USAC recap – April 7

This post was updated April 10 at 11:43 p.m.

The Undergraduate Students Association Council is the official student government representing the undergraduate student body at UCLA. Council meetings take place every Tuesday at 7 p.m. and are open to all students. Spring quarter meetings will take place virtually on Zoom; links for the meetings can be found on the internal vice president’s Facebook page. Watch a livestream of the meetings on the USAC Live! channel on YouTube.

Public comment:

• Sithara Menon, a third-year biology student and chair of the UCLA chapter of the California Public Interest Research Group, said the group has shifted to remote meetings and will focus on its New Voters Project campaign for spring quarter. The goal of the project is to make voting for the United States presidential race easy and accessible. The group plans to make absentee ballots available so students do not have to risk their health and safety to vote.

Special presentations:

• USA Election Board chair Navi Sidhu said his office is working on finding opportunities for online election events through Ballotpedia, Zoom and additional websites. Sidhu asked the council to approve Regulation 4, which implements temporary guidelines that will expire at the conclusion of the spring election to regulate the online election. He added that 35 candidate applications were submitted, and all noncommission offices are contested. This means that each position has a prospective candidate, and there will likely be no special election in the fall.

Agenda:

• The council approved the addition of Regulation 4 to the Social Media Guidelines for the election. The regulation specifies that candidates who use novel social media platforms or online media without approval from the election board may be subject to suspension from campaigning.
• The council approved a proposal for the election board to use $10,000 from USAC to purchase gift cards to help incentivize voter turnout.
• The council approved the ballot for the upcoming USAC election. Students can vote from May 4-8 on MyUCLA.
• General Representative 3 Brandon Broukhim allocated $690 from his office to Books for Bruins, a USAC group.
• The council allocated a total of $544.34 from Supplemental Fund for Service to a non-USAC group.
• The council appointed Jenny Wang, a second-year economics student, as Finance Committee vice chair.

Reports:

• President Robert Watson said his office has had weekly meetings with administrators about commencement, elections and the health of students. He added that he is working to develop a transparent report for student fees, which would detail how student fees are used.
• External Vice President Johana Guerra Martinez said she has weekly calls with the University of California Student Association about COVID-19. She added that her office is working to support students through the pandemic in any way that they can.
• General Representative 2 Orion Smedley said his office is working on an elevator simulation to improve productivity during move-in and move-out.
• Academic Affairs Commissioner Naomi Riley said her office is creating infographics to inform students of policy changes regarding dropping impacted online classes. She added that her office is continuing its work with Books for Bruins.
• Campus Events Commissioner Tara Steinmetz said her office will host weekly yoga classes via Zoom.
• Student Wellness Commissioner Mihika Sridhar said her office will launch a COVID-19 relief grant and will release more information soon.