Andrew LaFlamme
By Robert Salonga
Daily Bruin Staff
Because of a powerful slate and some bad luck in pursuing a
mid-term appointment, Andrew LaFlamme’s plans for the
financial supports commission have been two years in the
making.
One vote will put the unopposed LaFlamme into office for the
Undergraduate Students Association Council; he ran unsuccessfully
last year for the same position.
Housing, transportation, book lending and financial aid sit on
the top of his priority list for 2002-2003.
The BruinGo! transportation program allows UCLA students,
faculty and staff to ride the Santa Monica Big Blue Bus for free
with a swipe of their Bruin Card. While other candidates are
concerned with the program’s growth, LaFlamme first wants to
ensure that BruinGo! ““ slated to end in May ““
survives.
“Pushing for expansion right now is ridiculous,” he
said.
He hopes to solicit donations from book retailers to improve the
relatively unknown book lending program, designed to help students
who cannot purchase all of their textbooks.
LaFlamme is also looking to revise financial aid allocation,
since he said he received more financial aid upon moving
off-campus, despite having fewer expenses. He said financial aid
should be less “scrupulous” about parents’
contribution to costs.
“They’re overstepping their bounds,” he
said.
LaFlamme wants to ease housing problems by lobbying local, state
and national government representatives. He pushed for Assembly
Bill 1611, which would allow nonprofit organizations to raise funds
to subsidize college housing costs.
His other housing idea is to compile Westwood apartment rates
into one comprehensive book.
“That’s going to hopefully increase
(landlords’) honesty,” LaFlamme said. “If
they’re not willing to work with students we should put that
in the book.”
Despite being unopposed, LaFlamme joined the SURE slate to bring
new ideas into council and to increase his chances of winning.
He did not know he would run unopposed when he joined the
slate.
He said USAC needs a “cleaning through” and a
different ideology from that of the majority-holding Student
Empowerment! slate, to which he lost when running independently
last year.