The 76th Associated Students Senate passed funding to buy new library whiteboards and finalized the rollover funding for the next academic year at its May 13 meeting.
A High Impact Project to buy 12 new whiteboards for the library received $15,000 in funding from the senate unallocated account. Shengyu Zhang / Daily Nexus
Reports
Associate Vice Chancellor for Student Life Suzanne Perkin announced the results of the Save Student Services fee initiative on the Associated Students (A.S.) spring election ballot. The initiative included reaffirmations, which all passed, and proposed funding increases. While every program received a majority of affirmative votes, most did not pass due to a lack of voter engagement.
“There is a requirement for all fees and reaffirmations that at least 15% of the voting population has to vote ‘yes’ or ‘no’ on the measure. If someone abstains, that doesn’t count toward the vote,” Perkin explained.
The Research Experience & Education Facility (R.E.E.F.), recreational programing, Counseling & Psychological Services and Career Services were the only services to surpass the 15% rule and gain fee increases. The Women, Gender, and Sexual Equity department fell nine votes short of the cutoff, while the Health & Wellness Center fell short by 21 votes. According to Perkin, this is the first time that a measure has ever failed due to a lack of votership.
Next, A.S. Executive Director Sean Lieberman shared ideas on how to increase voter turnout for future campus elections. The discussion centered on increasing the number of students running for office, providing more resources explaining what the Senate and A.S. does, shortening the ballot, adjusting the language of the ballot and implementing a partial ballot system.
Afterward, the Liaison for the Police and Community Affairs Board for the A.S. External Vice President for Local Affairs and fourth-year sociology major Omar Opeyany informed the Senate of a University of California (UC) system-wide update to UCPD policy. The policy covers everything from appropriate attire to permissible police tactics and the circumstances under which force may be used. Opeyany explained that although the policy conforms to minimum constitutional standards, it is the UC’s duty to protect its students. He encouraged the Senate to review the proposed revisions and join the process.
Next, A.S. Pardall Center Chair and fourth-year communication major Hannah Adams-Claros announced that the Pardall Center plans to change its operating hours to limit public access from 12-5 p.m., with students still being able to utilize the space from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. According to Adams-Claros, this change was prompted by safety concerns following an incident of harassment against a student employee from a non-student. The center is looking to implement an access card scanning system to enter during non-public hours.
Public Forum
A.S. Art Director Chelsea Lyon-Hayden requested $14,500 from the Senate to supplement student staff salaries in the A.S. Creative Media Unit (CMU) following recent budget cuts. The CMU works with A.S. entities to provide information and publicity about programs, events and services. Their team includes graphic designers, photographers, videographers, web developers and a television production team. Lyon-Hayden noted that they have been working on a rollout for updated A.S. branding.
Legislation Proposed
Senator and first-year physics major Alec GeoSimonian proposed a bill that would allow the Senate Finance Committee to appoint a chair that is not an active senator but has at least three quarters of experience on the committee. The bill was referred to the finance committee.
“The reason I introduced this bill is because we are entering a new Senate where 21 of the 23 new senators have no prior experience and I want to make sure that the Senate has the ability to appoint a chair with more financial experience,” GeoSimonian said.
Second President Pro-Tempore and fourth-year political science and history double major Melanie Jones then proposed a bill that would maintain and oversee an A.S. Project Tracker as the official centralized system for documenting ongoing and completed projects. Senators would be required to keep up-to-date project entries during each quarter of their term. The bill was referred to the liaison committee
Next, Senator and second-year political science major Erica Sherkin introduced a bill to disband the Food Bank Advisory Committee, citing concerns that its duties are redundant because they are already handled by student staff at the food bank. The bill was referred to the advocacy committee.
Senator and fourth-year sociology major Mira Than introduced a bill that would restructure the Liaison Committee’s legal code, adjusting it to serve as an oversight and coordination body for all Boards, Committees and Units (BCU) engagement conducted by the Senate, rather than a sole liaison. The bill referred to the liaison committee.
Senator and third-year economics and philosophy double major Noah Luken proposed a bill to create the A.S. Professional Services Unit which would support internal compliance with business contracts, aid A.S. in its strategic vision and support the development of enterprise. The unit would be divided into the strategic operations office, the controls and compliance office and the business enterprise office. The bill was referred to the liaison committee.
Legislation Passed
The Senate adopted a bill to codify the appointments tracker as a responsibility of the Committee on Committees. This bill was created because there is currently no formal structure to tracking appointments within A.S. so the responsibility has fallen on Senate leadership.
Next, the Senate adopted a bill to consolidate inactive and replicative BCUs. With this, the Senate has removed the Chief Operations Office, Environmental Justice Alliance, Commission on Marginalized Genders, Alternative Transportation Unit, Jewish Commission, Commission for Students Against Sexual Assault and the Commuinty Volunteer foundation. Each of these entities have been inactive for several years or are replicative of other A.S. entities.
The Senate then approved Senator and fourth-year global studies and history double major Neo Harter’s High Impact Project to buy 12 new whiteboards for the library. The project will receive $15,000 in funding from the Senate Unallocated account.
Next, the senate adopted a bill updating the Judicial Council (JC) parameters of Policy 1, which would transfer authority over policy violations to the JC from the Office of the Student Advocate General.
The Senate then adopted a bill to update the internal funding policies of the association. With this, registered campus organizations, which are not A.S. entities, can only request funding from the Senate Unallocated account as a last resort for campus-wide events.
Rollover Deliberations
The Senate decided the amount of funding that each entity would be able to rollover into their budget for the next academic year. The meeting also went into closed session to balance budgets in a deficit.
A version of this article appeared on p. 4 of the May 21 print edition of the Daily Nexus.
