ASUCD Senate meetings are scheduled to begin Thursdays at 6:10 p.m. Times listed are according to the clock at the May 16 meeting location, the Memorial Union’s Mee Room. The ASUCD president is not required to attend senate meetings.
Meeting called to order at 6:16 p.m.
Carly Sandstrom, ASUCD president, present
Bradley Bottoms, ASUCD vice president, present
Liam Burke, ASUCD senator, present
Armando Figueroa, ASUCD senator, present
Maxwell Kappes, ASUCD senator, present
Pamela Nonga, ASUCD senator, present
Felicia Ong, ASUCD senator, present
Alyson Sagala, ASUCD senator, present
Amrit Sahota, ASUCD senator, present
Miles Thomas, ASUCD senator, present
Tal Topf, ASUCD senator, present
Reuben Torres, ASUCD senator, present
Ryan Wonders, ASUCD senator, present
Yee Xiong, ASUCD senator, arrived late, 7:50 p.m.
Appointments and confirmations
Kristie Wu was confirmed as the director of the Aggie Reuse store and this will be her second year in the position.
Susan Alkadri and Danielle Mae-Santiago were confirmed to the Sexual Assault Awareness Advocacy Committee (SAAAC).
Unit director reports
Campus Copies/Classical Notes explained their new interactive website where students can access and add to the notes online. They said this is proving to be a very valuable resource for students. Also, they plan on reaching out to more professors and get them to use classical notes.
Project Compost said they had a busy quarter and participated in events such as Music on the Green, a backyard compost workshop and the Whole Earth festival. They have also expanded compost pick up, and are in the process of building a lock box for donations. Their vehicle, The Lion, is old so they are in talks to get a new vehicle for next year.
Pantry is in the process of hiring directors for next year and they have had good outreach this year and hope to continue that.
Consideration of old legislation
Senate Resolution 33, authored by Hackney, which moves to support California Assembly Bill 1285 (AB 1285) as proposed by Assembly-member Paul Fong. This bill expands student access to Cal Grant funds because currently first year students who get Cal Grants can only use two percent of the money for tuition. The resolution passed unanimously.
Senate Resolution 35, authored by Hackney, supports California Assembly Bill 1162 (AB 1162) as proposed by Assembly-member Jim Frazier. The bill calls for more regulations in place for campus debit card programs in order to protect students. The resolution passed 9-1-2.
Senate Resolution 36, authored by Hackney, supported California Assembly Bill 166 (AB 166) as proposed by Assembly-member Roger Hernandez. The bill advocated for more financial literacy and education for students. The resolution passed unanimously.
Senate Bill 102, authored by Herskovitz, is a bill that defines who deferments can be given to. The bill passed unanimously.
Senate Resolution 31, authored by Kappes, encourages the student government of University of California, Berkeley (ASUC) to change its name to “Associated Students, University of California, Berkeley (ASUCB).” Members of the table said that the resolution also aimed to prevent people from misinterpreting the status of that association. ASUC remained the name of the UC Berkeley student government because it was the first UC campus. Sandstrom said this resolution may change the way ASUCD is viewed, if it is passed. The resolution passed with a 7-2-3 vote.
Senate Bill 92, authored by Kasliwal, would establish the marketing special committee to actively promote ASUCD and the services it offers to the UC Davis campus and surrounding community. Internal Affairs Commission chair Sergio Cano said this bill would change the dynamics of how students view ASUCD. The bill passed unanimously.
Senate Bill 90, authored by Cano, would establish AggieTV as an ASUCD Unit. The bill passed unanimously.
Senate Bill 93, authored by Cano, would establish procedures for creating and dissolving ASUCD units. The bill passed unanimously
Senate Bill 103, authored by Cano, would outline procedures for closed sessions of the Senate’s subordinate bodies. Cano said that this would mainly concern litigation, investment or personnel matters. The table discussed having non-voting members be voted in. Thomas said he believed that closed session is not the appropriate forum for additional perspectives, and including more people in the closed session would make it less private. The bill passed unanimously.
Senate Bill 104, authored by Cano, would outline procedures for the ASUCD Scholarship Committee and the Champagne Committee.
The table unanimously passed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU). Sandstrom explained that the Center for Student Involvement (CSI) began increasing payment to Creative Media by $12,000 because the unit increased the amount of services they offered to CSI. The bill states that CSI would check the progress of Creative Media quarterly.
Consideration of urgent legislation
Public discussion
Gender and Sexuality Commission chair Chucha Marquez discussed a hate crime that occurred recently and urged people to be more aware of the issue. He said he sent out an email and wanted more response to see that the senators were aware. Ong asked about the Campus Safety Coordinator’s role in bringing awareness to hate crimes and Marquez said he spoke to the Campus Safety Coordinator but hopes to do more in addition to that.
Figueroa suggested that everyone needs to be discussing the issue, not just the people and groups affected.
Thomas announced that he has come up with an alternate plan for the budget, which he will present at the budget hearings on May 17-19.
A decision of the ASUCD court was presented, which stated that the court ruled it was unconstitutional for the Business and Finance commission to hold a closed hearing and vote on bills not directly related to ASUCD funds. Many senators questioned how to distinguish between university and ASUCD investments and finances. Bottoms said that there is overlap between the two.
Public announcements
Outreach Assembly chair Karan Singh talked about a campus rally on student debt crisis.
Sandstrom and Bottoms announced that there will be a reception held for the ASUCD Scholarship recipients May 30 at 5 p.m. in the Griffin Lounge.
Sagala said she is working with and encouraging units to create Wiki pages that outline how that unit functions.
Torres said Black Family Day is Saturday, May 18.
Meeting adjourned at 11:23 p.m.
Open positions within ASUCD can be found at vacancy.ucdavis.edu. PAAYAL ZAVERI and MUNA SADEK compiled the senate briefs. They can be reached at campus@theaggie.org XXX
