The 76th Associated Students Senate proposed a resolution that would allow Artificial Intelligence usage within the association with restrictions at its Nov. 17 meeting. The Senate also proposed a resolution urging University of California President James Milliken to reinstate the longstanding tradition of meeting with undergraduate student leaders.
The Senate debriefed last week’s Save Deltopia Town Hall. Shengyu Zhang / Daily Nexus
Associated Students (A.S.) Internal Vice President (IVP) and fourth-year history and global studies double major Enri Lala began his executive report by commending the success of the Save Deltopia Town Hall. Organized by External Vice President for Local Affairs (EVPLA) and third-year political science major E.J. Raad, the event aimed to garner community feedback on the proposed Deltopia noise ordinance.
“It was sort of beautifully symbolic how the line wrapped up from [Isla Vista] Theater itself and into the I.V. Foot Patrol building at the end of that street,” Lala said. “The work remains with us student leaders … to remain engaged, but a huge first step was laid by the hundreds of students who were present there and those who spoke.”
The Senate passed its first High Impact Project (H.I.P.) as a pilot program to provide sustainable laundry detergent sheets in University laundry rooms. This project was initially proposed by fourth-year economics and environmental studies double major Leo Brown in collaboration with the environmental justice startup Generation Conscious.
Senator and second-year history of policy, law and governance major Romi Riss proposed A Bill to Revitalize the Academic Focus of the Internal Vice President’s Office. The bill will replace the role of Internal Compliance Officer with Director of Academic Affairs within the IVP’s office.
During public forum, A.S. Chief Compliance Officer and third-year political science and philosophy double major Baden Rosales said he supports this bill because there is no current role that has the power to support the academic interests of students, such as changing academic policy or creating a new major. He believes that the change to Director of Academic Affairs will fill in those gaps in responsibility.
Then, Senator and fourth-year political science major Natalia Pascher proposed A Resolution to Establish Standing Policy 44: Use of Artificial Intelligence and Large Language Models in ASUCSB. Pascher believes it is important for the Senate to create a set of guidelines for artificial intelligence use within the Association as it becomes “increasingly more involved in our day-to-day lives as students [and] legislative makers.”
“Let it be the position of the Associated Students that it is acceptable to use AI, so long as the individual can clearly justify their usage and ethical responsibilities,” the resolution reads.
While First-President Pro Tempore and second-year political science major Evan Sussman was generally in favor of the resolution, he suggested that the policy should prohibit the use of AI in interpreting A.S. legal code. Sussman said that the use of AI can lead to a “slippery slope” of mistakes in interpreting legal code.
Next, Senator and fourth-year sociology major Mira Than presented the fall quarterly Omnibus Bill to Update Legal Code to address amendments and updates to Boards, Committees and Units (BCU) legal code. The bill was referred to the A.S. Advocacy Committee.
Senator and third-year economics and philosophy double major Noah Luken proposed A Resolution Calling on UC President James Milliken to Reinstate Recurring Meetings with Student Leaders. According to the resolution, for the past 12 years, the UC president has met quarterly with various undergraduate student leaders, including student body presidents. It continues to state that Milliken has not confirmed any meetings with the council of undergraduate student body presidents and has not planned quarterly meetings for the rest of the academic year.
“In a shared governance structure such as the UC, students are a vital stakeholder, impacted by almost every aspect of university culture and environment, precisely why administration must meet regularly with students to discuss and tackle timely and long term concerns and to ensure that policy is accurately addressing student needs,” the resolution reads.
Then, Senator and second-year chemistry major Nadine Malhis presented A Bill to Establish Joint Oversight of the United States Student Association (USSA) Fund. The USSA fund was created to finance A.S. participation in statewide and national student advocacy initiatives. According to the bill, the Office of the External Vice President for Statewide Affairs (EVPSA) and the A.S. Finance and Business Committee have historically collaborated in managing the fund. However, the current fund’s language required organizations to come to the EVPSA’s office first for requests.
The legislation aims to recognize the EVPSA’s office and the finance committee as having equal authority. The Senate passed the adoption of the bill.
Senators Eemaan Wahidullah, a third-year biology and political science double major and Neo Harter, a fourth-year history and global studies double major proposed A Resolution to Establish the Language Revitalization Grant Program. This resolution aims to financially support students who want to study languages not currently taught at UCSB, and was discharged to the senate floor after weeks in the A.S. Advocacy Committee. Many senators raised concerns over the resolution’s finances. The resolution did not pass with the recommendation that it be rewritten to fix structural and financial errors.
The Senate then allocated $3000 each to the advocacy, liaison and outreach committees to be spent on “impactful student-facing projects in line with its mission statement.”
Lastly, the Senate allocated $7,000 to Speech Forensics at UCSB out of the A.S. Finance and Business Committee’s fall 2025 budget with the stipulation that the club is officially Shoreline-approved and has an A.S. account number.
A version of this article appeared on p. 3 of the Nov. 20 print edition of the Daily Nexus.
