As negotiations between BC and the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) employees continue, students may have noticed that the AHANA Leadership Council (ALC) appeared as co-sponsors of a pro-Union event. Earlier this fall, a quarter-page leaflet advocating the SEIU’s cause listed the ALC as a supporter of the Union’s cause.
ALC support for Union activities raises the question as to the role that these two organizations play on campus. Should the ALC, which operates through funding from an annual mandatory student activity fee, investigate issues of concern to students who fund it, or use its clout to support policies that may not be in the best interests of students?
As the association that advocates for minority students on campus, ALC has the potential to assure that marginal voices are heard. The AHANA acronym is generally respected on campus and carries clout when the organization speaks. Instead of using its voice to unite minorities on campus, the ALC undermines its own authority by supporting the SEIU.
ALC President Earl Edwards defended the ALC endorsement by pointing out his organization was holding up its core values of “justice and community.” Edwards stated that “these SEIU Local 615 facilities workers play a huge role in the environment at Boston College, and we believe that this environment would be greatly compromised without them. Moreover, we want to ensure that students are actively engaging in this and similar issues of justice that face BC.”
Despite Edwards’ defense and insistence that the ALC researched the issue before siding with the SEIU, the support is still a blatantly partisan act. Regardless of the ALC’s mission statement, its sponsorship shows the inherent problems persisting with the ALC today. The ALC receives an annual $80,000 entitlement check from the UGBC. Theoretically, this should bind the ALC to the UGBC constitution, but it operates as an unchecked partisan organization inside the larger UGBC, whose constitution forbids joining a partisan organization. By supporting the SEIU, the ALC is supporting a partisan organization, possibly in violation of the UGBC constitution.
The ALC makes no secret of how partisan and political they have become. Statements on their website indicate that they “expect” all members and affiliates to uphold their mission state- ment, which they use to justify supporting leftist causes. Former ALC president Young Moon told The Heights upon her 2008 election that “In the past, the ALC has been seen as a cultural organization, but we want it to be seen as a political organization as well.” In 2007, an ALC leader told a white freshman that he did not belong in the organization.
Unfortunately, sponsoring the pro-Union event is only one of several recent leftist causes the ALC has sponsored. As the ALC celebrated the 30th an- niversary of the “AHANA” acronym, the ALC co-sponsored radical anti-Columbus poet Bobby Gonzalez and a mural that depicted, among other things, a square implying that white people were collectively withholding wealth from people of color (see The Observer’s October 27th article for a picture).
The ALC should be bound to the UGBC constitution because it receives nearly 20% of the UGBC budget, yet it is given excessive autonomy. Since student government is funded through mandatory fees, it should focus its energy on issues related to the student body as a whole: dining issues, busing, and disciplinary sanctions. Partisan activity should be left to student clubs that do not automatically receive a hefty check every year and not the ALC, who risks alienating large segments of the student body and compromise its mission statement. Let the Union negotiate on its own. Because SEIU is powerful and politically connected, BC’s workers will fare just fine.
