Monday, 5/5/97 External vice presidency up for grabs Candidates
present platforms with concrete goals for university, students
By Joshua Smith Daily Bruin Contributor Candidates for the
external vice president (EVP) hope to sway voters in the
Undergraduate Students Association Council (USAC) elections through
very specific and focused objectives. Liberty ’97 candidate Marc
Olsen’s main concern is the protection of student civil liberties.
He is a strong advocate of the protection of the rights of the
individual and the individual’s right to choose for him or herself.
"The individuals are going to make a better choice than any type of
government," he said. "The campus has never taken a look at (civil
liberty) issues in this light. It has always been a block of people
making a decision." One of Olsen’s specific objectives as part of
the Liberty ’97 slate is to do away with codes that limit an
individual’s freedom to use "fighting words." While he recognizes
the need to protect against hate groups, he feels that such
limitations hurt the rest of the students more than it hurts the
offenders. "I just do not think that this is the right way to deal
with racism and sexism," he said. "They need to go through a more
rational, logical approach. Olsen says that the university does not
have the right to say what is hateful and what is not. For them to
do so is an automatic violation of students’ rights," he said.
While the university has no specific codes restricting hate speech,
it does limit the use of "fighting words" as according to the U.S.
Constitution. Members of the Liberty ’97 slate consider them one
and the same. "The university tries to say that it is a haven for
free discourse of ideas, yet students give up their First Amendment
rights when they come on campus." Olsen even applies his philosophy
about the students’ right to choose to the issue of USAC fees,
which he believes should be voluntary. "(With voluntary USAC fees)
you can get your USAC fees (back) if you do not like what USAC is
doing," he said. "(It) put(s) the power of the student government
back into the hands of the students by allowing them to choose
which groups they support." Access Coalition’s EVP candidate Behnaz
Pezeshki also is also concerned about student fees. However, her
main worry is that there are more students in need of financial aid
and less financial aid to give. "There are people in need of
financial aid and the only way that financial aid can be raised is
to raise … tuition," she said. "The immediate solution is …
scholarship awareness. This will cut down on a lot of financial aid
that people need." Pezeshki said that while California owes a lot
to its students, the students should also give something back to
the California community. "The outreach program that we have right
now is to me invisible. I want to make the biggest outreach program
that anyone has ever seen," she said. Her biggest objective with
outreach is to initiate programs to disadvantaged high school
students. In her view, affirmative action is a "dead horse" that
has been largely usurped, and high school outreach is a way to
achieve the goal of affirmative action without the program in
place. "I know right now that there is nothing else we can do about
affirmative action," she said. (We must) try to get back diversity
without affirmative action." Through student volunteerism, she
believes that these objectives are possible. But for Pezeshki, just
getting a lot of people helping out is not enough. "I do not want
people to just volunteer their bodies," she said. "Volunteerism is
not just volunteering your body but volunteering your souls and
voices as well," she said. Students First! EVP candidate Stacy Hae
Lim Lee is also a great believer in the masses of students
committing to a cause to make a difference. "There is a great
potential within the student body to create lots of change," she
said Lee’s most important objective is to work with the University
of California Student Association (UCSA) in its Millennium
Campaign. The Millennium Campaign is an effort to help higher
education by advocating affordable education, curriculum reform,
affirmative action and other issues that affect the quality of
student’s lives. The key to implementing these plans successfully,
Lee said, is education. Lee wants to inform students on exactly how
state money is spent on education, claiming that if they knew the
facts, they would be compelled to join the campaign. "It is really
about the student," she said. I … want to help broaden how
people’s perspectives are (and) help build a movement for social
justice." Instead of being an organizational giant, Lee believes
that USAC is a catalyst for student group unity on important
issues. "We are not there to answer everything," she said. "USAC is
the tool to help coordinate interaction so that groups can come
together and form a united front," she said. Bruin Vision EVP
candidate David Krinsky agrees with the need to rally students for
important issues. However, Krinsky wants to de-emphasize the
grassroots approach to change and re-emphasize proper legal
channels. "You can not write off the legal system because that is
the way laws are changed," he said. "How else are you supposed to
change the law except through proper legal channels?" Krinsky also
is concerned with the amount of continued outreach efforts, and
feels that it should be a continued priority for students. "UCLA
students expect things from the community, but I think they have to
give back to it also," he said. "There are a lot of organizations
that are involved in the community, but I do not think it is
ongoing." But Krinsky’s largest concern is in regard to women’s
issues. He is appalled that women’s issues have been given such
little attention from the student government. "Women in general are
not getting the representation on this campus that they need," he
said. "There is no one group on campus that is actively campaigning
and addressing women’s issues." If elected, Krinsky would create a
women’s coalition that would rally both women and men to bring
attention to women’s concerns. "It would give attention to a group
that has not been getting it," he said. "It also would help to
promote campus unity." Stacy Hae Lim Lee David Krinsky Behnaz
Pezeshki Marc Olsen Previous Daily Bruin stories Throughout
undergraduate history, student candidates have unofficially aligned
themselves with election slates, May 3, 1995