Sixteen senators boycotted what was meant to be the first Associated Students Senate meeting of the quarter last night. The Senators claimed that the Internal Vice President and members of University administration failed to reschedule the meeting after requests, due to a clash with the Jewish holiday Rosh Hashanah.
The first Associated Students Senate meeting of the academic year was canceled after sixteen senators did not show in solidarity with Jewish students. Nexus file photo
Rosh Hashanah is the Jewish New Year and takes place from Oct. 2-4. During the holiday, no work is permitted, as it is a time the Torah calls a “holy convocation.”
Fourth-year history of art & architecture and anthropology double major and Associated Students (A.S.) Senator Carly Lankarani sent an association-wide email announcing the boycott with a statement signed by 15 other senators, 26 minutes before the meeting was scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m.
The email said Internal Vice President (IVP) Açúcar Pinto and members of A.S. administration denied requests to move the meeting date to accommodate senators observing Rosh Hashanah.
“When Jewish students met with the IVP and members of the administration, they were met with a refusal to reschedule the meeting, knowing that the decision would result in there being no Jewish representation for the first Senate meeting of the academic year and fall quarter,” the statement read.
The senators refused to attend the meeting in a demonstration of solidarity with Jewish students and Senate’s autonomy from the executive branch of A.S. while requesting that their wishes be respected, according to their statement.
“We know that we have the power to control how the Senate conducts itself, and will continue to take actions such as this if the executive branch refuses to respect and listen to the wishes of the Senate,” the statement continued.
The senators also apologized to those who planned to deliver reports at the meeting and recommended that the IVP issue an email vote to approve A.S. appointments and minutes.
The IVP and some senators exited the Flying A Studios Room in the University Center within 10 minutes of the meeting start time, effectively canceling it. Fourth-year art major and IVP Pinto denied requests for comment from the Nexus.
Pinto sent an association-wide email at 11:46 p.m. with their statement regarding the cancellation, which was cosigned by first president pro tempore Dan Siddiqui and second president pro tempore Alexa Butler.
“A boycott insinuates that the conversation was not deliberated on beforehand. Still, several measures were taken in this week’s agenda to be more accepting of everyone’s needs after a compromise was set with senators who approached me with the cancellation request,” the statement read.
Pinto said on Sept. 13, a Jewish senator sent them an email asking for the meeting to be rescheduled, which Pinto did not have the chance to address at the time because they took two weeks off grieving a family member’s loss.
When the conflict was brought up again at the A.S. Orientation, Networking and Empowerment leadership retreat on Sept. 25, Pinto said they decided to go forward with the originally scheduled meeting time after discussions with A.S. Executive Director Marisela Marquez and A.S. President Nayali Broadway because “the first meeting of the year is imperative to the student body.”
“On September 26th, I announced my decision to proceed with our meeting for October 2nd, which had been planned since July 2024 per {Standing Policy 3 Section I}. This decision was made based on the recommendation of the administration and after extensive conversations with Jewish and non-Jewish students, in which we provided assurances that the meeting would only serve to avert inconveniences for the senate body and community members,” Pinto said.
They cited A.S. Standing Policy 3 Section I, which states “Senate shall hold their regular weekly meeting every Wednesday, at six-thirty,” as to why the meeting couldn’t be rescheduled.
“As the quarter system runs at an extraordinarily fast pace, my goal was to ensure that all of our involved bodies can participate in our senate while being mindful of the workload of our community,” Pinto said. “Today’s senate meeting was meant to be an opportunity to allow participants to announce their projects and goals for the year and showcase our incoming Senate’s ability to participate in greater conversation and be open to our community members.”
Pinto expressed their support for the Jewish community, referencing personal experience that taught them the importance of Jewish holidays.
“I learned the importance of Jewish spiritual and legal restrictions designed to preserve holiness on Rosh Hashanah. I also understand how Jewish law (teachings of darchei shalom and kiddush Hashem) graciously seeks to avoid inconveniencing non-Jewish people during Jewish holidays,” Pinto said.
They said they offered senators proxies to take their places, promised them that no new legislation would be introduced and guaranteed that Marquez would read a statement at the meetings “acknowledging the UC’s lack of recognition of [Rosh Hashanah].” They promised to add the holiday to the Senate calendar so as not to schedule meetings on that date in the future.
“We all came to the consensus to integrate Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic holidays into our senator calendar, which has since been done. Though per UC policy, Rosh Hashanah is not a UC-recognized holiday, and Senate leadership was not aware of the time conflict of those who observe the holiday beforehand,” Pinto said.
The boycott left A.S. with “an immediate loss of $1,000 in student fees” put towards room booking fees, catering fees and salaries of minute takes, Pinto alleged.
They said the situation was “addressed without professional etiquette” and apologized to “organizations, affiliated departments, senators, BCUs [and] executive officers” who attended the meeting, on behalf of the senators who chose to boycott.
“We understand the importance of your reports and presentations, and we deeply regret the inconvenience caused by this cancellation. To the senators who did attend, I am deeply apologetic for how you may have been disregarded by the rest of the Senate body,” they continued.
Pinto expressed their hope that the Senate may move forward and have more open conversations in the future.
“Overall, I hope that this incident does not sow tensions within our beautiful multicultural organization and as chair of the Senate, I will continue to seek to foster a safe space for open conversation and will always strive for the collective justice of all our students,” Pinto said.
In a “Statement from Jewish Senators Regarding the Response” on Oct. 3, fourth-year sociology major Jasmine Amin, second-year biology major Dalia Gerson, fourth-year art major Lily Habas and second-year global studies major Leah Khorsandi dissented Pinto’s refusal to reschedule the meeting.
According to the senators, Pinto did not contact any of the Jewish senators after releasing their statement, despite claiming to invite open conversation.
“We are baffled by the assertion that ‘Conversations to address those who have participated in the boycott have begun to repair the harm perpetrated by the miscommunication and haste of our senators,’” the statement read. “There has been no invitation extended to the Jewish senators for a conversation to make amends.”
Senators said the offer of proxies is a standard Senate policy rather than a “compromise” proposed by the IVP.
Amin, Gerson, Habas and Khorsandi were not involved in organizing the boycott which, according to the statement, was initiated by several senators that wanted to support their Jewish peers.
“The boycott was not the Jewish senators’ idea. Rather, it was a movement started amongst non-Jewish senators who wished to stand in solidarity with our frustration at the lack of Jewish representation at the first Senate meeting of the academic year,” the statement read.
The senators said the IVP’s statement referenced an “inaccurate mistranslation of Jewish law,” and that Pinto is not taking “full accountability” for the incident.
“The Jewish senators were disappointed to see the email include Hebrew expressions being used to claim that the Jewish people are legally bound to, ‘avoid inconveniencing non-Jewish people during Jewish holidays,’” the statement read. “We never expected to be told by the IVP that observing our holidays should not inconvenience non-Jews.”
According to the statement, multiple instances of antisemitism have been brought up in the past year. It states that the IVP did “not [foster] an inclusive and comfortable environment for the Jewish Senators.”
“When a Jewish senator expressed concern over receiving several email blasts (sent to everyone in AS) from a UCSB Graduate student that included antisemitic misinformation, dogwhistles, and revisionist history, the IVP only said that the message might be antisemitic,” the statement read.
The senators ended by expressing their optimism towards the year despite the events of the first meeting.
“We continue to look forward to this year with radical optimism and joy. The 75th ASUCSB Senate is a unified coalition of students who will continue to work together to make this campus the University we all deserve,” the statement concluded.
The next Senate meeting is scheduled to take place Oct. 9 at 6:30 p.m.
Actually, I’m surprised and impressed that any students had the ethics and guts to stand up to anti-Semites at UCSB.
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