The Undergraduate Students Association Council is the official student government representing the undergraduate student body at UCLA. Summer council meetings take place every other Tuesday at 7 p.m. and are open to all students. Summer meetings will take place virtually on Zoom; links for the meetings can be found on the internal vice president’s Facebook page. Watch a livestream of the meetings on the USAC Live! channel on YouTube.
Public Comments:
- Hailey Valles, a member of the UCLA California Public Interest Research Group, said UCLA has just been certified as a Bee Campus USA affiliate, which affirms the university as a leading pollinator protector. Valles added that CALPIRG is preparing to launch its virtual summer internship program this fall.
- Nicolas Riani, a third-year public affairs student, said he will run CALPIRG’s New Voters Project in the fall. Riani said the project is the oldest and largest nonpartisan youth voter mobilization effort in the country. Riani added he supports the USAC resolution calling for the integration of voter registration into campus practices.
Appointments:
- Breeze Velazquez, the Academic Affairs commissioner, appointed Josephine Flores to the Campus Retention Committee for the 2020-2021 school year. Velazquez said she wants Flores to help the AAC make the CRC budget more transparent this year. Flores said she would report committee documents to USAC consistently and hold herself as well as other committee members accountable to CRC’s Statement of Understanding.
- Internal Vice President Emily Hong Van Luong appointed Leslie Castelan to the vice chair of the Campus Safety Alliance.
- Noe Garcia, the Financial Supports commissioner, appointed Angela Li to the CRC. Li said her position as the executive director of the Asian Pacific Coalition can supplement her work at the CRC. Li said she wants to increase transparency within the CRC through USAC appointments and personal conversations with individual USAC council members. Zuleika Bravo, who was a member of the CRC for the 2019-2020 school year, raised concerns about administrative pushback on budget transparency measures and CRC’s autonomy from USAC.
- Naomi Riley, the USAC president, appointed Najma Ali to the Student Initiated Outreach Committee for the 2020-2021 school year. Ali said she feels a personal responsibility to give back to her own community to give them more opportunities to be college-ready. Ali said she will put public pressure on the administration to hold them accountable to SIOC members and its SOU.
- Velazquez also appointed Raylene Factora to the SIOC. Factora said she wants to facilitate clear communications between the committee and the administration to press for budget transparency. Factora formerly worked as a News contributor for the Daily Bruin.
- The council appointed Hector de Leon to the CRC for the 2020-2021 school year. De Leon said he will hold himself accountable so that the CRC remains student-run and student-initiated.
Old Business:
- Riani, a CALPIRG member, said the resolution of support for CALPIRG’s New Voters Project will institutionalize student voting on campus by embedding voting into existing campus programs, departments and resources. The council approved the resolution by 12-0-0.
