Monday, April 29, 1996Emulate peace
Editor:
Muslims are ignorant. That was my naive opinion before I had ever even met a Muslim. I use this extreme example from my life to prove a point: I was ignorant. Now, in light of the recent events in the Middle East and the repercussions present on our campus, I am confused.
I never imagined that people could continue to have naive opinions about others of different ethnic or religious backgrounds once they had been exposed to an environment where they could develop a relationship with those people. What I have realized is that not everyone takes the opportunities abundant on this campus to learn about different people. Many hold to their biases and often unfounded animosity.
Now, the events in the Middle East have sadly strengthened those beliefs. Yet we should learn from each event that enters into our lives and use it for progress. I suggest that despite our differences, we can develop relationships. Even in the Middle East they have initiated peace talks which we can emulate by getting to know individuals of groups with which we have conflict.
After all, Christianity, Islam and Judaism all teach that we must live at peace with our fellow man. Are we going to identify with a religion whose message we can not carry in our hearts?
Natalie Zahr
Third-year
Philosophy
Candid ballot
Editor:
I am writing to express my utter disbelief and dismay that the in-person voting process for graduate students is not anonymous! The student's ID number (which is essentially the same as one's name) is written on the top of the paper ballot, thereby restricting the voter's freedom.
I am assuming that recording the student's ID number is done to ensure that each grad student only votes once. However, there are better ways to regulate voting WITHOUT identifying the student on the ballot. For example, spring registration cards could be either stamped or hole-punched to indicate that a student has voted; or voters' names could be checked off a list.
If the Graduate Students Association wants to increase the likelihood of grad students voting, then I suggest they change the voting process so that one may vote anonymously. Secret ballots enable voters to choose freely and are a basic U.S. voting right.
Jo Anne Beazley
Graduate
Education and information studies
Cents well spent
Editor:
Throughout the 1995-96 academic year, students at UCLA and throughout California have been vital to the national effort to prevent massive cuts to federal financial aid, defend affirmative action and reject wasteful and ineffective anti-immigrant legislation, which has only served to fan the flames of racism across the nation and at home here, in California.
The United States Student Association is not a lobbying organization. We are a national grass roots organization, composed of student governments, student leaders and activists from around the country. We seek to organize students around issues of access, quality and affordability in higher education.
This past year, students organized an extremely successful, month-long call in to congressional members using a special 1-800 hotline; coordinated a week of activism called "Death of Education Week" during which President Bill Clinton and Vice President Al Gore visited two United States Student Association (USSA) member campuses to talk of their commitment to higher education; organized letter writing, postcard campaigns, rallies and in-state lobby visits, all aimed at battering Congress into submission.
Among the many victories we won this year:
1) Passage of the Snowe-Simon Amendment: This amendment closed a tax loophole on foreign corporations and funneled $9.4 billion back into the Senate's budget proposal for higher education.
2) In coalition with the education community and other organizations, USSA was critical in defeating passage of the Balanced Budget Amendment to the Constitution, a move which would have resulted in a 40 percent reduction in education funding!
3) USSA was instrumental in the campaign to force President Clinton to veto the Personal Responsibility Act, a bill which would have cut the social services system in the country to shreds and created a new layer of wasteful and inefficient bureaucracy in our university and school systems.
4) Through months of grass roots activism and careful negotiations, we ensured the unanimous passage of the Kassebaum amendment which restored $9 billion additional dollars to student aid, reducing the proposed cuts to $3.1 billion, none of which affected students in higher education.
In the upcoming undergraduate elections, there is a referendum to increase the Undergraduate Students Association Council membership fee by 75 cents per student, per quarter. Of this, 25 cents are to be used to increase funding for USSA in order for USSA to continue to serve students at UCLA effectively and represent your concerns on a national level. We are asking all students to vote YES on this referendum!
M. Kazim Ali
National Vice President
United States Students Association
Bar none
Editor:
The arguments in Timothy Burke's April 24 column "On-campus bar would be ideal forum for student debate" have no basis. How would such a bar succeed in arousing public debate among students when other campus institutions do not?
Daily, thousands of students and faculty sit together at on-campus coffee houses and cafeterias, share the same tables and stand in the same lines, yet rarely engage in noteworthy debates about political or social issues. Equally, thousands of students spend hours in the dorms or congregate around the student union buildings where they get to know others well. Even there, we rarely hear important public debates about the major issues of the day.
Many local bars cater to the UCLA population, none of which are known for the debates that take place there. Those of us who go to these bars do so not to hear debates, but rather to get drinks, companionship and possibly, if it is a profit-seeking bar, to get drunk. An on-campus bar would not be different. If bars in some places do act as forums for debate, it is because they attract people who already actively engage in debates (such as politicians) or people who have no other forum in which to relax and talk with others. At UCLA, such forums are not at all scarce.
Advocates of the on-campus bar are not at all interested in debates (or in raising revenue for the school), but rather in a place where they can get an alcoholic beverage in between classes. More importantly, they are seeking to create a school environment in which they can walk openly on campus with a bottle of beer in their hand or relax with a drink during class, the way many of us currently do with a soft drink.
It is also important to remind Burke that the pub he's advocating would exclude anyone who is under 21 or who belongs to a religion or culture that forbids alcohol consumption. Thus, many among the UCLA population would be excluded from the supposed debates because of legal or moral obligations, NOT because of being "closed-minded." A fake ID is not advisable on campus due to the high cost of getting caught.
Yaron F. Dunkel
Senior
International Economics