ASUC Fails to Serve Most Needy Groups

As a senator I will no longer stand idly and watch the institution that I am a part of consistently silence significant populations of the students on this campus. It is a disgrace to see the legacy of a university that once embraced progressive ideals and served as a beacon for the entire world diminished.

UC Berkeley was renowned as an oasis where those whose ideas were rejected everywhere else could be embraced and valued for once. Today, our university hides behind this legacy and shamefully rides on our reputation while the UC Regents, individual UC campus administrations and ASUC serve the interests of the overrepresented and privileged members of society.

It is simple to mask this attitude in a rhetoric of "fiscal responsibility" or "that's what the by-laws state." I beg to differ. I will not defer to rules, rules created to systematically shut out very specific groups of students. Our U.S. constitution has been used to deny voting rights, justify slavery and intern people. Those laws had to change not because the government thought they were wrong; people had to point it out, fight and die for change. The governing principles of our deteriorating student government can and must change as well.

I am enraged as a member of the Finance Committee that Derby Days, a fraternity event that has recorded incidents of exploiting women, was funded amply by ASUC while funding for Alpha Phi Alpha's Black Women's Appreciation night was cut severely. They are the only fraternity that has prioritized the recognition and appreciation of women on this campus.

The majority party in senate has time and again flexed its power in numbers to silence not only the rest of us on senate but our communities as well. It is disheartening that ASUC is not accessible to certain groups on this campus; groups of color, groups working for social change, groups that are the only salvation to preserve a shred of what UC Berkeley once represented.

ASUC is also inaccessible to its own members who must balance responsibilities beyond the scope of school. As members of the UC Berkeley student government, we have an obligation and a responsibility to be active participants in the surrounding community and understand that we must be committed to making that community a better place through our actions in ASUC.

It is disturbing for me to spend so much time, energy and resources in a student government that is not organized to affect positive change but is complacent and works to maintain the status quo. It is time for change within ASUC. The by-laws can no longer back people into corners, the principles of fiscal responsibility can no longer exclude underrepresented groups and the actions of the senators will be under strict scrutiny at all times to ensure accountability to every student. It is your right to observe, critique, and challenge the elected student officials. Attend your next senate meeting.

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