Senate Report: Chairs, vice chairs and commission members confirmed at Oct. 1 meeting
The Senate heard presentations on voter registration efforts and a petition calling for a UC regent’s resignation
By LILY KENROW — campus@theaggie.org
On Oct. 1, the Associated Students of UC Davis (ASUCD) Senate held their first meeting of the 2026-27 school year. Notably, only 11 senators were on the Senate Table at the meeting, following the resignation of Senator Ezra Rubin earlier this month.
The meeting opened with confirmations of top ASUCD officials. They included: Abigail Hidalgo Toala, a second-year international relations major, as the Undocuscholars Advocacy & Aid Committee Chair; Kai Wang, a second-year political science major, as the Housing & Transportation Advocacy Committee Chair; Raadha Adusumalli, a fourth-year history major, as the Internal Affairs Commission Vice Chair; and Sophie Abrea, a third-year biological sciences and gender, sexuality and women's studies double major, as the Gender & Sexuality Commission Vice Chair.
Also confirmed were members of the External Affairs Commission and the Ethnic & Cultural Affairs Commission.
After confirmations, External Affairs Vice President Simrit Singh gave two presentations to the table. The first went over voter registration efforts as UC Davis is participating in the Ballot Bowl — a college campus competition held by the California Secretary of State to encourage voter registration and planning among students. Campuses can win points in the competition by students registering to vote, submitting their voting plans or submitting a Civic and Voter Empowerment Actions Plan.
The second presentation discussed UC Regent Jay Sures and the statewide petition calling for his resignation over comments he made in his capacity as a UC Regent at the Jewish American Summit on Aug. 30. At the conference, Sures spoke about his experience with student protestors targeting his home. He later filed a restraining order against a graduate student he identified as the protest leader, but a judge denied the order.
“There were antisemitic signs posted all over our house, bloody handprints, pictures of dead babies, people just screaming and yelling,” Sures told The Jerusalem News Syndicate.
The petition argues that Sures, one of 18 members of the UC Board of Regents, “praised the brutalization of students protesting Israel’s genocide of the Palestinian people.”
“Claiming to have ‘moral clarity,’ he stated of these anti-genocide protests: ‘The more Republican-leaning states tend not to have this problem, primarily because they empower their police to do their jobs,’” the petition reads.
Singh presented the petition and asked ASUCD members to consider signing the petition as a combined Association or in their own individual capacities.
“We can take antisemitism very seriously, and we can support our Jewish students that have the right to feel safe on our campus,” Singh said. “And we can also question the actions and the statements of a UC regent when we believe that they undermine student expression, academic freedom or the ability of students to participate meaningfully in a university governance.”
During open forum, Gender & Sexuality Commission Chairperson Vanessa Sandoval called out the fact that not everyone on the table had signed a statement released on Wednesday by Interim Senator Genesis Arroyo, sharing ASUCD’s solidarity with survivors of sexual assault in light of the recent Cornell Seven case.
“[Signing the statement] doesn't seem something that should be controversial in the slightest,” Sandoval said. “So I'm just curious why we couldn't have a united front on this issue.”
In response, many members stated that they did stand in solidarity with the survivors but did not see the memo before it was posted and did not know the timeline for its posting.
The meeting was called to order at 6:10 p.m. and adjourned at 9:43 p.m.
What is the ASUCD Senate? As the legislative body of UC Davis’ undergraduate student government, the Senate makes decisions on the use of student funds, oversees units that employ over 1,000 people and makes statements and resolutions on behalf of the student body. The California Aggie covers its weekly meetings and compiles Senate Reports to keep students informed.
Written by: Lily Kenrow — campus@theaggie.org