Associated Students Internal Vice President Açúcar Pinto has spent the summer reimagining the structure of Senate meetings and overseeing that the budget goes toward equitable causes.
IVP Açúcar Pinto spoke with the Nexus over their summer work. Maddy Fangio / Daily Nexus
Fourth-year art major Pinto, the current Internal Vice President (IVP) for the Associated Students (A.S.) Senate, is responsible for managing Senate meetings, overseeing and managing the proliferation of student fees and serving as a liaison between A.S., the Office of Student Life and Registered Campus Organizations, according to A.S. legal code. Before becoming IVP, Pinto held positions in many external organizations — including the Office of the External Vice President for Statewide Affairs, the UC Student Association, the MultiCultural Center and the Environmental Justice Alliance, among others.
The transition for the 75th Senate last spring came on the tail-end of a presidential recall attempt, division over resolutions related to Israeli and Palestinian relations and meetings that repeatedly went over the scheduled times.
Pinto noted that over spring, the 75th Senate encountered several instances of filibustering, alongside Senators feeling unfamiliar with Robert’s Rules of Order, the standard conduct for meetings, both of which prolonged the duration of Senate meetings.
They’ve discussed with A.S. Parliamentarian MingJun Zha and Student Attorney General (S.A.G.) Alvin Wang about changing the ways that the Senate runs discussions, potentially implementing a “round-table discussion” policy where when a bill gets introduced, each senator will have a chance to make a statement and Pinto will grant a discussion motion if there is time.
“I just want to make sure, before we vote on anything, that everyone has a chance to review and sit with it and develop their own opinions before going into anything. And just making sure that no one is going in and believing anyone with blind faith and having their own opinions,” Pinto said.
They also said that extending meetings puts an undue burden on university staff. If Senate meetings go over time, the Senate has to move meeting locations to another room or postpone voting on their actions because the reservation time runs out. When it comes to procuring alternative spaces, particularly when meeting spaces went over capacity with audience members as the Senate voted on bills and resolutions related to Israeli and Palestinian relations last year, the IVP office has been booking locations “months in advance.”
On June 5, the A.S. Senate passed a bill that prohibits campus groups from using A.S. funds on companies on the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions list. Over the summer, senators and Senate staff worked on getting the bill legally implemented but were prevented by a UC Office of the President policy that says student government “should remain viewpoint neutral” when allocating student funds.
“We have a team of probably around 12 individuals right now that have all been meeting with lawyers, and just seeing what we can do to make sure that we don’t continue to support exploitation,” Pinto said.
Pinto said the team has been in communication with other UCs as well.
“It seems like we’re all just extremely frustrated because we want to see things continue to develop, but we’re still figuring out what that looks like,” Pinto said.
On June 6, Students Supporting Israel (SSI) posted on Instagram accusing UCSB of permitting hate speech toward Jewish students and the A.S. Senate for carrying out and permitting antisemitism. In a slide that is now taken down, they said the “IVP retorted that Jews have no connection to the land of Israel.”
Pinto said this was “misinformation” and got the post taken down a few days after it had been up after messaging SSI’s Instagram.
“My entire role as IVP is to mitigate harm and lead conversation and create safe spaces for that. So I tried to keep my opinion out of it as much as possible, but at the end of the day, like, I’m still an affected person, the communities that I’ve been a part of have all endured exploitation or genocide,” Pinto said.
In light of past harassment toward senators and the IVP, Pinto wants to create a grievance process using restorative justice practices. The forms would be handled by the IVP’s internal affairs coordinators, who would delegate an appropriate officer or the IVP to handle those concerns and provide support to the individual, along with guidance to the association. Pinto says the office is exploring logistics for this.
The IVP is also responsible for monitoring A.S. funds. One project Pinto has worked on over the summer is expanding Black hair care product access on campus. The Black Student Union attempted to bring products to the University Center shelves in previous years but were unsuccessful. The IVP office is now considering selling products through its A.S. marketplace — an online website — or to get a specialized vending machine on campus.
Prior to their election, Pinto’s platform goal was to create a mutual aid fund and expand the fundraising crisis team. While the Senate is not able to provide grants, Pinto noted that several senators are working on allocating emergency funding grants through the S.A.G. office.
Within their powers, the IVP office is working on expanding financial policy exceptions and prioritizing marginalized students for A.S. funding.
“We have a president now that is so dedicated to meeting all the needs of minority students and marginalized students. We’re bringing all these back and we’re looking everywhere where we’ve fallen short and now we’re trying to figure out how we can implement things in a way that’s most equitable and cost-efficient,” Pinto said.
On things to look out for, Pinto said the updated legal code will be on the Senate website soon. The Senate recently passed a bill that would change the structure of the IVP office to include two web development coordinators, who will develop the Senate website and Senate Instagram and upload up-to-date Senate minutes and agendas online.
Pinto hoped to expand on and emphasize the Senate’s community guidelines at the Associated Students summer retreat on Sept. 25 and Sept. 26. While Pinto says the Senate voted on community guidelines in spring quarter, they need to be “better fleshed out.”
While the new UC mask-ban policy and concern over growing cases of COVID-19 remain on Pinto’s mind going into the new school year, they are feeling “confident and excited” for this year’s A.S.
A version of this article appeared on p. 1 of the Oct. 3, 2024 edition of the Daily Nexus.
