Student organizations released their official candidate endorsements for the undergraduate student government Friday, adding to the list of factors that voters can take into consideration when considering whom to vote for this week.
Endorsements were mostly divided between candidates from the Bruins United and Students First! slates. Few groups chose to endorse the uncontested independent candidates.
Only one endorsement unified the student groups: The Green Initiative Fund, which would raise student fees by $4 every quarter to fund projects aimed at reducing the negative impact UCLA has on the environment, was unanimously supported.
Most of the 26 student organizations that endorsed candidates this year chose to support all of the candidates from one of the two slates.
Bruin Democrats was one of the two groups that divided its endorsements between Bruins United and Students First! candidates.
Brandon Harrison, the internal vice president of Bruin Democrats, said the group held an endorsement hearing last Thursday to further question candidates on issues pertinent to the organization.
He said Bruin Democrats sought out the most qualified candidates, regardless of slate affiliation.
“We were looking for candidates with a progressive agenda, but also a competency that could allow them to pursue that agenda,” Harrison said.
Bruin Democrats took into consideration each candidates’ platforms along with issues such as office space allocation and organizational funding, which they have been denied in the past, Harrison said.
Andrew Kreitz, the current treasurer and chairman-elect of Bruin Republicans, said the group was not too keen to endorse candidates from either slate because of USAC’s condemnation of Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, which was held in the fall.
“The fact that they would side with the Muslim Student Association makes us question their principles, and the fact that they would pass a resolution without even getting our side of the story makes us question their integrity,” said David Lazar, chairman of Bruin Republicans and a former Daily Bruin Viewpoint columnist.
Both Kreitz and Lazar said Bruin Republicans did not feel either party reflected their conservative values.
“The chief thing it comes down to is we really don’t feel that either of the parties did a particularly good job of representing our position,” Kreitz said.
Bruin Republicans was among a number of groups that have endorsed candidates in the past but did not do so this year. Of those, groups such as the Afrikan Student Union and MEChA were unable to submit official endorsements because of technicalities with the endorsement hearing process.
Christina Walter, chair of the Afrikan Student Union, said the union was unable to endorse the Students First! slate as intended because of a missed application deadline.
“We support the Student First!, and that’s unchanging and that’s regardless of any USAC regulations,” she said.
MEChA, which has endorsed Students First! in the past, was also unable to endorse candidates.
Kyle Kleckner, chair of the elections board, said a representative from MEChA attended each of the endorsement hearings, but because the group’s final endorsement form was not turned in on time, no official endorsement could be made.
Of the groups that did endorse, only three decided to support Bruins United, while the rest endorsed Students First! candidates.
Candice Shikai, the director of the Asian Pacific Coalition, said the organization endorsed mostly Students First! candidates because of the experience each had with issues pertaining to their respective positions.
“A lot of these candidates have addressed the kinds of issues that students are dealing with. They have experience already in coming into this office and to USAC,” Shikai said.
She said the candidates’ involvement and understanding of Asian and Pacific Islander students and of the work the student coalition does also played a deciding factor in their decision to endorse.
“These are issues that affect not only Asian and Pacific Islander students, but also every student on campus,” Shikai said.
Stacey Klein, president of Hillel at UCLA, said the decision to endorse the Bruins United slate was based on the judgment that its platforms were the most practical and applicable to UCLA.
She said while Hillel has traditionally been aligned with Bruins United, her organization attended the endorsement hearings with an open mind and sought out those whose platforms were the best.
“We look for who’s going to offer the UCLA community the most, what’s the most effective change we can make, and who can do it,” Klein said.