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Dear candidate for USAC Office,

Now, I know you must be incredibly busy – elections are less than a week away, and you’ve been dreaming and scheming over your campaign for what must seem like forever. But between the many hours of speech stumpin’ and arm pumpin’ you have scheduled today, I hope you can take the time to sit down, catch your breath and read these small bits of advice I have for you.

After all, as an elected USAC official you will have a huge impact on my student fees, my campus organizations and my extracurricular opportunities. Most importantly, you will have the chance to lead this great university – a school I’m pretty fond of.

First off, we need candidates with a clear vision for UCLA – something inspiring, uplifting and challenging. To be a successful politician on or off campus, you need to present ideas able to capture the imagination of your voters, spring your electorate into action and propel yourself into office. In 1996, Bill Clinton won re-election by promising to “build a bridge into the 21st century.” In 1994, the Republicans swept the congressional elections by offering an inciting “Contract With America.”

Reagan, Kennedy, Roosevelt and other successful politicians had clear futures for America in mind and promoted their ideas with vigor. Why should we expect any less from our USAC candidates?

Yet, so far, the campus has not seen a candidate step up to the podium and share a vision of the heights they plan to take USAC to. That doesn’t mean that current candidates don’t have ideas; for the past two weeks, we’ve read candidates’ ideas in the Daily Bruin. We know that the Students United for Reform and Equality candidates for general representative want to improve the “boring” USAC Web site, the Students First! candidate for Academic Affairs Commissioner wants USAC to work to engage students, and the United Independent candidate for Financial Supports Commissioner wants to advertise the current book lending program more.

There are 28 candidates running for office and there are 28 different views of how to run USAC.

But ideas alone don’t equate to a vision. Students probably couldn’t care less about most of the issues our candidates are running on. Why? Because these issues don’t really seem to affect the lives of the majority of students.

Each slate moans that students seem very apathetic about student politics, but there is a reason behind the students’ apathy. During a year in which tuition is rising sharply, housing is getting more scarce and the world seems to be falling apart around us, USAC seems to have its head buried in the sand, unwilling or unable to confront the big issues in UCLA students’ lives. Our USAC candidates need to rise above this and find a vision and a voice that can guide our school throughout the upcoming year.

And finally, once your fellow students have placed an enormous amount of trust in you, don’t blow it. The actions taken by USAC officers this year have badly damaged the trust UCLA students should have in their student government. In the past month alone, we have seen numerous violations of this trust. We have seen USAC squabble over whether or not to send emotional support and well wishes to U.S. troops overseas – an attitude which hardly matches the sentiments of most UCLA students. We have seen USAC so paralyzed by division that they were unable to even discuss the important issues affecting the lives of students, tabling controversial items before they could be open for debate.

We have seen mean-spirited behavior from USAC President David Dahle regarding his “friends and enemies.” Such behavior has cast doubt upon an entire year of leadership.

Candidates, your fellow students are giving you their trust. Treat us better than our current USAC officers have.

Well, there you have it. Between the handshaking, speech making and promise- breaking, you’ve got to find a vision, a voice and work hard to restore trust in USAC. If you can do those things, then you’ll have my vote. Good luck!

Sincerely,

The undergraduate student body of UCLA

Ludlow is a second-year political science, economics and history student. E-mail him at dludlow@media.ucla.edu.