The People for the Elimination of Animal Cruelty through Education adressed the California National Primate Research Center’s violations of the Federal Animal Welfare Act and stated a desire to work with the senators to pass a resolution addressing the issue
By KAYA DO-KHANH — campus@theaggie.org
On Thursday, April 7, at 6:15 p.m., Vice President Juliana Martinez Hernandez called the Senate meeting to order and recited the UC Davis Land Acknowledgement.
Britney Sun and Tristen Dillard were confirmed as Gender and Sexuality Commissioners with no objections.
The senators moved to elections committee member selections, in which Persabel Tecle, Daniel Mojica and Arthur Wong were confirmed as committee members with no objections.
The People for the Elimination of Animal Cruelty through Education (PEACE) gave a presentation on reforming the California National Primate Research Center (CNPRC), an organized research unit of UC Davis. The organization addressed the CNPRC’s violations of the Federal Animal Welfare Act and touched on the UC Davis primate research project funded by Elon Musk. PEACE stated that UC Davis should follow Harvard’s lead in shutting down the primate research center as Harvard shut down its New England National Primate Research Center in 2015. In the future, the organization wants to pass a resolution addressing the issue, and they plan on holding protests and demonstrations.
Next, Mackenzie Field was confirmed as the Environmental Policy and Planning Commision chairperson, and Anoushka Basu was confirmed as a member of the Disability Rights Advocacy Committee (DRAC) with no objections.
Unit Director Jason Kwan and Assistant Director Abigail Nonnarath gave The Pantry’s quarterly report. Their updates included the addition of new coordinators and the celebration of the Pantry’s 12th anniversary. Kwan provided statistics for the current school year up until February, with a total of around 143,440 pounds of food distributed compared to 92,316 pounds from the 2020-2021 school year.
The Senate table transitioned into elected officer reports, and senators gave updates on their weekly progress.
Next, President Ryan Manriquez confirmed that all previous legislation had passed, and the senators moved on to the consideration of old legislation.
SR #25, which urges a response to complaints received by DRAC regarding the refusal of academic departments to provide disability accommodations and to encourage best practices was revised and passed unanimously.
SB #70, which clarifies and provides more information about the training requirements for the members of the Senate table, corrects errors in the chapter on the student government administrative office and enacts a formal evaluation mechanism for activity managers to review employee performance, passed unanimously.
SB #68 and SB #69 which place the Elimination of the Intercollegiate Athletics Portion of the Campus Expansion Initiative Fee (CEI) Referendum and the Elimination of the Intercollegiate Athletics Portion of the Student Activities and Services Initiative (SASI) on the Spring 2022 ASUCD Ballot, respectively, were tabled.
Martinez Hernandez adjourned the meeting at 9:40 p.m.
Written by: Kaya Do-Khanh — campus@theaggie.org