AS Senate Recap – 4/16/25

text by News Director

21 April, 2025

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

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 summarizes their most recent meeting on April 16, 2025. Rosie Bultman contributed to this report.

 

Senators abstain from a vote to allow Elections Board to accept choice candidates past the deadline.

 

AS President Nayali Broadway has vetoed the Spring General Election ballot. In an email sent to the Association on Friday, April 18, Broadway said she was overturning the Senate’s approval of the ballot because of alleged threats to undergraduate students’ “membership rights.” Broadway cited “sweeping allegations” during Senate meetings and “certified evidence shown to me by my advisors.” 

UPDATE: The AS Judicial Council issued an injunction today, after this newsletter was first released, halting the Spring General Election from proceeding, as they hear a related, class action-style suit brought on Friday by ASUCSB’s Office of the Attorney General (OAG). Led by AG Eric Carlson, the case focuses on three allegations:

  • “Abuse of power and retaliation against student leaders,” due to the indefinite tabling of Kamaya Jackson’s appointment as co-chair of the Student Commission on Racial Equity; 
  • “Discrimination and anti-recruitment policies,” relating to alleged “coordination to marginalize student leaders” and attempts to “obstruct cultural programming” (See: the attempt to block funding for the Mega Shabbat event);
  • And “Electoral manipulation and violation of democratic processes,” including allegations raised during Senate meetings “that are characteristic of disenfranchisement.” (More below.)

Those “sweeping allegations” Broadway cited are likely in reference to Senator Mingjun Zha’s claims made at the most recent meeting that Senator Dan Siddiqui sent him text messages regarding Zha’s motion at the April 9 meeting to allow Elections Board to accept choice candidates past the deadline. (Remember, there was a whole debate over if the Senate, and candidates running for office, should be voting on election-related issues.)

Zha eventually voted against his own motion, and he explained at this most recent meeting that he felt threatened by texts Siddiqui sent him alluding to “repercussions.” Zha interpreted that as a threat against the Global Gaucho Commission, which he’s long been involved in, but reiterated that he could only speak on his own feelings, not Siddiqui’s intentions.

In response, Siddiqui told us that he was referring to repercussions among personal relationships between Senators; there was already tension in the room, he said, following a heated discussion of proposed BCU recruitment policy. Listen here for more. 

This is an ongoing story.

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The Senate passed A Resolution for a Free and Fair Election, requiring Senators running as candidates in the upcoming election to publicly state their candidacy for the record before election-related discussions and to abstain from voting on election-related issues. 

They also passed a motion to allow Elections Board to accept choice candidates past the deadline. (Senator Zha made that motion, and stated that Senator Taylor Iden, author of the above resolution, was not involved in bringing forward the motion again.)  This is the same one as last week, and it generated similar back-and-forth:

  • Senator Paolo Brinderson: “Everyone has to follow the deadline.”
  • Senator Leah Khorsandi: “All we’re doing is giving it to a body that is supposed to not be driven by personal gain.”

In keeping with that resolution, Senators running for office abstained from the vote on the motion.

The Elections Board said, after the meeting, that they would not be accepting more choice candidates.

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Students advocated for the university to acknowledge the Armenian Genocide, through recognition of April 24 as Armenian Genocide Rememberance Day and the month of April as Armenian Heritage Month. Lilian Mkrtoumian, vice president of the Armenian Student Association, said that “UCSB has a choice: to turn a blind eye to injustice, or to become a university that champions inclusivity and truth.” 

In response to concerns that the move could be controversial among Turkish students, Mkrtoumian said their “number one priority” is “to honor us and our voices, without having to interfere with any other group.” (Last year, Turkish students criticized the Senate for getting involved in a request to honor the Armenian Genocide despite having little knowledge of the history.)

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The Senate heard a proposal to introduce a business major to UCSB. The plan introduced by Neo Harter of the Senate Outreach Committee would see the university, at least, begin to offer classes similar to UC Berkeley’s business school. Harter said that UCSB’s economics department would be a better foundation than its Technology Management Program. Also, the Senate passed a resolution drafted by Harter, along with Noah Luken of the OAG and AG Carlson, to create a referendum to gauge student interest in the matter.

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 23 will be held on Zoom. You can also watch live and past meetings on Facebook here. 

Find all our previous Senate Recaps here.

Posted in News, AS Senate