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Friday, May 1, 1998

Four diverse presidential perspectives highlight race

USAC: Elections focus on different views of student government's role, duties

By Dennis Lim

Daily Bruin Contributor

Citing reasons ranging from idiocy to a highly politicized student government, USAC presidential candidates Martin Chippas, Ben Geer, Chris Ihara and Stacy Lee have declared how they plan to change UCLA.

Running under the Sanity '98 slate, Chippas, a member of the Bruin Republicans, has focused his campaign on reducing the size of USAC and their ability to assess fees.

A staunch believer in low student fees, Chippas has promised to cut the amount of money that USAC receives from students by cutting the stipend funding of USAC officers and funneling the leftover funds to all groups, not just "special interest" groups.

"We are going to reduce the stipends to USAC, take away the special status that certain groups receive now, and take what is left and give it back to the students in the form of funding for programs," Chippas said.

"We are also going to implement a policy of only funding events that benefit UCLA as a whole and focusing on campus issues like parking, housing and campus events," he said.

If elected, Chippas said that he will make the mandatory USAC fees optional. Chippas has not said how much student fees will go down should he be elected. However, he has said that he and the other candidates under Sanity '98 would "cut (student fees) as much as we can."

Geer, a general representative candidate in last year's election on the Access slate, has decided to run independently this year.

"I think we need more independent candidates in office that don't have this slate affiliation and loyalty so that we can get as many views as we can," he said.

With a campaign focusing on issues such as parking, housing, construction and diversity, Geer sees his independent status as the ultimate reason voters should choose him.

Using Students First! as his primary example, Geer said that slate politics simply do not work for student governments.

"The last two years have shown that slate politics have been a failure. One slate tends to get elected, then that slate has complete control over USAC and not enough of the other views receive the representation they deserve," Geer said.

Specifically, Geer pointed to incidents such as the appeal of Judicial Board decisions and the exclusion of certain groups such as the Greek system from receiving funding. He says that such exclusion will continue in one form or another, regardless of which slate wins.

Lee sees Praxis as a transformation of last year's Students First! slate. Admitting that Students First! had problems, Lee stressed Praxis' theme, reflection in action.

"We're being honest here. We're saying that Students First! had problems like everything else does, but now we're going to fix those problems," Lee said.

"Students First! did a lot of good. We accomplished a lot of things like keeping fee hikes down, getting billions of dollars for financial aid, and organizing millions of people on issues that affect UCLA, but people tend to dwell on the mistakes that Students First! made and not on these things," she said.

Lee thinks that the other candidates have a limited view of what a student is. People at UCLA, according to Lee, are more than just students.

"There are people on this campus with such diverse backgrounds. We can't pretend that they have only one narrow identity," Lee said.

Running under his self-titled slate "Feces '98," Ihara has declared his idiocy as the attracting force between voters and himself.

"I'm an idiot. I've been an idiot my whole life. I want to see if the school will elect an idiot for president," Ihara said.

"I think they will. I think they'll look at me and say, 'That guy's an idiot,' and then they'll vote for me," he continued.

When asked about the seriousness of his statements, Ihara continuously responded, "I'm an idiot!"

Ihara had no issues that he felt strongly about or had any knowledge of. Expressing pride in his independence, Ihara said that he runs his campaign by himself, though he confessed that no one else would help him.

Without a clear plan for the elections, Ihara has refused to participate in election events thus far. In particular, Ihara refused to take part in the endorsement hearings held every night for the past week.

"This is really a spur-of-the-moment thing. I don't have anything planned. I have a slogan though. 'If you want to see my butt, vote for me.' I believe in students last and Chris Ihara first. Vote for me,'" Ihara said with a laugh.

"People really shouldn't vote for me unless they're totally stupid," he continued.

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