USAC members to draft amendment to prevent immediate stipend increases

The original headline accompanying this article contained information that was unclear and has been changed. See the bottom of the article for additional information.

Members of the undergraduate student government are preparing an amendment to their bylaws that would prevent future councilmembers from raising their own stipends.

The Undergraduate Students Association Council increased councilmember stipends from $355 to $672 a month with a 8-1-0 vote during the summer. The money for the pay increase came from USAC funds, which are covered by student fees.

USAC President John Joanino and Cultural Affairs Commissioner Jessica Trumble said they began working on the bylaws amendment Saturday, following student backlash about the council’s decision to raise its own pay.

USAC Internal Vice President Avi Oved said his office is separately working on a similar bylaw amendment.

While Oved said he wasn’t aware of Joanino and Trumble’s potential amendment until he read about it in a Daily Bruin editorial on Monday, Joanino said he had heard that Oved’s office was working on an amendment too.

Factoring into Joanino and Trumble’s decision to create an amendment was an open letter written by leaders of the Bruin Alliance slate that called for USAC to amend its bylaws to prevent future councils from raising their own stipends. The student groups in support of the letter also requested that USAC defer the stipend increase until next year and said that the decision to raise its own pay constituted a conflict of interest.

The Bruin Alliance leaders who drafted the letter said they plan to officially present it to the council at Tuesday’s USAC meeting. Although the letter has not been formally presented to USAC, most councilmembers heard about the letter this week.

Eighteen student groups have signed their support for the Bruin Alliance letter, including Bruin Republicans, Bruin Democrats, the Lebanese Social Club, the Afrikan Student Union, the Shooting Club and Theta Xi.

Trumble and Joanino said they have been talking informally for several weeks about the possible bylaws amendment, but that student interest shown through the Bruin Alliance letter encouraged them to begin the official process of drafting the amendment.

“To be perfectly honest, it’s something we considered a while back,” Joanino said. He added that the open letter to USAC brought the possibility of a bylaws amendment to the attention of students and demanded action.

To amend the USAC bylaws, councilmembers must bring an amendment proposal to the USAC Constitutional Review Committee, which approves any potential amendment before it is presented to the council for a final vote.

Joanino said that he thinks changing the bylaws would alleviate student concerns about a conflict of interest in future stipend considerations.

Oved, the only USAC member to vote against the stipend increase, said that his office was working on an amendment proposal before the Bruin Alliance petition went public. Oved said he is collaborating with the USAC Funding Study Group, which handles finance-related updates to the bylaws, to draft the amendment.

Oved told the Daily Bruin Nov. 13 that he was not working on an amendment to the bylaws, but then said on Tuesday that he and members of his office had been informally working on an amendment for several weeks.

The Internal Vice President’s office plans to hold a town hall meeting on Dec. 2, when students can talk about USAC resolution reforms and possible changes to USAC’s bylaws. Oved said he plans to present the possible amendment at the town hall and collect feedback from students about it.

Nicole Fossier, a student group liaison for the Internal Vice President’s office and Bruin Alliance executive board member, helped write the letter to USAC. She said that preventing future councils from raising their own stipends is the first step to fixing the problem that councilmembers created by taking their pay raises from student group funding.

Fossier said she thinks it would be hypocritical for councilmembers to pass a bylaw preventing future councils from raising their own pay, yet still accept their own pay raise.

“We knew it wouldn’t be a fight to get a bylaws change,” said Taylor Bazley, a fourth-year political science student and executive chair of Bruin Alliance. “But it’s equally as important to put the money back into (Student Organizations Operational Fund).”

Bazley unsuccessfully ran for USAC President last spring.

Bazley and Fossier said that they plan to continue pressuring USAC to defer the stipend increase until next year and return the money gained from the stipend increase.

Joanino said, however, that postponing the stipend increase and returning the money to student group funds would require extensive research and would be very difficult.

“We can definitely meet the bylaws requirement, but any deferment or return of money is a much more complicated issue,” Joanino said.

Roy Champawat, director of the UCLA Student Union, said that the return of already dispersed money to student group funds would be inefficient and likely require significant research and additional taxes. Champawat expressed support for the USAC stipend increase.

Champawat said he is surprised that students demanded that their student government leaders work for below the minimum wage.

Though different offices are working on similar bylaws amendments at the same time, Joanino said he does not think that the proposed amendments will conflict with one another.

Community Service Commissioner Omar Arce, who is a member of the Constitutional Review Committee, said that passing a bylaws amendment preventing future councils from raising their own stipends is logical, given the backlash that the current council has received for its decision.

Arce voted for the stipend increase, and said he stands by his vote to increase councilmember stipends, even after student backlash. He said that the stipend increase allows him to dedicate the time needed to his job and perform better.

Joanino and Trumble both said they also stand by the council’s decision to increase its own stipends. Joanino did not vote on the stipend increase because the president customarily does not vote unless it is necessary to break a tie, but he said he thinks larger stipends make it easier for students with unstable finances to serve on USAC.

“I have to defend the decision that the council has made,” Joanino said.

Trumble said she wants to receive further student input on the potential amendment before bringing it to council for a vote.

“We want to garner more student input,” Trumble said, “We won’t rush or do it hastily. We want to make the most responsible choice.”

Joanino, Trumble and Oved said they do not plan to bring the amendment to council this quarter because they think they need more time to gather student feedback and write the proposal.

Clarification: USAC councilmembers are in the process of drafting an amendment that would prevent future undergraduate student government officers from approving stipend increases within their terms.