The table also approved new summer positions for the Innovation and Research Lab
By AALIYAH ESPAÑOL-RIVAS — campus@aggie.org
At their May 22 meeting, the ASUCD Senate passed a series of spending bills, including a budget for catering at the 530 Night Market, an anticipated Community Health and Culture Fair for the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Committee.
Before this, the Senate passed Senate Bill (SB) #77, which hopes to “clarify the process by which the ASUCD Senate can provide funding to Registered Student Organizations (RSOs),” SB#81, to remove the “administrative division of Executive Agencies” and SB#92, allocating $296 to reserve the Quad for the ASUCD Quarterly Showcase on June 2.
SB#91 was also passed after long deliberation, allocating $3,000 to the AAPI Committee for the 530 Night Market, taking place on May 30 in the ASUCD Coffee House (CoHo).
Senator Ezra Rubin voiced concerns with the bill, citing its high budget for a relatively smaller scale event and that money would be taken from the Safety Initiative Fund for the event.
“It’s a $7,000 cost for an estimated 400 attendees, which would be about $18 per person,” Rubin said. “My understanding from speaking with the [bill’s] author is that the reason it’s so high is because it’s catered from the CoHo, and they want to have a variety of food options to balance the different cultures. I think that’s a great idea, [however], I do think that should be balanced with physical responsibility, and ultimately $7,000 for 400 attendees is fiscally irresponsible.”
Rubin continued explaining his sentiments.
“I’d rather see some of that money go back to general reserves for next year to counteract the deficit to whatever extent possible rather than just spending money,” Rubin said. “I think taking from the safety initiative funds in particular is not an appropriate use of that funding source.”
Chairperson Iris Chen, who wrote the bill, responded saying that the menu for the event was already the lowest proposed.
“After we talked to [the CoHo], our original plan was to give a budget with an estimate of $3,000 to $2,000,” Chen said. “[They] sent us a menu of over $5,000 dollars, [explaining that] it was hard to maintain the low budget of $5,000 […] for 400 people.”
The bill was ultimately passed, with the only “no” votes coming from Rubin and Senator Mia Cohen.
Quarterly Reports
The Senate first heard a quarterly report from the ASUCD Undocuscholars Advocacy and Aid (UAA) Committee. Chairperson Rosa Linda Martinez, a second-year sociology and community regional development double major, discussed the successes and challenges of the committee to date.
This quarter, the UAA Committee collaborated with Puente, MEChA and Las Raises for various events, including tote bag-making and a movie night. Furthermore, the UAA Committee continued their cap and gown program, giving nine first-generation scholars free regalia for graduation.
“We learned that 100% of our participants were first generation college students,” Martinez said. “81% of the participants identify with the AB540 or California Dream Act.”
Looking to the future, the UAA Committee hopes to increase their social media presence and awareness of their programming through different collaborations and continue their work of uplifting the immigrant and undocumented students on campus.
Then, the Senate heard a quarterly report from Creative Media (CM), ASCUD’s in-house marketing and design team. ASUCD Director of Marketing Mitchell Borges shared that this quarter, CM launched the ASUCD Spring Trading Card promotion, where students had the opportunity to obtain a trading card from three ASUCD events — Whole Earth Festival (WEF), Lawntopia and Picnic Day — to win a “picnic pack” (a bag full of ASUCD merchandise). Close to 300 students were able to obtain all three cards, and Borges hopes to continue the program next year on a larger scale.
Additionally, CM was able to collaborate with WEF for their solar towers to be installed next year, media passes and signage for various ASUCD events and merchandise for other ASUCD organizations. Currently, CM is working on a vinyl refresh for the CoHo and signage for the Campus Center for the Environment (CCE).
Aggie Studios, a subunit of CM tasked to make all promotional content for ASUCD and its units, collaborated with different RSOs this quarter, such as Student Health and Wellness, Bike Barn, Love Lab, Davis Dance Revolution, Picnic Day, WEF and Hack Davis to create social media content.
Next, the Student Advocate Office (SAO) gave their quarterly report. Audrey Jacobs, a third-year Asian American studies and gender, sexuality and women’s studies double major and head student advocate, talked about a recent Office of Student Support and Judicial Affairs (OSSJA) partnership and other ongoing SAO projects.
Additionally, Jacobs discussed the impacts of California Assembly (AB) 1575, otherwise known as Katie Meyer’s law, which “will allow students at California’s public colleges and universities to select an adviser to help them navigate the disciplinary process.”
In addition to the new referral process from OSSJA, SAO has seen an increase in cases since the passing of AB 1575, according to Jacobs. OSSJA directly involves SAO in the referral process, where students now have the option to select both a campus judicial board advisor and an SAO case advisor.
“We’ve seen AB 1575 really impact our caseload,” Jacobs said. “We’ve had 111 cases this quarter, and considering we’re only in our third year of doing case advising, I think it’s the most we’ve had in any quarter. A lot of it is due to our new OSSJA partnership.”
Afterwards, the Judicial Council (JC) gave their quarterly report. Head Justice Iman Tariq, a third-year sociology and political science double major, discussed the changes and challenges the judicial branch faced in the recent quarter.
This quarter, JC handled two complaints and other election appeals, and hired a new justice and new judicial clerks. JC faced some challenges with delayed onboarding for the new judicial clerks and inaccuracies within the legislation tracker.
Lastly, the Senate heard from Point Director Aradhya Chakraborti, a second-year genetics and genomics major, of the Aggie Reuse Store. The store hosted several theme events this quarter where students could receive assistance repairing their clothes, along with activities such as vinyl painting and embroidery.
The store also collaborated with Yesterday Vintage, WEF and the clothing app Depop. Aggie Reuse was able to divert more than 15,000 pounds of waste and prevent over 384,000 pounds of carbon emissions, according to Chakraborti.
Looking towards the future, Aggie Reuse hopes to increase volunteer retention, boost social media engagement and gain approval for a textile recycling program.
Budgets
The Innovation and Research Lab (IRL), ASUCD’s in-house research and software development group, asked for an increase in their budget to accommodate for summer hours for two positions — a senior developer and associate director — to support the “Aggies on the Moove” project approved at the May 15 Senate meeting, which aims to install eight new bike counters on campus.
IRL Associate Unit Director Jeremy Elvander, a third-year data science and geographic information systems double major, stated that the summer hours are needed due to the project’s quick evolution and partnership with the Institute of Transportation.
“Installation for the project will likely occur over summer, which is going to require group coordinated effort on IRL’s part,” Elvander said. “We need to ensure the right technology is used and that ASUCD has full control of the equipment, while facilities make the actual cuts in the pavement.”
Furthermore, Unit Director John Carraher, a fourth-year computer science and engineering major, emphasized that progress must be made regardless if the budget is approved or not.
“There’s a lot of technical work that needs to get done, and it’s going to get done whether or not we get paid over the summer,” Carraher said. “Ideally, I want to pay Jeremy and my senior developer who have been heading this project because it’s a lot of work and they deserve to get paid.”
The proposed budget would add $4,000 per paid position to the previously approved budget of $32,000, for a total requested increase of $8,000.
Senator Rubin expressed his frustration with the proposal, asking for the positions’ accountability in the initial budget, largely finalized the previous week.
“I’m amenable to supporting these changes because I think the work should be done and compensated,” Rubin said. “But I have to say it is a little frustrating that my impression was [that] this would be covered by facilities and IRL would come back in the fall. It would be nice to know that this was a cost you were getting into in the first place.”
Ultimately, funding for both positions was approved by the Senate.
The Senate then reopened numerous ASUCD unit budgets and fixed minor, overlooked mistakes from initial budget approvals. These included a 50-cent wage increase for the marketing manager of CM and accounting for a week missing in their budget, adjustments to the budget for the Executive Office and corrections to the base pay of several unit directors.
The meeting was called to order at 6:15 p.m. and adjourned at 9:31 p.m.
Written by: Aaliyah Español-Rivas — campus@theaggie.org
