Note: The views expressed in this interview do not necessarily reflect the views of the Bruin Political Review, and the publication of this interview does not constitute an endorsement for the candidate. Vote through MyUCLA between May 10th and May 17th.

Bruin Political Review (BPR): What motivated you to run for the position of USAC IVP?

Ishan Misro: Okay, so currently I’m a first year student. I have been in three USAC commissions so far. I’ve been in SLBC, FSC, and General Representative 1. I knew that student government is definitely something I wanted to be a part of because I wasn’t really familiar with what I was getting myself into, it’s just something I enjoyed in high school. I kind of wanted to do it in college and I have seen a lot of points of improvement within USAC over the past school year. Definitely some offices I can see, like, being utilized a lot more because these are stipended roles. These are the places where we can see improvement with the student body. There’s not as much engagement with the student body as I thought there would be for a college student government. I feel like high school is honestly more communal. And it’s also really hard to do on this big of a scale. But, the fifteen commissions are not really connected as much as they should be and it’s something that I wanted to do in the future. Maybe not second year, but I feel like I could, given that I’ve seen how USAC works in the past year pretty thoroughly. 

BPR: Okay, and then why should you be elected for this position?

Ishan Misro: I think I have quite a few leadership qualities. I’ve run my own nonprofit for a while. I think that a lot of student orgs I’ve come into contact with seek ways to find, you know, funding. And a lot of this information is mostly inaccessible unless you know someone there. So I think one of my main things is advocacy for student groups because IVP directly handles all 1000+ student groups on campus. So I definitely want to attend more meetings, not only the ones under certain parts—like, I’m a pre-med student—and I don’t want to just be in contact with pre-med students. I’d like to go to other club meetings and ask them how they think USAC can better help them and then take that and relay it to the counsel because I feel like that’s IVP’s job and that’s something that definitely can be improved. 

BPR: Okay, and then what would you say are the primary goals of USAC and how do you intend to achieve them?

Ishan Misro: The primary goals of USAC are to keep students safe and amplify student voices. So, I think that any government organization is just to represent the people it is supposed to represent. So USAC, their main job is to represent the student body of UCLA, like the undergraduate student body. And I think that, wait, can you repeat the latter part of the question?

BPR: Just how would you intend to achieve those goals if you were elected?

Ishan Misro: Okay, if I was elected I would want to bring more students to counsel meetings. I know there’s an open forum, so some of the students can talk about what they want to see out of USAC and where USAC is failing them. And I definitely want to bring more students out there. I also hope to increase financial transparency. That’s another part of IVP that I’ve been involved with through FSC (which is financial support). They both work on this thing called FROB, which is the Financial Review Oversight Board, and it makes it easier to audit. 

So a lot of USAC’s ten million that gets allocated at the beginning of the school year, it’s kind of iffy where that money goes. And I feel like it’ll become a lot more streamlined if each transaction of each office was left to the open. The public could see that and that would make it easier for SGA and USAC to audit all the offices. So the student fees will continue going up and up and that’s not something that’s under USAC’s purview, but just the money can be spent more to return to students. It can go into funding student groups rather than some of these initiatives that money goes all to there and it’s not equally distributed if you know what I mean. 

BPR: Okay, and then you said you’re a first year, but what major are you?

Ishan Misro: I’m a computational biology major. 

BPR: Okay, and then you kind of went over this a little but just to make sure I get it right, what activities or organizations are you involved in at UCLA?

Ishan Misro: Okay at UCLA I’m involved in, I played intramural basketball just for fun. I am a part of two, or technically three but, two pre-med clubs: Saving Hearts and HAND. [HAND] is High-Tech and Neurological Diseases. I’m also involved in a lab at the Geffen School of Medicine, it’s a computational biology research lab. And then I’m a part of the three. So I’m the General Representative 1 Director of Finance, I’m an intern with Student Wellness Commission, and I am in the General Staff for Financial Supports. 

BPR: Okay, and then what experiences or achievements in your academic or extracurricular life have prepared you for the role of USAC IVP?

Ishan Misro: I think definitely being involved with the student government that I’ve been in the past. So this past school year the three offices. And then I’ve run, I have a tutoring nonprofit organization. I think it’s still running but I don’t oversee it. It’s got about a thousand students and a thousand tutors. It was something that I started over COVID and it just grew pretty fast. So I do have enough. I know I can handle an office of 40ish–I think IVP has 40ish students right now in the office–I feel like I have the capacity to handle that. And I also think that this past year just seeing what USAC is like, that’s definitely something that’s prepared me for it. And then obviously I’m a student. I have courseload. It’s something that I will be able to juggle instead of, you know, the three that I’m in right now. 

BPR: Okay, and then can you provide examples of specific initiatives or policies you would advocate for to amplify student voices within USAC?

Ishan Misro: Yeah, so I really want to go to club meetings. I’ll text them through the IVP instagram and ask them if they’d like to talk to an IVP representative to make something, or make their voice heard within USAC. So I want to go weekly to there. And I also want to start feedback forms, which is something that worked for SWC. We did a health related, like Bruin Health Week feedback form for sexual health. So we gave a google form to people on campus and then with every fruit bowl that they made they could be entered into a raffle if they filled out the form. So I think engaging stuff. Because most people, they won’t fill out a form if you just give them a form. If you have an incentive, like “oh we’re doing giveaways on BruinWalk if you fill out this form,” I know the current president, Naomi, she also has done stuff like that. So getting more student engagement I feel like will bring more students to actually make their voices heard within USAC. And like I said before, IVP’s main job, per the constitution, is to represent those thousand groups. There’s not really a whole lot written outside of that. It’s a lot of independent initiatives. But that’s like the main thing, that’s why IVP’s an office. 

BPR: Okay, and then how do you plan to navigate any potential conflicts between student interests and administrative policies or decisions?

Ishan Misro: Yeah, I think that there definitely is a lot of tension. Especially now between student groups and admin. USAC’s job is still to represent the student body. I will side with the student body in most cases and defend the student body if anything comes up. But, to admin, I know that there’s been some conflicts within USAC this past school year. I hope to be a level-headed mediator between students. I need to represent both sides of every conflict. So I hope to be that mediator that people can turn to and have equal sides represented. 

BPR: And then, what’s your position–this kind of goes along with the tail end of that–but what’s your position on issues such as campus safety, mental health support, and sustainability initiatives at UCLA?

Ishan Misro: Yeah, so this past year SLBC has done a really good job of increasing my views on what’s happening on campus and some initiatives that are going on. Like mental health awareness week, there was actually a lot of draw to it. A lot of people attended those events. And I hope to collaborate and get more involvement with those events because I see how successful they can be. The other big thing—it took me by surprise—they were talking about food—or like not food—but how fruit is inaccessible on campus. So when we did our fresh fruit, we handed out fruit on BruinWalk. That was a big thing where I just didn’t expect fresh fruit to not be accessible to people that don’t live on the hill. 

So being exposed to those types of problems are definitely places to improve on and places I can see to be little initiatives IVP’s office takes next year. And maybe collaborate with other commissions. That's also a big thing, I hope to collaborate with other commissions a lot more than what they are doing right now because there’s a lot of disconnect between what one commission wants for their commission versus another. 

BPR: Okay, and then what do you believe the most pressing issues facing UCLA students are, and how would you address them if elected?

Ishan Misro: I think some of the most, some of the biggest issues, so finances are a big one. That’s definitely one places where people always come to FSC to voice their concerns. Like, “oh, the lab coats are too expensive, let’s have lab coats be rented out.” So that’s something that I feel like the expenditure viewer will help FSC. It’s a long-term solution to it. It’ll make it easier for SGA to see what students are spending on, or not students, what USAC is spending on so that money that is coming directly from students’ tuition bills for USAC fees is being allocated to stuff that’s benefiting students and not just going into a rabbit hole where we don’t really know where that money is actually going. Or it’s being spent on initiatives that will only target a certain group. Also socially, there are a lot of current events, international politics are definitely something that’s prevalent to the student body. I hope to be a person that, you know, represents both sides. I’m very anti-discrimination. I don’t think islamophobia or anti-semitism should ever be present on campus. I’ve seen firsthand experiences of that on campus through the views of my friends, roommates, classmates. That’s something that I won’t stand for. I’ll never stand for it. And I just hope to be a person that everyone can turn to.