Thursday, April 30, 1998
Stacy Hae Lim Lee
PRESIDENT
The charge of the president of USAC is to be the "official
representative of the association." However, through years of
experience in student government I have come to understand the true
power of student government. The power of student government does
not come in our titles or our ability to "represent" the student
body. Our power comes from the ability to educate, organize and
mobilize the student body to speak for themselves and stand up for
our rights as students and as people in this society.
In the past three years in office, Students First! has worked in
cooperation with campus, Los Angeles, and statewide and national
student and community coalitions to fight for social and economic
justice – with unprecedented results.
The Praxis team is the transformation of Students First! Praxis
is "action and reflection … it is transformation of the world" as
explained by Paulo Freire. The need to expand and include more
student organizations in our coalitions, issues we work on and
services we provide sparked the need for this change.
Our university and our communities are in a critical state of
decline. The results of the implementation of Proposition 209
cannot be ignored nor can they be tolerated. We the Praxis team
will continue to work with the affirmative action coalition to
defend the right of people of color to attend this university as
well as pressure our " leaders" to stand up for justice and against
an unjust law.