Simon Perng "Nothing can erase the
damage done”¦" ““ Davey Havok. E-mail Perng at
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The University of California is going through hard budget crunch
times that will force it to spend $86 million less this fiscal
year. (“State cuts will affect UC fundings,” Daily
Bruin, News, Nov. 21). Consequently, our chancellor and
administration must struggle in paring down spending
priorities.
It’s an atrocity that our academic programs will suffer
the budget ax while the Undergraduate Student Association Council
continues wasting student fees on sideshow protests and various
political, non-academic causes ““ regardless of its claims to
do otherwise.
That’s why Chancellor Albert Carnesale must strip USAC of
its discretionary funds, abolish the organization and reconstruct
it anew.
My call for a more perfect USAC focuses on fiscal efficiency
with less socialist dogma while providing all the student services
people know and love. Some of you may be shrugging your heads in
doubt, but I think it can be done.
The first change USAC must undergo is to get itself out of the
the business of funding campus groups. What’s the point of
funding specific campus groups that have no pertinent academic
business in mind? Groups such as MEChA, Asian Pacific Coalition and
African Student Union supposedly exist to bring cultural
perspective and cultural awareness, but that does not necessarily
translate into tangible academic value.
We should not be forced to pay for their news magazines, their
permanent staff members or their political protests while the real
academic programs and facilities the university provides remain
strapped for cash.
USAC should not give money to student groups with no stringent
strings attached. Otherwise there remains more opportunity for
waste as money passes out of the Council’s hands and into the
numerous hands of each student advocacy group. Instead, programs
should be funded directly and independently through USAC’s
own departments in order to ensure the money is used efficiently
(i.e. oversee cultural events and programs funding through the
Cultural Affairs Commission alone).
USAC’s worthwhile departments ““ such as the Campus
Events, Cultural Affairs, Student Welfare, Community Service and
Facilities commissions ““ would function more appropriately as
autonomous entities, independent of USAC authority.
Instead of sullying their hands by dealing with the USAC-Student
Empowerment! political machine, these commissions should continue
to receive their normal funding directly from the university. This
way, all those things you love and enjoy, such as concerts, movies,
blood drives, fixed toilets, will still be around, while
eliminating solely political, non-inclusive, non-academic programs
such as the Affirmative Action Coalition.
USAC members can still express their views on political issues,
but why should the rest of us subsidize the indoctrination they
attempt to carry out via our mandatory student fees? We
shouldn’t have to fund useless groups under the USAC
umbrella, the University of California Student Association and the
United States Student Association ““ farce entities for
student leaders working outside of the university to pat themselves
on the back for preaching socialism to the masses.
Disposing of the positions of the General Representatives and
creating in their place an independent student senate ““ one
that is not confined to the current student advocacy groups USAC
supports ““ is another necessary reform USAC must undergo.
A student senate ensures that a fox is not guarding the hen
house. It would remove inherent conflicts of interest by separating
the executive and legislative duties. This would be an improvement
over the current system that lumps legislative and executive duties
together, resulting in inefficiency and conflicts of interest. The
legislative branch’s constitutional role would be to ensure
USAC funding is spent in the students’ academic interests and
not on specific political issues.
In this way we could prevent another Karren Lane from reigning
supreme as the “Lord Protector of the realm of USAC”
with both executive and legislative duties under her control and
under the control of people who support her.
For those of you who are wondering how we’d fund a student
senate, the money we’ll save from abolishing unneeded
positions and commissions will be more than enough.
Implementing these reforms will make the new USAC a no-frills,
representative, accountable student government. This student
government will not burden our UC budget with its spending excesses
in political campaigns, ensuring university funding is available
for worthy academic programs instead.
My vision may be a pipe dream now, but I hope it serves as a
model for a student government one day.