ASUCD Senate meetings are scheduled to begin Thursdays at 6:10 p.m. Times listed are according to the clock at the Feb. 19 meeting location, the Memorial Union’s Mee Room.

Meeting was called to order at 6:13 p.m.

Ivan Carrillo, ASUCD President, not present

Molly Fluet, ASUCD Vice president, present

Andrew Bianchi, ASUCD Senator, not present

Sergio Blanco, ASUCD Senator, present

Chris Dietrich, ASUCD Senator, present

Danny Garrett, ASUCD Senator, present

Erin Lebe, ASUCD Senator, present

Erica Oropeza, ASUCD Senator, present

Justin Patrizio, ASUCD Senator, present

Laura Pulido, ASUCD Senator, not present

Ramneek Saini, ASUCD Senator, present

Rebecca Schwartz, ASUCD Senator, not present

Mo Torres, ASUCD Senator, present

Jack Zwald, ASUCD President Pro-Tempore, present

Court Announcements

Missy Whitney, chief justice of the court announced that there are three vacancies on the court for next quarter. She apologized for leaving last senate meeting early. Whitney spoke about last week’s discussion regarding the illegal hiring process of the Gender and Sexuality Commission (GASC). She said she was disappointed with the Senate.

Associate Justice Rudy Ornelas read a letter to the Senate regarding the Court’s opinion. The court did not condone the Senate’s decision to give a week to present letters of resignation from GASC commission chair Laura Brown’s two commissioners. He said that not re-hiring the whole commission was a way of “laziness” and a violation of the bylaws. They reiterated that the senate should re-hire the entire commission.

Brown said that two people were not resigning.

Public Discussion

Amy Hartstein announced a 5:10 p.m Monday legislation writing workshop in the Mee Room. Hartstein advertised that she will make cookies or brownies.

Paul Harms announced the position of Controller is now posted.

Brown announced that Inter-sex Awareness Week with the LGBTRC will be this week.

Hartstein announced that the Internal Affairs Commission chair position is now posted for two weeks.

The Environmental Policy and Planning commission chair stand-in announced that a hybrid car display will be on the MU patio Feb. 25. There will also be a showing of “Who killed the electric car?” on the 25th at 8 p.m. in 194 Chemistry.

Consideration of Old Legislation

Senate Bill 26 authored by Hartstein, co-authored by Sylvia Nguyen, Harms, Mark Champagne and Sean Stampfli, introduced by Lebe, to implement the Long-Range Plan for Refrigerator Services, passed unanimously.

Senate Bill 28, authored and introduced by Bianchi, co-authored by Hartstein, to remove the Textbook Affordability Committee from the ASUCD Bylaws as it has not met in two years, passed unanimously.

Public Discussion

Saini recommended that the senate re-hire all of GASC, as recommended by the court, seconded by Lebe and Dietrich, called to question by Blanco.

To second the court’s opinion, the senate filed the court’s official recommendation to rehire the entire GASC commission, passed unanimously.

Meeting was adjourned at 7:22 p.m.

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

With the second largest voter-turnout in Aggie history, the results for this quarter’s ASUCD’s elections are in.

Election results were announced Friday at 2 p.m. in front of the Memorial Union. Despite the elections website being down from 8 to 11 p.m. Thursday, a total of 26 percent of undergraduate students signed on to vote.

“This election was so unique in so many ways,” said Adam Thongsavat, elections committee chair. “I think this election will decide how ASUCD will function for the next two or three years.“

Independent candidate Joe Chatham and running mate Chris Dietrich won the executive ticket with 2,839 votes. Chatham and Dietrich claimed victory with 13 more votes than L.E.A.D. candidates Lula Ahmed-Falol and Rebecca Schwartz.

“This is just so amazing and I am so honored that UC Davis students voted for me,” said Dietrich, the first independent vice president in four years of L.E.A.D. executive control. “Joe and I have a lot to learn as independents. It will be quite a transition.“

Of the 15 senatorial candidates, the six elected were A.C.T. member Justin Gold, L.E.A.D.‘s Shawdee Rouhafza, L.E.A.D.‘s Previn Witana, Independent Joemar Clemente, L.E.A.D.‘s Trevor Taylor and Independent Kevin Massoudi.

“I’m ecstatic,” said Witana, senator and junior bioscience major. “I was kind of unsure going into the announcement today because I called about 150 people last night asking them to vote for me, and then the website was down. I thought that would cost me, but it didn’t!”

The ballot measure The Green Initiative Fund (TGIF) lost, with 3,349 votes against the measure, and 1,841 for the measure. In addition, both ASUCD amendments for the Interviewing Committee Updating Act and the External Representation Amendment passed with a relatively large margin.

All votes have been considered by the elections committee to be fair, despite the glitches the online voting web page experienced. According to Creative Media, the unit that sets up the voting website, the site was in no way “hacked” as some critics argued. All problems were due to software glitches.

Of the two glitches the website experienced, Creative Media takes responsibility for one and the Campus Data Center takes responsibility for the other.

At approximately 11:30 a.m. on Thursday, Creative Media discovered that the progress of the votes had been accidentally generated online, showing Chatham and Dietrich in the lead by a large margin. This occurred due to a system upgrade error, during the process of which, not all the information from the old server was entirely moved to the new server correctly. This problem in no way was tied to students‘ inability to access the elections website.

“We fixed the problem as soon as we found out about it,” said Chris Thieden, senior programmer for Creative Media.

Thieden speculated that the incomplete results had been available for several hours before Eli Yani, ASUCD assistant to the controller notified Thongsavat, who in turn alerted Creative Media of the problem.

The second problem that occurred later that evening, separate from the information leak, was that students could not log in to the elections website to vote from 8 until 11 p.m. Thursday night. The problem was due to a malfunction within one of the Campus Data Center’s load balancing equipment, which debilitated the Central Authentication System (CAS). The CAS allows students to log in to the website using their Kerberos username and password.

“There were no security breaches or compromises of the CAS system, the load balancers, or any other Campus Data Center computing system,” said Mark Stinson, client services manager in the Informational and Educational Technology division. “A small, select group of Campus Data Center staff have physical or command-line electronic access to the CAS server and/or the load balancers. None are student employees.“

Stinson furthermore confirmed that speculation of Chatham’s position on the Campus Counsel for Information Technology would in no way allow him access to CAS or the load balancing equipment.

However despite the high amount of security of both the Creative Media website and the CAS, many students were outraged at the results of the election.

Shortly after results were announced, L.E.A.D. supporter Lia Shepherd led several angry voters in a chant, shouting “Who’s my president? Lula!”

Other L.E.A.D. supporters believed that the election was unfair, due to the website shutting down the previous night and students not being able to vote.

“That is not democracy and Joe and Chris are not my president and vice president,” said Jose Marquez, a sophomore psychology major.

Despite these complaints, the elections committee will not likely recount the votes, Thongsavat said.

“We always make sure elections are as fair and secure as possible,” he said. “When there’s a close election it’s not appropriate to throw these allegations out without knowledge of the issue.“

A new challenge will be unifying a now starkly divided student government, Schwartz said.

“If anything L.E.A.D. will only become stronger,” Schwartz said. “So many of our supporters are so outraged. Joe and Chris ran on the fact that they could bring everyone together, so we’ll see what happens in the next year.“

Chatham said he is prepared for an upset senate table; however will keep his promise to UC Davis students to unify the campus, L.E.A.D. supporters included.

“I think the first couple of weeks are going to be choppy,” Chatham said. “[The candidates] worked really hard in this election and it was such a close race. So what I’m working on now is trying to communicate with everyone, and making sure that everyone’s voices are heard. I’ve already talked to a few of the senators about this and I think we’re all going to be able to work it out.“

LAUREN STEUSSY can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.

Davis‘ only non-profit student run bicycle co-op, the Bike Church, is soldiering along on in its quest to find a new location to continue its work with the local bicycle community.

The church, which has faced closure by the university for liability issues since the fall, received a notice from the university in January granting an indefinite extension to their right to maintain their presence on the current property near the university domes. The university also mandated, however, that the group suspend all operations on the property until further notice, which it did on Feb. 1.

“We sent a proposal in January detailing our core values and also citing specific models and potential options for the bike church’s continued presence on campus,” said Sarah McCullough, a second year graduate student in cultural studies and Bike Church minister.

The university received the proposal on Jan. 14, following a scheduled Jan. 13 meeting between bike church representatives and campus officials.

“We’ve had some discussion recently on the subject but no direct contact with the bike church,” said Emily Galindo, director of student housing. “We scheduled a meeting Jan. 13 to discuss the situation, but no representative of the bike church attended.“

Galindo also stated that to the best of her knowledge there has been no university response to the bike church proposal sent on the following day.

ASUCD senator Chris Dietrich attended the meeting, speaking on behalf of the bike church.

“I don’t know if the bike church’s absence at the meeting was poor coordination on the part of the bike church or if the university failed to properly inform the bike church about the meeting,” Dietrich said.

Both Dietrich and Galindo stated that they will continue to attempt to coordinate meetings between the two parties in order to address this issue.

“We’ve been looking at a lot of different options as to where we can move, both on and off campus, ideally we want to maintain our relationship with the university if that is at all possible,“ McCullough said.

Dietrich, who has been working closely with the bike church in negotiating with the university since November 2008, discussed two potential campus locations for the church.

“One option would be a location in the north parking structure near the MU,” Dietrich said. “Another potential location is in the experimental college gardens, near [the church’s] present location.“

Both of these options present problems however either by restricting the Bike Church from offering its full range of services or in not addressing present issues of zoning violations that were responsible for the church’s initial closure.

“What we’re trying to do is keep the bike church on campus and at the same time protect the university from any lawsuits,” Dietrich said.

Bike Church officials are currently awaiting the reply of the university to their most recent proposals.

Despite a quiet period in negotiations, the Bike Church plans to continue its ministry through the Mobile Ministry Unit.

“The mobile ministry unit is basically a really big box attached to a bike, like a giant trailer bike that we can carry tools and other materials with in order to continue the churches mission,” McCullough said.

The Mobile Ministry Unit, which is currently on display at the John Natsoulas Art Gallery in downtown Davis as part of an exhibit dedicated to the Amgen Tour.

“As soon as [the MMU] comes out of the exhibit, we will resume our ministering,” McCullough said. “We want to send the message that we will continue to provide our services regardless of our situation, that we are never really shut down.“

The MMU will frequent the quad and the Farmers‘ Market.

“Student housing provides freshmen orientations to campus, and many orientation-oriented events at all the dorms, yet none of these programs focus on teaching students how to ride or maintain bikes,” said Chris Congleton, Co-Founder of the church and PhD Candidate in Transportation Technology and Policy at UCSD in an e-mail interview. “The bike church is the only program on campus that does.“

The church will be holding a fundraiser in the later part of the spring quarter at Delta of Venus to help support the its continued existence.

CHARLES HINRIKSSON can be reached at campus@theaggie.org.

With the second largest voter-turnout in Aggie history, the results for this quarter’s ASUCD’s elections are in.

Election results were announced Friday at 2 p.m. in front of the Memorial Union. Despite the elections website being down from 8 to 11 p.m. Thursday, a total of 26 percent of undergraduate students signed on to vote.

“This election was so unique in so many ways,” said Adam Thongsavat, elections committee chair. “I think this election will decide how ASUCD will function for the next two or three years.“

Independent candidates Joe Chatham and running mate Chris Dietrich won the executive ticket, with 2,839 votes. Chatham and Dietrich claimed victory with 13 more votes than L.E.A.D. candidates Lula Ahmed-Falol and Rebecca Schwartz.

“This is just so amazing and I am so honored that UC Davis students voted for me,” said Dietrich, the first independent vice president in four years of L.E.A.D. executive control. “Joe and I have a lot to learn as independents. It will be quite a transition.“

Of the 15 senatorial candidates, the six elected were A.C.T. member Justin Gold, L.E.A.D.‘s Shawdee Rouhafza, L.E.A.D.‘s Previn Witana, Independent Joemar Clemente, L.E.A.D.‘s Trevor Taylor and Independent Kevin Massoudi.

“I’m ecstatic!” said Witana, senator and third year bioscience major. “I was kind of unsure going into the announcement today because I called about 150 people last night asking them to vote for me, and then the website was down. I thought that would cost me, but it didn’t!”

The ballot measure The Green Initiative Fund (TGIF) lost, with 3,349 votes against the measure. In addition, both ASUCD amendments for the Interviewing Committee Updating Act and the External Representation Amendment passed with a relatively large margin.

All votes have been considered by the elections committee to be fair, despite the glitches the online voting web page experienced. According to Creative Media, the unit that set up and maintains the voting website, the site was in no way “hacked” into, and all problems were due to software glitches.

“We fixed the problem as soon as we found out about it,” said Chris Thielen, senior programmer for Creative Media.

For more information on the ASUCD election, be sure to read Monday’s Aggie.

LAUREN STEUSSY may be contacted at campus@theaggie.org

With the second largest voter-turnout in Aggie history, the results for this quarter’s ASUCD’s elections are in.

Election results were announced Friday at 2 p.m. in front of the Memorial Union. Despite the elections website being down from 8 to 11 p.m. Thursday, a total of 26 percent of undergraduate students signed on to vote.

“This election was so unique in so many ways,” said Adam Thongsavat, elections committee chair. “I think this election will decide how ASUCD will function for the next two or three years.“

Independent candidates Joe Chatham and running mate Chris Dietrich won the executive ticket, with 2,839 votes. Chatham and Dietrich claimed victory with 13 more votes than L.E.A.D. candidates Lula Ahmed-Falol and Rebecca Schwartz.

“This is just so amazing and I am so honored that UC Davis students voted for me,” said Dietrich, the first independent vice president in four years of L.E.A.D. executive control. “Joe and I have a lot to learn as independents. It will be quite a transition.“

Of the 15 senatorial candidates, the six elected were A.C.T. member Justin Gold, L.E.A.D.‘s Shawdee Rouhafza, L.E.A.D.‘s Previn Witana, Independent Joemar Clemente, L.E.A.D.‘s Trevor Taylor and Independent Kevin Massoudi.

“I’m ecstatic!” said Witana, senator and third year bioscience major. “I was kind of unsure going into the announcement today because I called about 150 people last night asking them to vote for me, and then the website was down. I thought that would cost me, but it didn’t!”

The ballot measure The Green Initiative Fund (TGIF) lost, with 3,349 votes against the measure. In addition, both ASUCD amendments for the Interviewing Committee Updating Act and the External Representation Amendment passed with a relatively large margin.

All votes have been considered by the elections committee to be fair, despite the glitches the online voting web page experienced. According to Creative Media, the unit that set up and maintains the voting website, the site was in no way “hacked” into, and all problems were due to software glitches.

“We fixed the problem as soon as we found out about it,” said Chris Thielen, senior programmer for Creative Media.

For more information on the ASUCD election, be sure to read Monday’s Aggie.

LAUREN STEUSSY may be contacted at campus@theaggie.org

With the second largest voter-turnout in Aggie history, the results for this quarter’s ASUCD’s elections are in.

Election results were announced Friday at 2 p.m. in front of the Memorial Union. Despite the elections website being down from 8 to 11 p.m. Thursday, a total of 26 percent of undergraduate students signed on to vote.

“This election was so unique in so many ways,” said Adam Thongsavat, elections committee chair. “I think this election will decide how ASUCD will function for the next two or three years.“

Independent candidates Joe Chatham and running mate Chris Dietrich won the executive ticket, with 2,839 votes. Chatham and Dietrich claimed victory with 13 more votes than L.E.A.D. candidates Lula Ahmed-Falol and Rebecca Schwartz.

“This is just so amazing and I am so honored that UC Davis students voted for me,” said Dietrich, the first independent vice president in four years of L.E.A.D. executive control. “Joe and I have a lot to learn as independents. It will be quite a transition.“

Of the 15 senatorial candidates, the six elected were A.C.T. member Justin Gold, L.E.A.D.‘s Shawdee Rouhafza, L.E.A.D.‘s Previn Witana, Independent Joemar Clemente, L.E.A.D.‘s Trevor Taylor and Independent Kevin Massoudi.

“I’m ecstatic!” said Witana, senator and third year bioscience major. “I was kind of unsure going into the announcement today because I called about 150 people last night asking them to vote for me, and then the website was down. I thought that would cost me, but it didn’t!”

The ballot measure The Green Initiative Fund (TGIF) lost, with 3,349 votes against the measure. In addition, both ASUCD amendments for the Interviewing Committee Updating Act and the External Representation Amendment passed with a relatively large margin.

All votes have been considered by the elections committee to be fair, despite the glitches the online voting web page experienced. According to Creative Media, the unit that set up and maintains the voting website, the site was in no way “hacked” into, and all problems were due to software glitches.

“We fixed the problem as soon as we found out about it,” said Chris Thielen, senior programmer for Creative Media.

For more information on the ASUCD election, be sure to read Monday’s Aggie.