseminate service-learning
opportunities through brochures, classroom presentations and
advertisements through the Academic Affairs Commission. Because
current service-learning opportunities mainly employ outside
community programs, our office is talking with Community Service
Commission Projects, Community Programming Office Projects and
Circle K to connect their programs to UCLA classrooms in the form
of field work or as an Honors contract under the Center for
Community Learning.

Third, we want to work as a part of the University and
Neighborhood Learning and Outreach Coalition to save current
outreach programs from being cut and stop the prospective 10
percent student fee increases slated for the upcoming year.

As a part of UNLOC, our office is working to advocate a
restructure of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 2004-2005
California budget. Our campus-wide advocacy is mainly concentrated
on cuts to outreach and stopping student fee increases ““
which strongly hinder access to higher education for middle- and
working-class individuals.

Our office recognizes that the proposed budget needs heavy
restructuring and that higher education should only have its
funding cut and student fees raised as a last resort.

We are currently hard at work to achieve these goals by the end
of the year. We see an opportunity to make a great difference on
this campus before the term is over next quarter.

I am honored to have been chosen to take on this
responsibility.

Ambrosio is the newly appointed USAC general
representative.