The Associated Students 75th Senate heard grievances from Kamaya Jackson regarding the senate’s vote to deny her from a second co-chair position. They also passed a bill aimed at obtaining tools for economics students in memory of two students who died in a car accident.
The senate pass a bill to obtain Bloomberg, a tool for economic students. Nexus file photo
Black Women’s Health Collaborative (BWHC) co-chair and third-year Black studies major Kamaya Jackson spoke during public comment to share grievances against the senate for rejecting her appointment as co-chair of the Student Commission on Racial Equity (S.C.O.R.E.) at a March 5 meeting. In her statement, Jackson accused the senate of having blocked her “without due process.” She then demanded an apology and an “immediate reinstatement” to her appointment.
“It is time for A.S. to decide whether it stands for student representation or for maintaining unchecked power,” Jackson said.
She also circulated fliers during the meeting which listed alleged injustices against her. These included claims that the Senate delayed the vote as a “weapon” and held the vote in secret. The flier specifically alleged that fourth-year art major and Associated Students (A.S.) Internal Vice President Açúcar Pinto blocked her appointment in February. Jackson said that her appointment was initially denied by the senate in February and the denial was subsequently vetoed by third-year political science and sociology double major and Associated Students President Nayali Broadway. She then alleged that Broadway’s veto was overturned by an email vote by the senate.
After Jackson’s statement, another speaker, second-year sociology major and BWHC board member Queen Allah came in front of the senate in solidarity with Jackson.
“The fact that…this decision was made and not open to public record is a little bit unethical,” Allah said.
Pinto stated that the issue was litigated during closed session at the meeting to avoid publicly slandering Jackson over a matter of private conflict within the BWHC leadership. They also said that senators expressed concerns about someone holding two different chair positions of Boards, Committees and Units (BCUs).
“Some people rose up the concern of just like, if someone is already running one BCU, should they be also chairing another? So, is holding multiple chairships a healthy thing to do while also being a full-time student and also having other jobs and responsibilities? Another concern that was brought up was the interpersonal issues that have not been resolved and being possibly carried into another organization,” Pinto said.
The Senate passed a bill committing to bring Bloomberg Terminals — professional business and economics data tools — to UCSB.
The bill was introduced by third-year history major Enri Lala along with fourth-year economics and communication double major Taylor Iden and is known as the “Michael Ma Service to Economics Students Act.” It is named after Michael Ma, one of two UCSB students who died in a car accident in Camarillo on March 17.
Lala, a personal friend of Ma and the other other student who passed away in the accident, said that Ma — a former economics student — had expressed disappointment that UCSB students did not have access to the terminals as many universities do.
“In their honor, as well as for every student who will hopefully make use of this if and when we get this project accomplished, I really hope we vote for this today,” Lala said.
Bloomberg terminals operate as subscription services and cost between around $28,000 and $32,000 per year, depending on how many units are purchased. The product is an industry-grade platform that provides market data and commodity prices, among other things aimed at preparing students for careers in business and finance.
Lala acknowledged that the project to acquire these tools would take time to complete and called upon next year’s senate to carry it forward.
“We want this to be an ongoing effort. I am very clear-eyed that this is not gonna be resolved by the end of our terms,” Lala said.
Also at the meeting, senator and third-year political science major MingJun Zha proposed a bill to peg A.S. Judicial Council’s (JC) Honoraria, or A.S. pay, to that of Senate standing committees. This bill would increase the scale of payments for the A.S. JC to the equivalent of a BCU. Zha said that while he is still finalizing the final numbers, the increase would be around $1,500.
Zha, a former JC member himself, believes the council works many hours on short notice and, therefore, should be paid an equal level to the Senate Standing Committee. Zha said that at its current state, they are only making about $5 per hour after their work and are the least paid branch compared to the executive and legislative branches.
“When there was a case brought up about the constitution movement for special election, JC has less than 16 hours from receiving the complaint to schedule a hearing. The meeting goes on for literally hours and hours,” Zha said. “I think it’s proper to peg the honoraria to the Senate Standing Committee’s equivalent.”
Iden expressed that he’s “not a fan of this legislation,” saying he believes it’s unfair to raise one entity’s honoraria over another’s, and said that it should be equal. Iden said from his experience discussing with the Associate Director of Finance Michael Cea, raising the honoraria “really does eat up our budget every year.”
Lala showed support for Zha’s bill, saying that as a representative of the judicial branch it makes sense for JC to receive pay “somewhat in line” with those in the other two branches. Singh also supported the bill, as they are one of the four main branches.
Iden motioned to table the bill and discuss it at the next meeting, which was seconded by Amin.
