Letters to the editor

A clear difference exists between each
slate

In the four years that I have been at UCLA, there has never been
a clearer difference between the two main slates running for
Undergraduate Students Association Council office. Student Power!,
led by presidential candidate Jenny Wood, is a broad-based group
that will accomplish the big things ““ like fighting expected
cumulative progress requirement and student fee hikes ““ and
the little things ““ like creating new multi-use space for all
student groups in Kerckhoff Hall.

Bruins United, on the other hand, is a single-issue slate whose
only major goal is the ludicrous idea of reforming USAC by actually
adding more bureaucracy through the creation of a student senate.
USAC is not about long senate floor debates. It is about advocacy
and results.

This is one of Wood’s greatest qualities, which I have
seen first-hand as one of her co-workers at Event Services. She is
truly a hard worker who gets things done and is results-driven.
Bruins United, conversely, wants to handicap our own advocates by
adding a bunch of red tape and bureaucracy, preventing USAC from
getting results.

I also feel Wood knows how to best represent the campus as a
whole and not just a particular group. She is a member of the Greek
system, she has worked hard with numerous student groups and events
such as Dance Marathon, and she has advocated for strong outreach
programs. As a student employee at Event Services, she understands
how hard students have to work due to student fee hikes and rising
textbook costs.

If Bruins United wins this election, Get Tested Week and the
Dance Marathon could be replaced by endless filibusters and bills
stuck in committees.

Mike Bitondo Fourth-year, political science and
history

Biniek not an appropriate choice for EVP

The Bruin Democrats and Bruin Republicans were troubled by the
Daily Bruin’s endorsement of Jeannie Biniek for Undergraduate
Students Association Council external vice president.

It’s true that Biniek has experience within USAC’s
bureaucracy, but we have extensive experience in state and national
politics. In our opinion as lobbyists, organizers and the next
generation of political officials, Jesse Melgares will be vastly
more successful in dealing with policy-makers than Biniek.

We fear that Biniek will continue the ineffective and shrill
rhetoric used by a series of Students First! and Student Power!
administrations that has failed to produce results for students.
Melgares has the experience and outlook to properly combine
assertive action with intelligent and respectful negotiation.
During the 2004 presidential election, Biniek, as the national
affairs director of the external vice president office, failed to
coordinate her office’s efforts with our far more substantial
Get Out the Vote campaign, a mistake we believe Melgares would not
have made.

The son of immigrants, Melgares attended Los Angeles Unified
School District schools, community college, and earned his way to
UCLA. His credentials include work in the USAC Office of the
President, his leadership of Latinos for Higher Education, lobbying
for community college students, and planning a huge student protest
in Sacramento.

All students will benefit by fighting for his Political
Empowerment Program and outreach plans, as well as transparent
budget hearings and a representative senate system. If The Bruin
truly wants to promote reform and progress within the USAC system,
it must stop promoting in-house candidates like Biniek. The
external vice president’s office has failed UCLA. Melgares
will take charge and enact the change we undeniably need within
USAC.

Morgan Miller, outgoing internal vice president of Bruin
Democrats Matt Knee, chairman of Bruin Republicans

Hate is not a campaign value, should not be on this
campus

I am a first-year student, and on Wednesday I saw the dark side
of UCLA. For the first time, I saw hate within UCLA, and truthfully
I am disgusted.

I came here with expectations of a student population that
stands for equality, community involvement and respect and love for
one another. Until I heard the derogatory word “chink,”
and all at once those positive expectations were shattered. The
prestige that I thought UCLA had is something that I don’t
see any more walking down Bruin Walk.

How can another Bruin say “You fuckin’ chink! Go
back to the fields where you came from!” Those words speak
volumes to the Asian American community and all communities of
color. Most of all, to me it speaks volumes of my own
family’s struggles migrating from the Philippines to the
United States in search of a better life. When I hear those words,
I think back to the discrimination and hate that my family had to
go through in the past.

Two generations later, I hear those same words through my own
ears and it just hurts. Has nothing changed? I refuse to believe
that this is the best that UCLA can offer, and I challenge you all
to stand up against it.

Rhommel Canare Samahang Pilipino/Asian Pacific Coalition
representative

Taco Bell shouldn’t be misused as a campaign
issue

The decision not to renew the contract with Taco Bell and the
subsequent decision to bring it back this year was part of a
deliberative process that the Associated Students UCLA Board of
Directors conducted. This process took nearly three years and
involved everyone from students and administrators to executives
within the Yum! Brands corporation that owns Taco Bell.

At stake was balancing the need for an affordable and
high-quality food product and the demand to hold corporations
accountable to social responsibility, as delineated in our bylaws
and tradition.

It is for this reason that the board spent so much time
deliberating this choice. Following Taco Bell’s departure,
Yum! Brands sat down with representatives from the farm workers and
negotiated an agreement with the workers. As the boycott against
Taco Bell ended, the ASUCLA board immediately began negotiations
with Taco Bell to bring them back to campus, a process which is
respected by all parties.

Students might disagree with decisions that were made at
different junctions in the process, but it is wrong to simply
discount the hard work of the board as merely rash. Bruins
United’s attempts to use Taco Bell as a campaign platform to
get elected is unfortunate and unprincipled. They took no time to
address the complexity of this issue or reference the work done by
many people in resolving the Taco Bell situation. Students should
be skeptical of this kind of “leadership.”

Yousef Tajsar, Emmanuel Martinez Undergraduate members
of the ASUCLA Board of Directors