Fee hike issue still a priority

With the governor’s proposed budget cuts, student fees and
financial aid could undergo a drastic change.

This is one issue the 2004 Undergraduate Students Association
Council candidates are not ready to abandon.

Though some candidates for general representative and external
vice president have varying platforms, the fight against student
fee increases is a top priority for some candidates.

John Vu, the uncontested candidate for external vice president,
said he will advocate increasing financial aid in light of the
proposed cuts.

Vu, who is running under Students First!, plans to achieve this
goal by utilizing the UCLA Lobby Corps.

Before organizing lobbying efforts against student fee hikes, Vu
plans on using the office’s external advocacy forums.

These forums were created by Matt Kaczmarek, the current
external vice president, and are tools that Vu plans to continue to
use next year. The external advocacy forums provide quarterly space
for students and organizations to voice their concerns and
suggestions regarding any pressing issues.

For Vu, who like many students goes to work and also to school,
these cuts will be detrimental.

“In the past decades there have been increased fees, and
that is wrong because this is a public school,” Vu said.
“This makes barriers for students to come to UCLA or continue
at UCLA.”

To further address the issue, Vu plans on working with the
University of California Student Association ““ of which the
EVP is a member . He also hopes to provide support and resources,
such as meeting with the UC regents, for groups and students who
want to lobby.

Like Vu, general representative candidate and Students First!
member Tommy Tseng said with his past experience on this issue, he
plans on making a change.

Currently, Tseng is the California affairs intern in the
external vice president’s office.

Students are passionate about student fee issues, but they are
not familiar with the California budget process, Tseng said.

To help bridge this gap, Tseng plans on implementing two
programs to help educate eager students on this issue.

The Invest in California Project, one of the two programs, will
use workshops and educational forums to teach students the
connection between their education and the state’s current
crisis.

“Students can be very effective with student issues if
they are equipped with the skills to be effective advocates,”
Tseng said.

If student fees increase, then financial aid should increase to
provide access to the university, but with the proposed plans,
financial aid is scheduled to decrease.

“This denies access to the university for the working
class and disadvantaged students,” Tseng added.

Though general representative candidates Andrew Green and Michi
Kono plan to help and support any efforts against fee increases,
their focus lies in other areas.

Green, of the Equal Access Coalition, said he will do whatever
he can to alleviate student fee increases but said there are a lot
of problems within the USAC structure that need to be addressed as
well.

Green considers student fee increases as an important issue, but
believes it is his responsibility to focus on the issues within
USAC, where he believes he can implement immediate change.

“There still will be lobbying; that makes a difference,
but I feel it is more responsible of me to work on the issues I
feel important, namely to eliminate the corruption of USAC,”
Green said.

Like Green, Kono believes that advocating against student fee
hikes should not just be an individual effort but rather an issue
all of council can contribute to.

Kono said political advocacy is not the first thing on his
agenda but said he is still more than willing to help out with
these issues with whoever is elected to office next term.

Three things that Kono said he can achieve by himself are
establishing wireless services at the Bombshelter, increasing
off-campus safety, and getting younger students aware and involved
in USAC.

Running as an independent, Kono said it would be unrealistic to
be a leader in the student fee issue among a potentially
slate-dominated council.