Tuesday, April 29

In the news:

USAC Endorsement: Kristina Sidrak for Internal Vice President


Kristina Sidrak

Blaine Ohigashi



The editorial board is composed of multiple Daily Bruin staff members and is dedicated to publishing informed opinions on issues relevant to students. The board serves as the official voice of the paper and is separate from the newsroom.

The Daily Bruin Editorial Board has endorsed candidates for all 13 offices in this week's undergraduate student government elections.

In deciding endorsements, between two and four representatives of the board met with each candidate to discuss his or her platforms, goals, evaluation of the current council,and knowledge about USAC.

From interviews, we also considered how the candidates would interact with other members of the council and represent a diversity of student needs.

From there, the board voted on the endorsement for each office. The candidate with a majority of the board's votes earned our backing.

We endorsed individuals as individuals, not as slate representatives.

Board members who have personal relationships with the candidates abstained from voting for the office the candidate was running for.

Voting begins today on MyUCLA at 1 p.m. and runs through Thursday at 8 p.m.

See who else the board endorsed:

This board endorses Kristina Sidrak for the position of internal vice president.

Sidrak can draw from significant experience in USAC as the current chief of staff of the IVP office and in student groups, including the Student Alumni Association, the Pediatric AIDS Coalition and Swipes for the Homeless.

Given the office’s close involvement with student groups, this experience, along with her obvious excitement talking about her extracurricular activities, suggest that she will be an enthusiastic and understanding liaison for the hundreds of groups that operate on campus.

Sidrak’s core platform was very similar to that of her opponent, Sheena Santamaria. Both candidates proposed increasing communication and co-programming among similar student groups. Both hope to improve on the how-to guide to student group funding created by this year’s office, establish an online common funding application and continue the Strathmore Safe Rides program.

Sidrak, however, seemed to have established a more direct connection to student groups and to understand how to work within the bureaucratic structure of USAC to improve their experience.

She also discussed improving the UCLA mobile app and moving the UCLA email accounts to Gmail. These secondary proposals are less central to the role of the IVP office, but Sidrak displayed an impressive combination of leadership experience and passion for working with student groups.


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