By George Fujii
Daily Bruin Staff
Dissatisfied with the performance of Lindsey Brooks ““ this
year’s Student Welfare Commissioner ““ members of the
commission wanted to remove her from office.
SWC Chief of Staff Julie Ryu and Director of Operations Janet
Chiang recently asked Undergraduate Students Association Council
President Mike de la Rocha the procedure for removing Brooks from
office or for taking away her $225 monthly stipend.
Instead of removal procedures, de la Rocha gave signatory
powers, or authority to spend SWC funds, to Ryu, elected May 11 as
next year’s Student Welfare Commissioner. Previously, Brooks
had to sign all SWC funding requests.
“A lot of staff are furious that she gets paid a lot of
money for not doing anything,” Ryu said. Because the process
is lengthy and the year is almost over, Ryu and others decided not
to proceed with removing Brooks.
The Student Welfare Commission works on projects ranging from
quarterly blood drives to campus recycling. It is funded by three
separate student referenda, and had a budget of $35,000 this year.
According to Student Government Accounting records, $20,000 is
still unspent.
SWC members said Brooks has not been in the office the past
three weeks, misses staff meetings and has not approved funding
requests in a timely manner, limiting the office.
Brooks, however, defended her record.
“I am proud of what I have accomplished in the commission
this year, especially due to the unwelcoming work environment I
faced throughout the term,” Brooks said in a statement.
“I decided to try to make good relations with directors of
previous projects,” Brooks continued in her statement.
“Unfortunately, attitudes (with) previous staff members did
not improve, but became increasingly bitter.”
Signatory power has been a point of contention in the office
since the beginning of the year, Ryu said.
Brooks said she did not delegate signatory powers, unlike other
USAC commissioners, to maintain control of SWC’s budget.
“I kept signatory in order to personally track how much
funding was used for individual projects,” Brooks said in the
statement. “Keeping signatory was also an issue due to …
internal problems with abuse of phone codes and abuse of honorary
privileges; trusting others to control the budget through signatory
was not a reality.”
But Ryu said she resorted to using Blood Drive money, for which
she had signatory power, to pay for projects this quarter, because
Brooks has been slow to approve funding requests.
Jerry Mann, director of student support services for the
Associated Students UCLA, said signatory powers are usually
delegated to other commission members.
“In the big commissions, the commissioner can’t sign
everything,” Mann said. “The business of the commission
needs to be accomplished.”
Ryu said she had asked Brooks for signatory powers at the
beginning of the year, but was refused.
Also, SWC members said Brooks was unprofessional in dealing with
their funding requests, which Brooks denied.
SWC directors said their concerns went beyond signatory powers
to the conduct of Brooks as commissioner.
“We’re mostly upset that she wasn’t able to
own up to her incompetence,” said Salma Dabiri, co-director
of the SWC Blood Drive program. “You shouldn’t run for
commissioner of any office if you don’t know what the office
does. That’s more than common sense.”
Brooks, though, said not being an in-house candidate had its
advantages.
“I ran for the position not because I knew everything
about the Student Welfare Commission, but rather because it was an
office in which I knew I could bring fresh ideas and
leadership,” she said in the statement.
Brooks said she started two new programs this year: the
Recycling Committee and the Eating Disorder Awareness
Committee.
De la Rocha said SWC has lingering problems.
“There’s been a growing concern about the absence of
Lindsey in the office,” de la Rocha said. “It’s
been growing throughout the year.”
Brooks, though, said that SWC has prospered under her
leadership, citing new programs and increased funding for existing
programs, such as the blood drive. She also said that, contrary to
other reports, she has not given up on the commission.
“I am still the Student Welfare Commissioner,”
Brooks said in the statement. “I intend to finish my last two
weeks of office with the same respect I have for the commission,
for student government and for the students.”