The Senate also passed SB #89 which will fund the ASUCD Business Case Competition and heard quarterly reports from various ASUCD units
By MADISON PETERS — campus@theaggie.org
Internal Vice President Aarushi Raghunathan called the May 9 Senate meeting to order at 6:17 p.m. She then took roll call and read the UC Davis Land Acknowledgement.
The first item on the agenda was the confirmation of three new Internal Affair Commission (IAC) chairpeople.
Next were the confirmations for the ASUCD Housing and Transportation Advocacy Committee (HTAC). The new members proposed their various ideas on how to improve transportation accessibility and safety on campus and throughout Davis as a whole.
One new HTAC committee member proposed their Safety Cycling Project (SCP), which would involve an increase in education and traffic monitoring of cycling on campus.
“In [the] UC Davis Report in 2019 and 2022, [there was] a 43% increase in accidents involving a bike,” the member said. “One of the things I want to [implement] is once [a student] gets accepted into UC Davis, a crash course should happen about what you are getting into with biking and the rules. A very common idea happening in Canada and Washington that made a difference is cement barriers in the biking lanes. It lowered speeding and made biking more accessible and more encouraged because [people] feel safe.”
Annie Kanjamala, a third-year environmental policy and planning major, was then confirmed as the new chairperson of the Environmental Policy and Planning Commission (EPPC).
Kelly Abey, the ex-chair of EPPC, then gave her farewell speech.
“I’ve been a part of EPPC for the last three years,” Abey said. “This commission has evolved a lot over these years, and I found it very fascinating to see people come in and out of positions. I wanted to thank everyone who has been on EPPC this year and my fellow commission chairs for being very supportive.”
Next on the agenda was a presentation by Jenny Vaccari, a representative for Ombuds. Ombuds is a conflict resolution resource offered at many UCs aimed at confidential and informal problem solving, according to their website.
The Mental Health Initiative (MHI) then gave their quarterly report and discussed their Mental Health Awareness Month activities, which will be happening throughout the month of May.
After this report, the senators shifted their agenda to reconsider SB #86, which would allocate $10,816.04 to the Planet Her 3 event created by Senator Antonio.
The bill is imperative for the success of the event, but will likely drain the Senate reserves, according to Antonio.
Antonio then spoke on the importance of the bill for the Planet Her event.
“I know that this is a big sum of money, and I know that this will drain the reserve to almost nothing, but this is a really large event,” Antonio said. “We are trying our best here and this is really the lowest we can go, [so] we really hope for your support. This is likely going to be the last ASUCD event of the year, and it’s going to be one that really impacts student life in a positive way.”
Other senators expressed concerns regarding the sustainability of the decorations, and the overall cost of some of the items.
After much deliberation, the bill was passed with some amendments including canceling one of the two planned photobooths, which cut down about $789.
Next, Campus Information Technology (IT) gave their quarterly report which included details about their new ticketing system and plans to have more access points on campus to improve eduroam wifi.
Sonora Slater, editor-in-chief of The California Aggie, then gave The Aggie’s quarterly report. Issues regarding certain aspects of funding were discussed, since The Aggie budget is soon to be reviewed.
The senators read both the quarterly reports for the Coho and Unitrans.
Public comment was then opened before they moved on to the status of old legislation.
SR #8, which vows to uphold free speech on campus and condemn the delayed response by UC Los Angeles campus authorities and law enforcement after the violent attacks on pro-Palestinian protestors the night of April 30 and morning of May 1, was then passed and signed by ASUCD President Francisco Ojeda.
Additionally, SB #88, which will establish the ASUCD yearbook managing editor as a non-voting, ex-officio member of the IAC, was passed and sent to Ojeda.
The consideration of old legislation was then discussed.
SB #89, a bill that would allocate $2295.48 to the Office of Senator Binh Do in collaboration with Aggie Sports Analytics was passed. This money will fund the ASUCD Business Case Competition, a conference that will be held on June 5 from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m.
After a brief five-minute break, SB #84 was considered. This bill, submitted by Gaius Ilupeju, would amend the 2023 to 2024 ASUCD budget to transfer $5,924.27 from a portion of the Entertainment Council’s (EC) budget towards the External Affairs Vice President Special Projects Line Item.
ASUCD Controller Allyson Francisco opposed the immediate passing of this bill since it had not yet been reviewed by the Ethnic and Cultural Affairs Commission (ECAC).
The Senators voted on tabling the bill to be voted on again on May 23, and then moved into open forum.
Senator Jonathan Ng started by talking about the success of Lawntopia, but brought up controversy surrounding rude comments made by another senator about the event.
“The only incident that happened involved a member of this table [who] I will not mention by name, but they were extremely rude to the EC director and EC volunteers,” Ng said. “When asked to obey instructions by ASUCD personnel, their partner called EC volunteers ‘bitches.’ I just want everyone to be aware that this event happened, and I condemn it as disgusting behavior, especially from someone who is supposed to be representing ASUCD.”
Francisco then went on to call for better security measures at future EC events.
Ng agreed on the need for more security measures and pledged to improve these concerns at the next EC event.
Finally, the meeting was adjourned at 10:02 p.m.
Written by: Madison Peters — campus@theaggie.org
