EXTERNAL VICE PRESIDENT: Park already familiar with ins, outs of job

No contest here. Tina Park of Students First! is, hands down,
the most qualified person running for the office of external vice
president this year. As the office’s in-house candidate, Park
already has the experience and ““ perhaps just as important
““ the repertoire of contacts with other lobbyers and
politicians to effectively represent the concerns of UCLA students
to the higher-ups.

Park’s work in the EVP office this year has more than
adequately prepared her for the office’s two biggest
challenges: freezing or lowering student fees and increasing
financial aid. Broad goals to be sure, but Park stands the best
chance out of anyone to accomplish them. Her knowledge of existing
policies is extensive, and given that her face is already a
familiar one around the UC Students Association and the state
capitol, Park can capitalize on those relationships to get things
done.

However, it’s not just Park’s off-campus strengths
that would benefit UCLA students; her on-campus goals are just as
respectable. Park has already opened the lines of communication
with the Office of Residential Life and the Los Angeles County
Registrar to bring more polling locations to campus ““ which
will hopefully make that long walk to Hedrick Hall to vote a thing
of the past.

And Park’s goal of bringing faculty, administrators and
students together at UCLA for a diversity summit is one of the best
plans any candidate running for office this year has to address
declining minority admissions at UCLA. Park’s summit would
get the student voice in the same room as the policy-makers, and it
stands the best chance of finding a way to affect real change.

It’s not that Katie Tokushige, Park’s opponent, is
unqualified for the EVP office. Her heart is in the right place,
but her plans lack specifics and the feasibility of one of her
major platforms ““ getting a second student representative to
the UC Board of Regents ““ is highly suspect. Plus, Tokushige
would have to spend time building up the contacts and experience
Park already has.

The bottom line is that Tokushige, if elected, would likely run
into a learning curve. Park, on the other hand, is so knowledgeable
about the inner and outer workings of the EVP office, it’s
almost as if she’s doing the job already.