Thursday, November 6, 1997
Complaint about USAC unfounded
CRITICISM: Writer must learn true role Students First! plays on
campus
By Irene Farinas
Alex Balekian’s whiny article, "USAC puts certain Students
First!" (Nov. 4) is filled with ignorance, contradictions and
prejudiced assumptions. He criticizes USAC for not addressing every
single problem that UCLA has.
Where do we start?
His article starts off complaining about how USAC "wasted" money
on an ad condemning Nike’s exploitation of workers. First of all,
these exploited workers’ problems of basic survival and living
cannot even be compared with such petty problems as being unable to
find parking and being solicited for donations. He attacks the Nike
ad as being unworthy information. Aren’t we here at this university
to educate ourselves about issues going on outside of our UCLA
microcosm? Doesn’t he care about the welfare of anybody besides
himself? Tell that exploited worker who just finished working a
12-hour, 7-day work week that he has "wishes out of touch with
reality." If anyone should be criticized, it shouldn’t be USAC but
the exploitative corporate heads and investors.
Before Balekian writes his "words of wisdom," he should get his
facts straight. First of all, USAC does not have power over
everything at UCLA. Parking, tuition, housing costs and
construction are pretty much controlled by the university, and USAC
has historically helped in those areas, but in no way do they have
complete control. The "endless construction" is necessary to an
extent. It will benefit students in the long run (i.e. fixing
earthquake-damaged buildings and building MORE parking structures,
as you suggested). The big inflatable gorilla was put up by the
UCLA Student Store, not Students First!
Second, the International Student Center is not a dorm. Rather,
it will house the various offices dealing with international
students services. It was not paid for by students or USAC. Most of
the funding came from outside private donations.
Third, as Balekian affirms, UCLA is a public institution. You
cannot have security guards keeping the public out of UCLA. That
would be a fascist violation of the rights under the First
Amendment. Also, a number of these solicitors are students who have
just as much right as he to be on campus. Balekian overlooks the
things that USAC addresses. For example, the book-lending program.
Again, USAC cannot control the prices of books, but they are
attempting to address the problem with this program.
He claims that "Students First! does not care about the Western
and Eastern European, and Middle Eastern and Asian students." Yet,
he does not recognize that a large block of USAC’s funding goes to
the Community Service Commission (which is a part of USAC). CSC
includes programs such as Asian Education Project, Korean Tutorial
Project, Vietnamese Reaching out to Aid the Community, Vietnamese
Language and Culture, Pilipino Recruitment and Enrichment Program,
Pilipinos for Community Health, Armenian Tutorial Project, in
addition to the Watts Tutorial Project (that he claims is being
ignored by USAC). USAC also funds Samahang Pilipino, Iranian
Student Group, Asian Pacific Coalition, among others. Also, aren’t
John Du and York Chang Asian?
Balekian says that "USAC is more interested in letting in
underqualified students via affirmative action and letting go of
other qualified students." Affirmative action does not apply to
unqualified students.
His assumption that people of color are automatically
unqualified, while everyone else is automatically qualified, is
inherently racist and only further proves the prevalence of
discrimination and the need for affirmative action. He claims that
funds should be allocated to positive programs like Watts Tutorial
Project, and simultaneously criticizes affirmative action. Watts
Tutorial Project exists as a form of affirmative action: Early
Outreach. Why do you think this project exists? It exists for the
same reason affirmative action needs to exist: African Americans
and other people of color still face barriers in this unequal
society.
The rule of the majority hasn’t always been historically right.
Otherwise, slavery would still exist, and we would not be allowed
to vote.
P.S. Don’t let our last names fool you. We are Asian, and
although USAC has its share of problems, we feel that it does
attempt to address issues that affect us, like affirmative
action.