Tensions rose at the Feb. 12 meeting over alleged special treatment in club event funding
By AALIYAH ESPAÑOL-RIVAS — campus@theaggie.org
At their Feb. 12 meeting, the ASUCD Senate faced accusations of nepotism after Senator Ezra Rubin protested the passing of Senate Bill (SB) #49. The bill, which allocates $437 to the office of Senator Jenna Younes to purchase a portion of the dinner at the Pakistani Student Association (PSA) Iftar, was passed with 12 yes votes, 1 no vote from Rubin and 1 abstention.
Rubin took issue with the event being funded by Senate Reserves rather than by the Club Finance Council (CFC), a program funded in part by ASUCD and student fees that offers grants to Registered Student Organizations (RSOs) for events and activities. PSA sought the help for funding through Younes’ office after not receiving a response to a grant application from the Cross Cultural Center (CCC), according to the bill.
Shortly after the bill’s passing, Senator Aaron Heth was asked to read a statement by Rubin on his behalf; Rubin had attended the meeting over Zoom and had connectivity issues.
“This isn’t an event issue,” Rubin’s statement said. “This isn’t a money issue. It’s an equitability issue. Club Finance Council is ASUCD’s service to provide funding for club events. It is designed to be equally accessible to all Registered Student Organizations and ensure content neutrality in its allocations.”
Rubin’s statement continued, stating that personal relationships between PSA and a member of the table — Younes — granted them special treatment.
“The fact that the PSA happens to have a relationship with a member of the Senate table should not offer them a special privilege to have their event funded by the Senate when many other RSOs lack that access to the Senate table,” Rubin said. “It is unfortunate to hear about what happened with PSA not being able to hear back from CFC, but that’s an issue that should be resolved within the CFC.”
Younes responded to Rubin’s statement, stating that any RSO is welcome to ask for help from the Senate.
“With all due respect, I ran on bridging the gap between RSOs and ASUCD,” Younes said. “God forgive me for doing my job. I’m sorry that you feel that way [Rubin], but you know all RSOs are welcome to come here and request help for whatever event they want to do and I’m sure most of the table will be in support of it.”
International Student Representative Robi Castaneda also commented on the matter, noting his recent collaborations with RSOs for the ASUCD Office of the International Student Representative Spring Festival.
“I know some of us have objections about collaborating with RSOs because we see a perceived level of favoritism there,” Castaneda said. “But I feel like that doesn’t really make sense. I collaborated with RSOs, [Senator] Luis [Garcia] has collaborated with RSOs. So what is to say those collaborations are not nepotism? If we aren’t collaborating with RSOs, then what’s the point? Let’s be so for real.”
In a separate statement to The Aggie, Rubin clarified that he was under the assumption that PSA did not hear back from CFC, and not the CCC as stated in the bill.
“Seeing that the bill’s background was corrected last minute and that PSA’s initial grant request was not from the CFC — but from the CCC — only further shows that this was an inappropriate allocation of Senate Reserves,” Rubin said. “It is disappointing that the ASUCD Senate has allowed an RSO with connections on the table to completely bypass our club funding service in order to get funds directly from the Senate. This is unfair to all other clubs that have to go through the formal process, and a disservice to our student body, which expects — at a minimum — fairness from their elected body.”
Later in the meeting, ASUCD President Amrita Julka commented on rising tensions within the table ahead of budget hearings, reminding senators to remain professional.
“I feel this quarter’s Senate meetings have gotten pretty tense,” Julka said. “With budget hearings coming up, you guys are going to be in a room together for a very prolonged period of time. So I highly suggest you keep professional disagreements just that; keep it professional.”
Julka also encouraged senators to communicate prior to budget hearings to save time during the discussions.
“I also suggest that you guys communicate with one another before bringing disagreements into light and fighting on the table, or fighting during budget hearings,” Julka said. “Not every hill is worth dying on.”
Other Legislation
The Senate also passed three other pieces of legislation, including two emergency Senate bills.
SB#59, authored by Senator Jaliah Payne, allocates $1,130.77 to her office for a Mardi Gras event to celebrate Black History Month. A previous version of the bill, SB#53, had passed unanimously at the Feb. 5 meeting, but was later vetoed by Julka after it was realized that more money would need to be spent due to higher than expected sales taxes and catering fees. The initial projected cost was $797.53.
SB#58, the other piece of emergency legislation, reduces the minimum required allocation of money to the Senate’s reserves from 1.5% of ASUCD’s total income available for subsidy, in order to free up funds for other units. The ASUCD Senate Reserves are a separate account from the ASUCD annual budget, acting as a savings account for the table to utilize on a case-by-case basis.
The bill was pushed by ASUCD Controller Trinity Chow, who noted that by reducing their own funds, the Senate could alleviate financial strains going into budget hearings.
“If the Senate chooses to reduce the minimum to 1%, the minimum Senate Reserves is going to be $61,405 for 2026-2027,” Chow said. “This will allow you to have $30,000 more to kind of reallocate so you don’t have to cut one budget to add to another.”
SB#56, authored by Garcia, was also passed after being tabled as SB#37 at the Jan. 15 Senate meeting. Originally, Garcia hoped to establish a committee to mitigate leftover food waste from Senate meetings. However, after debate within the table, Garcia decided to rewrite the duty as a responsibility of the Senate President Pro Tempore. The bill was passed with 11 yes votes, 1 no vote from Rubin and 2 abstentions.
National College Health Assessment Presentation
The Senate also heard a presentation on the National College Health Assessment Data conducted at UC Davis in Spring 2025. 1,366 undergraduates participated in the survey, providing a snapshot of health and wellbeing behavior at UC Davis, according to UC Davis Director of Health Education Raeann Bowlds and Senior Health Promotion Specialist Shantille Connolly.
The study found that 81.2% of students rank their overall health as good or better, 43% as very good or excellent and 48% say that UC Davis prioritizes health and wellbeing. However, only 60.9% of students said they feel a sense of belonging — 10% lower than the national average. 57.6% of respondents also reported feeling loneliness, 10% higher than the national average.
Connolly suggested that feelings of loneliness and non-belonging could be due to lack of socialization.
“We found if students were spending six to 30 hours socializing with a friend, they had a higher sense of belonging,” Connolly said. “If they participated in more than 16 hours of team sports, recreation sports or active hobbies, they had a higher sense of belonging. Even students who spent one to five hours in clubs or organizations had a higher sense of belonging.”
Quarterly Reports
The Senate also heard three quarterly reports from Creative Media, the Aggie Arts Committee and Entertainment Council (EC).
Creative Media discussed their finished and ongoing projects, including new art vinyl in the Coffee House (CoHo), promotion for various ASUCD events and newly published Instagram Reels.
The Aggie Arts Committee discussed their progress on the new Shift Happens mural, funded by SB#89 that passed in Spring 2025.
EC also spoke about their successful Brainfreeze concert and ongoing challenges with Lawntopia, with higher ticketing fees and an increase in pricing for performers.
The meeting was called to order at 6:18 p.m. and adjourned at 8:01 p.m.
Written by: Aaliyah Español-Rivas — campus@theaggie.org
