That so few people out of the tens of thousands of students at
UCLA showed up to the Undergraduate Students Association
Council’s open house on Tuesday speaks to a couple of issues:
either students just don’t care about USAC, or Council
didn’t conduct enough outreach on campus.
Either way, indifference prevails. If Council members cared
enough to reach out to students they would have, at the very
minimum, started passing out fliers earlier, not just the day
before. And though they insist on a commitment to continue trying
to improve their outreach efforts, this was also said last spring
at elections time ““ and the results speak for themselves.
Considering participation in politics outside of the campus does
not yield a better picture. From a University of California
perspective, it doesn’t really matter who takes over the
governor’s office. Gov. Gray Davis and Bill Simon will likely
continue the tradition of appointing people to the UC Board of
Regents based on campaign contributions, not educational expertise
or even familiarity with the UC. True, Davis established a
partnership between the state and the UC earlier in his term that
would have helped the university deal with its financial burdens.
But he never followed through with his promises, even though the
university did.
From a campus perspective then, what incentive do students have
to want to get involved, when leaders themselves don’t
demonstrate interest in them?
Because, regardless of their leaders’ short-comings, the
community still has several needs.
This doesn’t mean students have to join a plethora of
organizations on campus or obsessively keep track of the elections
coverage in the media. All students have to do is find something
““ at least one thing ““ they can do to contribute to
their community’s well-being and progress.
The simplest thing to do is vote, even if it’s not for
candidates. In this election for example, there are two
propositions in particular that affect students directly.
Proposition 47 would provide the UC with $408 million in public
bond money to continue much-needed construction projects.
Proposition 52 will allow voters to register on the same day they
vote, meaning UCLA students, who are by no means all from Los
Angeles, can more easily participate in local political issues. One
of those this year is the potential break up of the city. Students
have until Oct. 21 to register in Los Angeles to have a say in the
November decision.
And even if students don’t care to vote, there are a host
of other options just as easy to carry out: give blood, tutor a
high school student, read a newspaper, promote recycling, or join a
club on campus.
General apathy will likely plague UCLA forever. This is
unfortunate, especially for USAC, since the amount of students
involved in the student association will directly affect the
council’s power and legitimacy as the students’
official voice. But so long as students try to make some effort to
exercise their civic duty, they will make themselves more valuable
to the community.