It’s atypical to see students dressed in indigenous clothing from various countries at an ASUCD Senate meeting, especially two in black ski masks.

During Thursday’s senate meeting, held publicly in the Coffee House, members of the public discussed a controversial topic that arose during the previous week’s senate meeting. Nick Sidney, a first-year political science major and member of the elections committee, made a comment connecting third world countries and the elections – sending some students in an uproar.

“This is about making sacrifices and you have [yet] to come to a decision that is possible. In real government elections, you don’t suspend elections. That happens in third world countries but not here, with principles of democracy,” Sidney said, according to the senate recorder’s minutes from the Feb. 26 meeting.

In reaction to the comment, students came to this week’s meeting dressed in garments typical of their families‘ native countries to demonstrate that they were not happy with the reference.

“The reason why elections run the way they do in third world countries is because they’ve been installed by the U.S. government, they’ve been dictatorships,“ said Michelle Villegas, wearing a traditional blouse from El Salvador. “The context in which the phrase was said was incredibly offensive. And the fact that nobody would at least take the time to consider this, is ridiculous to me.“

At the end of last week’s meeting, some in the senate discussed removing Sidney from the Elections Committee as punishment for the comment.

Peter Markevich, senior political science major, also called the issue “ridiculous.“

“Nick did absolutely nothing wrong, and the fact that we are discussing firing this guy, is ridiculous,” Markevich said. “But this is a term that is used in political science classes, [and in] international relations classes.“

Hyatt Cummings, chair of the External Affairs Commission, suggested the use of the terms “underdeveloped countries” and “developed countries” to avoid further offense.

“I’ve used [the term third world], and I still find it offensive. And I also think that underdeveloped is better but I still find it offensive,” Villegas said.

Another member of the public, José Márquez, said that for him, using the term third world gives him a sense of empowerment.

“I was using the term as a term of empowerment. I didn’t feel like I used the word in any offensive way, like [Sidney] did,” said Márquez, a sophomore psychology major.

Senator Mo Torres agreed that there is a difference between the self-identification of a term versus labeling by others.

After almost two hours of discussion, Senator Danny Garrett said that he would personally contact Sidney and ask him for a formal apology. He said that if Sidney refused, that the Senate would deal with appropriate action, “so that everyone can learn from this experience.“

Other members of the public were concerned that senators did not make enough of an effort to reach out to other communities on campus. Lee J Vue said he was part of the Asian Pacific Islander community and commented that there was not enough outreach to his community, which he said makes up 41 percent of the student population.

“ASUCD hasn’t done anything for the API community, we need help and we don’t get help. Half the time it’s our fault, but the other half it’s your fault,” Vue said. “Of course I will be offended because you don’t have the time to get to know my community.”

Senator Justin Patrizio said that it is difficult to outreach to all students.

“I did not at all say that I don’t want to go out and meet people. It’s as much as my responsibility as anyone else’s. I am one person and I can’t possibly reach out to all students,” he said.

Goodbye speeches from Andrew Bianchi, Erica Oropeza, Chris Dietrich, Rebecca Schwartz and Ramneek Saini also occurred in the beginning part of the meeting. Sergio Blanco was not present.

ASUCD president-elect Joe Chatham and vice-president Dietrich will be sworn in at the last Senate meeting of the quarter on Mar. 12.

ANGELA RUGGIERO can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.

This ASUCD Senate meeting was scheduled to begin Thursday at 7:35 p.m. Times listed are according to the reporter’s laptop computer at the Mar. 5, 2009 meeting location, the Coffee House.

Meeting was called to order at 7:42 p.m.

Ivan Carillo, ASUCD president, not present

Molly Fluet, ASUCD vice president, not present

Joemar Clemente, ASUCD senator, present

Danny Garrett, ASUCD senator, present

Justin Gold, ASUCD senator, present

Erin Lebe, ASUCD senator, present

Kevin Massoudi ASUCD senator, present

Justin Patrizio, ASUCD senator, present

Laura Pulido, ASUCD senator, not present

Shawdee Rouhafza, ASUCD senator, present

Trevor Taylor, ASUCD senator, present

Mo Torres, ASUCD senator, present

Previn Witana, ASUCD senator, present

Jack Zwald, ASUCD president pro-tempore, present

Patrizio was appointed temporary president pro-temp.

Presentations

Environmental Policy and Planning Commission presented the former senators with EPPC t-shirts.

Senator Goodbye Speeches

Former Senators Ramneek Saini, Rebecca Schwartz, Chris Dietrich, Erica Oropeza and Andrew Bianchi said their farewell speeches. Sergio Blanco was not present for his goodbye speech.

Court Announcements

Justice Melissa Whitney announced that nothing has been filed with the Court regarding the elections complaint.

Consideration of Old Legislation

Senate Bill 32 authored by Ricardo Lopez, co-authored by Bianchi and introduced by Bianchi to allocate $650 for La Raza Cultural Days account, passed unanimously.

Senate Bill 33 seen as urgent, authored by Amy Hartstein, introduced by Patrizio, to allocate $369 for the purchase of a memorial plaque for the “Angelina Malfitano Conference Room” in honor of UC Davis student and member of ASUCD Angelina Malfitano, who passed away at the age of 22 on May 30, 2006 in an automobile accident, passed unanimously.

A Senate Bill authored and introduced by Zwald, to allocate $115 from Senate Reserves to ship ten parcels for the “Support the Troops Drive,” passed to be seen as urgent by an 8:2:2 vote, (No votes by Clemente and Torres, abstentions by Garrett and Pulido) was withdrawn by Zwald after discussion.

Public Discussion

Members of the public discussed with the senate about the term “third world” that was said during last week’s senate meeting by a member of the Elections Committee.

Meeting adjourned at 11:30 p.m.

ANGELA RUGGIERO compiles the Senate Briefs. She can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.

As Chancellor Larry N. Vanderhoef prepares to retire at the end of this academic year, the search for a new chancellor is currently underway.

Approximately six candidates have been selected thus far by the Advisory Committee to receive invitations for preliminary interviews over a two-day period this month.

Last October, UC President Mark G. Yudof named the Advisory Committee comprised of university regents, faculty, staff, students, alumni and community representatives to counsel him in his national search for the new chancellor.

Once the Faculty Sub-Committee screens the applicants for their academic stature, the Advisory Committee will consider other criteria such as, but not limited to: Would they be a good fundraiser? Would they be collaborative and inclusive? Would they work well with the faculty senate and with staff members? Will they show a good public face in Washington and Sacramento?

“My gut tells me we should not have trouble getting really qualified people,” Yudof said last October. “This university has zoomed up through the rankings in the last two decades, particularly under Larry’s leadership.“

After narrowing down the applicants, the Advisory Committee will make recommendations to Yudof, who then will review the applicants himself. Once Yudof has interviewed the applicants, the Board of Regents will make the final decision as to who will follow Vanderhoef.

The Faculty Sub-Committee has screened close to 600 nominees, applicants and candidates for the position. Of the 600, 154 were contacted and invited to be considered for the position, with 41 agreeing to be considered. The Sub-Committee then screened this list and further reduced the number to 21 qualified candidates for consideration by the full advisory committee, according to a Feb. 23 Dateline UC Davis article. There are now approximately six candidates.

To represent the UC well, Yudof believes the new chancellor should be someone who is a respected scholar academic, someone who knows how to run a large-scale organization and someone who has a sense of strategic direction for the future of the campus.

“There are many successful people in life who don’t know how to [manage an organization],” Yudof said. “You could be a brilliant committee chair in Congress, but it doesn’t mean that you can run a university with a $2 billion budget, thousands of employees and tens of thousands of students. You have to have the capacity to keep the place running and make some difficult decisions about budgets.“

Yudof and the Advisory Committee hope to give a recommendation to the Board of Regents this month so that there will be someone in place by the summer to help with Vanderhoef’s transition.

Vanderhoef took on his title as UC Davis‘ fifth chancellor in 1994. Before being appointed chancellor, he had served the UC Davis campus as an executive vice chancellor and then a provost since 1984.

“I can’t imagine greater good fortune than to have spent the past 24 years at UC Davis,” Vanderhoef said in a letter to the campus community last year.

“Along the way, there have been challenges to be sure, but together we have helped this remarkable university to reach higher, to be bolder and to achieve great distinction. For those years and those opportunities, I will always be grateful,” he said.

After his 15-year tenure comes to an end, he plans on taking a yearlong sabbatical before returning to the campus as a professor of plant biology.

POOJA DEOPURA can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.

As spring quarter approaches, students will once again take part in the ritual of searching for the lowest possible textbook prices. What they might not realize, however, is that the UC Davis Bookstore ranks among the best in the nation in affordability.

The UC Davis Bookstore sells the most used books of any quarter-system school bookstore in North America, said Chuck Kratochvil, director of the bookstore. Last year, the bookstore sold more used textbooks than new ones, which is “pretty amazing,” Kratochvil said.

The bookstore also sets its gross profit margin at 22 percent compared to 25 percent nationwide, resulting in lower prices for students, Kratochvil said.

“Affordability of books at large is important to us, whether they’re from us or our competitors,” Kratochvil said.

The bookstore’s price matching program has also been successful, Kratochvil said. Even though the program does not compensate for sales tax, the cost of shipping helps make up for the difference, he said.

Even with the explosion of online options to purchase new and used books, the bookstore has seen rising sales up until this year. Still, this year’s decline in sales – 2 percent for used textbooks and 1 percent for new textbooks – is probably due to the economy, not online competition, Kratochvil said.

The enormous success of the bookstore’s buyback program has also saved students cash. If a textbook is adopted the following quarter, the bookstore will buy it back at 50 percent of the new price. Since used books are priced at 75 percent of the new book price, students can significantly diminish their quarterly textbook costs, Kratochvil said.

But the success of buyback is a double-edged sword: publishers claim that they have to mark up the prices of new books to account for the fact that they do not receive any royalties in the used book markets, Kratochvil said.

Textbooks that are not adopted for the following quarter might still be able to be sold at a lower price to wholesalers. Or, a student can hold on to a textbook until the class is offered again, when the bookstore will pay the full 50 percent rate.

While some advocates of lower textbook prices have called for the implementation of more digital books and rental programs, buyback programs are more cost-effective, said Jason Lorgan, associate director of the bookstore.

“Digital products are not as expensive up front, but you can’t sell them back,” Lorgan said. The bookstore only sold about 20 e-books last year, he said.

Contrary to popular student belief that “the university” is the beneficiary of the bookstore’s operations, the UC Davis Bookstore’s profits help fund repair and upgrades of the Memorial Union as per an agreement with ASUCD.

Last August, the California State Auditor released a report on the affordability of textbooks, finding that UC and CSU bookstores need to increase the transparency of how they price books and where their profits go. The report also found that professors often submit their textbook selections after the adoption deadline, giving students less time to find used editions of books.

UC has been collecting information from campus bookstores over the past several months in preparation for its 180-day response to the audit. As the deadline for the campuses was Friday, UC’s audit will be forthcoming, said UC spokesperson Ricardo Vazquez.

“UC agreed with the recommendations that were issued in the report and believe they were helpful,” Vazquez said.

However, one issue the report failed to address was the role of financial aid, Vazquez said. UC’s aid package includes an annual allowance for books and supplies, which amounted to $898 in the 2008-2009 school year, he said.

At UC Davis, students spend an average of between $300 and $350 per quarter on textbooks, Kratocvhil said.

Such an amount is too high, said Levi Menovske, CalPIRG Textbooks Campaign Coordinator and a sophomore political science major at UC Davis.

“I feel like textbook affordability is a pressing problem for students. It’s not getting better, despite efforts of different groups,” Menovske said. “Publishers push prices to whatever they want them to be.“

CalPIRG’s focus has been campaigning for so-called “Open Textbooks“, or copyright-free, customizable textbooks that circumvent the publishing companies. Though 83 UC Davis professors have signed a CalPIRG pledge to support open textbooks, the campaign has yet to have widespread success.

PATRICK McCARTNEY can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.