Spark Affordability!

SPARKING AFFORDABILITY
So one of my major platforms for this campaign has been affordability for college. Rising textbook costs, student fees, and declining quality of education have all been serious issues facing this campus, and I think I should spend some time elborating on my plans for next year to fight for campus affordability.

THE PROBLEM
Next year, UC student fees will rise approx. 10% for the year. That means each student will pay around 800 dollars for a UC education than they did this year. Also, because of budget cuts from the state government, financial aid (particularly the CalGrant), will not cover this extra 800 dollar increase. This is extremely unfortunate, because it means that even the low-income students will be hit hard.

The Governor has also cut around 150 million dollars from the UC budget this year. This means that while you are paying 800 more dollars next year, you're not going to get 800 more dollars worth of education, because the Governor is not matching the cost of your education in his budget. Uc Irvine has already made a 3.3% cut to all Academic Programs (departments, schools), a 3.8% cut to all Academic Support Units (Libraries, STudy Centers), and a 5.8% cut to all Student Affairs units (Dean of Students, Greek Life, Cross-Cultural Center, Career Center, Counseling Center, Center for Service in Action, etc.etc.)

The math?

(You pay 800 more dollars) - (Governor pays 150 million less dollars) = (Quality of Education goes down 3.3%)

So we're paying more for getting less money.

THE CURRENT SOLUTION BY THE GOVERNMENT
There is no current solution to this problem of underfunding by the state proposed by the the UC Regents (the board of trustees of the UC system). That's pretty much the end of the story.

The UC President Mark Yudof has proposed the Blue and Gold Opportunity Plan. The plan would cover the cost of tuition for all students whose families make under 60,000 dollars by raising the percentage your tutition goes into a financial aid money pool (called Return to Aid). Out of the nearly 210,000 students in the UC system, this would cover something like 1,100 students. The plan would 1) leave middle class students high and dry and 2) still not account for the loss of financial aid for other low-income students. The plan also hasn't gone into effect yet.

The UC Regents think the only way to make up for the budget cuts that the Governor is giving higher education is to 1) increase tutition or 2) stop accepting as many students.

Increasing tutition is a bad idea.

Lowering the acceptance rate for students is also a bad idea.

While this would make the UC seem more competitive, it also screws over the community college transfer students, who were promised a spot in the UC system if they went to Community College first. The lower acceptance rates would mean that these students would be denied transfer into the UC system. It also screws over all those students who were told that as long as they made their A-G requirements and kept high grades, they would be accepted somewhere into the UC system.

Again, there is no real current solution to the budget crisis by the UC Regents.

THE NECESSARY SOLUTION
In the end, what the UC needs is stronger funding from one particular source: The State Government.

1) The State Government
UCI students need to remind the state legislators and Governor that higher education is a priority for the state, and deserves to be funded as a priority. Until the state government gives us adequate funding for higher education, the UC Regents are going to be forced to either 1) raise tuition or 2) decrease acceptance rates. We need to be able to apply political pressure on enough of the state government to get them to reinvest in the University.

We don't do that now. You don't see on Ring Road right now ASUCI doing letter writing campaigns or petition signing to the state legislature saying that the cost of tutition is unacceptable. UCSB, UCLA, UCSD, UC Berkeley are all doing these things. UCSB last year registered 10,000 students to vote. UC Berkeley registered 8,000 students. UC Irvine barely got 3,000 students. UCSB's and UC Berkeley's state assemblymembers will never vote for higher tutition because they are afraid of getting voted out of office. UC Irvine's assemblymember has no such fear. I want to bring to UC Irvine that kind of political force where we can join forces with the other UC campuses and fight for more state funding for higher education. We should be doing the moblizing and grassroots organization that we see on other campuses. We will be doing the mobilizing to fight higher tuition.

DOES THE STATE GOVERNMENT HAVE MONEY TO GIVE?
In a word? No. But it's not a question of getting new money, it's a question of priorities of old money.

IN 2000, the prison system was funded just a quarter of whta the UC system was funded. In 2008, the prison system is better funded than the UC, CSU, and the Community College system combined. That indicates a significant shift of priority for the state. At some point, they stopped caring about higher education. We have to convince legislators to believe again.

And there are a lot of reasons to believe. Research shows that for every dollar invested into the UC system, the state economy gets three dollars out. The UC system is the driving economic force of the state, we are one of the biggest employers of the state, we head the biggest money-making research of the state. These are reasons to believe that if the state government funded the UC system more and reduced our tuition, the results would come back to them in the form of economy.

THE REFERENDUM
So I also want to address the question of the UCI Stimulus Plan, one of the referendums on the ASUCI ballot this year. THe UCI Stimulus Plan would have all students pay 25 dollars more in their tuition, and redirect that money to student affair units. I do support the UCI Stimulus Plan, even though it is an increase of tuition by 25 dollars. Why?

The 800 dollars the State Government is making you pay next year is not going towards anything. Again, you're quality of education is still going to get cut by 3.3% this next year. These 25 dollars, however, are going to stay on UC Irvine's campus, and go directly to more campus events and better campus life. The 800 dollars we're fighting against goes into this black hole in the UC system, it's used for covering up for the 150 million dollar cut the Governor gave. The 25 dollars the referendum suggests is used towards boosting campus life towards the levels we see at UCSD and UC Berkeley. It seems like every two years we see another referendum on the ballot about paying more money to boost campus life. It's because, truthfully, that's the reason campus life at UCI is so difficult to maintain. Almost every other campus pays more for their campus life than UC Irvine does, and if UCI would like to raise it's campus life to something that's comparable to the other UCs, then the hard truth would be that we also need to raise the amount we spend.

Truth: This is a hard decision to make. For me to endorse the referendum, or for us as students who are voting for the referendum. We're being asked to balance our worries about tuition agianst our need to have a sustainable campus life. I hope that my support stems from a vision of a future UC Irvine where I can say that I invested 25 dollars of my money in return for an alma mater that I can stand proudly with. I understand students who look at that same decision and say that they cannot afford the 25 dollars to make that investment, and I want to say I support them in their decision to keep their college affordable. 33% of the 25 dollars spent will go into UCI financial aid to offset te referendum costs to low-income students, but for students who don't accept financial aid, I also understand their financial needs. It's up to every student to face this decision and their own needs, I've presented mine, I respect other opinions, and I hope the result of the referendum is what the students hope for from their campus.

THE END
So hopefully I've clarified a little bit about my position and plans for keeping college affordable, along with touching on some other UC Irvine issues like campus life and the UCI Stimulus Plan Referendum. Please vote in week 3, on elections.uci.edu. And please don't hesitate to ask any questions on the comments page, facebook page, or in person on Ring Road.

Thank you for all your time!

Sincerely,
Jesse Cheng

Campaign Updates

THE LACK OF UPDATES
Sorry everybody for the lack of updates! I know this is supposed be a venue of communication, but the last week has been kind of crazy! I (campaign)promise to update EVERY DAY until week 3, which doesn't really make any sense, because the next two weeks are going to be even more CRAZY!!

THE PB&J BUFFET
Thank you to everyone who helped out last thursday at the PB&J Buffet on Ring Road! We passed out 100 sandwiches and talked to over 100 new people! Thank you in particular to Abby East, Joseph, Eddy Gana, Randy, Ricky, Russell Curry, Natalie, CSA people, Tyler, Henry Troung, Tera, Joanne Yi, Christy Loo, Eric Ly, Carlos Lopez, Laura Zavala, the MEChAistas who spent their day passing out and all those who dropped by! Also, a shout out to Griffin Conway and the Sigma Pi brothers who helped break down the canopy!

FUTURE PB&J BUFFETS
We're going to continue to have more PB&J Buffets on Ring Road this week to keep students fed and get people more informed about the campaign! Look for us out there on Thursday, making PB&J and doing the dang thang!

COMING WEDNESDAY! COTTON CANDY 4 CHANGE!
Come out to Ring Road THIS WEDNESDAY to get your Cotton Candy 4 Change! It's an event hosted by the Be The Change Slate for UCI, with the following candidates:

Megan Braun - President
Jesse Cheng - Executive VP
Christain Medero - Academic VP
Kristin Oto - Student Services VP
Justine Calma - Humanities Rep
Lydie Loth - Social Eco. Rep
Hamza Siddiqi - Social Sci Rep

Come get your cotton candy on, and talk with your ASUCI candidates about change! Find out more about the Be The Change slate in our advertisement in this week's New University!

CAMPAIGN TEES AND FLYERS
Keep an eye on Ring Road for the sparkUCI, the Campaign Tees and Flyers are out! They're beautiful and have all been designed by the amazing Stephanie Sajor and Joanne Yi!

Thank you everybody, and see you out on-campus!
peace,
jcheng

Free Waffle Wednesday!

Thank You!

Thank you everybody for coming out today to help out with the Free Waffle Wednesday event!

Special thanks to:

Dante Cesa

Eddy Gana

Stephanie Sajor

Eric Ly

Natalie Platon

Tera Perry

Logan Frick

Justine Calma

Couldn't have done it without your help!  We gave out over 120 toasted waffles, and talked with over 150 people.  We also gave out newsletters outlining the platform of the campaign, expect that to come up soon on the blog!  The goal wasn't just to give out waffles to hungry students, but also to get a chance to create dialogue with students about ASUCI and the platform of Spark UCI!  I hope that we're able to continue that effort going into Spring Quarter!

Quote of the Day:

"Hi, my name is Jesse Cheng, I would love to serve as your Executive Vice President"

-Phillip Chow

The Campaign Strategy

The campaign strategy for Spark UCI is to meet people, and have conversations.  So we're continue to hold events like Free Waffle Wednesdays that allow me to meet people and have conversations and talk about ASUCI, what issues I'm passionate about, and what issues do people want to see.  It's a connection that I hope UCI students are looking for with ASUCI, a bridge that I would like to build during this campaign and continue into my term (if i get elected).  It's also a campaign strategy to stick with events that can use alliteration.

The Future

So don't be afraid to find me on Ring Road, I might have something free for you!  And hopefully I'll have some intellgent conversation for you too, but no promises. =D  We're going to be doing more events like Free Waffle Wednesdays during Spring Quarter.  If you'd like to help out with these events, hit me up on facebook or gmail (jesse.cheng1@gmail.com)!

Future Events:

FlufferNutter Fridays

PB&J Buffets

OtterPop (Insert a day that starts with "O")

If you have more suggestions for future events, comment on the blog!

Again, don't forget to join the facebook group and add your friends: 

http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=67546297391&ref=ts

Thanks everybody, and have a great finals week!

Jesse "The Real One" Cheng

 

The Beginning!

My name is Jesse Cheng, and I would love to serve as your Executive Vice President of ASUCI!

This blog will be a place for me to communicate to you my plans and goals for ASUCI next year if you'll vote for me, a way for you to learn what's going in my ASUCI campaign, and a source of information about what's going in ASUCI and elections in general!

The Facebook Group

It's almost 6 A.M. right now. I woke up early today and spent the majority of the dark morning creating and launching my facebook group for the Executive VP election!

Check it out here: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=67546297391

ASUCI Elections Page

If you are still interested in running for an ASUCI position, all Executive positions and Legislative Council seats are open for election and applications are still available! Hopefully the position you're interested isn't Executive VP, cuz that would mean that we would have to compete against each other =(. But the link is below for you, even if you are. =D

https://www.asuci.uci.edu/elections/packet/index.php

If you would like to learn more about any particular seat or ASUCI in general, you can always feel free to contact me and we can meet up and talk some more about it! Email me at: jesse.cheng1@gmail.com!

Daylight Savings Time

I just realized Daylight Savings Time just kicked in at 2AM...meaning it is actually 7AM, not 6AM. Gosh darn it. Time to reset the clocks!

Thanks for reading everybody, and check back in!

Jesse "Now in the Running" Cheng

Executive VP Candidate