Experience makes best leader

This year’s council was extraordinarily productive and
thorough in representing the interests of all students at UCLA
because of Students First! leadership. In particular it succeeded
at: connecting students to Undergraduate Students Association
Council, coalition building, and fulfilling major campaigns
reflective of all student needs.

This year we organized one of the largest Welcome Week events in
the past 10 years. I helped organize not one, but two open houses
with guided tours and food ““ educating students about
the resources and opportunities of USAC and the Student Activities
Center.

In terms of coalition building, I helped facilitate the creation
of the Voter Registration Coalition, which in three days registered
1,500 students. I created the Student Advocacy Collectives that
connected student leaders to USAC and the UCLA administration, and
helped coordinate the “DiversCity” campaign, which,
this year, after 17 years of struggle, has made this university
commit to implementing a diversity requirement by fall 2005.

With our coalition, we accomplished major campaign victories
““ we helped defeat Proposition 54, brought a diversity
requirement, and helped stop mid-year budget cuts. This was only
possible because of our extensive organizing experience, our
ability to unite council, and our ability to connect all students
to the campaigns of council. This is what I helped bring to USAC
this year, and I possess the ability to expand upon those victories
next year.

In the current fiscal crisis, we face rising campus fees, cuts
to financial aid, and the potential elimination of outreach
programs. This is not a time for our elected representatives to be
amateurs. The ramifications of these changes equate to students
being taxed out of the university and an ever-decreasing amount of
diversity.

As a leader of this year’s council, I spent my spring
break lobbying members of Congress and senators in Washington,
D.C., to preserve and expand federal financial aid and federal
funding for higher education. I received promises of support from
Rep. Henry Waxman and Sen. Barbara Boxer. Next year, I would lead
the same effort at the state and national level, and also focus on
preventing fee increases on campus.

Meanwhile, even after getting admitted to UCLA, students now
face the possibility of being kicked out of the university due to
the expected cumulative progress requirement. This year, we did
major educational and mobilization work on campus ““ through
the creation of the Student Advocacy Collectives ““ to inform
student organization leaders about the impacts of the requirement
so they could build a coalition to defeat this measure.

I will use this coalition next year to create a massive student
voice against expected cumulative progress, and compile the
information from our randomized survey this year to bring a report
to the UCLA administration and UC Office of the President, so that
other campuses are not misled into replicating this illogical and
irresponsible educational policy.

This is a pivotal time for student organizers to lead our
campus; I feel my unmatched experience and commitment to overcoming
these enormous problems make me the best candidate to lead our
students toward creating a university accessible to all, and
providing a relevant and quality education for students.

Palma/Saracho is a USAC presidential candidate.