SB #73, #76, #71 and SR #29 passed unanimously
By SYDNEY AMESTOY — campus@theaggie.org
The meeting was called into order by Vice President Juliana Martinez Hernandez at 6:14 p.m. on Thursday, March 22 who then read the land acknowledgement.
First on the agenda was a presentation by Transportation and Parking Services (TAPS), more specifically the bicycle program. The program’s role includes the impounding of abandoned bikes and the maintenance of bike racks on campus. The program has been unable to hold in-person auctions of impounded bikes and has instead held online auctions.
The presenters spoke about finding more ways to convince students to register their bicycles, as only 85 bikes have been returned to their owners this past year due to a lack of registration.
Perry Eggleston, the director of TAPs, then gave an overall report of the fiscal year and what it might mean for students.
Transportation is currently in the process of paying off debts from construction during the pandemic. The 2023 fiscal year will see an increase in prices in all parking zones because of this, Eggleston said.
“We’re asking ourselves, how can we keep this program going and still provide the revenue we need, and not push against the most vulnerable students on campus,” Eggleston said.
TAPS plans on introducing a new service to help students, in which those parked against the rules will instead receive an invoice that gives them until midnight to pay the daily rate rather than a $55 citation. There will also be the implementation of the UC Davis alumni-created parking app Japa, which uses sensors to accurately track empty parking spaces on the campus’s least-used lots, such as Lot 30. There will be an increase in L zone spaces — the most affordable to students — in Lot 30 as well as at the Sacramento Health campus.
Students can also expect some underutilized spaces to become C+ spaces, which can be used by students at a higher daily rate.
Following the TAPS presentation, came the confirmation of the new ACUSD controller, second-year Derrick Mayer, who was voted into the position unanimously by the Senate.
The table then confirmed fourth-year Mackenzie Field as the new vice chairperson for regulations and finance for the ACUSD Internal Affairs Commission (IAC), who was also voted in unanimously.
Associated Student Dining Services, which runs the CoHo and CoHo South, then provided its quarterly report.
Quarterly updates included the printing of paper and braille menus for all locations, the reopening of Ciao Pizza in the Memorial Union and new hours for all markets. However, there may be higher prices on some items in the coming future due to inflation. There are also talks of creating a new employee area and patio at CoHo, but these plans are still in the discussion stage.
Senators then gave reports of their proceedings, meetings and other activities for the past week.
There was no new legislation introduced at the meeting, so instead senators looked at legislation already passed through the IAC: SB #73 and SB #76.
SB #73 was introduced by Senator Dennis Liang and seeks to change the UC Davis official mascot from Gunrock the Mustang, to a cow of an undetermined name. The bill passed through the Internal Affairs Commission and was unanimously passed by the Senate. The measure will now be placed on the spring 2022 ballot.
“I know this has been a long and arduous process, I really want to commend [Senator Liang] and [his] team, I know it has been a really hard road to get this on the ballot,” Senator Sergio Bocardo-Aguilar said.
SB #76 seeks to create a director of communications role for the ACUSD executive branch out of preexisting positions, which would subsequently replace those positions in the official bylaws. It passed unanimously.
SR #29, a student resolution, addresses the UC Davis California National Primate Research Center. The authors of the bill seek ASUCD support in the condemnation of the center and its alleged abuses, as well as support towards demands to move UC Davis away from animal testing involving primates. The resolution passed unanimously.
Finally, SB #71 was considered. In the bill, the donation drive committee, which recently came under the ASUCD legislative branch’s guidance rather than the executive branch, asks for $3,000 for operational fees. After deliberation, an agreement was reached that $1,700 would be paid up front out of the Senate reserves, and the additional money would be sourced from the special projects fund. If that additional money is not in the fund, or provided by the fund, then the committee could return to the next Senate meeting.
“We should give them the money in full, and make sure the money comes from [the legislative branch],” Senator Owen Krauss said.
SB #71 was passed unanimously.
The meeting was then adjourned at 9:12 p.m. by Martinez Hernandez. The meeting ended a few minutes earlier than scheduled.
Written by: Sydney Amestoy — campus@theaggie.org
