Campus speeches are a waste
As a UC San Diego alumnus who’s witnessed firsthand the self-congratulatory State of the Campus address delivered annually by our student government, I choked on my coffee at reading the Daily Bruin’s praise of Homaira Hosseini’s proposal to enact a similarly idiotic waste of money at UCLA (“Daily Bruin USAC endorsements: President,” May 5). While congratulating Hosseini for borrowing UCSD’s smart ideas (paying fees on an installment plan, something that should be self-evident), you simultaneously managed to applaud her aping one of our stupidest.
The UCSD Guardian reported that this year’s State of the Campus address was attended by “about 50 A.S. councilmembers, administrative officials and faculty” ““ in essence, no one showed up except the people doing the talking. (Incidentally, The Bruin reported that last week’s USAC debate also attracted a mere 50 students, all of whom were associated with the slates.) Students have better things to do than watch the president congratulate herself in front of her council cronies. It’s hardly a “concrete step toward increasing student knowledge about student government,” as the Daily Bruin claims. It’s a waste of thousands of dollars in student fees, money better spent on, say, copying UCSD’s other good idea: the Sun God Festival, a giant free concert and the greatest show on Earth.
Daniel Watts
UCSD Class of 2006
Sandler a strong choice for students
When students vote for Undergraduate Student Association Council president this week, Matt Sandler is the clear choice for students who want a productive student government. Not only does he have better ideas than his opponent, but his experience is one of a proven leader who can get things done.
After Sanobar Sajan resigned during the forgery scandal earlier this year, USAC needed another general representative. This was an extremely difficult position to fill ““ coming in the middle of the year and building an office up from scratch would be difficult for everyone.
After listening to the different applicants, I encouraged President Gabe Rose to appoint Matt Sandler.
Thankfully, he listened to my advice, and Matt has quickly become one of the most productive members of council. He used his experience as president of Model United Nations to implement things such as Thinking Outside the Box speaker series and off-campus apartment workshops during his short time in office.
His programs have been some of USAC’s most successful this year, even though he’s been in office less than half a full term.
Matt is also running on ideas that would actually make change for the student body. He wants to expand Ackerman Union so there is more space for student and student groups and use USAC’s $3 million budget to help alleviate the effect of budget cuts next year.
His opponent’s biggest ideas are giving a speech once a quarter or establishing new vending machines on campus. It’s important to have a president committed to making real, meaningful change for UCLA. Matt Sandler will be that president.
Dianne Tanjuaquio
USAC Internal Vice President