The Guardian endorses Dylan Nicole de Kervor for the position of vice president external. De Kervor, who is running on the Unity slate, has experience in the office and currently serves as the national affairs director for the A.S. external office.
To the outside community, the vice president external is the most high-profile of the three vice presidents on the A.S. Council. The vice president external has the responsibility of being the students’ liaison to San Diego and the community surrounding UCSD, as well as to other universities. The vice president external is also UCSD’s chief representative to statewide and national student associations.
In terms of her current position within the A.S. Council, de Kervor is similar to her opponent, Ernesto Martinez, who is the statewide affairs director for the A.S. external office. However, de Kervor seems to have been exceptionally active in a broad base of the external affairs office’s agenda.
As national affairs director for the past year, de Kervor has worked with both the University of California Student Association and the United States Student Association to coordinate lobby visits with state and local representatives.
De Kervor was UCSD’s delegation leader at the 2001 USSA Legislative Conference in Washington, was active in the coordination of the UCSA’s Focus Attention on Retention campaign and served as chair of the logistics committee for the UCSA’s 12th Annual Students of Color Conference.
De Kervor’s view of the external affairs office as much more than a platform for outreach to underrepresented students is certainly a prudent one.
As illustrated by her activity with the Focus Attention on Retention campaign and her work for the Students of Color Conference, she is greatly concerned with the lack of diversity at UCSD, and in the UC system in general.
She has other goals for the office, such as improving and increasing the scale of the external office’s voter registration drive, which she believes could be much more organized and effective than it was last year.
If elected, she also plans to improve relations between the external office and student-run businesses such as Groundwork Books, the Co-op, the General Store and the Che Cafe.
De Kervor plans to increase student involvement and awareness by teaming up with the A.S. programming office to expose students at A.S. Council-sponsored social and educational events to issues that the A.S. external affairs office is facing. She said she believes this will help inform more students of how they can get involved with the council.
Both candidates have reasonable proposals for and relevant experience with the lack of diversity at UCSD.
Martinez and de Kervor say they want to increase and expand outreach and retention programs.
Specifically, de Kervor would seek to collaborate with the A.S. internal office on the A.S. Outreach Program. She also would focus high school outreach visits to those schools that already have Uplift and GEAR UP programs.
De Kervor would continue to lobby the state legislature to increase budget allotments for retention programs. She also said she would fight to increase funding to existing retention programs such as O.A.S.I.S., A.S. Lecture Notes and the Academic Success Program.
With her extensive experience and high level of activity in her current position, it is the opinion of the Guardian that de Kervor is a high-quality candidate and the best choice for the next A.S. vice president external.
