At the start of the meeting Nicholas Park was sworn in by Maxwell Kappes as a voting member of the ASUCD Senate. Following his initiation, the senate addressed Tara Storm, the Unit Director of the Pantry.
This year, the Pantry has seen an encouraging increase in the number of students who are using its services; however, it has become unable to accommodate this influx and is starting to run out of food. Storm is currently in the process of reaching out to other partners and corporate donors but is coming to the senate for ideas on how to restock shelves in the meantime.
“We need food. Money is not the issue-we have the money, we just have to find the best possible place to use it. We could take $30 and go into Costco and get us enough cans to last us two weeks, but that’s not an efficient way to use our money…if we were to take that same $30 to a food bank we could get enough cans to last us two months.” Storm said.
A list of items that the Pantry is currently in need of include mixed fruits and vegetables, canned meat, pasta, rice and shampoo.
Various proposals were suggested, some of which included reaching out to the various fraternities and sororities on campus, as well as to the elementary and high schools in the Davis school district. Senator Gareth Smythe also suggested coordinating with the ASUCD elections committee to come up with a way to incorporate a food drive into the elections process.
Next, Senator Mariah Watson motioned the senate into the appointments and confirmations section, in which Lillianna Valdovinos was appointed as the new chair of the Gender and Sexuality Commission. The meeting then moved into the public announcements section. Josh Herskovitz, president of the Davis chapter of the Challah for Hunger organization, announced that the chapter will be baking and selling challah every Thursday at Hillel. The proceeds of the work will go to the Food Bank of Yolo County.
Harley Litzelman, director of the ASUCD Office of Advocacy and Student Representation, announced the “Carry That Weight” event, inspired by Columbia University student Emma Sulkowicz. Students will be gathering in front of North Hall on Oct. 29 for the march and are encouraged to bring mattresses, pillows or sleeping bags.
The Senate entered into the presentations section. Present were Milton Lang, the associate vice chancellor for student affairs; Michael Sweeney, associate campus counsel; John Campbell, executive director of Campus Recreation; Jacob Applesmith, chief campus counsel; and Anissa Nachman, the administrative budget and budget operations director. Nachman began by passing out a handout with an overview of how the intercollegiate athletics budget is allocated. The handout showed that in 2013-14, student fees made up about 70 percent of the Intercollegiate Athletics budget; 43 percent of those fees are used for compensation, 23 percent for scholarships and 34 percent for debt service and operating expenses.
“We have an annual budget process, and on campus we generally do incremental budgets, which means units have a set budget and, unless something changes, they basically have that set budget,” Nachman said.
ASUCD Controller Rylan Schaeffer asked campus counsel various questions concerning compulsory student fees, such as how they’re enacted and whether they constitute contracts between the school and the students. He also asked for clarification on certain legislations such as Policy 80 and the Campus Expansion Initiative and if it is still the campus counsel’s position that “CEI principles were violated when the four teams were cut,” referring to the cutting of men’s swimming, women’s crew, men’s wrestling and men’s indoor track and field in 2010.
Applesmith said that the issue was investigated by the office of the president and that the office investigated forty different issues that were raised in respect to the budget cuts and the elimination of the sports.
Applesmith then restated his offer to help people through the nuances of any policies that they had questions about.
The meeting ended with a statement from Lang: “From my perspective, transparency, … creating a partnership and creating a line of consistent communication is critical, so… if I could help facilitate this process, I stand ready to do that.” The Senate then moved into considerations of old legislation. Senate Resolution No. 1, authored by senator Artem Senchev, called for the recognition of Unitrans Maintenance Manager Andrew Wyly for his contributions to ASUCD. A motion to table the resolution was approved.
Senate Bill No. 7 was tabled at the previous meeting and involved a comprehensive change to the operations of the Champagne Committee. The bill passed.
RETRACTION:
The California Aggie would like to formally apologize for a factual error made in the “This Week in the Senate-Oct. 23” article. The article incorrectly stated that the Yolo Food Bank was involved in a lawsuit; however, the Yolo Food Bank is not and never has been involved in one.
