The A.S. Council currently requires its representatives on UCSD campuswide committees to sign agreements governing how they will conduct themselves in their capacities as official A.S. representatives. The policy came in response to controversial actions by an A.S. representative on a UCSD committee in spring 2004, according to A.S. Vice President Finance Greg Murphy, who is in charge of appointing representatives to the the Registration Fee Advisory Committee.
The stated goal of these changes is to make committee representatives more accountable to the A.S. Council, the organization that appoints them to represent its point of view, Murphy said. When speaking in an official capacity, committee representatives are now required to present only the official position of the A.S. Council and not their own personal opinions.
Non-fee collecting committees operate in similar fashion to RFAC, according to Vice President Internal Angela Fornero. Committee members are required to sign an agreement at orientation that states that they will accurately represent the views of the A.S. Council, which represents the student body. Although representatives are not required to report every decision to the council, they are required to submit reports to Fornero and keep updated on A.S. Council resolutions.
The agreement, instituted last year by former VP Internal Cat Yapyuco, is a procedure that the current council will continue with its committee representatives, Fornero said.
According to Murphy, this policy is necessary to help the A.S. Council carry out its responsibilities to the student body.
“It is important that A.S. is accountable to the students, and to ensure that accountability, we need to be able to trust [that] the representatives we appoint will carry out the decisions of the council,” Murphy said.
Critics such as Charles Dahan, the former A.S. representative to RFAC, have argued that the oath restricts the representatives, who act as experts on the issues their committee deals with, from being able to act on the spot in the best interest of the student body.
Limiting representatives’ ability to express their opinions does not diminish their effective functioning, Murphy said.
“We encourage all schools of thought and a diversity of opinion,” Murphy said. “However, when there is a critical issue that the A.S. has a vested interest in, it is important that we can trust our appointed representatives to advocate on behalf of the A.S.”
A.S. representatives on UCSD committees play an integral role in shaping campus in ways the council advocates, Murphy said.
“We expect the representatives we appoint to report back to us with the necessary information and their own opinions so that we may view all the resources available and come up with what we believe is the best course of action,” Murphy said.
The oath requirement, used since last year and now being enforced, arose as the result of an incident in 2004 involving Dahan’s actions on RFAC, the university committee charged with helping to allocate $400,000 a year to student and campus groups such as Psychological and Counseling Services and Student Health Services, Murphy said.
Dahan wrote a letter in May 2004 to the Guardian about the Triton Taxi program, now called A.S. Safe Rides. In the letter, Dahan expressed objections to the A.S.-funded program, which provides transportation for students, and which he felt facilitated underage drinking at off-campus locations.
The council dismissed Dahan as its representative and eventually implemented its current oath policy, Murphy said.
“We encourage our representatives to formulate their own opinions,” Murphy said. “But he signed the letter using his title as an A.S. representative, giving the impression that he was speaking for the A.S. when, in fact, he was not.”
However, Dahan said that his dismissal from the RFAC was the result of ideological differences over where committee funds should go.
“I differed on a number of funding issues,” Dahan said. “Primarily, I encouraged hiring a campus psychiatrist rather than funding entertainment-focused activities.”
The Triton Taxi letter was an excuse for the council to remove him, Dahan said.
“Triton Taxi funding has nothing to do with the RFAC, and I included my title due to a reference in the article to my work on the RFAC,” Dahan said. “No one to whom I spoke — other than [former A.S. President] Jenn Pae — was confused by my listing of my title.”
The council voted to remove Dahan from RFAC and appointed Pae in his place. Dahan said exchanges between councilmembers made it obvious that personal differences led to his ejection from the RFAC.
“It was made clear to me through e-mails over the A.S. listserv that my ideological disagreements — that the RFAC should prioritize student medical services above funding for entertainment activities — was the reason for my removal,” Dahan said.
The oath requirement for A.S. representatives will not change the way that RFAC or any other committee operates, according to Murphy.
“The structure or general process of how [RFAC] runs has not been changed by this [oath] because A.S. is not the body in charge of this committee,” Murphy said. “We merely appoint a representative to it.”
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