The Daily Bruin’s unsigned editorials should be required
to have some semblance of consistency.
While last Friday’s editorial on the parking problem
professed the board’s complete understanding of parking
scarcity, the other editorial on the Undergraduate Student
Association Council’s budget decision, which appeared right
above it, was devoid of any economic sense whatsoever.
The problem of scarcity is one we all face daily. For
example, as The Bruin astutely pointed out, the entire Westwood
community is aware of the parking shortage. Likewise, scarcity in
the form of space constraints sometimes prevents the Daily Bruin
from fully explaining the arguments and rationales of whom it
quotes. For USAC, however, scarcity comes in the form of
money: limited finances means that funding requests must be
scrutinized in depth rather than approved indiscriminately across
the board.
While I don’t believe that USAC’s role in budgeting
should be strictly limited to oversight in all cases, last
week’s meeting proved to be a special one, and I’m
proud to have been a dissenting vote.Â
The money decided on was midyear surplus funding for student
groups amid unprecedented midyear budget cuts for the rest of the
UCLA campus. USAC essentially doubled the recommended
base-operating budgets of newly funded groups without the usual
summer-time scrutiny and despite the fact these groups also have
ample access to contingency funds on a case-by-case
basis. Thus, while USAC has effectively overridden the people
hired specifically for funding distribution (the Budget Review and
Finance Committees), they have at the same time relinquished all
discretion on how the money is actually spent.
In light of this, we need to realize that just because the money
is available now doesn’t mean it must be spent right
away. Indeed, in all likelihood, these same groups will need
to request money next year for items they truly need. The funds
will no longer be available, however, because USAC has now approved
spending for items that the experts on the specialized committees
realized are less important.
The largest problem any government body faces is that it’s
almost impossible to give everybody everything they want.
That’s scarcity. Simply put, to override the decisions of our
Budget Review and Finance Committees and to fail to scrutinize
properly the issues at hand is irresponsible government.
Students should want to see their money put to effective use.
USAC accomplishes this goal to the best of its ability by charging
two specialized committees with the power and responsibility to see
that our hard-earned fee money isn’t squandered. USAC
certainly needs to assert its jurisdiction over the proceedings of
its committees, but it must do so with due respect for process, and
not merely because of a Tuesday-night whim to please the benefiting
groups.