Student Power!, Future Front slates join forces
By Narges Zohoury
May 3, 2005 9:00 p.m.
For those familiar with the inner workings of student politics,
the picture didn’t quite fit. It looked as if the two leaders
had swapped shirts.
Allende Palma/Saracho, Undergraduate Students Association
Council president and one of the leaders of the Student Power!
slate, was dressed in a white shirt with a green UCLA logo. Michael
Cox, a prominent figure in the California Student Sustainability
Coalition and the newly formed Future Front slate, was sporting a
beige Student Power! shirt.
The two slates made their alliance public with a handshake
between the two leaders. Palma/Saracho said the coalition
represented the next generation of progressive movement at
UCLA.
Jenny Wood, current USAC general representative and presidential
candidate with Student Power!, and Megan Carney, general
representative candidate with Future Front, also listed their
slate’s accomplishments and goals as candidates from both
slates stood behind them. They, too, sported shirts from the other
slate.
Carney said Future Front was contacted by Student Power! when
candidate applications were due last month since “Student
Power! didn’t feel that they had anyone they wanted to run
for general representative and facilities positions.”
Carney added that Future Front candidates did well as a part of
an independent slate, but that this alliance will help them in
terms of increasing their voter base.
This coalition might not be the only one forming in this
year’s election.
During last Thursday’s presidential debates, Bruin
Liberation Movement presidential candidate Jake Strom heavily
criticized Wood’s candidacy but made clear his support for
Bruins United presidential candidate Alex Gruenberg.
“I was impressed with what Alex said at the debate. …
That is not to say that I’m supporting him. I’m his
opposition,” Strom said. “The Bruin Liberation Movement
has every intention of smashing face in the upcoming
elections.”
Strom added that his slate is serious about winning this
election, but as far as relations with Bruins United go, he could
see more of a possibility of a friendship with the members of that
slate.
Gruenberg, who is also the current USAC Financial Supports
commissioner, said he had never met Strom before the debate and
added that there is no coalition between the two slates.
Gruenberg said Strom and his views of USAC could be taken as a
good example of how a typical student sees the process, since Strom
has not really been involved in council and its politics.
“It’s the reaction of a typical apathetic voter in
terms of who has the best interest of students in mind,”
Gruenberg said about the compliments he had received during the
debate.
