Debate held to encourage voter turnout for uncontested election

Five of the six UC Davis students hoping to fill the six open ASUCD Senate seats held a debate at the CoHo from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Monday, Nov. 13. Jin Zhang, the ASUCD controller, facilitated the event, asked the candidates questions and selected questions from audience members.

The five students present were second-year computer science major Danny Halawi, second-year economics and environmental policy analysis double major Jake Sedgley, second-year managerial economics and political science double major Bryan Perez, second-year chemical engineering major Jesse Kullar and second-year economics major Andreas Godderis. Gaven Kaur, a second-year communication and psychology double major, was unable to attend the event due to a class conflict.

The debate began with Zhang questioning the candidates herself. Candidates also interacted with and answered questions from the student audience of about 50 or more.

“The logistics ran smoothly as [expected],” Zhang said. “But I think ASUCD always wants to see more students involved.”

Candidates were asked about their understanding of the current workings of ASUCD. All five candidates struggled to answer this question.

“What I found really not necessary was the questions [and] how broad they were […] about our knowledge of ASUCD,” Perez said after the debate. “I wish they’d asked us more about our platforms and what we’ll add on.”

Godderis agreed with Perez in this regard.

“They were asking very specific questions which I get, we need to be held accountable,” Godderis said. “But I think it took away from the messages of our campaigns.”

Godderis admitted in his platform that, prior to deciding to run for Senate this year, he hadn’t voted in any ASUCD elections.

“I’m running a campaign that’s focused much more on the culture of ASUCD and trying to change that and getting students engaged again rather than the 8 percent that currently is,” Godderis said regarding the percentage of students who usually vote in the ASUCD elections.

Godderis’ platform revolves around bridging the divide between ASUCD and the student body. Increasing voter turnout, promoting senator office hours and redefining student employee requirements are other issues Godderis hopes to address if elected to the Senate.

Sedgley’s platform revolves around creating a more inclusive space for transfer students.

“From all the transfer students that I did speak to, many of them did not get an ASUCD presentation,” Sedgley said.

Furthermore, Sedgley addressed his goal of improving ASUCD participation and voter turnout.

“I want to make a one-day event […] with all [of] ASUCD outside, commissions, units, senators are out there and there’s a huge board that discusses the structure of ASUCD,” Sedgley said.

Jesse Kullar had to leave early but was able to articulate important aspects of his platform during the debate.

“First and foremost, I am here to represent engineering and STEM,” Kullar said. “I want to build a better sense of transparency and resource allocation so our students can readily get access to any budgets and bills within ASUCD.”

Like other candidates, Kullar was especially aware that certain questions were targeting candidates’ naiveté regarding ASUCD.

“I found that often the personal questions that my colleagues and I were asked served no basis but to put us on the spot and show our lack of understanding with ASUCD,” Kullar said.

Kullar, among other students, was asked to back up his answers with evidence of individual senators’ past actions with different units and areas at ASUCD. All candidates struggled with these more specific questions.

“Questions like these are the reason I feel like ASUCD has a sense of a hierarchy system,” said Kullar. “ASUCD is a steep learning curve and I intend to continue learning about inner and outer mechanisms so I am more prepared in the future.”

Near the end of the debate, at 1 p.m., only three candidates remained: Perez, Sedgley and Godderis. Halawi and Kullar had to leave for classes.

Although the debate was originally supposed to last until 1:30 p.m., the lack of students in the audience forced Zhang and the remaining candidates to wrap up early. A few candidates stayed after the debate to hear individual questions and comments from students in the audience.

Because there are six open positions in the Senate and only six candidates running, this election is uncontested. For most candidates, their terms as senators will be their first exposure to ASUCD.

Written by: Ally Russell — campus@theaggie.org

Extension finds conflicts in student schedules, integrates professor ratings into Schedule Builder

Just in time for Winter Quarter pass times, second-year UC Davis computer science students Sergei Chestakov and Miguel Acevedo released a Google Chrome extension called Schedule Helper, which helps students choose classes and build their schedules more efficiently.

With the extension, when a student searches for courses on Schedule Builder, different colors will indicate whether a course conflicts with other classes in the student’s schedule, whether a class is full and whether the student has already selected that course. Additionally, the extension takes data from the website Rate My Professors and integrates it directly into Schedule Builder.

When asked how they got the idea to create the extension, Acevedo said that he was in his dorm room one day last spring when Chestakov came in saying, “Wouldn’t it be cool if there was this Chrome extension that would automatically tell you if [a] class is conflicting?”

According to Chestakov, he found the process of building a schedule tedious, specifically because he had to first save the course into his schedule and then see if it conflicted with other classes.

From there, Acevedo took the idea and spent a weekend attempting to make the extension by himself. The first version of the extension only indicated conflicts in the schedule. Over this past summer, Acevedo worked with Chestakov and they produced the second version of the extension, which includes the ratings from Rate My Professors.

According to Chestakov, the hardest part of the process was learning new skills and technology as they went along.

“I think the extension is really helpful for making a schedule without having to go back and forth between the search and the current classes as well as going between Schedule Builder and Rate My Professors,” said second-year statistics major Jacob Fraysher.

According to Acevedo, the pair actually completed the project before Fall Quarter started, but they didn’t release the extension until just a few weeks ago because they wanted to release it near pass time. The whole project took them between two and three weeks.

Currently, Schedule Helper has reached almost 1,000 downloads. Students can download the extension for free at https://getschedulehelper.com

“I just wanted to create a tool that will save students time and make the process of picking classes a lot easier,” Chestakov said. “If it saves all the students that downloaded it one hour, I’ll be happy.”

Written by: Clara Zhao –– campus@theaggie.org

Third interim senator sworn in on Oct. 26

The ASUCD Senate was called to order by Vice President Adilla Jamaludin at 6:09 p.m. on Oct. 26 in the Mee Room of the Memorial Union. Senators Julie Jung and Matthew Yamaguchi were absent. All commission chairs were present.

The Senate received a presentation on future student housing projects from Emily Galindo, the associate vice chancellor for Divisional and Auxiliary Services. Two four-story buildings and one five-story building will be added to the Cuarto housing area, featuring new floor plans in an effort to expand the university’s second-year housing. Tercero Dining Commons 2, which will be built on Hutchison Drive in response to crowded food venues, will provide 500 additional dining seats as well as a retail store.

Additionally, the Orchard Park and West Village expansion development projects are being looked into, with affordability being the primary goal. The Orchard Park development would feature family and single rent units at 90 percent of the market value. In the West Village development, there would be single- and double-occupancy housing available to transfer students.

The final open interim senator position was then filled by Shaniah Branson, a third-year transfer student and communication major. Branson said she was interested in representing the transfer student population at UC Davis. She was confirmed with no objections.

Next, the Senate unanimously voted to confirm Ryan Gartner, a second-year political science public service major, as the Judicial chair.

Abigail Edwards, a third-year sustainable agriculture major, was re-confirmed as the Academic Affairs Commission chair.

Then, Gender and Sexuality Commission members Eori Tokunaga, a third-year human development major; Alexander Nguyen, a first-year political science major; Alex Lopez-Ambriz, a fifth-year psychology major; Kristy Tran, a fourth-year sociology major; Justin Choi, a fourth-year plant breeding and genetics major; and Ray Rubens, a first-year gender studies major, were confirmed unanimously by the Senate.

Dream Committee members Angeles Cruz Arango, a second-year Chicano studies major; Claudia Gutierrez, a second-year political science public service major; Rocio Perez, a third-year political science major; Mireya Santiago Paz, a second-year art history major; and Bianca Montes, a second-year political science major, were all confirmed with no objections.

The Senate took a 10-minute break at 7:46 p.m.

Following the break, the senators unanimously passed a bill which would dissolve the International Undergraduate Student Committee due to the effectiveness of Services for International Students and Scholars, which receives more funding.

The confirmation for a bill that would allocate $379.98 to the UC Davis Mental Health Initiative to supplement the Active Minds National Conference registry was passed as amended. Additionally, a bill appropriating $20 to purchase an ASUCD Senate meeting procedure infographic was passed.

There was no proposed legislation.

Naeema Kaleem, the Elections Committee chair, provided more information about the new write-in system, in which a candidate can win as a write-in candidate, but can potentially be disqualified if they do not abide by other campaigning guidelines.

Vice President Adilla Jamaludin then provided a presentation for the newly sworn-in interim senators.

Following ex-officio and elected officer reports, minutes from the Oct. 19 meeting were approved without objection. The meeting adjourned at 9:21 p.m.

Written by: Rodney Tompkins — campus@theaggie.org