AS Senate Recap – 10/16/2024

This recap first appeared in the October 21st edition of the KCSB News Weekly Newsletter.

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The AS Senate is a group of elected student representatives at UC Santa Barbara that 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 breaks down what happened at their most recent meeting on October 16, 2024.

• Next year’s Senate may have fewer seats than usual. When discussing A Bill to Expand the Office of Senate Leadership, Senator and First President Pro Tempore Dan Siddiqui said that other Senators are working on constitutional amendments to reduce the number of Senators to 11 to 12 Senators max (there are currently 23 Senators). According to Senator Siddiqui, many Senators typically stop showing up by Winter and Spring Quarters. Senators also have a high workload, so by decreasing the number of Senators, there could be more staff members for the remaining Senate.
  • Senator Siddiqui clarified this would only apply for next year’s election and that nobody would be removed now. 
  • Senator Lily Habas, who represents the College of Creative Studies (CCS), said that the number of Senators for CCS and the College of Engineering should be kept at one each.
• The Senate approved $12,000 for a new Basic Needs Vending Machine. Student Advocate General Alvin Wang said the vending machine would include items like contraceptives, condoms, Black hair care products, basic medications like ibuprofen, and band-aids. SAG Wang was previously the AS Senator for the College of Engineering and Chair of the Basic Needs Committee last year. The money for the new Vending Machine comes from the 2023-2024 High Impact Project fund. 
• Implementation of the Senate’s Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) bill has been delayed. A Bill to Ensure Ethical Spending Practices Within ASUCSB was initially set to go into effect on July 1st, the start of the new fiscal year. However, in an email sent on September 12th, AS President Nayali Broadway said that implementation had been delayed to ensure that the university would “be in compliance with all Federal, State, Regent, UCOP [UC Office of the President], PACAOS [Policies Applying to Campus Activities, Organizations, and Students], and all other applicable regental policies.”
  • Senator Aryaman Singh, Chair of the External Finance Committee, said in an email later that day on Sept. 12 that the pause was “largely due to administrative delays and the complexities of coordinating with campus leadership…At this point in time, the onus is on the campus administration to finalize the necessary steps.”
  • During last week’s Senate meeting, Senator Singh questioned President Broadway over transparency concerns relating to her email. Specifically, he said that the email removed “any direct reference to delays caused by campus administration.”
    
    • President Broadway acknowledged that others, including Senators Singh and Siddiqui as well as AS Executive Director Marisela Marquez, made edits to her email. She also said that she would not be allowing outside edits on her statements going forward.
• The Senate approved appointments for the following entities: Lobby Corps, Pardall Center Governance Board, and Office of the External Vice President for Local Affairs.
• The Senate passed the following pieces of legislation:
  • A Resolution Updating the Temporary Committee Black Empowerment Task Force
  • A Resolution to Establish a Temporary Jewish-Muslim Alliance Senate Ad-Hoc Committee 
  • A Bill to Introduce the Annual Senate Strategic Vision Plan
  • A Resolution Enforcing Article IV, Section 8 of the Associated Students Legal Code
    • Click here for our recap of this resolution.

• The Senate tabled the following pieces of legislation:
  • A Bill to Expand the Office of Senate Leadership 
  • A Bill to Add Specific Exceptions to AS Financial Policies and Procedures
  • A Bill to Restore and Repair ASUCSB Online Presence (tabled indefinitely to allow for rewriting in collaboration with the Creative Media Unit)
  • A Bill to Establish Clear Guidelines for AS Requisition Submissions
  • A Bill to Reform and Repair Senate and BCU Relations
  • *Note: Any bill that changes bylaws is required to be tabled for one week.

KCSB’s Brandon Yi contributed to this reporting.

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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 held each week at the Flying A Room of the University Center (Main Floor) throughout the quarter, aside from Week 10. You can also watch live and past meetings on Facebook here.