The UC Student Association planned for its upcoming campaigns and heard a presentation on state and UC budgets at its monthly meeting this weekend in Riverside.
During a presentation from the UC Office of the President, members of the association examined breakdowns of revenues and expenditures within the University of California.
According to UCSA member and campus Graduate Assembly External Affairs Vice President Iman Sylvain, the presentation focused mainly on the costs of running the university’s campuses but did not address its medical centers, national laboratories and other facilities under the university’s purview.
At the meeting, the UCSA board decided to postpone further discussion on a recently drafted memorandum of understanding between the UCSA and the university regarding students’ roles in tuition-hike discussions.
“We’ve gone back and forth on the MOU,” Sylvain said. “UCOP hasn’t spent much time telling us what they agree with and what they don’t.”
According to UCSA President Kevin Sabo, the UCSA will likely edit the draft of the MOU, per the request of UCOP. Discussions will be tabled until the November meeting.
The UCSA spent a significant amount of time planning the #HowAreYou campaign — a systemwide campaign to reform student mental health services — including choosing a logo and discussing a potential partnership with the Steinberg Institute, an organization that works to advance public policies related to behavioral health in California, to produce a mental health survey for UC campuses.
As part of the discussions surrounding the campaign, members reviewed a pledge drafted for student organizations to demand that UCOP mandate peer-to-peer consent and bystander-intervention education and training for all students.
In addition, the UCSA reviewed a resolution to organize the Million Student March, a national student movement to address student debt that calls for free tuition at public institutions, among other demands. According to Sylvain, UCSA members decided to add language to the resolution to address the “intersectionality of access” by highlighting marginalized communities, but they ultimately endorsed the resolution.
