ASUCD Senate meetings are scheduled to begin Thursdays at 6:10 p.m. Times listed are according to the clock at the Dec. 6 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.
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
Felicia Ong, ASUCD senator, present
Alyson Sagala, ASUCD senator, present
Tal Topf, ASUCD senator, present
Melanie Maemura, ASUCD controller, present
Presentations
Bae, Bottoms and Anguiano awarded the ASUCD Scholarship to seven recipients: Destiny Garcia, Axana Rodriguez-Torres, Mel Tang, Ana Maciel, Lady Carolina Tavarez, Sam Vang and Yaldah Sultan.
Student Assistant to the Chancellor Annemarie Stone presented on behalf of the Principles of Community Team (POCT), calling for student government participation during the Principles of Community Week, taking place Feb. 1 to March 5. The week will include a spirituality and sexuality workshop, as well as P.E.A.C.E. training and Safe Zone training. Figueroa asked if the POCT is collaborating with administrators. Stone said that they are contacting administrators and plan on having any and all administrators attend the event.
Former senator Carly Sandstrom described efforts to continue the “Matching Campaign” to fund ASUCD scholarships. Some ideas included discussions with the CoHo to put a set annual donation amount in their corporate contract, as well as having proceeds from the UC Davis Fire and Police departments. A Fun Run, which will take place in May, will go toward the scholarship.
Sandstrom also encouraged Senate members to donate to the scholarship fund, as has been done in the past. Bottoms asked if they would be doing the “CoHo Giving” event that was organized last quarter. Sandstrom said that she would look into the suggestion, since it was a success in the past.
Appointments and Confirmations
Amy Ly, Zeenat Yahya, Julia Sweitzer, Alison Kang and Estefany Salas were confirmed as members of the Internal Affairs Commission (IAC).
Unit Director Reports
Jessica Fitzhugh presented AggieTV’s quarterly updates. The unit launched a new website that features student videos.
Lane Lewis from the Experimental College said there were difficulties with Creative Media in the launch of a new website. Lewis also described plans to hold fundraisers during Winter Quarter. The unit recently bought new inventory for their garden, and plans to place two-week ads in The Aggie to raise publicity.
Haley Proehl summarized recent success in Project Compost events, including a tour of the compost site with a sustainable field guide class and the spreading of informational flyers. The unit also expanded their compost pick-up locations.
Eddie Truong, director of Refrigerator Services, explained that the unit met its income goal for the year, and due to a high number of service repair requests from students, they are considering doing an inventory check to replace old refrigerators in their warehouse. Truong said he plans to help create a bill that would withdraw money in order to replace the old refrigerators during Winter Quarter. They also plan to recycle old refrigerators.
Lauren Menz, director of University Affairs, cited recent changes to their organization, including the UC Ambassadors program and plans to have the website updated during Winter Quarter, with links to other websites for other committees.
Fitzhugh said that Campus Copies/Classical Notes has been receiving positive feedback from professors and an increase in sales from the previous year. She said that the website has received mixed reviews, and that they are open to feedback and suggestions. They are also making efforts to offer course readers online through professors in order to use less paper. Creative Media is working to add highlighting and commenting tools to reduce paper use, as well.
Consideration of Old Legislation
Senate Bill 23, authored by former senator Justin Goss, which would render the ASUCD Chief Justice or a designee an ex-officio member of IAC, was vetoed by Sterling, as she said the bill distorts the purpose of the Court by allowing bias when voting for a bill. She said the Court is not supposed to know the route the bill took and how it was formed, because that knowledge would compromise the Court’s objectivity.
Goss said that knowing the process by which a bill was formed does not subtract from the legitimacy of the Court, but rather improves its ability to judge and vote, by having all the knowledge about the bill before it is voted on. He said that without complete knowledge, a proper decision could not be reached, and therefore the bill should pass.
The veto was upheld by a 7-4-1 vote.
Senate Bill 26, authored by Goss, was tabled on Nov. 29. The bill would allocate $310 from Senate Reserves to the “Special Projects” line item.
Ryland Schaeffer, Business and Finance Commission chair and Sergio Cano, IAC chair, agreed that the amendment to this bill will be beneficial in controlling the budget and grants that are given out.
Maemura disagreed; she thought there are flaws within the grant system because she said that a check is written and is not followed up on to see how the money was spent. Kappes said that it is not right to promise money and then take it away, and therefore the bill should be left as-is.
Senate Resolution 3, authored by Truong, condemns the tenure denial of Asian American Studies professor Kieu-Linh Caroline Valverde and supports increased efforts toward diversity retention.
Truong said that he supports the passing of the resolution in order to suggest reconsideration for the tenure of Valverde. Spencer McManus said that though he supports the idea of increased transparency in the tenure process, he does not feel comfortable with passing the bill due to a lack of information on the process provided by the University.
Han said she has faith in the Academic Senate and their decisions, and therefore does not feel comfortable voting for this bill. Goss said that the bill should be about the student body and making sure that they get the representation they need and that they can take the courses that are required by their major. The bill was passed with a 9-0-3 vote.
Meeting adjourned at 2 a.m.
Open positions within ASUCD can be found at vacancy.ucdavis.edu. JESSICA GRILLI compiles the Senate Brief. She can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.
