SR #22, SB #43, #42, #41, #40, #37 and #39 passed unanimously
By KAYA DO-KHANH — campus@theaggie.org
Vice President Juliana Martinez Hernandez called the Senate meeting to order at 6:10 p.m. on Jan. 27 and recited the UC Davis Land Acknowledgement.
Sabrina Zahid was confirmed to the position of vice controller after being nominated by Senate Controller Isabelle Poux.
Cynthia Carter Ching, the interim vice provost and the dean for undergraduate education, gave a presentation about the Office of Undergraduate Education’s support for students and academic flexibilities for the current academic year.
Ching discussed the Teaching and Learning Complex, which is partially open at this time and will be fully open in the spring. Regarding the return to campus for winter quarter, she touched on academic flexibilities such as lecture capture technology, student assistants and workshops that are available to faculty to advance teaching during the pandemic through the Center for Educational Effectiveness and Academic Technology Services.
Research and Data Committee Chairperson Stephen Fujimoto nominated Vishal Duggal to be a member of the committee, and he was confirmed without any objections.
Calvin Wong was confirmed as the Infrastructure Task Force chairperson and the Communications Outreach chairperson after recommendation by ASUCD President Ryan Manriquez.
Nisha Dharmara was confirmed as the Alternative Crisis Response Task Force chairperson, and Michael Logoteta was confirmed as the chairperson for the Donation Drive Task Force.
Next, Dhanya Indraganti, the chairperson for the Library Committee, and Itzel Gallardo, the chairperson for the Fair Trade Committee, provided a quarterly update and both mentioned efforts to increase their staff with future vacancy listings.
The co-director of the UC Davis Mental Health Initiative, Aparna Manoj, provided a quarterly update and specified the initiative’s most popular workshop from last quarter, “Exploring Grief Concepts and Creative Coping.” Manoj also said that the team is preparing for its winter quarter recruitment and planning events, such as themed activities during the day and evening workshops for Mental Health Awareness Month in May.
External Affairs Vice President Shruti Adusumill provided a quarterly update for the Office of External Affairs and stated that in the fall quarter, the commission had a fully staffed office that worked to promote voting for ASUCD elections and the Double the Pell campaign. Ongoing projects for winter quarter include the legislative team’s redesign of housing bill AB #1277, which is now AB #886, and the legislative team is looking to help with a scholarship bill.
Morayah Horovitz, the creative director of Creative Media, presented the unit’s quarterly update. There were new additions to the unit’s staff, such as new art directors, a graphic designer and a computer programmer. Creative Media contributed jumbo screens, glow sticks and mask and merchandise designs to ASUCD’s annual welcome concert, Sunset Fest in fall quarter. For this quarter, the animation department is working on the Picnic Day logo, and the photography department is working on taking pictures of campus life during the return to campus.
Next, there were elected officers reports, in which elected officers detailed their weekly progress.
In Public Announcements and Discussion, Cindy Lamas, an intern from the CALPIRG organization, announced that a petition in support of banning unnecessary plastic packaging in California received 1,040 signatures. Manriquez gave updates about ASUCD operations: The third floor of the Memorial Union is fully open, and N95 and K95 masks are available for employees and visitors. The ASUCD Coffee House and Unitrans will return to their normal fall schedule.
The senators transitioned to emergency legislation, with Senator Dennis Liang introducing SR #22, which urges UC Davis Academic Senate, faculty and administration to provide hybrid learning options, require the recording of all lectures and discussions, and prohibit attendance-based grading. The bill passed unanimously.
SB #43, which calls to amend chapters of the ASUCD bylaws related to the Internal Affairs Commission vice chair of regulation and finance to establish responsibilities and duties was discussed, revised and passed unanimously.
SB #42 is a bylaw amendment which puts bylaws in congruence with the constitution to reflect the new ASUCD election process. SB #40 calls for a revision of the Unitrans budget due to changes in operations. SB #41 allocates $3,615 to KDVS to purchase new dehydrator equipment. SB #37 establishes the Executive Board of the ASUCD Lobby Corps. SB #39 reflects procedural updates to ASUCD Sustainability Audit procedure from bi-annual to annual and adds a section about the ASUCD sustainability guide. All passed unanimously.
Martinez Hernandez adjourned the meeting at 11:45 p.m.
Written by: Kaya Do-Khanh — campus@theaggie.org
