City on a Hill Press is dedicated to informing students about the spring campus elections and as a part of this effort, we are profiling the candidates for the Student Union Assembly officer positions. Voting started Wednesday, May 13th and continues through this Wednesday, May 20th. Vote online at http://www.elections.ucsc.edu.

Third-year student Omar Villa is running for the Commissioner of Diversity position. Villa is a community studies and Latin American and Latino Studies major, with a minor in education. While attending UCSC, Villa has worked with various groups and resource centers on campus involving issues pertaining to students of diverse communities.

CHP: How long have you been involved with SUA?

This is the first year I got involved with SUA. Friends who participated in student governments on campus and were representatives for the Student Union Assembly informed me all about and what they were about; surely, this made me very interested and I started participating and attending their events, co-sponsored events and the conferences UCSC participates like the Students of Color Conference and the UCSA’s Lobby Conference.

This past year, I was an intern for the Chicano/Latino Resource Center and I became really involved with organizing, volunteering, and putting events together for the Chicano/Latino community.
The best part was networking with the other resource centers and uniting with them to co-sponsor events and bring awareness to the UCSC community of different diverse issues on campus. The position, Commissioner of Diversity, entails for the qualified candidate to keep a close communication with the resource centers and work with outreach/retention organizations on campus.

CHP: What is your stance on the campus election? Are there any measures you are particularly passionate about?

For this upcoming elections, I am for all the measures that are being put into the ballot because they will better the sustainability program, the sustainable food, health and wellness initiative, and to increase the time for the OPERS facilities; however, I do not believe it’s the right time to ask students to fund these specific programs and initiatives because we are undergoing a recession.

There are many students at this institution that keep on taking loans out to pay their education, students who do not qualify or cannot get financial aid and there are those who might even benefit from these measures. We should put them aside for a later time when our economy is more stable.

CHP: Any projections on how the students are going to vote?

I really hope students are going out there and voting for their next year’s officers. We are here to voice your thoughts, opinions, and needs to get them out there to the rest of the school. There are many qualified candidates running in this year’s elections, so I encourage all of you to read through our statements and choose wisely.

Links:

Omar for Commissioner of Diversity [Facebook]

Elections Guide: Spring 2009 [City on a Hill Press]

UC Santa Cruz Student Union Assembly [SUA]