Tuesday, November 11, 1997
USAC general representatives establish their goals for the
year
USAC Child care, hate crimes and housing are among those on
agenda
By Stefanie Wong
Daily Bruin Staff
The general representatives will soon face off against sexual
harassers, hate criminals and those who disrespect women.
The Undergraduate Students Association Council’s main goal is
the well-being of students, and the actions of the general
representatives’ office do not fall short of this aspiration.
General Reps. Jo Anna Ley and Darnell Grisby have articulated
their plans for the upcoming year, which include working on women’s
issue, hate crimes and sexual harassment, among others. Rep. Joe
Medico could not be reached for comment.
Ley has three main areas of concern that she will be addressing
this year.
The first is the Women of Color Coalition, where Ley will be
working on issues such as sexuality, education and gender roles
that deal specifically with women of color.
"Through (the coalition), we hope to bring to light issues that
seem to be overlooked (and) that women of color deal with," Ley
said.
The coalition plans on publishing a quarterly magazine that will
include literary and editorial submissions from students.
They are also working on establishing a special-studies course
for the winter quarter.
The format of this class is tentatively planned to include
weekly panel discussions on various themes and topics dealing with
women of color.
"(The class will be) empowering and educational," Ley said.
An area where Ley has already had substantial success is the
expansion of the self defense classes offered by the Women’s
Resource Center.
Courses provided by the Center are offered on various weekends
during the quarter, but Ley wanted to expand them and make the
classes more convenient for students to attend.
In collaboration with the Women’s Resource Center, Ley was able
to have classes held during the week and in various places on
campus, including the residence halls.
The final area of focus for Ley is the issue of child care for
student parents.
According to Ley, there are approximately 400 student parents on
campus. Of those, 200 are currently on the waiting list for
child-care services that are offered by the university.
"(A waiting list like) that can take up to a year or more before
services are offered," Ley said.
Student parents will be able to voice their opinions and
concerns about child care at a forum next Monday. There will also
be a baby-sitting area where parents who attend this forum can
leave their children.
Ley plans to relay the participants’ concerns to administrators
from the Women’s Resource Center and Child Care Services at a later
meeting.
She hopes that this process will eventually help in providing
more child-care services to the student parents.
While the Women of Color Coalition, self-defense classes and
child-care services are three areas of major concern for Ley, she
will also be working with Facilities Commissioner An Le on campus
safety, and with Grisby on some of the issues that he will be
addressing.
UCLA’s sexual-harassment policy is a subject that Grisby has
decided to tackle this year.
In addition to educating students and student leaders about the
subject, Grisby hopes to work on revising and streamlining the
sexual-harassment policy because of the fallout that he and others
see.
"The general consensus is that there are problems in the
process, but nobody has taken the initiative to revise the
process," Grisby said. "People are in support of changing the
process, but there hasn’t been much movement."
The sexual-harassment policy is "anti-victim in its (tendency)
to become protective of tenured faculty," he added, which is why
there is a need to revise the policy.
Some of the ways Grisby hopes to improve the policy is to
shorten the time it takes for a charge of sexual harassment to be
resolved, and ensure that the victim is kept continuously informed
throughout the process.
Another issue Grisby wants to address this year is the addition
of ethnic and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender theme housing
in the residence halls.
He believes that not only will this provide safe havens for
people of those groups, but that it will also provide educational
opportunities.
"(It would be an opportunity) for people who want to learn about
a culture because there’s an environment where that culture is the
main topic," Grisby said.
However, there are critics who believe ethnic and LGBT housing
will create divisions within the housing community.
Grisby agrees that walls may be built between groups but also
believes that special measures and precautions can be taken to
avoid that.
The addition of a hate-crimes hotline is another goal that
Grisby has for this year.
The hotline would be a simple, easy-to-remember number where
students would be able to report instances of hate crimes directly
to the university police department.
This project is currently in the planning stages and funding is
a crucial component of the program.
Darnell Grisby
Joe Medico
Joanna Ley