As Deadline Looms, CalSERVE Slate Still Unclear

With the deadline to file their candidates in the ASUC elections just one day away, CalSERVE members have yet to come to a consensus on their slate.

A finalized list of candidates was supposed to come out of a "community meeting" with CalSERVE's base of student groups Tuesday night. But some groups, upset by the lack of transparency in the way candidates were chosen, voted to push back the slating to a meeting that will be held later today, said Taina Gomez, ASUC executive vice president and CalSERVE co-signatory.

The bulk of the meeting, which was scheduled to end at midnight, ended up being a discussion that "focused on solving internal issues" that lasted until 5 a.m., said Academic Affairs Vice President Gustavo Mata.

CalSERVE is coming out with its slate unusually late this year. Last year, the party revealed its presidential candidate in mid-February.

But this year, the party stalled because of many "internal discussions that have withheld us from moving forward," according to an e-mail obtained by The Daily Californian.

At the meeting, more than 50 students from 20 different student groups hashed out the various approaches to choosing a slate that aligns with the CalSERVE vision, said Adil Khan, a member of the Muslim Student Association.

"On one extreme, every little decision made has to be brought back to the community and operate on democratic consensus. On the other extreme you can have party leadership for the sake of efficiency and participation, a small group of elected leaders who make decisions," Khan said. "They are just the growing pains of working in a broad-based coalition."

Members from the student groups felt that the process should be more open, particularly in the interviewing process, which started months earlier, Gomez said.

"There was a lot of concern on how executives were interviewed previously and how senate candidates were chosen," Gomez said. "Not everyone was on the same page."

During the meeting, party members never even began discussing the candidates, Gomez said.

After hours of deliberation, party members came up with a new plan that satisfied most in attendance-anyone can nominate himself and each individual member will get one vote, instead of limiting each student group to a single vote.

All CalSERVE senators who attended declined to comment on the substance of the meeting.

"We want this to stay amongst the community until the decision is final," said CalSERVE Senator Alicia Criado.

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