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Editorial: USAC’s extraordinary weakness permits election board ineptitude

By Editorial Board

March 3, 2019 10:49 p.m.

Students have seen it all: an undergraduate student government blithe to their concerns, an undergraduate student government unaware of their concerns and an undergraduate student government incapable of addressing their concerns.

For the first time in recent history, they have an undergraduate student government too meek to address their concerns.

You can imagine how inspiring that is – especially when this year’s Undergraduate Students Association Council’s election conduct couldn’t be any more disingenuous.

The council’s cold feet centers around Richard White, the election board chair. White has done everything from dispute common-sense conflict-of-interest expectations to calling council members racist.

On Tuesday, White took it to a new level. While clashing with USAC representatives over the election code, he revealed that Robert Watson, the internal vice president, is a candidate in this year’s USAC election – information that should be kept secret until next quarter. He also nominated a member from last year’s election board to this year’s board, despite that student lending a hand in last year’s botched election and allegedly contributing to a corrosive culture of misogyny in last year’s board.

This all goes to show that White is unfit for the job. And the worst part: USAC is too afraid to do anything about it, despite clearly knowing so.

White’s tenure has been problematic since the day of his appointment. For starters, White, a member of the Community Programs Office, has on numerous occasions shown an inability to understand conflicts of interest. For example, a former member of the Student Fee Advisory Committee, which White had served on, said he had disagreed about whether to recuse himself from voting if the committee was deciding on CPO funding. Another student who was formerly part of CPO alleged White had used his SFAC position to direct funding to CPO.

And yet in fall quarter, after White’s acquaintances and supporters crowded around council members and talked down to them, USAC complied and voted – through tears – to approve him as election board chair.

A couple months later, White brought his election board nominees before the council. Most of these students were associated with CPO, causing council members to raise valid concerns of conflict of interest and whether he had performed enough outreach to fill these positions. Some students in the audience called these council members out and White proceeded to accuse the council of racism. By the end of that night, the council had approved most of the election board nominees, despite expressing serious concerns about some nominees just hours before.

The same turn of events happened last week, when White brought another round of nominees, including a previously rejected appointee, to staff his still-lacking board. Council members expressed concerns about his outreach – now confirmed by student groups to be insufficient and exclusive –, they questioned the nominees about conflict of interest, were accused of not being inclusive of students’ backgrounds, and proceeded to appoint the majority of them despite having serious concerns about some.

That’s quite a pathetic display of leadership.

If the council is unable to see the dangers of letting White act unilaterally – even after numerous students’ public comments about him, his flagrant displays of ineptitude and his obvious unwillingness to acknowledge conflicts of interest – the blame no longer falls on White; it falls on the 14 students who appointed him.

Sure, USAC should be cautious of repercussions of disciplining members of its staff, but misconduct in student government shouldn’t be tolerated or ignored.

Acting to correct those misdeeds is a responsibility of all 14 council members. Checking your spine out at the door isn’t.

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