A.S. Legislative Council had a short but productive meeting Wednesday night – the council’s first meeting since the student elections last week.

The council’s agenda featured two business items, including President Miguel Lopez’s revised budget and a funding request from El Congreso, which is sponsoring a Chicano/Latino culture week as part of the culture week series this quarter. Three representatives from El Congreso came to the meeting to ask for support and were granted the $1,000 they requested. A.S. Finance Board had previously set aside $1,000 for each of the five culture weeks scheduled for Spring Quarter.

The new budget presented by Lopez included increased funds to Community Affairs Board and outreach programs. Approval of the budget was tabled so council members would have time to look it over. After his presentation, Lopez told the newly elected executive officers that he and the other current officers had been preparing a handbook detailing how to make A.S. run smoothly.

“It’s a handbook on things we wish we knew when we started,” Lopez said.

Internal Vice President Denise Aceves said the handbook will accompany the Leg Council “buddy” program, which pairs current council members with incoming or newly appointed members. Both the handbook and the buddy program are intended to ease the upcoming transition of the current administration into the hands of to the newly elected officers.

External Vice President for Local Affairs Logan Green talked about a Leg Council bill that would prevent A.S. boards and committees from buying shirts made in sweatshops. The bill, which also stipulates that materials used to make the shirts must be grown without pesticides, will be tabled until all boards and committees affected by its passage are informed of its existence. Finance Board member Bill Shiebler said the bill, originally drafted in part by Off-Campus Rep Lance Tackett, is meant to be a symbol of support for low-wage laborers.

“We wanted to make a stand and be united with the workers,” Shiebler said.

Council members differed in their responses to the upcoming transfer of power to the new executives. Though the meeting ended in laughter, Rep-at-Large Kristen Ditlevsen said there was still tension between some council members.

“I was pleasantly surprised how well it went,” Ditlevsen said. “But there are still people who haven’t spoken since the election.”

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