ASUCD Senate passes resolution in support of the Iranian people

The passing of SR#9 came after a debate over the precedence of making political statements

By LILY KENROW — campus@theaggie.org

At their Jan. 29 meeting, the Associated Students, University of California, Davis (ASUCD) Senate passed Senate Resolution (SR) #9, offering their support to the Iranian people and a call for action at UC Davis. This included denouncing violence against student protesters and pushing university administrators to commit to a public statement protecting protestors’ rights.

The resolution also noted that UC Irvine and their associated student body have already taken steps to offer support to Iranian students, and calls for ASUCD to collaborate more with the Iranian Student Organization, among other clubs and registered student organizations who represent students affected by authoritarian regimes.

 While SR#9 passed, it raised discussion over the Association’s role and precedence in taking stances on politics and human rights.

Senator Ezra Rubin began the debate by admitting that he was conflicted over the resolution. Rubin clarified that he supported the resolution’s stance and what it called for but took issue over the precedent the resolution would set for the table.

“I have concerns regarding the precedent that it sets in terms of commenting on political issues, especially ones with humanitarian implications,” Rubin said. “The first question that arises to me is why are we commenting on this issue, and not others right now? For example, things going in Sudan with the Uyghurs, and Myanmar and Syria, for instance. We don’t really have a precedent of often making resolutions based primarily just on political issues.”

Rubin added that if the Senate continued to make resolutions with political commentary, they could run into the issue of bandwidth within the Senate.

“There are a lot of issues that could be commented on that affect students here and have political connotations,” Rubin said. “I would be concerned that would grow infeasible to a point that we would have to focus on that, as opposed to other duties that have more direct implications on students.”

He also brought up a concern that continuing to write resolutions with political commentary, or that are controversial, could alienate students, when the point of resolution is to build solidarity.

Senator Aaron Heth, the bill’s author, responded to Rubin’s concerns. He stated that resolutions should be passed when the table comes to a consensus on the issue, and not based solely on precedence. 

“I think that, when we have a significant student community that is on campus, it’s reasonable for the Senate to offer a resolution,” Heth said. “In terms of concerns about the precedent it sets with political issues in general, I’m in favor of ensuring that you go based on consensus.”

Ethnic and Cultural Affairs Commission Chairperson Mālie Nee added that setting a precedent for the table would be a good thing.

“It does set a precedent for the university to actually open their mouths,” Nee said. “We should have been opening our mouths. I think this resolution will set a precedent for us to be able to open our mouths.”

Senator Mia Oscanoa also brought up one of the table’s previous resolutions, SR#7, which addresses recent actions by United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the visa revocation of students and recent graduates.

“I really do not think that this is a political precedent; it’s a humanitarian thing,” Oscanoa said. “If we want to talk about precedence and commenting on things that some people might think are political issues, I think that was already said with the ICE resolution.”

Internal Vice President Dhilena Wickramasinghe also added that ASUCD has a history of making political commentary through resolutions and referenced the Senate Bill archives.

“Going back to the ‘80s, you can see that the Senate has been putting on resolutions on these types of topics for decades now,” Wickramasinghe said. “I think by not speaking out about these issues, that itself is setting a dangerous precedent of being tone deaf and not listening to our student body. What’s the point of being student representatives if we’re not going to be listening to their concerns and trying to support them in any way we can, when there’s a significant portion of our students that are hurting right now?”

Wickramasinghe also pointed out members of the Iranian Student Organization who attended the meeting in support of SR#9.

“I think it is incredibly disrespectful and tone deaf to be arguing about whether or not we should support them through this resolution, while they’re sitting here right now,” Wickramasinghe said.

Iranian Student Organization President Ava Jabbari, a fourth-year environmental policy analysis & planning and international relations double major, and Social Media Coordinator Brian Borhany, a fourth-year international relations major, also gave public comment in support of the resolution.

“We wanted to come and show our support for SR#9, which stands with Iranian students during these troubled times,” Jabbari said. “Although we are a non-political organization and focus our efforts on cultural things, this is an issue that is not just political. It’s something that is a humanitarian issue, it’s a justice issue.”

Borhany echoed the sentiment.

“A lot of us, we have family back there, family that for weeks on end we heard absolutely nothing about,” Borhany said. “It’s very alienating as immigrants in this country. We’re kind of in a weird middle zone between Iranian communities here and Iranian communities there. We’re very disconnected, but our hearts are with them.”

The final vote count was 10 in favor and four abstains, with Rubin being the only present member of the table that abstained from voting. Transfer Student Representative Imani Nur and Senators Siena Dill-Cruz and Phoenix List were absent from the meeting.

SB#42

Senate Bill (SB) #42, which allocates $500.05 to the offices of Senator Luis L. Garcia and Senator Jaliah Payne for a Study Break Event was also a topic of discussion among the Senate.

Rubin and Senator Nate Little took issue with the ratio of funds spent to the students reached, reminding the table of the Association’s deficit and budget cuts. 

“I just feel that we could be spending less money overall on the actual items purchased,” Little said. “We should focus on being mindful of our spending.”

Rubin also mentioned that the $500 would serve 200 students, which he pointed out consisted of less than 1% of the student body, and suggested buying from Safeway or Costco instead of the ASUCD Coffee House (CoHo).

“Buying from cheaper options would give us a generally better return on investments with more students reached overall,” Rubin said. “Especially since we have a budget deficit and are facing budget cuts now, we have to remember that every dollar we spend is a dollar coming out of somewhere else.” 

A few senators disagreed, maintaining that the Association should support the CoHo rather than outside businesses.

“I think it’s very important to keep everything in-house,” Garcia said. “Especially if the CoHo is owned by us.”

Rubin responded with a critique of the Senate table’s spending habits.

“It’s a matter of [acknowledging that] we’re not running on infinite resources,” Rubin said. “Right now, all of our units and committees have to be very mindful of having the best return on investment and being as efficient as possible. And I think that mindset has not been embodied by the Senate this year in general.”

ASUCD Controller Trinity Chow, the Association’s chief financial officer, also noted support for the CoHo despite higher prices than commercial grocers, while acknowledging Rubin’s point on the Senate’s spending behavior. 

“It absolutely is more per item, but that money also stays in house,” Chow said. “Yes, you are going to lose that money in Senate reserves. I’m not disagreeing with the fact that we have been spending a lot more than other tables have. But when we give money to the CoHo, that money still stays within ASUCD versus if we were to spend half but give it to Safeway or Costco.”

SB#42 passed by a vote of 9-2; the two votes against the bill were from Senators Rubin and Little.

Other Matters

The Senate also heard quarterly reports from several units.

Unitrans General Manager Jeff Flynn highlighted the unit’s continued service levels from fall to winter quarter.. 

“We are at our budgeted service level, so we can’t add more without reallocating from somewhere else,” Flynn said. “So, we can’t just do straight adds right now. When we add something, we have to readjust where services are from somewhere else to add service somewhere else.”

They also currently have more active drivers than necessary to maintain full service, with 50 more currently in training. Flynn did note staffing being affected by federal changes to licensing rules that impacted international and undocumented student drivers. 5% of student drivers lost their licenses in December, however Flynn noted that those who lost their licenses were able to be reassigned elsewhere within the unit.

Innovation and Research Lab (IRL) Unit Director Jeremy Elvander, a fourth-year data science major, also presented on the unit’s current projects. IRL is ASUCD’s in-house research and development group, and their current work includes continued updates to the UC Davis mobile app and a student and faculty artificial intelligence (AI) survey, as well as analysis of campus bike paths.

Whole Earth Festival (WEF) Co-Directors Ella Estabrook, a fourth-year sociology major, and Jessica Wong, a fourth-year design and psychology double major, presented and responded to senators’ concerns over past instances of non-UC Davis-affiliated guests, police presence at the festival and cultural appropriation. 

Estabrook and Wong noted that the festival stopped hosting drum circles in 2022 due to concerns over cultural appropriation. That said, since stopping hosting the circle, non-student community members have attended the festival to perform their own drum circles unaffiliated with the festival. 

“We have no longer hosted a drum circle, but there are community members, unorganized, who have been coming to WEF for their whole lives, and it’s a big part of what they view the festival to be,” Estabrook said. “And they’re kind of creatures of habit, and a little bit stubborn in that way. It’s hard to understand that students view things in a little bit different of a way.”

Nee also asked the WEF team about vendors selling white sage, noting it is a closed practice reserved for indigenous people. Wong replied that they were looking into the potential implementation of vendor fines or accountability forms to avoid and prevent white sage from being sold at the festival and said that there were no reported instances of selling white sage at last year’s event.

The meeting was called to order at 6:11 p.m. and adjourned at 8:52 p.m.

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Written by: Lily Kenrow — campus@theaggie.org