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EDITORIAL BOARD Editor in Chief  Cuauhtemoc Ortega

Managing Editor

 Corey McEleney

Viewpoint Editor

 Cody Cass

News Editor

 Kelly Rayburn

Staff Representatives

 Edward Chiao

Amy Frye

Derek Lazzaro

Robert Salonga

Amanda Schapel

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GSA wrong to return funds to ASUCLA

In returning about $10,000 to the Associated Students of UCLA last week, the Graduate Student Association showed more concern for the financial distress of the organization than for its own members.

GSA was set to receive about $10,000 less in the original ASUCLA budget until the Undergraduate Students Association Council insisted on the inclusion of a maintenance and utilities subsidy.

While it is resourceful for GSA to come up with a solution to the budget crisis, it should not feel obligated to bail ASUCLA out of its financial straits in the first place. ASUCLA was established to serve the students – having students return money out of concern for its welfare is a contradiction of ASUCLA’s mission. GSA’s most important commitment is to its students – thus, when it begins charging higher fees, it should not be refusing money from a funding organization.

GSA has provided sparse student services in recent years, and could have used this money to expand its programming. There is no such thing as too much money when it comes to student groups.

There is always a need for more student services and programs benefiting the members, especially among UCLA graduate students who already have very little sense of interdepartmental community at this large university.

RPI only masks UC's diversity problem

Regent Ward Connerly believes in racial equality, but he wants to arrive at it somewhat oddly: by eliminating race itself. This is the motive behind his Racial Privacy Initiative, which will outlaw the collection of racial data for most public records if it passes on the 2004 ballot.

If the measure passes, it may pose a threat to University of California’s ability to conduct race-related academic research. As such, Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante is asking the UC to find out the potential ramifications of the RPI on the university’s research capabilities. Since professors would have to apply for permission to use racial statistics, this could impede or discourage the research process because of the increased time and cost it would require scholars to accumulate the data themselves. The RPI’s potential negative effects will extend beyond research: the initiative will also help hide the diversity problem currently faced by the UC. It will remove any race-related items from the admissions and hiring processes. This is problematic because diversity has steadily decreased at the UC since Connerly’s Proposition 209, which eliminated affirmative action in California in 1996.

It’s unfortunate Connerly, who as a university leader is supposed to help expand the UC’s potential, is limiting it by using his position to advance his own political agenda. As much as anyone would want to eliminate racial inequality, stamping out race won’t help at all: if you have no information about where racial problems exist, there is no way you can fix them.

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