It’s the beginning of the year, and the Associated Students of UC Davis (ASUCD), UC Davis’ student government, is gearing up for the upcoming school year. Similar to the United States government, ASUCD is made up of a legislative, judicial and executive branch. Within the legislative branch, there are commissions, groups of students who do specific work for the association. Along with planning events, commissions also see bills that are seen by the senate, and give the senators their opinions on the bills before they are voted on.
All commissions have 9 commissioners and 4 alternate commission members. Commissioners are hired at the end of Fall and Spring quarters, but there are sometimes mid-quarter openings for students who want to get involved. With more acronyms than the amount of cows in Davis, ASUCD can be confusing to new, and even older students. External Affairs CommissionThe External Affairs Commission (EAC) works to in corporate UC Davis into a larger community.
“The main goal of my commission is to bridge the gap between the association and all things external of it (mainly the City of Davis),” said Carly Sandstrom, EAC chair.
EAC helps put on events in order to combine the UC Davis community and city of Davis community, such as Music on the Green and Davis Neighbors Night Out. Sandstrom said that she hopes students will continue to attend these events and encourage relationships between students and the greater Davis community.
“So many people say they chose Davis because they loved the community it had, and there is no better way to keep that community alive by spreading the spirit to downtown, in class, and anywhere around town,” Sandstrom said.
Business and Finance Commission
The Business and Finance Commission, chaired by Brian Barnett, reviews legislation and handles internal audits of ASUCD units.
“Audits enable us to develop direct working relationships with the units and allows us to look at their budget and their current operating model to see if it is reflecting the appropriations in the budget,” Barnett said. “This is really a great way for us to have a direct impact on other parts of the campus, by directly benefiting the services that students use everyday.”
Internal Affairs CommissionThe Internal Affairs Commission (IAC) works to regulate ASUCD policies and operations, according to Sergio Cano, IAC chair. IAC works to improve the functioning of ASUCD, and sometimes gives the senate their opinion on bills.
“Our Commission does not necessarily have a direct impact on this campus, however, we recommend policies for ASUCD that may directly affect the students. For example, Internal Affairs Commission oversees all (fee or policy) ballot initiative that the students may vote on,” Cano said.
Academic Affairs CommissionThe Academic Affairs Commission (AAC) works to increase communication between students and the senate table and between students and professors. “We serve as an advisory board to the ASUCD Senate on all academic matters at UCD. Our commission researches, recommends, and develops programs that improve academic life for the UC Davis campus,” said Annemarie Stone, chair of AAC.
Environmental Policy and Planning Commission
This commission is in charge of making sure that ASUCD and the UC Davis campus is environmentally savvy.
“The main function of our commission is to advise the senate on environmental policy, especially pertaining to pending senate legislation,” said Margaret Link, chair of Environmental Policy and Planning Commission (EPPC). EPPC also hosts Earth Week on campus, and works with other on-campus environmental groups to promote living green in Davis.
Gender and Sexualities Commission
“The Gender and Sexualities Commission works to increase awareness of issues that pertain to gender and the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual communities which includes topics such as gender equity, more education surrounding transgender identities, consent, and support of queer communities on campus,” said Caitlin Alday, chair of GASC.
Like other commissions, GASC reviews ASUCD senate legislation that pertains to their commission.
“When any legislation is proposed to Senate which deals with or implicates gender, sexuality, sexual assault or harassment, it goes through our commission where we review it as a commission, suggest changes, and ultimately vote on it,” Alday said.
Ethnic and Cultural Affairs
The Ethnic and Cultural Affairs Commission works to educate and inform UC Davis students and the senate table about underrepresented minorities.
“ECAC contributes to UC Davis primarily through distributing grants and working with ethnic student organizations that plan their own programs and that aim to create a positive racial climate on campus through such programs,” said Edd Montelongo, ECAC chair.
ECAC is currently working on the Students of Color Conference, a conference that will take place at UC Davis this November. The conference will consist of community discussions and workshops about race, ethnicity and gender.
All job openings for commissioners are posted on the ASUCD Jobs webpage, vacancy.ucdavis.edu.
HANNAH STRUMWASSER can be reached campus@theaggie.org.
Editor’s note: The section on the Ethnic and Cultural Affairs commission was not printed in the OCt. 17 issue of The Aggie. The Aggie regrets this error.
