We noted in a prior post the filing of charges alleging antisemitism against the head of the student-run Cultural Affairs Commission.* And we noted that although UCLA delegates various functions to student government, it would be best if this matter were dealt with before the new chancellor takes office and before there is external intervention. This update from the Daily Bruin suggests neither is likely to happen:
The USA Judicial Board will hear a case for the first time in at least two years. In a statement emailed [last] Tuesday, Chief Justice Mithra Venkatesh said the board granted a petition for consideration submitted by Bella Brannon, a fourth-year public affairs and religion student who alleged that Undergraduate Students Association Council Cultural Affairs Commissioner Alicia Verdugo discriminated against Jewish applicants to the commission during its fall hiring cycle...
According to the memorandum, a preliminary hearing will be held Dec. 10 at 4 p.m. over Zoom. In the hearing – which will only be open to members of the judicial board, Brannon, Verdugo and the parties’ representatives – Brannon will have to confirm if she will move forward with the complaint, while Verdugo will be forced to confirm or deny “allegations of fact” made by Brannon in the petition, according to the memorandum.
According to the board’s bylaws, preliminary hearings must be held in closed session. Judicial board members are nominated by the USAC president and appointed after being voted on by the council. The board’s pay was docked in July by USAC, which cited its inactivity...
Full story at https://dailybruin.com/2024/12/03/usa-judicial-board-to-hear-antisemitism-case-against-cultural-affairs-commissioner.
While it may seem like the path of least resistance for the soon-to-end interim administration to leave this matter to a student-run and long-dormant tribunal, there could be a price to pay with which the new administration will have to deal. The various student associations on the UC campuses essentially exist because the university gives them certain status and because it acts as a student-fee collector. But the Bruin at one time provided a history and we find in it this timely reminder:
"In 1972, the regents passed a resolution stating that ASUCLA and the other students’ associations throughout the UC system were official entities of the university."
Full story at https://dailybruin.com/1998/
In short, the university is ultimately responsible for what goes on in all of its "official entities."
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*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2024/11/not-good-way-to-end-fall-quarter.html.
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