During last Wednesday’s meeting, UC Santa Barbara’s Associated Students Senate voted unanimously to disperse the External Vice President for Statewide Affairs stipend — $9,000 for the academic year — to the seven students who ran the office in the absence of the external vice president.
Senate voted on Wednesday to disperse the $9,000 EVPSA stipend. Andrea Verdugo / Daily Nexus
UCSB did not have an External Vice President for Statewide Affairs (EVPSA) for the 2018-2019 school year following the disqualification of EVPSA-elect Mayela Morales and two subsequent failures to elect an EVPSA.
As a temporary measure following Morales’s disqualification, the Associated Students (A.S.) Senate divided the duties of the EVPSA in June 2018. The Senate’s resolution split the responsibilities of the EVPSA among several members of the office, alongside Lobby Corps and External Vice President of Local Affairs (EVPLA) Jeike Meijer.
“[The staffers] all fulfilled the EVPSA responsibilities without receiving the EVPSA honoraria, nor an honoraria reflective of the shared labor of the divided EVPSA responsibilities for the 2018 to 2019 school year,” last Wednesday’s resolution stated.
Wednesday’s resolution, authored by Off-Campus Senator Jalia Carlton-Carew and seconded by College of Letters and Science Senator Xochitl Briseño, directed the Associated Students Executive Director Marisela Márquez and EVPSA Summer Ad Hoc Committee to “access the EVPSA Honoraria Account and to divide the $9,000 EVPSA stipend.”
The stipend will be split among the individuals that took on the responsibilities of the vacant position:
- Lobby Corps Co-Chair Tom Steel
- Legislative Liaison Madeline Loudon
- Campus Organizing Director Alexandra Gessesse
- EVPSA Chief of Staff Emily Quach
- EVPLA Jeike Meijer
- Fund the UC Campaign Coordinator Alexandra Leal Silva
- EVPSA Deputy Chief of Staff John Kennedy
The exact division of the stipend to each individual will be determined by Márquez, as discussed at last Wednesday’s Senate meeting.
The June 2018 resolution splitting the responsibilities of the EVPSA also stated the individuals taking on the responsibilities would be paid the equivalent of a Boards, Commissions & Units chair — however, none of the individuals “were paid BCU Chair Honorarium equivalency” throughout the year, according to Wednesday’s resolution.
The resolution also allows the $350 stipend for the Lobby Corps co-chair to be split among the Lobby Corps members for taking on the additional work. The co-chair position was vacant for Spring Quarter 2019.
The following executive members of Lobby Corps will be splitting the co-chair stipend:
- Lobby Corps Co-Chair Tom Steel
- Internal Director Verenise Valentin
- Scheduling Director Emily Quach
- Labor Director Kristina Ruvalcaba
- Legislative Director Gordon Hahn
The resolution emphasizes the stance Senate took in January in “supporting a sustainable work environment in which student workers are compensated with livable wages” to gain support for paying the individuals taking on the EVPSA responsibilities.
Updated [May 29, 9:30 a.m.]
This is the wrong resolution