ASUCI conducted the Student Services Vice President special election debate via Zoom on Feb. 4 at 7 p.m.
Previously, the New University reported the resignation of fourth year double major in political science and Chinese studies Joshua Ma from his position as ASUCI Vice President of Student Services, resulting in the special election.
The two candidates, fourth year business and economics student Alliana Alcid and third year criminology and political science student David Baek declared their candidacy for the position through ASUCI’s application process. Their declarations and campaign promises can be found here.
The debate was held and moderated by ASUCI’s Elections Commissioner Brandon Huynh.
Alcid currently serves as the interim Student Services Vice President and has been involved in ASUCI for two years, previously serving as Student Services Chief of Staff and an intern for what was previously known as the Student Talent Commission — now the Student Talent & Community Outreach Commission.
Baek has not previously held a position within ASUCI but has served as an event coordinator for the Pre-Law fraternity for the past three quarters.
Topics addressed in the debates included pandemic-related issues such as the transition back to in-person events, how to further engage the student body in the events put on by the Student Services Commission and how to best serve the interests of students. Concerns about the pandemic and related restrictions underscored much of the discourse of this debate, with both candidates directly discussing restrictions and safety precautions in their opening statements.
Alcid offered a more conservative assessment of these transitions, favoring a slow and cautious return to normalcy, while Baek advocated for as prompt a transition back to in-person events as possible based on safety guidelines and student concerns.
“The Office of Student Services has been working hard to do what’s within our scope to try and deliver what we all deserve in terms of event programming,” Alcid said in her opening statement.
Baek’s platform is based largely on the argument that in-person activities are a key component of the college experience and that it is important to allow students to access these experiences as soon as it is safe, while Alcid focused much more on returning to on-campus events in incremental steps.
“It was also a big disappointment to a lot of people, especially to first year and second year students who haven’t been able to experience anything yet, and also to seniors who are on their last year,” Baek said.
In addition to addressing the pandemic, the candidates also offered some of their ideas to encourage more involvement in ASUCI’s events among the campus community.
Baek suggested a “UCI Olympics” that incorporates cultural clubs and Greek life to involve a wide range of students in one event, advocating for inclusion of a broader range of students.
“We can have participation in competitions for athletics, maybe also other sorts of competitions such as a food eating contest, obviously once COVID-19 dies down. Something that people from all over, not just certain niches at UCI, but different cultural clubs on campus, can send their people and it could bring the community together in order to have one singular event or series of events,” Baek said.
Alcid discussed a “UCI Fashion Show,” a concept that has already been in the works in ASUCI that would bring together students of multiple disciplines.
“Videographers, photographers, people who want to do the business side of fashion, designers or artistic people in general such as myself, as I’ve often considered going into the industry [could participate]. I think it’s really important for people to be able to have this sort of platform to show off what they can do. People who want to express themselves in a different way,” Alcid said of the UCI Fashion Show concept.
Both candidates acknowledged that future efforts by the ASUCI Student Services Commission should do more to bring a wider variety of students into their events and activities.
Alcid received an endorsement from the College Democrats at UCI on Feb. 4. Baek has yet to receive an endorsement.
Voting for the ASUCI special election of a new Student Services Commission Vice President opens on Monday, Feb. 14 at 9 a.m. and closes on Feb. 16 at 5 p.m.
All UCI students will be able to vote by following this link. Any questions about this special election should be directed to elections.asuci@uci.edu.
Quinn Tubiolo is a Campus News Intern for the winter 2022 quarter. He can be reached at qtubiolo@uci.edu.
