The Senate held their first meeting since being on hiatus due to vacancies in the Judicial Council via Zoom
By AALIYAH ESPAÑOL-RIVAS — campus@theaggie.org
Vice President Aarushi Raghunathan called the Feb.1 Senate meeting to order at 6:12 p.m. After roll call, she read the UC Davis Land Acknowledgement.
The first item on the agenda was an anti-Indigeneity presentation given by Zeph Schnelbach, a third-year political science, public service and Native American studies double major. The presentation highlighted Indigenous justice, the history of Indigenous erasure in the United States and how the community can be allies to Indigenous and Native American students.
“We cannot erase the connection between environmental justice, racial justice, immigration, voting rights and reproductive justice to that of Indigenous people,” Schnelbach said.
The next item on the agenda was the Mental Health Initiative (MHI) quarterly report. The initiative has been working toward their annual Mental Health Conference, according to Adithi Sumitran, the secretary for MHI and a second-year statistics and political science double major. Slated to be held from Feb. 17 to 18, Sumitran shared updates on the conference including the workshops, resources and the speakers confirmed.
Sumitran then called upon the Senate’s support to help with getting the word out about the conference, in both advertisements and attendee outreach. This includes tabling and posting on social media. Other updates from the initiative included upcoming events, team training and socials.
The meeting then went into public comments. Senator Chasa Monica urged senators to begin thinking about possible locations for the upcoming town hall meeting, due to the Mee Room in the Memorial Union building being under construction.
After discussing town hall, the Senate moved into an open forum.
Senator Trinity Chow announced that the Senate meeting should most likely be in person next week as interviews for the vacancies in the Judicial Council would be finalized.
The meeting was then adjourned at 7:25 p.m.
Written by: Aaliyah Español-Rivas — campus@theaggie.org
