ASUCD Vice President Bradley Bottoms presided over the Oct. 24 meeting. The meeting began at 6:20 p.m., with Senator Yee Xiong absent.

Jay Chou, director of ASUCD Specialized Transportation Services and Tipsy Taxi supervisor, announced that cameras will be installed in all Tipsy Taxi vehicles by winter 2014. This will ensure both driver and passenger safety. The cameras can also be used to record any verbal disputes or customer dissatisfaction.

An ASUCD bill to fund the Students of Color Conference (SoCC) was passed by the Senate.

SoCC is an annual conference hosted by the University of California Student Association (UCSA). The three-day conference promotes dialogue between students and raises awareness of issues that affect those of color. UC Davis is not a member of the UCSA and does not fund its students attending the conference. Most other UCs are members and cover all conference costs for their students.

The Senate Bill was proposed to cover most of the travel, lodging and registration fees of UC Davis students participating in the conference. The bill was initially sent to Vice President Bottoms and asked for a total of $3,000. After review from the Business and Finance Commission (BNF), the bill dropped its asking price to $2,500. It was then brought before the Senate with a BNF approval and Ethnic and Cultural Affairs Commission approval.

Those in Senate favoring the bill praised the conference’s merit as an outreach event for UC Davis students. Senators not in favor of the bill noted that it is also receiving funding from the Club Finance Council (CFC).

“The CFC is also funded by ASUCD, so they’re essentially ‘double-dipping,’” Senator Ryan Wonders said.

The bill, however, passed by a close 7-3-2 vote. The money will be taken from the Senate’s $12,800 reserves.

The meeting was adjourned at 11:01 p.m.

— Atrin Toussi

The Experimental College (eCollege), an ASUCD unit, lost $40,000 from its independent reserves due to a struggling market for its classes. The Experimental College, founded in 1966, offers classes based around movement, such as yoga, kung fu and dance that are not otherwise offered in the school system.

“We are currently in a situation where our reserves have run low and may not be able to support us through the end of the year,” Experimental College office coordinator Hannah Moore said in an email interview.  “ASUCD does not have the ability at this time to help us financially while we work on new strategies.”

The loss of funds began in 2007, said ASUCD budget controller Eric Evans, when Campus Rec began to push their classes which were similar to the eCollege.

“The Experimental College hasn’t adapted to the market yet and is now playing in a new field,” Evans said.

The eCollege currently has $15,537 in reserves. It is projected to lose about $23,000 by the end of this school year. Evans said that ASUCD is working with the eCollege to increase their profits so they will hopefully break even by the end of the year instead of going into a deficit.

In order to prevent the projected loss from happening, cuts and improvements have been made to the eCollege overall. These include cuts in course printing, staffing positions, pay for instructors and staff and complete cuts of classes at the eCollege that have not been making money.

There has also been a change in the split between funds made from eCollege classes. In winter 2013, the split changed from 70-30 to instructors and funds to ASUCD respectively, to a 50-50 split.

“The cost of managing the previous split was more than the college could afford,” Evans said.

In an effort to gain funds, the eCollege has been working with ASUCD unit Creative Media and the new marketing department ASUCD funded this year.

“This year we have been working closely with the Creative Media Marketing unit to produce materials that are visually consistent and creating new marketing plans,” Moore said.

Creative Media has helped eCollege come up with a new design for advertisements and they have also redesigned their website. This was the first major project given to them because it required participation from all aspects of Creative Media; marketing, design and programming.

Creative Media Director Alex Park spoke about the changes the program has made for the Experimental College.

“We made the Experimental College’s identity able to show more through their website,” Park said. “We also made designs based off of their culture.”

A large benefit of the new website is that registration is now easier than before.

“Our biggest asset that is currently being worked on is our website.  It will make online registration easier and be on whole an experience tailored to user ease,” Moore said. “We are focusing on discovering what it is that our students want to see and then filling that need.”

The long-term marketing plan for the eCollege is to advertise with their new designs, put up signs in Unitrans buses, table at events and reach out to faculty and students about their classes.

“We are taking this as an opportunity to reach out to the campus and community to conduct focus groups on what types of learning and courses are of interest and where there are educational gaps on campus,” Moore said.

There is also a new Try Before You Buy option for eCollege classes, which means members can try out a class for free to get a feel for whether they want to buy a pass.

“We are trying a lot of different ways to help the Experimental College advertise and bring in new more members,” said marketing department co-director Nick Dias.

Dias said the eCollege is also going to incorporate cultural literacy classes into the curriculum. This will be done by having a handful of cultural clubs on campus teach classes to raise awareness on different cultures. The eCollege will also teach free classes in dorms to raise awareness of their programs.

One aspect of the college that has continuously raised funds has been the eCollege garden. Here, anyone who wants to garden can rent out a plot to grow vegetables and plants of their choice.

“Garden spots have almost always been fully sold,” Evans said.

Second-year human development major Jade Lewin and second-year evolution ecology and behavior major Jenna Huxley share a plot in the Experimental College garden.

“I’m thankful to have the opportunity to cultivate a piece of land and make it my own, engaging in the process of transforming a weeded plot into a full-blown garden, as well as a nice place to read or do homework,” Lewin said.

“It’s been a great place for peace of mind because it’s so different in there than the rest of Davis. It’s definitely my safe haven,” Huxley said.

The marketing department and ASUCD will continue to work closely with the eCollege until results from their efforts can be seen in winter 2014.

“As with other projects within ASUCD, this is an incredible opportunity to make huge changes,” Evans said. “There is a very broad horizon here.”

Question: I’m scared of one of my neighbors. Everyday, the creeper hangs on a sign on my front door. It has his phone number, and he asks me to call him, calling me a “cutie” and saying he wants to be my “special friend.” I haven’t responded. He hasn’t said anything violent. If anything, it seems he likes me too much. Can I get a restraining order to make him stop, or does he have to threaten me first? Should I call the cops?

– Anonymous, Davis, CA

Answer:
You can get a restraining order for all sorts of things. You can use it to stop violence, but also to stop people from harassing you. In other lawsuits, a court might issue a restraining order to stop the police from enforcing an unconstitutional law or to stop an execution of a prisoner. A restraining order is meant to preserve the status quo. It’s supposed to restrain a person from acting in a way that would substantially alter the relationship between you and the person you’re suing, causing you irreparable harm before a lawsuit even has a chance to get started. For a business dispute, that could mean a restraining order preventing the CEO from spending all the company’s money before the case gets to trial. In a domestic squabble, it could mean restraining a husband from beating his spouse to death before their divorce is finalized.

Of these several types of restraining orders, two might apply here.

The first type is a “domestic violence” restraining order, which is used to restrain family members, roommates or people you’re dating or used to date. The restrained person doesn’t have to be your spouse; any close relationship with the perpetrator is enough, if the person has committed unlawful violence against you. You can also restrain someone close to you if they’ve issued just a credible threat of violence or knowingly and willfully engaged in a course of conduct directed at you that seriously alarms, annoys or harasses you, as long as those things serve no legitimate purpose. For example, if they repeatedly phone you at 3 a.m. every night, that’s seriously annoying. But if they’re phoning to warn you because they see a burglar trying to break into your house at 3 a.m., the phone calls serve a legitimate purpose. There’s no master list of things that constitute a “legitimate” purpose. It’ll be up to the judge to decide.

Since you didn’t say whether you dated or are related to the stalker, it sounds like the second type of restraining order would apply. It’s called a civil harassment restraining order, and it’s used to prevent neighbors, strangers and regular friends or acquaintances from stalking or harassing you. Once again, “harassment” must consist of unlawful violence, a credible threat of violence or a knowing and willful course of conduct directed at you that seriously alarms, annoys or harasses you, and that serves no legitimate purpose.

A court can issue a civil harassment order if your stalker has engaged in any series of acts over a period of time — even a short period of time — that demonstrate a continuous purpose to harass you. Examples of conduct would include following you, stalking you, making harassing phone calls or sending harassing correspondence to you by any means, including electronic messages. The messages posted on your door would definitely qualify. For that matter, repeated emails, Twitter messages sent “@you” or Facebook messages could also qualify as harassing correspondence.

The messages have to be really annoying, though. They must be so annoying or disturbing that a reasonable person in your situation would feel substantial emotional distress. Not only that, but you yourself must have actually felt emotional distress. If you’re tougher than the average person and these messages didn’t really bother you, you can’t get a restraining order.

In addition, courts like to see that you’ve made a good faith effort to stop the harassment. Try hanging a poster saying, “No trespassing — do not hang posters here or I will call the police.” If he does anything else crazy — like sending you repeated text messages, calling you at 7 a.m. to accuse you of messing with his Facebook or sending you screenshots of disturbing emails he’s sent to your family to terrorize them — you’ll still probably need to show the court you took some steps to prevent the harassment. In these examples: Block him on Facebook, send a single text telling him “stop contacting me or I will get a restraining order” and don’t answer his calls. If you’ve done all that, you’ve got a good shot at getting a restraining order, which can last for up to three years. Violating the restraining order will get the stalker arrested and sent straight to jail if you call the police on him.

This should go without saying, but I want to be clear: if this guy ever threatens to hurt you, call the police before doing anything else. People are crazy.

More information on restraining orders are available at yolo.courts.ca.gov/RestrainingOrders/