Monday, September 22, 1997 Ask your president INTERVIEW: Kandea
Mosley speaks of her plans for UCLA
By Jennifer Nelson
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
What motivated you to run for President?
After all the affirmative action stuff started going on, and
Ward Connerly saying that the Regents were going to abolish it, I
got really involved with ASU (African Student Union) and in student
government with the Affirmative Action Coalition. From there I just
kind of wanted to continue the work with students.
How did you approach your work with students?
We had information that we passed out, and we did do small
programs, but I think we focused heavily on the demonstrations
because we needed to bring attention to the issue. We needed to
show that there was a considerable student voice that was still in
support of affirmative action. We wanted the regents to get that
message, so we were trying to go up to the regents’ meetings and
organize with different organizations.
One of the things I found somewhat disheartening was that no
matter how much work we tried to do with demonstrations, we weren’t
able to provide a lot of the educational materials to students so
that they could make a more informed opinion of affirmative action
and Proposition 209.
Why was that?
I think a lot of times it just happened to be that when you’re
first learning how to organize you don’t know how to outreach to as
many students as you possibly can because you’re just kind of
learning the ropes.
Affirmative action was a major focus of USAC last year. Now that
Proposition 209 has been implemented, are you still going to
continue with that focus?
Even though the majority of UCLA students voted no on 209, I
still felt that, again, we weren’t able to outreach to a lot of
students. Women really didn’t have any idea of how this proposition
was going to affect us, so that’s really what I want the focus this
year in my office to be. I’m working with the other offices on
council to work on educational development and bring political and
social issues to the forefront again. In terms of tangible plans
that we have for next year – I don’t know if you know about the
UC-wide Outreach Task Force?
No, could you explain it?
This is a task force that has been researching affirmative
action. One of the things that I learned over the summer is that
there are millions of dollars that are going to come UCLA’s way to
help expand outreach efforts on campus and address what’s going to
happen to the populations that are going to start to disappear.
Of course, the money that they’re talking about is in no way
going to be enough to create the systematic changes in the public
educational system that would develop more students so that they
would be competitive enough to get into UCLA. But it’s still going
to be a sizeable amount of funding.
Where do you think the outreach money would be best used?
I just want to make sure that the student-run and
student-initiated outreach programs, the Community Service
Commission, and the Community Programs Office get continued support
and funding from the administration. Because I’ve been involved
with the Community Programs Office, I think that there are a lot of
strong programs that students put a lot of time and energy into
that could really become more effective. This is not only good for
the surrounding community, but it also helps to supplement
students’ education here at UCLA. I think one of the things that
I’ve recently been reading about is something called community
service learning.
What is community service learning?
The idea behind it is just that students and young people need
to learn about what it’s like to be a proactive citizen in any
country. In order for society to continue to progress, people need
to continue to give back to the surrounding communities and
understand that everything is interconnected. I think that the
Community Service Commission and the Community Programs Office have
taken the lead in terms of providing that education for students,
even though students don’t get course credit for their community
service, which is something I think that should be discussed.
What would you identify as USAC’s top priority for this
year?
I think prioritizing community service and building a spirit of
unity on campus. That’s a very difficult task here at UCLA just
because of the size of the institution. One of the things that
we’re trying to do with a project like the Welcome Week is to
…
Can you explain what Welcome Week is?
The idea behind the Welcome Week is really just to to welcome
incoming and also returning students. I think one of the problems
again here at UCLA is it’s becoming so big that when students come
to UCLA they a lot of times don’t know where to fit in. They don’t
know about all of the opportunities. There are over 500 student
groups here at UCLA, and you have major student advocacy groups. I
think that one of the things we’re trying to do is to build bridges
between those organizations and student government. We’re trying to
program events that everyone will be interested in because we’re
hoping that will be a fun way to kick off the whole idea of
building a sense of community on campus.
What other specific goals does USAC have?
Another thing that I am working on with the general
representatives is the issue of sexual harassment and investigating
university policy on sexual harassment.
I’m also committed to working to build a women’s coalition, or a
women’s alliance on campus. I’m hoping that we could have an
initial meeting and discuss some of the issues that are confronting
women on campus and some of the ways that we could organize and
work to shed light on these issues. I think that also when women
know that there is some sort of coalition out there or that there
are other women trying to tackle these issues, it builds a sense of
empowerment.
What do you think that students want most from student
government? What are their expectations for you?
I really don’t think that students think that much about student
government. I remember when I first came to UCLA, I didn’t think
that much about student government, and so I think one of the
things we would like to do is increase our visibility this
year.
One of the things that student government always has the
responsibility of doing is advocating for student needs and
bringing current information to students. Student government has a
lot of access to information. The EVP (external vice president)
office works with representatives statewide and can share a lot of
information in terms of financial aid and how students can actively
get involved to make sure that our fees don’t go up here at the
university.
I think when you talk more about the issues that are being
worked on, I think that sparks more interest and when students are
interested in student government, I think that’s when their
expectations develop.
This is the third consecutive year that Students First! has
gained control of USAC. How will this administration be similar and
how will it be different from previous years?
One of the things that I have noticed is that people talk about
USAC and Students First! almost like they’re interchangeable. My
perspective on it is that although Students First! representatives
were elected to student government, once you are elected to student
government you learn about your position, you learn about the
responsibilities that you assumed, and your role is now as an
elected official. This year is going to be different from the prior
two years of Students First! people being elected in the sense that
the political climate has changed somewhat on campus. I think it’s
critical at a time like this when we have a new chancellor here on
campus who has already expressed political views that are different
from Charles Young and obviously, just based on his background,
doesn’t have the same experience working with students. I think
that it’s very important that students can unite around some
issues, and that the new chancellor and administration that’s going
to follow has a good working relationship with student government.
It is important that they understand the important role that
student government plays in all the student organizations that are
sponsored or are in any way a part of student government.
Do you foresee a good working relationship with Chancellor
Carnesale, or do you think he will be at odds with USAC over
certain issues?
I don’t know what to expect right now. I think that he’s
expressed some interest in working with students, but what that
relationship will be, time will tell.
Where do you stand on the technology fee? Was it something that
you supported?
The Student Fee Advisory Committee was opposed to the technology
fee, and so my perspective of that fee tends to side with the
student committee.
In general, things get more and more expensive for UCLA students
and it directly impacts the level of student involvement. One of
the things that I learned spring quarter is that during the
seventies, the ratio of grants to loans was three to one and now
it’s reversed. I think when people talk about students being really
apathetic, I lot of it I think is because students are working so
much more that they can’t maximize their education and student life
experience.
That leads me to the issue of USAC stipend raises. While some
students believe they are necessary, others question why the vote
took place during the summer with several key officers like
yourself absent. Could the issue have been postponed until more
students and council members were present?
I was opposed to the whole way that this issue was introduced
during the summer. I think that it’s important when you’re talking
about controversial issues which will directly impact student
perception of student government that you wait until the school
year, and you develop mechanisms for getting student input. I think
that as chair, I tried to state my position firmly. I talked about
it at the table that night, about the importance of building
student trust. I think for any government to raise its own pay
there have to be special circumstances that are demonstrated to
everyone involved. If these things aren’t done, I just think it
leaves a bad impression of student government. Anyone who’s
involved knows that the stipends are really low and it’s hard, but
that’s just not a way to get support.
USAC recently voted to exclude Panhellenic and the
Interfraternity Council (IFC) from this year’s base budget. What
was the reason for this decision?
I think that the rationale behind the budget committee’s
decision (which is why I supported the decision) was that their
primary source of funding was outside of student government. We
have $180,000 that has to go to overhead, and to all the
organizations. When you’re talking about trying to budget and give
organizations increases, which we were able to do this year, you
have to be able to prioritize those groups that don’t have any
other sources of funding.
One of the things that I’m interested in is looking into this
issue somewhat further and seeing if my office can work with IFC
and try to figure out ways that I can support IFC if IFC needs
money. If IFC is not getting its primary source of funding from
outside and really does depend on student government, then I will
definitely work to support IFC and make sure that IFC has
funding.
IFC and Panhellenic contend that they have not been granted a
base budget because of political and ideological differences with
Students First! Is there a basis for this claim?
I think, again, that it has to do with where the primary source
of funding is coming from and it also has to do with a lot of
incidents that have happened in IFC’s past that student government
has been forced to deal with. When you’re talking about blatant
issues of racism and sexism, it’s important that student government
takes a strong stance against them. That’s just something that
student government has to do and should do.
At the same time, any organization that is trying to work to
correct some of that history should be supported in that. I think
in a lot of ways that’s a very proactive stance for IFC to be able
to understand that these issues exist and seek out student
government to get support. That’s something I’d like to talk about
and see how my office can help.