Senate meeting sees several quarterly reports, introduction of three new bills
On Feb. 21, the ASUCD Senate met in the Mee Room of the Memorial Union for its weekly meeting, with President Michael Gofman absent for its entirety. Senators Maya Barak and Noah Pearl were also absent and Senator Brandon Clemons was tardy.
The meeting began with a presentation from Creative Media, an on-campus student design firm operated through ASUCD. The team presented its plan for rebranding The Pantry, an ASUCD unit that provides up to three free meals a day for students. Creative Media discussed how, through updated advertisements and a newly designed space, they plan on alerting the student body about The Pantry.
In conjunction with Creative Media, Shubha Chakravarty, the executive producer at Aggie Studios, showed a video that their team made to advertise the Unitrans Fee Referendum, stating that reactions were overwhelmingly positive. The referendum ended up passing the next day.
Creative Media also announced that their ASUCD rebrand is fully underway. The image change encompasses both ASUCD and all its units as well, with the goal of creating a more cohesive brand identity.
After several questions were posed and praise was given, the meeting moved on to the Picnic Day Committee’s quarterly report. Elise Pohlhammer, the chair of Picnic Day, presented about the team’s winter retreat, the kickoff to the public and the status of fundraising for the event.
The Picnic Day Committee has raised $16,600 thus far, bringing them close to their goal of $25,000. They hope to reach this number by the first week of March.
The meeting pushed on to the Experimental College’s quarterly report. Stacy Wong, the unit director, announced that the college would be adding a brand new class to their spring 2019 schedule, titled “Introduction to Electronic Music Production.” A Kung-Fu class will also be available.
The college also plans on advertising their programs in the dorms and potentially even at freshman orientations to grow the college even further.
Following the Experimental College’s report, the Aggie Reuse Store also presented the Senate with its quarterly update. The store is collaborating with the Internship and Career Center to host an interview workshop for all of their interns as a way of thanking them for their help this past quarter.
In addition to the workshop, the store managers are trying to figure out an alternative payment method for their customers. Currently, they only accept cash and are looking into creating a Venmo account.
The Senate then moved on to the Environmental Policy and Planning Commission’s (EPPC) quarterly report. Commission Chair Alice Beittel began by addressing an upcoming goal: expanding what the term ‘environment’ means to emphasize that the word bears deeper societal significance.
Beittel also announced that a composting consultant will be visiting the university soon to assess the entire campus and to see how much it would cost to bring more compost bins to the school. The commission also hopes to create a composting internship in addition to their other positions.
The report highlighted a UC-wide “cool campus” challenge that will begin in April. Individuals will sign up online and earn points for their respective campuses through logging their sustainable activities.
A break was held at 8:30 p.m.
The meeting resumed with public discussion. The External Affairs Commission Chair Nayzak Wali-Ali stepped up to introduce the new Police Accountability Commission representative: Jonathan.
One of Jonathan’s major projects includes working with the UC Davis Fire Department to implement ‘Stop the Bleed’ training, which would prepare individuals for worst-case scenarios. They also plan on looking into the placement of more blue light emergency phones on campus and teaching students how to deal with 911 emergency situations.
Overall, the creation of the Police Accountability Commission representative position is intended to improve relations between law enforcement and students.
The meeting continued with three new pieces of legislation. SB #59, an ASUCD Senate Bill to amend Section 1104 of the ASUCD Bylaws to remove redundancy and to act in accordance with Section 102 of the ASUCD Bylaws, SB #60, an ASUCD Senate Bill to amend Section 205(C)(b) of the ASUCD Bylaws and SB #61, an ASUCD Senate Bill to amend Chapter 7 of the ASUCD Bylaws, were all sent to IAC.
The meeting adjourned at 9:55 p.m., with a closed session held immediately afterward.
The closed session was held to discuss Clemons’ consistent absences from Senate meetings.
Written by: Claire Dodd — campus@theaggie.org
