Vice President Bradley Bottoms was absent from the ASUCD Senate meeting on Jan. 23. The meeting was called into session at 6:11 PM by President Pro Tempore Miles Thomas, who acted as presiding officer.
Senator Gareth Smythe was elected to take the place of President Pro Tempore during the meeting.
Three new commissioners were confirmed to Ethnic and Cultural Affairs Commission and four new members were confirmed to Aggie Public Arts Committee. One current member was re-confirmed to the External Affairs Commission, and a new member was confirmed as well.
A unit director report was given by Darren Schluep who represented the Associated Students Dining Services. He reported that CoHo sales have gone up this year, and that the CoHo hopes to introduce more vegetarian options for grab ‘n go salads. Schluep also reported that Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi potentially will be serving coffee at the CoHo on Feb. 3 to fulfill her Promise to Education she made in October.
Dillan Horton, the unit director of University Affairs, reported on a recent Board of Regents meeting. He said that the UC schools, along with the CSU and CCC school systems, hope to increase their online education along with streamlining the transfer process and outreach to students in grades K-12. Some senators expressed concern that an increased amount of online courses would be detrimental because of the lack of contact between students and professors.
The Club Finance Council gave a presentation. The council said that its services have increased in the past year because of increased marketing towards campus clubs. It has not been able to fund as many club events as it would like because the cost of funding for clubs has increased.
Senate Bill 26 proposed to allocate $2,948.32 to the ASUCD unit Creative Media in order to replace old ASUCD servers. The bill passed in a 12-0-0 vote. IAC Chairman Spencer McManus said it would be simply irresponsible to not supply Creative Media with the servers that it needs because of all of the work that it does for ASUCD.
The senate meeting then moved into public discussion regarding the 2014-15 academic calendar. The issue of the 2014-15 winter break schedule was discussed for a substantial amount of time. Thomas was in favor of trying to take action on the issue, but a resolution for ASUCD to bring it to the University of California Office of the President was turned down in a 5-1-6 non-binding vote.
The remainder of the meeting consisted of senators adopting ASUCD units and assigning a member to the Experimental College task force. Three new pieces of legislation were introduced into the legislative process.
-Melissa Dittrich
