The 76th Associated Students Senate allocated $25,000 to fund projects that aim to address student food insecurity at its Nov. 5 meeting.
Coastal Conversations requested funding to host former 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang. Shengyu Zhang / Daily Nexus
Associated Students (A.S.) President and fourth-year global studies, communication and Spanish triple major Le Anh Metzger presented two projects to address student food insecurity with concerns over Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (S.N.A.P.) benefits being delayed in November due to the federal government shutdown. On Nov. 7, the Santa Barbara County Department of Social Services announced that CalFresh benefits for November would be fully distributed.
Metzger first requested that the Senate allocate up to $15,000 to the Food Security and Basic Needs Advising Center for 150 grocery vouchers. She also requested up to $10,000 to be allocated to Super Cucas to provide students receiving CalFresh benefits with 900 burritos in November. The Senate approved both funding requests.
Additionally, Senator and fourth-year history and global studies double major Neo Harter proposed the Souper Kitchen High Impact Project (H.I.P.) that will collaborate with the Santa Barbara Hillel and David Medina Events catering to provide students with soup every weekend.
Several senators raised the concern that the project’s request of $50,616 would use 70% of the Senate’s H.I.P. fund for the entire year. Additionally, Senator and second-year chemistry major Nadine Malhis said she is politically opposed to the proposal because of its collaboration with Santa Barbara Hillel, which she says financially and politically supports Israel.
In a statement to the Daily Nexus, Santa Barbara Hillel Executive Director Josh Levine said that “Santa Barbara Hillel is a nonprofit serving the [UC Santa Barbara] campus community and does not send money to the state of Israel. We serve students of all backgrounds.”
The Hillel website states that it has student interns involved in several national organizations, including the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis, Stand With Us and the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobby group.
Public forum began with fourth-year political science majors Lily Mejia and Kai Purcell. They presented their project to revamp the Eternal Flame monument, which sits between the library and Ellison Hall. The monument was gifted to the University by UCSB’s class of 1968 to commemorate the Civil Rights Movement and the establishment of the Black Studies department in 1969.
As UCSB has goals to reduce its carbon emissions by 90% by 2045, Purcell does not believe the Eternal Flame, which constantly emits fossil fuel emissions, reflects that commitment to sustainability. They want to replace the flame with light-emitting diode (L.E.D.) lights and improve the monument with general “beautification” such as adding benches around the monument.
“We believe that this monument should be both reinvested and reimagined to honor the original intent as well as update it to keep it in line with our campus community goals,” Purcell said.
Mejia and Purcell have garnered support from several academic departments and student organizations, including the Black Studies department and the environmental studies department. They have secured $25,000 from The Green Initiative Fund and requested an additional $10,000 from the Senate for estimated construction costs.
Next, Coastal Conversations founders, fourth-year political science and philosophy double major Josie Penix and third-year mechanical engineering and physics double major Eddie Barajas, requested funding to host former 2020 presidential candidate Andrew Yang. They requested $50,000 from the Senate to cover speaker costs.
The Senate failed to pass the funding request, as they typically do not pass large funding requests from a Registered Campus Organization on the same night as the request.
Then, Barajas announced two additional projects he is working on. The first is a meal plan reform with the goal of campus retail dining establishments accepting meal swipes as payment, and the second is getting UCSB banners placed on all light poles on campus as “natural marketing for the school.”
Chair of the A.S. Elections Board and fourth-year political science major Caleb Hanson reminded the Senate that the Representative Party Act was passed in the last Spring election, which has brought back political parties within A.S. Hanson says the act was introduced to invigorate students after years of low voter turnout. While the current Senate can form parties, Hanson clarified that “parties are mostly in our constitution as a mechanism of campaigning and running.”
Next, the Senate passed A Resolution to Affirm Membership Rights in the Association that will reify a commitment to protect the right to education for undocumented and international students within the association, who have been “under considerable scrutiny under the current federal administration,” as the resolution states.
The Senate then passed A Resolution to Establish the Temporary “Department of Legacy Gauchos Discovery & Feasibility” Committee, which aims to build stronger alum engagement within the Association.
The meeting ended with a closed session to discuss the Nov. 3 A.S. Finance and Business Committee meeting minutes. The Senate then opened those meeting minutes and struck the motion to fully fund the $50,000 UCSB Library Late Night Study hours from the Program Board’s Memorandum of Understanding, with the stipulation that they advertise this as funded from A.S. The Nexus was unable to confirm the details of the conversation and why this motion was struck.
A version of this article appeared on p. 3 of the Nov. 13 print edition of the Daily Nexus.
