ASUCD Vice President Bradley Bottoms presided over the meeting on Feb. 13. He called the meeting to order at 6:12 p.m.
The senators then attended a meeting and Bottoms called the meeting back to order at 7:26 p.m.
The meeting resumed with a presentation from Joshua Herskovitz regarding the points of parliamentary procedure. He went through all points of parliamentary procedure so those participating in senate meetings could abide by each point. He also went over point of clarification, point of personal privilege, right of rebuttal, point of order and point of information. Many of the senators had not had presentation regarding the parliamentary procedures.
SR 10 passed as a formal endorsement of AB 1433. This resolution would amend the education code to require that all Part 1 violent crimes as defined by the FBI that are received by campus police would also have to be received by local police. This would ensure that the UC Davis campus police are still the primary agency of law enforcement on the UC Davis campus.
SR 11 was passed in support of CA AB 1456. The resolution would assemble a focus group to research the possibility of a Pay it Forward, Pay it Back Pilot Program in all state universities and community colleges. The program would allow students to pay a certain percentage of their annual adjusted income without being charged an upfront cost for higher education.
Shinna Kim, the unit director from The Pantry presented to give the fall quarterly update. Kim said that The Pantry collaborated with CalFresh, a program that offers food stamps to those living in Yolo County. This service will hopefully be available at The Pantry sometime next quarter for UC Davis students who are eligible for food stamps. The Pantry also applied for the Go Green grant. The Pantry would obtain $1,500 to facilitate the process of bringing fresh produce from the student farm to the unit. The Pantry has now increased its open hours from three hours to four hours a day. She also said that The Pantry is encouraging more donations other than non-perishable food items including hygiene products and snack foods that do not require cooking preparation. According to Kim, the number of students using The Pantry has decreased from 500 students a week to approximately 150.
Next, Noelle Patterson, the unit director from Project Compost, presented to report its current status as an ASUCD unit as well. She said that the unit is outreaching around the campus and community to gain additional volunteer support. Through two of its interns, the unit is creating a garden space at the Experimental College garden space. The unit is also having a trip for students on March 1 to Zamora. Students will visit a compost facility that receives a large portion of compost from UC Davis. Project Compost is also looking to reach out to fraternity chapters and apartment complexes near campus and work with them to compost leftover food.
Ballot Measure 1 was then discussed. The measure encompasses the future of The California Aggie as an independent, student-run newspaper. The senators reviewed certain aspects of the referendum and determined that they were not able to make any changes because it was too late.
SR 12 was also passed in support of CA SB 841. The legislation proposes the possible development of a medical school at UC Merced. It would allot $1.8 million every fiscal year to the Regents for the expansion of the San Joaquin Valley Program in Medical Education. The legislation would also appropriate $1 million for the two-year planning period to establish the medical school at UC Merced.
An urgent resolution SR X was then passed. The resolution was drafted in response to a letter sent to both UCLA and USC that contained racial slurs and discrimination primarily towards Native American women. The resolution includes multiple accounts of racial discrimination at mostly UCLA, but also UC Davis. It urged Chancellor Linda P.B. Katehi and UC President Janet Napolitano to take action in combating such accounts of racial discrimination at other UC campuses.
SB 33 was passed. This bill concerns the Administrative Advisory Committee in regards to University Affairs at UC Davis.
SB 41 and 47 both passed. These pieces of legislation work to increase transparency for the specifics of senate meetings and processes. According to the author’s comments for SB 47, “this would address a lot of issues in student government, the notion of the ivory tower.”
SB 43 passed to include the Business Manager in the interviewing committee for the Controller to increase oversight of the hiring committee for ASUCD.
The meeting was adjourned at approximately 1 a.m.
