AS Senate Recap – 4/23/25
The AS Senate is a group of elected student representatives which serves as the policy-making body of Associated Students. Every Wednesday at 6:30 PM, the AS Senate convenes to pass bills and resolutions, hear reports from Boards, Committees, and Units (BCUs), and hold public forum.
KCSB’s Joyce Chi and Rosie Bultman summarize their most recent meeting on April 23, 2025.
The Spring General Election is still up in the air, as of this writing. This affects candidates running for office as well as dozens of campus entities seeking reaffirmation and/or fee increases. The AS Constitution says that the election, which requires 20% voter turnout, must be concluded by the end of this week. Interim Executive Director Sean Lieberman said during last week’s Senate meeting that the Week 5 deadline has been moved around before.
Judicial Council held a hearing on Friday about allegations of denial of membership rights brought by the Office of the Attorney General. It’s these allegations, which include claims of electoral misconduct, that prompted Judicial Council to issue an injunction last week to halt the election.
Specific discussions during the hearing included the Senate’s suspension of Standing Policy 10 to allow candidates to serve as proxies for Senators during the meeting, and the Senate’s initial refusal to extend the candidate declaration deadline (though at a later meeting, they granted Elections Board the discretion to accept late candidates).
The Judicial Council’s injunction follows AS President Nayali Broadway’s veto of the Spring General Election ballot over the membership rights allegation. She explained her veto at last week’s Senate meeting. She said her goal was to “preserve democratic processes…so that Judicial Council can make an impartial decision.”
A closed hearing relating to these allegations is scheduled for later today. We’re expecting Judicial Council to issue a ruling soon. Listen here for a story from Thursday about the paused elections.
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The Senate meeting on Wednesday was contentious. Before the official agenda began, one Senator made a speech airing concerns regarding interpersonal exclusion and bullying within the Senate. The speech was briefly interrupted by a warning from advisor and AS Executive Director Marisela Marquez telling the Senator that publicly sharing sensitive information about other senators has led to doxxing in the past. Despite warnings, the speech continued.
The next hour consisted of a discussion regarding the allegations. Some members shared how they’ve been affected by the Senate climate, others offered apologies, and others expressed concerns over having the conversation in a public, recorded meeting—especially in light of the Trump administration targeting college campuses.
(KCSB News has elected to leave the undergraduate officials involved in this discussion anonymous to respect their privacy and safety, as the allegations shared on the Senate floor have not been publicly confirmed by the Judicial Council or any other body.)
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The Senate passed “A Bill to Peg AS Judicial Council’s Honoraria to Senate Standing Committees.” The bill by Senators MingJun Zha and Dan Siddiqui raises Judicial Council’s payment to match that of the Senate committees. Amid the ongoing membership rights hearings, Councilmember Josie Penix clarified that JC did not ask for the bill, and Zha confirmed that the idea for the legislation came in Winter Quarter.
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The Senate entered a one hour-long closed session to discuss the preliminary budget and to confer “with labor negotiators.”
Access this week’s AS Senate agenda (which includes their bills and resolutions) using your student email here. You can see last week’s agenda here. Meetings are typically held each week at the Flying A Room of the University Center (Main Floor) throughout the quarter, aside from Week 10. Please note that this week’s meeting on April 30 will be held on Zoom. You can also watch live and past meetings on Facebook here.
Find all our previous Senate Recaps here.