My name is Utsav Gupta, and I am your next A.S. president. I ran for this position because I want to create a student government that works for every student here at UCSD. Over the past few years, I have witnessed our student government become complacent on some of our most important issues.
Many students don’t know exactly what their student government does. Often, the only time you see your representatives is when they’re asking for your vote come Spring Quarter. As your president, I hope to create an A.S. Council that is visible, smart, and works for your needs.
To this end, I promise several tangible benefits to your college experience, which are as follows: uncage Sun God and bring it back to the rest of UCSD, lobby against the $800 increase in tuition next year, support and expand our athletics programs and fight for our free-speech rights on campus.
These goals are ambitious, and some may take more than just my term to accomplish. However, unlike what the Guardian would have you believe, these goals are entirely possible. I believe that your A.S. Council has to work harder on multiyear goals, building an institutional memory that we can use to serve you.
A good example is intercollegiate football. The survey that I placed on the ballot proves that a majority ‘mdash; over 70 percent of the over 5,000 students who voted ‘mdash; would like to see a football team. Almost 65 percent of those who voted even say they would pay for it. In endorsing me, the Guardian called my hope for a team ‘farfetched’ and ‘nauseatingly expensive.’
I think we’ve proven with our vote that the idea isn’t so farfetched. I’ve spoken to administrators about the issue, and each one has told me, ‘If the students want it, they can get it.’ We’ve definitely proven that students want it.
Now, we need to act on it. To accomplish these goals, we first need to create an A.S. Council that can actually work. This year has been marked by internal bickering, most of which comes from legislation proposed that only affects the council internally.
Our internal problems stem from a change to the A.S. constitution that ‘reset’ the council’s institutional memory. Working relationships are poorly defined in our standing rules, and there’s a disconnect between the executives, the cabinet and the senate.
I will unify the A.S. Council by providing a presidential focus on each and every position. I will meet with every councilmember and senator to really get a feel of how she or he is doing. I will redefine the scope of senator projects to allow us to focus on these larger, common goals as groups or teams.
We also need to work harder externally. I will work with our next Vice President of Student Life Ricsie Hernandez to ensure we have adequate and trained representation from all campuswide committees. I will work to reach out personally to the student body, with a monthly YouTube address and a quarterly newsletter.
I’ll institute a Fall Quarter annual opinion survey with the same mindset as that of the football survey ‘mdash; to use as a tool that both the A.S. Council and the administration can use in advocating or your interests. I want to prove to you that your opinion matters, and that your representatives can be out there on Library Walk not only for your vote, but for your opinion.
I’m confident that if we work together as a unified student body, we can and will achieve our goals and truly make UCSD our campus.
Readers can contact Utsav Gupta at [email protected].