The ASUCD Senate meeting on Thursday, April 27 officially commenced at 6:13 p.m. Senators Samantha Chiang, Daniel Nagey, Matthew Yamaguchi, Michael Goffman and Khadeja Ibrahim were all absent at initial roll call.
The meeting began with a presentation by Unitrans General Manager Anthony Palmere. He updated the senators on the current affairs of Unitrans buses which included a 4 percent decrease in ridership and an ongoing process of replacing single-decker buses with the double-decker buses. Palmere also revealed that Unitrans buses had supported 10,000 people on Picnic Day and concluded his presentation by announcing his imminent retirement. Palmere received a rousing round of applause and multiple expressions of gratitude from the senators.
Following the Unitrans presentation, the senators engaged in a mandatory undocumented student training workshop. A group of students from the Undocupride Speakers Bureau showed a PowerPoint presentation and went over important laws and scholarships affecting undocumented students such as AB540, DACA and the Californian Dream Act. The Undocupride group also had the senators participate in a role play activity in which they were placed in the shoes of undocumented students.
After the workshop the Senate took a break at 8:05 p.m. and resumed affairs at 8:18 p.m. At this point senators Chiang, Nagey, Yamaguchi and Ibrahim were present at the meeting.
Following the break, a series of Administrative Advisory Committee (AAC) confirmations took place. A motion to form the ASUCD Council on Investment and Services was passed 11-0. A group of students marketing for the Mondavi Center had their motion approved 11-0. Julia Yu, a second-year human development major, was unanimously approved for a Child and Family Care committee position specializing in helping students with children. A disability advocacy group comprising of four students and a war veteran had its motion passed 11-0. A committee regarding course materials and service fees had its motion passed 11-0. Four students were unanimously confirmed for the Aggie media board. Rosy Martinez, a third-year human development major and external director for The Pantry, presented ideas on increasing staff diversity and had her motion passed 11-0. A group hoping to increase the number of women in STEM fields had its motion passed unanimously, and finally two students were confirmed for Transportation and Parking Services positions.
Next came the HAUS unit director confirmation. HAUS unit director Juliana Luna elaborated on her experience as director in 2016 and her candidacy was affirmed 11-0.
Senator Yajaira Ramirez Sigala pushed for Dream Committee funding, and after some deliberation regarding her platform of undocumented student issues and the aforementioned undocupride presentation, the motion passed unanimously.
After a series of public announcements from the senators, which included Senator Julie Jung’s efforts to get a tent for ASUCD, Vice President Adilla Jamaludin announced that the Senate would be seeing the flag bill in next week’s meeting. Two ASUCD bills were also set to go to committee in next week’s meeting, one of which proposes to allocate $632.24 from the Entertainment Council’s Equipment Reserve in order to purchase an audio snake, a piece of sound equipment used to control multiple sound inputs onstage. Two previous Senate bills were then presented. The first, a bill attempting to establish committee chair training workshops, was passed unanimously, while the second, which proposed to to allocate $219.00 for the ASUCD Forum, was unanimously denied.
The meeting concluded with ex-officio and elected officer reports. Various commission chairs and senators elaborated on their recent activities and events. The meeting adjourned at 11:30 p.m.
Written by: Eddy Zhu — campus@theaggie.org
