SB #55 clarifies the role of the ASUCD Brand Guide, and SB #56 grants freedom over social media and websites for ASUCD units
By KAYA DO-KHANH — campus@theaggie.org
On Thursday, Feb. 9, at 6:17 p.m., Vice President JT Eden called the Senate meeting to order and recited the UC Davis Land Acknowledgement.
The Senate then moved into their quarterly town hall.
One member of the public spoke about the lack of gender-neutral bathrooms in certain areas of campus. The speaker said that there are no gender-neutral bathrooms at Shields Library and that the closest one is at Sproul Hall or the Student Community Center, which they said “is completely inaccessible for people like me […] We need to set our priorities straight on stuff that actually impacts LGBTQ people every day. If you want to work with me, I’d be happy to do whatever it takes to get this done, because I want to make me and my community feel like we have a place in this public setting.”
One of the senators spoke about a movement by students to put gender-neutral bathrooms in the library, saying that they recently assigned the issue to the Library Committee.
Next, the ASUCD Elections Committee gave their quarterly updates, which included plans to work with Aggie Studios to create an election promotion video and to revamp their website.
The Senate table then went over public comments. One of the topics brought up was the need for crossing guards in the Teaching Learning Complex area because of the increase of foot traffic with the opening of the new facility.
Another public comment stated that they did not believe that conservative student group Turning Point USA should be allowed to invite speakers to campus due to the violence that broke out during their last event.
Eden gave a quarterly report for the Personnel Committee, which reviews the personnel policies of ASUCD and proposes changes to those policies and to employee compensation. The committee has experienced onboarding challenges for ASUCD jobs, according to Eden, and has plans to propose a pay proposal for the next budget and create a HR position.
Next, Brooke Isrow was confirmed as the chairperson of the Aggie Mentors Committee, which helps incoming freshmen and transfer students adapt to college life, with no objections.
Elena Hung and first-year environmental science and management major Aaina Kapur were both confirmed remotely to the Student Sustainability Career Fair Committee with no objections.
The senators then moved into elected officer reports, where they gave updates on their weekly schedules and progress on various projects.
The status of previous legislation was addressed, and then there was a motion to pass the Consent Calendar.
SB #55, a bill intended to define the ASUCD Brand Guide and clarify its role as a recommended, but optional, resource to design ASUCD materials, was passed unanimously.
KDVS General Manager Cate Hatcher made a statement regarding SB #55 requesting the removal of the ASUCD logo from KDVS.
“On an artistic level, I think it’s inappropriate to ask students to attribute credit to a group of students that we respect but who do not actually participate in our unit’s functions and who don’t actually create the art that we publish under our name,” Hatcher said. “We need to continue having freedom to create our own design portfolio for KDVS.”
SB #56, which grants ASUCD units, bodies and services increased freedom to publish and modify their own social media and websites, also passed unanimously.
In regards to SB #56, Hatcher made another statement, this time in reference to the “poor state” of the KDVS website, requesting more control over it.
Academic Affairs Commission Chair Megan Chung said that she was in agreement with the bills granting more creative freedom to units in the statement.
“For some units, UC Davis is taking advantage of the fact that we call it UC Davis, and they’re taking credit for it,” Chung said. “We should uphold the fact that this is students doing this work, not UC Davis.”
SB #59, which allocates $4,586.86 from Senate Reserves to the ASUCD Pantry for the purpose of purchasing menstrual products, was passed unanimously, and SB #60 was tabled until Feb. 16.
The senators approved past meeting minutes, and Eden adjourned the meeting at 11:50 p.m.
Written by: Kaya Do-Khanh — campus@theaggie.org
