ASUCD Senate meetings are scheduled to begin Thursdays at 6:10 p.m. Times listed are according to the clock at the May 19 meeting location, the Memorial Union’s Mee Room. The ASUCD president is not required to attend senate meetings.
Meeting called to order at 6:10 p.m.
Adam Thongsavat, ASUCD president, absent
Bree Rombi, ASUCD vice president, present
Yena Bae, ASUCD senator, present
Miguel Espinoza, ASUCD senator, present
Emmanuel Diaz-Ordaz, ASUCD senator, present
Andre Lee, ASUCD senator, present
Amy Martin, ASUCD senator, president pro tempore, present
Mayra Martín, ASUCD senator, present
Tatiana Moana Bush, ASUCD senator, present, arrived late at 7:19 p.m.
Darwin Moosavi, ASUCD senator, present
Matthew Provencher, ASUCD senator, present
Brendan Repicky, ASUCD senator, present
Rebecca Sterling, ASUCD senator, present
Eli Yani, ASUCD senator, present, left early
Farewells
Eli Yani said goodbye to the senate and thanked Joey Chen, Mark Champagne, Jack Zwald, Darwin Moosavi, Tatiana Bush, his fraternity and everyone at the table.
Appointments and confirmations
Tessa Artale was confirmed as Campus Center for the Environment (CCE) director.
Unit director reports
KDVS director Neil Ruud said that KDVS is hosting the University of California Radio Network Conference, where different radio stations will exchange ideas. He also said that KDVS has made $51,000 through fundraising.
City and County Affairs director Jeanna Gindi said that they have set a date for Housing Day in Freeborn Hall next year and that they are currently working on Davis model leases. City and County Affairs is also working on Davis Neighbors Day Out and they hope to increase student involvement. Finally, she said that they are working on a meet and greet event with student leaders and city council members.
Consideration of old legislation
Senate Bill 96, authored by Martín, co-authored by Ruud, introduced by Martín, to allocate $350 from Capital Reserves to purchase an antenna for KDVS, passed unanimously.
Senate Bill 97, authored by Martín, co-authored by Sergio Cano, Ruud and Alison Tanner, introduced by Martín, to authorize a transfer of $3,440 from the KDVS Equipment Reserve to the KDVS Publicity line item, passed unanimously.
Senate Resolution 18, authored by Aaron Giampietro, co-authored by Ryan Achterberg, introduced by Sterling, to officially award the ASUCD Lobby Corps Legislator of the Year Award to California State Senator Ed Hernandez for his stance on higher education, passed unanimously.
Senate Resolution 94, authored by Alison Tanner, co-authored by Bae, Adam Darbone, Akshar Gopal and Carly Sandstrom, introduced by Bae, to institutionalize Aggie Pack quarterly reports to the ASUCD senate, passed unanimously.
Senate Bill 98, authored by Lee, co-authored by Rombi, introduced by Lee, to allocate $4,174.50 from Capital Reserve to purchase power strips and companying materials for the tables in the Main Reading Room of Shields Library, passed unanimously.
Senate Bill 92, authored by Bae, co-authored by Mark Champagne, introduced by Bae, to allocate $32,588.13 from Refrigerator Services Reserve to purchase 75 MicroFridges, passed unanimously.
Senate Bill 103, authored by Cano, co-authored by Ryan Meyerhoff, introduced by Cano, to prohibit the Elections Committee from obtaining a Nominating Petition and Notice of Candidacy. Lee said that he was worried that someone could drop out of the committee and then technically not be a member of the committee, and then choose to run. Lee said that they cannot bar any student from running for senate, thus the bill is pointless and not addressing the senate’s goals with the bill. Lee said he wanted to table the bill and ask the court about the bill. Moosavi and Martin added their ideas about what they could add to the bill. The bill was tabled.
Senate Bill 87, authored by Bush, co-authored by Steven Baissa, Jared Crisologo-Smith, Michelle Didero, Espinoza, Javier Garcia-Perez, Hatfield, Bennett Lumban, Marshall, Nancy Martey, Martín, Moua, Ngyuen, Ratliff, Soriano and Jerome Wren, introduced by Bush, to allocate $517.23 from Senate Reserves to the Filipino/a Graduation Celebration being held on June 12, 2011. Jared Hein, Business and Finance chair, said that he voted no on it in his commission meeting because he thinks that anyone holding an event should charge a registering fee, and then lower it as they receive donations. Bush said that they have worked hard to get the money they need, and didn’t want to have to come to the Senate table for money. They did not receive funding from the Club Finance Council (CFC), however, so they were forced to ask for funding from Senate. She also said that they have made plans for the future so they will not have to depend on Senate funding. Repicky agreed, and said that he hopes they can move forward to a point when they will not have to depend on Senate. Provencher said that he didn’t think that senate should be funding special interest projects directly, and that it should go through CFC. Repicky and Moosavi also agreed on this idea. The bill passed in an 8-3-0 vote. Moosavi, Provencher and Repicky voted no.
Senate Bill 101, authored by Bush, co-authored by Baissa, Crisologo-Smith, Didero, Espinoza, Garcia-Perez, Hatfield, Lumban, Marshall, Martey, Martín, Moua, Ngyuen, Ratanasen, Ratliff, Soriano, Wren, introduced by Bush, to allocate $607.18 from Senate Reserves to Black Intellectuals Graduation (BIG) for Black Graduation Celebration 2011 to be held on June 12, 2011. Ed Montelongo, chair of the Ethnic and Cultural Affairs Commission, highlighted that he thought these ethnic graduations were important to the university as a whole. He also said that no one at the table had a right to decide how much people could afford for registration fees for events like ethnic graduations. Martín said that she wanted to make sure that everyone knew that Bush, Espinoza and herself had all been working on these ethnic graduation bills, and they are definitely senate projects. Bae said that the only reason she would be voting yes on the ethnic graduation bills was because the CFC funding is out reach. Alday said that it’s a failure of the institution of the university that they have to come to senate for money, and that the university should be paying for these graduations. This year all of the ethnic graduations received less funding, and there was only $3,000 allocated to six ethnic grads. Crisologo-Smith, said that he thought these events are worthy of ASUCD funds and that the events should be institutionalized for the future. Repicky said that senators were elected to make calls about which events to fund, and that he appreciates that this means a lot to a lot of people, but he doesn’t know if this is the appropriate place for them to get money, especially because they have already gotten money from ASUCD. However, Repicky also said that he thought that these graduations were important, and that these bills forced them to make agonizing decisions. Crisologo-Smith wanted to make sure that this would not be a precedent for future years, that this is a special case for this year because they could not receive funding from CFC. Bush pointed out that they are receiving less money than they did in previous years, even with the $3,000 line item. The bill passed in a 9-2 vote, Moosavi and Provencher voted no.
Senate Bill 99, authored by Wren, co-authored by Bush, introduced by Bush, to allocate $435 from Senate Reserves to purchase t-shirts and bounce house liability for Campus Community Day (CCD): Reaffirming and Educating our Campus Environment with help from Students, Administration and Staff (R.E.C.E.S.S.). Alday and Espinoza did not like the fact that ROTC was a collaborator on the project. Bush said that they offered to donate an obstacle course, and that there would be no recruiting, no ROTC flags or signs and no uniforms during the event. She highlighted the fact that they offered to help and were excited about it. Lee said that as far as the ROTC is concerned, he doesn’t think that they should turn down something that is for the benefit of the students. Alday pointed out that the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Resource Center (LGBTRC) removed their name from the bill because they felt uncomfortable supporting an event that not all students felt safe at. The bill passed in a 9-2 vote. Espinoza and Diaz-Ordaz voted no.
Senate Bill 102, authored by Cano, introduced by Cano, to improve election codes with stricter language to properly execute the operation of elections, passed unanimously.
Senate Bill 83, authored by Melanie Maemura, co-authored by Brian Barnett, Sharon Coulson, Fatima Salman, introduced by Repicky, to implement the Long-Range Plan for the ASUCD Aggie Student Store. The bill was tabled.
Public discussion
Paul Medved, a member of the public, talked about intercollegiate athletics at UC Davis. He said that sports at UC Davis have always been different from other places, and that they have never been for entertainment value or revenue. UC Davis sports provide students with diverse out-of-classroom learning opportunities. However, he said collegiate sports are becoming more and more commercialized, and there is more and more pressure on the UC Davis model. He said that when the UC Davis athletics department cut four sports they rushed through the process, and most of the discussion was behind closed doors. Medved said that they need to fix what happened last year and that he wants to make sure intercollegiate athletics continues to belong to the students. He said that he hopes the senate and UC Davis students would have an input on who the next athletic director will be.
Alday said that she was upset that people did not care when she said LGBTRC removed their name from Bill 99 because it involved ROTC.
Montelongo apologized to Alday and said that he should have been more critical when it came to the bill in question. He also said that Rombi is the presiding officer, and people should not question her.
Martín also apologized to Alday.
Espinoza echoed Alday’s statement. He said he wished people had had a conversation about the issue.
Repicky said he didn’t think it was fair to say that people who supported Bill 99 did not care about LGBT issues.
Cano said that because Yani resigned, ASUCD would be using an election count back technique to decide who would take over for him at the table.
Martin said she wants to work on accountability at the table. She wanted people to submit in writing if they’ve been Safe Zone trained along with other things that Senators are required to do.
Public announcements
Montelengo said that Middle Eastern South Asian Culture week is this week.
Sterling said that this week there will be Safe Boat fundraising Tuesday at Yolo Berry.
Court Announcement
The ASUCD Court sent a letter to the senate table, saying that the court holds President Thongsavat in contempt of court for ignoring court summons. Thongsavat did not attend a hearing in which he was being sued for not following legal ASUCD hiring practices. The court said that his actions undermined the role of the judiciary and asked that senate censure Thongsavat. The ASUCD Senate may at anytime pass a censure with a two-thirds majority. In general, the table agreed that they would not be censuring Thongsavat.
Meeting adjourned at 11:16 p.m.
Open positions within ASUCD can be found at vacancy.ucdavis.edu. HANNAH STRUMWASSER compiles the senate briefs. She can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.
