Become invested in council

A student working on campus in one of the Associated Students UCLA stores makes a starting wage of about $8.25 per hour.

That same student will pay a total of $39.91 per quarter, or $119.73 a year, to next year’s Undergraduate Students Association Council budget.

So it takes each undergraduate about 14.5 hours of work, two course readers or the equivalent of several rounds of drinks for your friends at one of our two Westwood bars to fund the budget of next year’s student government.

In sum, USAC approved a budget last week of $2,975,733.

So it pays, it seems, to find out where that money will go and who will be in charge of it.

Most of the money has been earmarked through past referenda for specific uses ““ about $2.23 million.

This leaves about $738,000 at the discretion of the council, with another $221,000 earmarked for program funds, which gets dispersed with the help of USAC.

Programming funds go to student groups or council projects. For instance, Joline Price, a USAC general representative, applied to the Program Fund for approximately $6,000 to run a Mental Health Awareness week, though she returned some funds that were unused.

What is most staggering about our student government budget is the amount of money spent on funding beyond student programming. The council approved nearly $500,000 of its nearly $3 million budget for administrative expenses.

To rephrase, that is about two hours of your work at the CLICC Lab in Powell Library that goes into the administrative running of our student government.

Some of that goes to the salaries of full- and part-time employees who help run student government.

But some of it goes for telephone use ““ $13,830 of it, to be exact.

And making changes in administrative expenses is met with a lot of resistance, said Nat Schuster, Academic Affairs commissioner.

The operational funds that the council disperses are then allocated between various commissions and for student groups.

USAC offices such as the Facilities Commission or the external vice president’s office receive $40,307 in operation funds, and $161,227 is given to student organizations to pay for things outside their programs ““ which include stipends, Schuster said.

In other words, some of the funding for student groups can go to paying students to be in the student groups.

So there are certainly reasons to pay attention to next week’s USAC elections.

The signboards get overwhelming, the fliers are exasperating, and the campaign speeches on your way to class get old.

But don’t let that stop you. Find out which groups support each slate, and consequently which group an elected commissioner may be more likely to support.

Find out who prioritizes bringing groups to campus, fighting for mental health awareness, or ensuring that the head of student organizations get paid.

Find out, and have a hand in deciding, where your 14.5 hours of work, two course readers or rounds of drinks will go next year ““ whether those huge sums will change in the budget approved next year.

E-mail Mishory at [email protected].