Strength in Numbers

Lately the University of California Student Association, a coalition representing students from 11 UC campuses, has not been too popular. Last year ASUCD, the student government at UC Davis, withdrew from the organization. Recently, the graduate assembly at UC Davis also pulled out because it felt that the UCSA does not represent graduate student interests. And last week a bill was introduced to request establishing a temporary committee to re-evalute ASUC’s relationship with the UCSA.

Both ASUCD and the UC Davis graduate assembly have valid reasons for rescinding membership. UCSA unfortunately does not have a stellar reputation of being an effective organization that consistently gets results. Membership is costly—every year our ASUC pays more than $31,000 to the UCSA. It sounds tempting to follow in the footsteps of ASUCD, which used the money that would have paid for membership and instead hired a professional lobbying firm.

However, while it does possess many problems that have affected its performance in lobbying for student interests, UCSA is an important organization that serves as the official voice of the students. Its strength comes from the fact that as a UC-wide organization it represents more than 200,000 students, a significant number that commands legislators’ attention. If UC Berkeley were to follow UC Davis and leave, eventually there might be 12 smaller groups lobbying for a disarray of interests, which is even more ineffectual than UCSA’s current status.

The withdrawal of UC Davis student governments does raise some issues that need to be addressed, but the ASUC must also remember that being part of UCSA is ultimately the right decision. If such a committee is formed, it should focus on finding ways to improve representation of UC Berkeley interests in UCSA and what can be done to help the association reach its full potential.