While students are away from campus this summer, Bruins United’s abuse of the student government appointment process in appointing unqualified individuals to represent the entire undergraduate student body is going unnoticed.
This past Wednesday, the Undergraduate Students Association president and the Academic Affairs commissioner forwarded 30 names to place in high-level campus positions, all of which were unabashedly used to fulfill personal and political obligations to their Bruins United campaign supporters.
After three months of one-on-one meetings to discuss the appointments, many Students First! members had hoped that slate affiliations would not be the deciding factor in presidential and Academic Senate appointments. We see that the discussions and negotiations fell flat, however, because Bruins United continues to base its decisions on slate affiliation rather than on a student’s relevant qualifications and experience.
The walk-out was a culmination of Students First! frustration at seeing three months of dialogue go nowhere because of Bruins United’s single-mindedness in giving positions to supporters and friends.
Bruins United council members are trying to frame the Students First! walk-out as a dramatic display of slate politics, but they are misdirecting the campus’s attention from their own actions. Our walk-out was a last resort, prompted by Bruins United’s complete disregard for the appointments process, set in place to avoid irresponsible decisions.
By forwarding inexperienced people to committees of substance and power, Bruins United is destroying a student government that has the potential to serve the student body. By arguing to lower expectations and standards for student appointees in order to approve their group of appointees, Bruins United is limiting strong and effective voices in the decision-making processes of this campus.
The undergraduates deserve representatives who are experienced in their committee’s issues – representatives who will bring both short-term and long-term benefits to the committees.
Bruins United is burning bridges with other parts of campus as well. When the president ignores key campus partners – such as the Student Initiated Access Committee and the Campus Sustainability Committee – in the joint appointments process, and gives important seats to her campaign supporters, she is simultaneously ruining relationships with important campus bodies and shutting out real student voices and the opportunity for change.
Until Bruins United is willing to work to restore the integrity of this council by forwarding the most qualified students to campus and faculty committees, the work of this now-five-person council will be a mockery and a display of bad leadership.
A full academic year lies ahead of us. We can still come together to tackle the issues impacting students at UCLA. Until collaboration occurs, Students First! is committed to stopping Bruins United as it stifles student voice and its members abuse their roles as campus leaders.
Park is the 2006-2007 external vice president of the Undergraduate Students Association Council.