100 signatures reached
To: UCLA Administration
SAVE BEST UCLA
Unconditionally fund the 2020-2021 budget of the Bruin Excellence & Student Transformation Grant Program (BEST) and make a three year commitment to fund BEST program costs as long as the program continues to meet clearly defined and agreed upon performance expectations. Ensure the continued autonomy and student-led leadership of the program.
Why is this important?
BEST provides campus activists and social justice organizations at the University of California, Los Angeles with resources that support their civic participation in institutional life, educational advocacy efforts, and diversity and campus climate work. BEST does this by providing student leaders with:
- Flexible, year-long funding that simplifies the funding bureaucracy students often face;
- Social justice mentorship that affirms and supports all activist practices;
- Direct advocacy with the administration, supporting student demands for policy change;
- Organizational leadership development that centers community organizing paradigms;
- Socioemotional support that counsels the wellbeing of student activists;
- Media resources to support the documentation and advocacy efforts of student organizing; and
- Credited opportunities for students to learn about and develop social justice knowledge and practices through Labor Studies 97-2.
- Networking and connections with community organizations.
BEST is a unique program under the Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. We offer these resources in an integrative way that supports the holistic development, growth, and success of student activists and their organizations. With BEST support, students have been effective in winning demands that improve campus climate, including the establishment of Pamilya Housing, which provides a low-cost housing option to students, CAPS expanding access to culturally-competent mental health resources for UCLA’s Muslim community, student labor advocates demands for a fair resolution to AFSCME 3299’s contract campaign, and institutionalized funding for the Graduate Undergraduate Mentorship (GUM) program.
In February of this year, the Vice Chancellor of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Jerry Kang decided to cut funding for the program. His office did not provide a performance-based reason for the decision, rather, informing BEST leadership that funding was ending effective July 1st in order to provide the incoming Vice Chancellor with a “clean slate” to determine their own budgetary allocations. Students not consulted in this decision and we believe that cutting BEST funding is not in the best interest of equity, diversity, and inclusion on our campus. Further, ending this program fails us and the many other student leaders from historically marginalized communities who have benefited greatly from the resources that the program has provided over the last four years. The short notice given to us about the program cut paired with the COVID pandemic has not provided adequate time to find alternative funding sources for the program and will leave many student leaders without the support that they have come to rely on over the years and especially during this pandemic.
Please share widely with your campus and community allies.
- Flexible, year-long funding that simplifies the funding bureaucracy students often face;
- Social justice mentorship that affirms and supports all activist practices;
- Direct advocacy with the administration, supporting student demands for policy change;
- Organizational leadership development that centers community organizing paradigms;
- Socioemotional support that counsels the wellbeing of student activists;
- Media resources to support the documentation and advocacy efforts of student organizing; and
- Credited opportunities for students to learn about and develop social justice knowledge and practices through Labor Studies 97-2.
- Networking and connections with community organizations.
BEST is a unique program under the Office of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion. We offer these resources in an integrative way that supports the holistic development, growth, and success of student activists and their organizations. With BEST support, students have been effective in winning demands that improve campus climate, including the establishment of Pamilya Housing, which provides a low-cost housing option to students, CAPS expanding access to culturally-competent mental health resources for UCLA’s Muslim community, student labor advocates demands for a fair resolution to AFSCME 3299’s contract campaign, and institutionalized funding for the Graduate Undergraduate Mentorship (GUM) program.
In February of this year, the Vice Chancellor of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Jerry Kang decided to cut funding for the program. His office did not provide a performance-based reason for the decision, rather, informing BEST leadership that funding was ending effective July 1st in order to provide the incoming Vice Chancellor with a “clean slate” to determine their own budgetary allocations. Students not consulted in this decision and we believe that cutting BEST funding is not in the best interest of equity, diversity, and inclusion on our campus. Further, ending this program fails us and the many other student leaders from historically marginalized communities who have benefited greatly from the resources that the program has provided over the last four years. The short notice given to us about the program cut paired with the COVID pandemic has not provided adequate time to find alternative funding sources for the program and will leave many student leaders without the support that they have come to rely on over the years and especially during this pandemic.
Please share widely with your campus and community allies.