USAC councilmembers stand by stipend increase decision

Members of the undergraduate student government decided to stand by their vote to increase their own stipends at a meeting Tuesday, despite some student concerns about the decision.

The Undergraduate Students Association Council raised councilmember stipends from $355 to $672 in a 8-1-0 vote at its meeting last week.

After discussing the stipend increase for about an hour at this week’s meeting, councilmembers decided to stick to their vote. The council decided it thought USAC members deserve higher stipends, even if not all councilmembers agreed on the way the decision was made.

USAC Internal Vice President Avi Oved was the only councilmember to vote against the increase during the initial vote. Last week, he said he did not feel comfortable increasing his own stipend because he thought it was a conflict of interest and he did not want to use money that could potentially go to student groups.

General Representative Sunny Singh, Financial Supports Commissioner Lauren Rogers and Academic Affairs Commissioner Darren Ramalho did not vote because they were absent from the meeting last week.

USAC administrative representatives said they supported USAC’s decision and encouraged the council not to change its vote.

External Vice President Maryssa Hall said she did not think council should “flip-flop” on the decision.

During this week’s meeting, Finance Committee Chair Cynthia Jasso said she thought the Daily Bruin misconstrued the stipend increase issue. Jasso added that she is considering boycotting the paper.

Councilmembers had the option to individually or collectively opt out of receiving the stipend increase or their entire stipends.

But multiple administrative representatives discouraged councilmembers from publicly opting out of taking the stipend increases at the meeting. They said disparities between councilmember stipends could cause students to judge councilmembers by the amount of money they make instead of their work.

Last week, USAC President John Joanino put the option to forgo the increase on the agenda and said he planned to opt out of his own stipend increase. But Tuesday night, he decided against it after administrative representatives said it could lead to division on the council.

“It’s still an option, but I don’t want it to become a public issue of who took (the stipend increase) and who didn’t,” he said in an interview. “It wasn’t to put councilmembers in an uncomfortable position.”

Joanino said he is glad that the council is moving forward with its decision, but he plans to search for other sources of funding for council stipends besides student fees.

Oved said in an interview following Tuesday’s meeting that he thinks USAC needs to take steps to ensure students are part of the decision making process.

“The issue wasn’t the stipend increase itself,” he said. “It was the outreach and not having students involved.”

Councilmembers said they plan to outreach to the student body and explain their decision through a submission to The Bruin and a town hall meeting.

Compiled by Amanda Schallert, Bruin senior staff.