The Associated Students 75th Senate swore in five new on-campus senators at its Feb. 5 meeting. They also discussed long-term plans, funding requests and the winter quarter special election.
The Senate swore in five new on-campus senators this week after approving their appointments at the Jan. 29 meeting to fill empty senate seats, some from those who have quit this year, following a search by a senate special committee.
The senators are third-year biology major Olabisi Ola-Olaitan, first-year chemistry major Nadine Malhis, third-year biopsychology major Amna Chaudhry, second-year biopsychology and communication double major Kamela Dali and first-year philosophy major Ashley Valenzuela Balderrama.
They were sworn in by Internal Vice President and fourth-year art major Açúcar Pinto on a copy of Robert’s Rules of Order, which details guidelines for conducting senate meetings. They recited an oath from the Associated Students (A.S.) Legal Code and officially joined the Senate as voting members.
“I will seek to facilitate the Associated Students and the University Community in a manner that is consistent with the ideals of an academic community,” the senators said.
The Senate aims to hold a special election this quarter to amend three articles of the A.S. Constitution. If passed, amendments to Article VI will condense the Senate, with eight senators-at-large seats open to any undergraduate student, removing on- and off-campus senator positions. Senators argue that this will increase efficiency within the Senate.
Amendments to Article VII would restructure the powers of the A.S. executive positions, allowing the president to exercise full authority over the branch regarding personnel decisions for non-elected officers, among other things. Amendments to Article X would allow future adjustments to the A.S. election schedule to accommodate religious holidays or natural disasters.
Fourth-year chemistry major and Attorney General Eric Carlson strongly advised the Senate to cancel the special election due to unclear ballot language, a lack of transparency in and out of the Association and failure to consider financial implications of the aforementioned amendments.
“Some type of synopsis that seeks to summarize the changes made, explain the changes made, try to provide context to the student body — If you guys aren’t approving of that language yourself, someone else along the way is going to be able to have that power, and they’re going to be able to decide what a vote yes means, or what a vote no means, and how to frame it,” Carlson said. “Because we don’t have that ready to go now, the timeline for progressing with a special election is extremely contracted.”
Carlson read a statement on behalf of Solicitor General and fourth-year political science and English double major Sandy Grees, in which she urges the Senate to consider the impact of the amendments in terms of a “broader framework of [A.S.] legal code, including university policy.”
“A single contradiction or oversight could render parts of the Constitution ineffective or lead to unintended consequences, such as arguments made to challenge the validity of said document. It is critical that we ensure internal coherence and accountability in all the changes we make,” Grees’ statement read.
Grees said that despite amendments to Article VI having major impacts on “the proportionality of representation” within the Association, the Senate conducted “limited” outreach efforts to inform the legislation.
She recommended that “relevant stakeholders” such as Boards, Committees and Units be consulted before further action is taken.
Carlson questioned the validity of amendments to Article VI being ratified by the Senate, as the meeting minutes “do not actively reflect what was decided” and the Jan. 29 meeting relocated toward the end without notice or documentation.
Grees also questioned whether changes to Article VII were proposed to “consolidate control” rather than benefit students. Carlson said Article VII would allow elected students to supervise full-time A.S. staff, creating human resource issues and “encroaching” on staff autonomy.
“We already have these mechanisms that exist, and we should make use of those, right? Where we allow students to supervise other students, where we allow staff to supervise, ultimately, staff, right? It creates for better working environments,” Carlson said.
Despite Carlson’s recommendations, the Senate edited and finalized the special election ballot language which they sent to the A.S. Elections Board for final edits to increase clarity and remove biased language. The Elections Board is currently waiting on ballot approval from the University of California Office of the President before announcing the special election.
Later in the meeting, the A.S. Strategic Operations Office staff members, led by Chief Operations Officer and fourth-year sociology and religious studies double major Abigail Coleman, unveiled their plans for creating a new A.S. Strategic Vision plan.
Every three to four years, A.S. must create a new plan which outlines goals for the association. The latest version was published in 2021. The plan outlines categories for goals, including “Student Advocacy and Education: Physical and Emotional Well-Being” and “Philanthropy and Financial Support,” among others.
The Strategic Operations Office will be working with a consulting firm on the plan, and laid out three firm options — each at different price points.
The firms included Watauga Consulting, NetGen Consulting and Credo. They decided to recommend Credo Consulting – which they say will cost between $75-110,000 – to help draft the plan. The other two options would cost $145,000 (Watauga) and $20-25,000 (NetGen).
“After a comprehensive comparison between the three consulting companies, we recommend Credo consulting as our top choice because, despite the higher cost, we believe this is a reasonable budget for the strategic vision plan, as we paid about $80,000 five years ago and we also believe their firm is the most reputable and will give us the best product with the professionals that we work with,” Coleman said.
The motion to approve the plan was tabled until the next meeting.
Carlson made two requests for A.S. funding totaling $3,800 in allocations to the Office of the Attorney General for general operations and honoraria. Carlson’s requests were split between $1,000 going to his Rules and Administrative Committee honoraria and $2,800 to go to his office staff and research associates.
The request was ultimately tabled until the Feb. 12 meeting.
CORRECTION [2/12/2025, 1:04 p.m.] A previous version of this article stated that the senate swore in five new off-campus senators, this article has been updated to reflect that the senate swore in five new on-campus senators.
A version of this article appeared on p. 1 of the Feb. 13, 2025 edition of the Daily Nexus.
