SHAC/SFAC Liaison Report, Spring 2000

Core among the responsibilities of SFAC members is an ongoing obligation to keep abreast of student fee impacted activities on the larger UCLA campus. One of those impacted areas, at least tangentially, is the student health center, and its attendant student committee, SHAC.

As SFAC liaison to SHAC for 1999-2000, I attended SHAC’s regularly scheduled October meeting, where I cemented a previous acquaintance with a SHAC member (and their SFAC liaison), a doctoral student in sociology named Sarah Burgard. Given the constraints on each of us in our respective programs, Sarah and I brainstormed our way toward keeping up to speed on each other’s committees outside of the normal meeting schedules. Sarah had herself attended an SFAC meeting early in the year, and with our mutual cross-attendance noted, we then moved our liaison duties to an informal “back-channel.” Monthly throughout the remainder of the academic year, Sarah and I met to discuss the mutual business of our committees and compare the general business of the day.

In retrospect, Sarah and my method of keeping each of our committees informed of the others’ doings was an optimal use of time and resource considering the general lack of overlap in SFAC and SHAC meeting schedules.

I recommend that SHAC liaisons in the future endeavor to develop a back-channel with a SHAC member, committing to a regular schedule of informal consultations for securing the best level of communications among the committees.

Warm regards,

Jonathan Eells