Chris Diaz
In the elections race for academic affairs commissioner
there’s only one person to vote for: Chris Diaz.
The commission is one of the most important to students as it
deals with educational issues that affect every undergraduate
student and includes the duty of appointing students to the
Academic Senate, one of the most powerful decision-making bodies on
campus.
Diaz, who is on the Student Empowerment! slate, is against
enrollment caps in principle, but rightly sees the need to maintain
the quality of education at UCLA. He is additionally in support of
a diversity requirement, and is avidly fighting for a moratorium on
the minimum progress changes that would seriously damage the
quality of education for undergraduates.
Not only will Diaz address the issues important to students but
he brings new ideas to the office as he wants to find ways to
include a community focus into education.
His opponent, Dria Fearn, a Students United for Reform and
Equality candidate, wants to expand UCLA’s outreach and
retention. However, while doing this she would dilute the
effectiveness of student initiated outreach and the Academic
Advancement Program, which she ultimately wants to open to all
students.
She also says she supports a diversity requirement, but her
notion of one is so broad and expansive as to be meaningless.
What is most sad about Fearn is that she supports reuniting as a
way to deal with overcrowding. While her job would be improving the
quality of education, her compromising approach to the job would
ensure that a UCLA degree becomes meaningless.
While Fearn says she supports many of the programs of her
opponent, students mustn’t buy into her shallow rhetoric.
Vote for Diaz.