KEITH ENRIQUEZ/Daily Bruin Senior Staff Portia
Pedro speaks up at the Sept. 12 undergraduate student
government meeting.
By Linh Tat
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Past disagreements between the administration and student
government on how to tackle large issues have some believing an
adversarial relationship exists between the two.
Because UCLA answers to the UC Board of Regents, administrators
must enforce policies that are not always favored by students.
At the same time, however, some feel administrators should stand
up for students by speaking out against the board’
decisions.
“Students can never ask too much of administrators,”
said Mike de la Rocha, last year’s Undergraduate Students
Association Council president.
Though both sides recognize tension in their relationship,
they’ve also agreed this is not always the case and contend
that working together is beneficial to the university’s
decision-making process.
“There’s an inherent and probably healthy tension
between the students and the administration,” said Lyle
Timmerman, USAC administrative representative.
“But I don’t see it as one that has to be such a
significant barrier that it “¦ precludes students from
interacting effectively in the decision-making process,” he
continued.
Sometimes tension evolves when one group suspects the other side
doesn’t trust them, said Steve Davey, who is serving his
second consecutive term as USAC facilities commissioner.
 KEITH ENRIQUEZ/Daily Bruin Senior Staff USAC
Administrative Representative Lyle Timmerman
listens at a USAC meeting. “Some student leaders do not trust
administrators,” Davey said. “As a result, there are
some administrators who come to meetings and take students’
concern with a grain of salt.”
De la Rocha conceded there is mistrust on the part of some
students, but said administrators have not always demonstrated
concern for students either.
“There will be student concerns or issues that they
won’t see as student concerns because they’re not
students,” de la Rocha said. “What they prioritize is
different.”
But according to Executive Vice Chancellor Rory Hume, there are
issues both sides agree should be given top priority, such as
diversity on campus.
In 1995, both students and administrators spoke out against SP-1
and SP-2, which ended the use of affirmative action in the
university’s admissions and hiring.
“At the moment, we need to continue the dialogue on issues
related to diversity,” Hume said.
Besides diversity, the university asks for student input on
other issues concerning them, such as student fee allocations and
outreach programs.
Each year, student government members or appointees sit on
various advisory boards along with faculty members and
administrators. These boards tackle specific issues and forward
their recommendations to administrators who make the final
decision.
For example, the Student Fee Advisory Committee, where the
majority of seats are filled by students, plays a large role in
determining how student fees should be used.
According to Bob Naples, assistant vice chancellor of student
and campus life, there have only been two instances in the past 20
years where the chancellor did not go along with the
committee’s decision.
“Sometimes our final decision is not what students want
and so they feel we don’t listen to them,” Timmerman
said.
In spring 1998, to make sure they were heard, USAC and other
student groups protested outside top administrators’ offices
by taking over Murphy Hall in response to Proposition 209, which
ended affirmative action statewide.
While administrators may take student protest seriously, they
don’t always agree this is the best way to deal with
frustrations.
“If their only tactic for getting something done is to
protest, then it becomes ineffective,” said Naples, who is
also dean of students.
Current USAC President Elizabeth Houston concurred, saying
protests should only be used as a last resort.
“I don’t think it’s always been used
appropriately in the past,” Houston said. “USAC has not
always explored all its venues.”
But some students believe the administration won’t
necessarily set policies that are in the best interest of students
unless they are pressured into it.
“The only way the chancellor or the administration will do
something is if there’s pressure put on them,” de la
Rocha said.
In the past, USAC members demanded immediate responses from the
chancellor. During a town hall meeting last spring, councilmembers
asked Carnesale to promise he’d hire someone to look into
hate crimes and to pressure university police to attend sensitivity
workshops.
“I would never approve such an important request the first
time I was asked,” Carnesale said at the time. “One
thing I will not do is make promises I cannot keep.”
Instances like this, de la Rocha said, illustrate how the
administration isn’t in touch with student concerns.
“The chancellor is the leader of our university,” he
said. “As a leader, he should be able to come up with answers
on the spot.
“If the administration were acting immediately and taking
student concerns seriously, there would be more of a healthy
relationship, but as it is, they have a more relaxed
attitude,” he continued. “That’s what causes
tension.”
For their part, administrators said they must be cognizant of
rash decisions and prefer instead to hear input from different
sectors of campus.
“The administration has different roles than the students
do, given the responsibility by the regents to make decisions on
the operation of the campus, but that doesn’t mean they make
those decisions in isolation,” Naples said.
“There needs to be consultation with the students and
faculty,” he continued.
Despite disagreements between students and administrators in the
past, Houston said she feels the administration is eager to forge
friendlier relationships with the council.
“It’s really up to USAC what kind of relationship it
will have this year with our administration,” she said.
With reports from Barbara Ortutay, Daily Bruin Senior Staff.