ASUCD Senate meetings are scheduled to begin Thursdays at 6:10 p.m. Times listed are according to the clock at the Feb. 7 meeting location, the Memorial Union’s Mee Room. The ASUCD president is not required to attend senate meetings.
Meeting called to order at 6:14 p.m.
Rebecca Sterling, ASUCD president, present
Yena Bae, ASUCD vice president, present
Beatriz Anguiano, ASUCD senator, present
Bradley Bottoms, ASUCD senator, present
Liam Burke, ASUCD senator, present
Armando Figueroa, ASUCD senator, present
Don Gilbert, ASUCD senator, absent
Joyce Han, ASUCD senator, present
Maxwell Kappes, ASUCD senator, present
Kabir Kapur, ASUCD senator, pro tempore, present
Paul Min, ASUCD senator, present, late
Felicia Ong, ASUCD senator, present
Alyson Sagala, ASUCD senator, present
Tal Topf, ASUCD senator, present
Consideration of Old Legislation:
Senate Bill 33, authored by Shehzad Lokhandwalla, to enact a committee that would represent international students within ASUCD. Lokhandwalla said that this committee is important because there are a lot of international students on campus and because there are no international students on the senate, international students need some representation on campus. The bill passed unanimously.
Public Discussion:
Chucha Marquez, chair of the Gender and Sexuality Commission (GASC), said in regards to the upcoming Singles Awareness Night that the commission does not believe that the intentions behind the fundraiser are negative, but that the means by which the fundraiser is being executed are insensitive to some groups.
Marquez’s reasons included the trivialization of human trafficking through the process of selling students for money and placing a monetary value on people. The commission asked for consideration of students’ self-esteem and the fact that there is a lot of pressure on students to participate in this event, as it is for a good cause. Lastly, it was stated that the auction goes against the Center for Student Involvement’s (CSI) policy regarding the auctioning of students on campus.
Sterling said that ASUCD’s goal in holding this event was to remain relevant to what is important to the student body and do something unique to previous fundraisers. She also said that she was under the impression, after contacting CSI, that the auction was not in violation of their policy.
Lane Lewis, GASC commissioner, said that though it is inconvenient to cancel a planned event six days before it is held, in the interests of protecting the students, either the fundraiser or the auction aspect of the fundraiser should be canceled.
Lewis brought up an issue with the ASUCD Elections Committee, after Lewis’ birth name was put on the official executive candidates list, despite the fact that Lewis put down their preferred name on the ballot. Lewis’ birth name was publicly announced at a candidates meeting, as well as posted online. This issue with the incorrect name also occurred with another transgender student on campus running for ASUCD.
Lewis explained that the committee’s reasoning for not changing the name was because of bylaw 405E, which did not allow the changing of the name. Lewis said that they wanted something to be done to amend or change this bylaw.
The senate motioned for a vote to close session and discuss this issue with the chair of the Elections Committee, Aaron Hsu.
In a 4-7-1 vote, the motion failed.
A second motion to vote for a closed session passed with a vote of 7-2-3.
The senate motioned for a vote to suspend bylaw 405E. The motion passed with a 8-0-4 vote.
Emmanuel Diaz-Ordaz said that there was a resolution that passed that stated that ASUCD should cut its relations with Blood Source because the policies are based on sexual orientation and not sexual practice. He said that sexual orientation is desires, what you like about people, what attracts people to people. Sexual practices are the acts that you engage in.
The FDA policy is that if you are a man who has sex with a man then you cannot donate blood and you are deferred for your whole life. He said that this is called “high-risk,” but it is very explicit in their rules saying if you are a gay man you are at high-risk. However, you are not at a higher risk of getting HIV or AIDS if you are a gay man. Cano said that this does not address the large number of straight people who contract HIV.
Cano said that he does not dislike Blood Source, and he is an advocate for blood donations, but the policies that are being followed are inherently homophobic in the way that they are enacted.
Cano said that Senate Bill 33 was tabled in December due to issues such as how the membership would be described. In addition, there was language about an action plan that was implemented, the objective section was modified slightly because the language didn’t accurately reflect what the bill intended to do, saying that there was no orientation for international students, etc. After two meetings, it still reflected IAC’s opinion. They think it’s a great committee and that it will be a very valuable resource for ASUCD.
Meeting adjourned at 10:17 p.m.
Open positions within ASUCD can be found at vacancy.ucdavis.edu. JESSICA GRILLI compiled this senate brief. She can be reached at campus@theaggie.org. LAUREN MASCARENHAS contributed to the senate brief. XXX
