Tuesday, February 4, 1997
DISTRUST:
Slate monopolizes USAC’s agenda instead of
fulfilling election promisesBy Angela Foster and Darrin
Hurwitz
Two years ago, Bruin Democrats wholeheartedly threw its support
behind Students First! in the student government elections. We
hoped to find a welcome, open environment where progressive student
groups like ourselves could join together to mobilize and educate
the campus. What we found instead were closed doors and a
leadership dictated by a few student advocacy groups (SAGs) which
controlled everything from appointments to candidate recruitment to
the organization of rallies and marches. Last year, though, Bruin
Democrats decided to deliberately overlook these concerns because
of shared political beliefs, and, for the most part, we supported
Students First! again.
However, this year Students First! has again shown no signs of
broadening its coalition or reaching out beyond the SAGs which form
its base.
Compounding this lack of inclusiveness has been a degree of
unprofessionalism which has filled the pages of the Daily Bruin for
weeks. While Bruin Democrats continues to stand by the political
goals of the coalition, we cannot continue to support Students
First! as a viable and responsible political slate for UCLA student
government in the future.
It is important that great care is taken by student leaders to
ensure a professional environment, one in which accessibility is
given to a wide range of student groups. While admittedly the SAGs
which represent historically underrepresented groups do deserve
special attention, this should not mean that they hold a monopoly
over student government decision-making as they do now. The
Undergraduate Students Association Council (USAC) must occupy a
position sufficiently independent of student groups’ influence so
as to represent a broad sector of the student population and, at
the same time, be able to respond to a wide variety of
interests
As Kendra Fox-Davis of the African Student Union noted correctly
in the Daily Bruin last week, it is important that progressive
organizations stick together. The Bruin Democrats’ departure from
Students First! does not in any way diminish our commitment to
working together on issues of equality and social justice. In fact,
it is the Bruin Democrats’ belief that student government should
have a strong political component to it and that a variety of
groups should be involved in the planning and organizing of
political actions.
However, the ends don’t always justify the means. And, in this
case, the means have frequently made a mockery of the whole notion
of student government. Students First! has merely become an
extension of a limited number of groups and has frequently been
hostile to those whom it perceives to be outside its inner circle,
even when common goals should be uniting these groups. An "if
you’re not with us (or like us), you’re against us" mentality
persists. We have witnessed this ourselves and on occasion in the
Viewpoint pages of the Daily Bruin, where representatives of these
groups have resorted to name-calling rather than engaging in a
mature discussion of justified criticism. This mentality also
became apparent in the appointment process as well as in the
hounding of opposition candidates during last year’s campaign.
And while Internal Vice President Glenn Inanaga boasts of
Students First!’s commitment to include the entire campus as part
of their "team," from our two years of experience with Students
First! we have a difficult time believing this. In truth, the
reality has been much different. Students who do not subscribe
wholeheartedly to particular Students First! ideologies or who do
not belong to particular SAGs have not been welcome on the third
and fourth floors of Kerckhoff Hall and have frequently been
ostracized.
This tendency of Students First! to perceive an enemy becomes
even more worrisome when considered in light of recent actions in
which they have elevated themselves above the USAC bylaws. By
effectively neutralizing the check of the Judicial Board by voting
in a block to overturn its decisions, Students First! now serves as
the executive, legislature and judiciary of student government, as
well as a full-time campaign organization (as exhibited by the
inappropriate use of their campaign logo on official USAC
literature). It has appeared to us that the only accountability
Students First! believes in is required of them is at election
time, and that the rest of the year they are free to do as they
wish, merely dismissing concerned students as "trash-talkers."
We remained patient with Students First! for so long largely
because the slate marked a new approach to student government, and
we took a vested interest in their political activities. Two years
ago, for progressive, socially minded students and organizations,
the student government elections were tremendously uplifting. For
the first time in all of our UCLA careers, we had elected a group
of student leaders who were committed to proactive, grassroots
political organizing. This was a far cry from previous student
governments, which had tended to drift clear of political issues
and were generally underrepresented in UCLA’s diverse student
population.
In their first year in power, the Students First! slate, which
controlled all but two council seats, politicized student
government by focusing on important educational issues such as
affirmative action and financial aid. While there were justified
criticisms by a variety of students and student groups regarding
the leadership and inclusiveness of USAC, it was easier at the time
to gloss over some of these concerns in light of the fact that
Students First!, as a progressive, multigroup coalition, was new to
power and would naturally experience some growing pains.
After Students First!’s overwhelming landslide in last year’s
elections, one of us (Hurwitz) made the observation soon after in a
Daily Bruin commentary that: "Students First!, as simply a minority
progressive coalition, has matured. Its leadership would do well
now to broaden its base and to reach out beyond its original
constituencies. By bringing in groups that have been on the outside
and outreaching to the opposition, Students First! could build a
unified, diverse political slate which could lead UCLA students
into the next century."
The article added that Students First! should be constructive
with criticism and deal with a broad range of both political and
less political campus issues. It concluded that "a student
government can and should deal with a diverse set of concerns and
extend its hands equitably to all student groups." It is
unfortunate that Students First! chose instead to isolate itself
from much of the campus, even from those organizations which had
wanted to become involved in a broad-based coalition.
It is important that students don’t buy into arguments from
Students First! members that they, and only they, can operate a
politically in-tune and progressive student government or that the
only other alternative to them is a "conservative" or "do-nothing"
student government. Now is the time for a coalition of progressive
students and organizations and a concerned campus community to join
together and provide a viable alternative to the current
unresponsive council. We encourage all students and organizations
who share our sentiment to get involved in the upcoming elections.
You can begin by contacting us at [email protected].