The 76th Associated Students Senate heard from UC Police Department Interim Chief of Police Matthew Bly and several administrators in response to increasing student concern over the new bike enforcement program on Oct. 8. Administration confirms plans to construct a replacement bike path.

UCPD officers have been seen issuing warnings at several different locations on campus. Shengyu Zhang / Daily Nexus

At the start of the academic year, the UC Police Department (UCPD) began stationing officers between the Interactive Learning Pavilion (ILP) and the Davidson Library to deter students from biking where no bike path exists, as a previous bike path was covered in the construction of the ILP. Officers have warned students to get off their bikes and have issued four citations as of Oct. 8 with $40 fines.

UCPD officers have also been seen issuing warnings at several different locations on campus. 

While enforcement began with the start of the academic term, an email notifying students of this program was not sent out until a week later. With concerns from senators and students across social platforms over a lack of communication between UCPD and the student body, Associated Students (A.S.) Internal Vice President and fourth-year history and global studies double major Enri Lala invited UCPD to send a representative to the senate meeting. 

Bly clarified that the bike enforcement is part of a larger initiative to educate students on bike safety protocols.

“So that’s what we’re trying to do, is create a safer environment, and we’re trying to do our best through education efforts versus enforcement,” Bly said. 

Bly also said that if a student is issued a citation, they can opt out of the fine by completing an online bike safety course that was created in collaboration with the A.S. Bike Committee, or appear in court to contest the citation. 

Off-Campus Senator and third-year psychological & brain sciences and sociology double major Victoria Ly raised concerns over a lack of communication and questioned why the bike enforcement announcement was sent a week after the school year started. In response, Bly acknowledged that the UCPD’s communication efforts have been “inadequate” and is committed to working with student groups, including A.S., to disseminate bike safety information more effectively. 

UCSB Director of Capital and Physical Planning Josh Rohmer announced that the University is committed to providing students with a new bike path, and an ILP bike path plan will be completed in about a month. The timeline of construction has not yet been announced, as it is contingent on cost estimates and sources of funding, which are not yet solidified. 

During public forum, A.S. Bike Committee Co-Chair and fourth-year geography and sociology double major Anthony Woo said that the committee has been working on bike path plans since the ILP’s construction and has been working with administration to put the construction in motion. He says that securing funding will be the next major hurdle and hopes that the Senate is willing to help with the costs. 

A.S. bike committee co-chair Anthony Woo presenting the committee’s pike path plans. Shengyu Zhang / Daily Nexus

Next, former Senator for the 75th Senate and fourth-year computer science major Aryaman Singh presented his summer project of building a questions and answers website for A.S. The website is still in development, but he hopes that it will make A.S. and its legal code more accessible to everyone in the association. 

First-year Cristal Gonzalez then raised their concerns about the recent decrease in library late-night study hours, expressing a fear of safety for students. They said that the library acts as a “safe zone” for students who need a place to study late at night and is an “important resource.” Off-Campus Senator and fourth-year political science major Natalia Pascher reaffirmed the Senate’s commitment to the library’s 24/7 hours of operation being “brought back” and said that there are ongoing discussions with administration to address this concern. 

First President Pro Tempore and second-year political science major Evan Sussman presented his summer-long project, A Bill to Clean Up Legal Code. Sussman took on this project to cut around 80 pages of A.S. legal code and free up to $40,000 because he said that legal code was full of contradictions that made it inaccessible and inaccurate. The bill corrects errors in legal code and removes outdated, inactive roles and Boards, Committees and Units.

Sussman said that A.S. is not “respected, trusted or recognized by the student body” because they have overextended their responsibilities, leading to confusing and inaccessible bureaucratic practices that “no one follows because they are just too confusing to even read.” 

“We spread ourselves too thin and [have] gotten entangled in solving interpersonal and international conflicts, created layers of bureaucracy without reason and written rules,” Sussman said. 

Sussman said that he took on this initiative in order to promote increased accountability within the Senate. After several senators praised Sussman for his work on this bill, it was referred to the liaison committee for the next three weeks before the Senate could vote on it. 

“It is a reminder that as legislators of an organization with a nearly $16 million budget, we have a lot of power,” Sussman said. “And if that power isn’t regularly checked, refined or grounded in purpose, we lose sight of why we were elected in the first place.”

Following a recent incident of an alleged Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer attempting to identify a student at Santa Catalina Residence Hall, Collegiate Senator and fourth-year political science major Caleb Claro presented A Resolution to Affirm Membership Rights in the Association.

The resolution would “reify federal, state, and UC Regents precedents in protecting every students’ right to education, which includes Undocumented Students and international students within the Associations constituencies, who have been under considerable scrutiny under the current federal administration.”

The Senate then moved into a closed session to discuss the finance committee’s Oct. 6 meeting minutes. 

After the closed session discussion, the Senate opened the Oct. 6 finance committee meeting minutes to strike out the motion to “partially fund UCSB library for $15,000 from Program Board [Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)], upon Program Board’s completion and approval of the MOU via hand vote.” They then struck the voting record of the previously mentioned motion and closed the meeting minutes. Since it was a closed session, the Nexus was not able to confirm why the motion and voting record was stricken from the meeting minutes. 

A version of this article appeared on p. 5 of the Oct. 16, 2025 print edition of the Daily Nexus.