“When running for senate, I had already applied for law school, but had planned to defer. I told the senate and then should have resigned; however, I am not resigning,” Zokaie said.
Zokaie ran for ASUCD on the BOLD platform with current president Rebecca Sterling, and originally planned to defer any admissions she received to law school. She has decided not to, because she would lose the full ride to law school.
“Yara has chosen not to resign … as an ASUCD Senator, but instead to simply leave the Association with one fewer representative for the student body. Not only does this leave the Association in a lurch with fewer individuals to serve on hiring committees and other areas of necessary representation, it more significantly acts as a disservice to the student body who are left with one fewer elected official serving them and working to better campus life and represent student interests,” Sterling said.
Though they ran on the same platform previously, Zokaie does not agree with everything Sterling is doing.
Zokaie plans to attend about half of the meetings and Skype in for the others. ASUCD Senators are allowed to remain in their positions a quarter after they have graduated, according to the general UC policy regarding UC jobs.
Senators will only receive their paycheck if they attend meetings. According to Zokaie, money from senate would be used to pay for gas in making the trip to Davis.
“I respect senator Zokaie and her decision, which I believe helps to uphold our values of democracy. If she were to resign, and a presidential appointment made for her seat, it would disrupt the delicate balance of power within ASUCD. This would be severely detrimental to the student body,” Senator Jared Crisologo-Smith said.
Zokaie said she feels Sterling would not necessarily appoint someone she’d be satisfied with to her position. She also said she has lived up to her platforms so far.
“I don’t want to give power [to Sterling]. I still have my seat and I will be there half of the time,” Zokaie said.
According to Zokaie there has been a divide between people who support Rebecca, but there is also a group that is in favor of her keeping her seat.
To those who disagree, it seems as though Zokaie should have resigned, because she will not be in Davis. However, ASUCD is moving on without allowing the change to affect them.
“Our role as an Association is to best represent the student body as we can, put our personal interests aside and work to further this mission in any capacity we can. I fail to see this action following in line with this mission; however, it will not hinder our Association and the current elected officials from keeping this main goal in mind,” Sterling said.
DANIELLE HUDDLESTUN can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.
http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3pmf4a/
Senator Zokaie definitely doesn’t talk like this – where did these quotes come from?
lol yara didnt know you had a 3rd grade vocab
lmao. watch the ‘no fly’ thing catch on
Yara Zokaie is a menace to society. She constantly comes over to my place of residence at all hours of night and ruins my kitchen with her baking disasters. To Senator “No Fly” Zokaie, I say good bye and good riddance.