1. Call to Order
  1. President: Armando Figueroa
  2. Vice President: Maxwell Kappes
  3. Senate President Pro Tempore: Robyn Huey
  4. Senator: Artem Senchev
  5. Senator: Nicholas Sanchez
  6. Senator: Andrea Velazquez
  7. Senator: Azka Fayyaz
  8. Senator: Amelia Helland
  9. Senator: Eugenia Chung
  10. Senator: Anabiah Syed
  11. Senator: Roman Rivilis
  12. Senator: Reem Fatayerji
  13. Senator: Casey Nguyen
  14. Senator: Alex Lee
  15. ECAC Chair Nilofer Chollampat
  16. EPPC Chair Marissa Ayala
  17. IAC Chair Nathan Bentham
  18. EAC Chair Abire Sabbagh
  19. AAC Chair Allan Bach
  20. GASC Chair Ivon Garcia
  21. B&F Joanna Jaroszewska
  22. Outreach Assembly Lauren Ashe
  23. Controller: Chandler Hill
  1. President: Mariah Watson
  2. Vice President: Robyn Huey
  3. Senate President Pro Tempore:
  4. Senator: Miguel Guerrero
  5. Senator: Gabriel Johnson
  6. Senator: Andrea Velazquez
  7. Senator: Danielle Mae Q. Santiago
  8. Senator: Anas Tresh
  9. Senator: Sarah Priano
  10. Senator: Anabiah Syed
  11. Senator: Roman Rivilis
  12. Senator: Reem Fatayerji
  13. Senator: Casey Nguyen
  14. Senator: Alex Lee
  15. ECAC Chair Nilofer Chollampat
  16. EPPC Chair Marissa Ayala
  17. IAC Chair Nathan Bentham
  18. EAC Chair Abire Sabbagh
  19. AAC Chair Allan Bach
  20. GASC Chair Ivon Garcia
  21. B&F Joanna Jaroszewska
  22. Outreach Assembly Lauren Ashe
  23. Controller: Chandler Hill
  1. Quorum Roll Call
  2. Appointments and Confirmations
  1. New ASUCD Senators – 8:52
  2. Anas Tresh
  3. Sarah Priano
  4. Gabriel Johnson
  5. Miguel Guerrero
  6. Danielle Mae Santiago
  7. Sevan Nahabedian
  8. Pro-Tempore
  9. Alex Lee
  10. Court
  11. Fatayerji – What experience do both of you have in making judgments on opinions versus rules?
  12. Aixin Huo (Tinsley) – Not too much experience, but I’m taking communications, and mom is a judge.
  13. Sneha Patrachari – Core values at CALPIRG.
  14. Rivilis – Spirit or letter of the law?
  15. Aixin Huo (Tinsley) – Spirit of the law.
  16. Sneha Patrachari – Letter of the law gets constricting. Spirit of the law is based on interpretations.
  17. Johnson – Can you describe a time when you had to put your opinions aside to make a decision you thought was correct?
  18. Aixin Huo (Tinsley) –
  19. Sneha Patrachari – In group situations, sometimes it’s not the ideal match, but you have to put your opinions aside to get the projects done.
  20. Lee – What do you know about bylaws and constitution?
  21. Aixin Huo (Tinsley) –
  22. Sneha Patrachari – Not much, but willing to learn.
  23. Santiago – Why do you feel inspired to go for this position?
  24. Aixin Huo (Tinsley) – Want to get some experience. I had no idea what ASUCD was before.
  25. Sneha Patrachari – This position gives more authority and power to influence decisions on campus.
  26. Lee – I’m objecting to confirming because I’m not comfortable with having 2 court justices who aren’t familiar with bylaws at all.
  27. Nguyen – Did you know anything about the constitution before you confirmed? (at other court justices)
  28. Alex – Some were court clerks, some had no experience. Court justice training takes place in the first week after the confirmation.
  29. Hayley – I feel like this training is enough, especially with experience. We always have access to constitution and bylaws, thoroughly support any justices going back over the bylaws. I do think there’s a lot of reviewing and learning done on the job. If they exhibit a willingness to learn, that’s what’s most important.
  30. Nguyen – Would just like to make a statement on behalf of the two elects. They don’t have ASUCD experience, but a lot of senators didn’t either. From our interviews, they showed a lot of ambition and willingness to learn.
  31. Santiago – What else are you involved in that could take away from you trying to gain experience?
  32. Aixin Huo (Tinsley) – I don’t have any other clubs or activities.
  33. Sneha Patrachari – Not right now. I was in different clubs, but this position was to develop stronger leadership and gain interpersonal skills. This is my priority for extracurricular activities. Also I don’t think other extracurriculars would take away, only build upon.
  34. Fatayerji – Very hard issues come to court at times. When have you experienced a challenging time where you had to abide by rules rather than your personal judgment?
  35. Aixin Huo (Tinsley) – Don’t have formal experience, but I promise I will try.
  36. Sneha Patrachari – There was a time in high school, a court simulation.
  37. Sabbagh – I think the argument of them not having enough experience is valid, but in the place that ASUCD is right now, not enough people even want to be in ASUCD right now. If we keep on turning people away who don’t know enough about ASUCD, then we won’t have anyone in ASUCD. We should have faith in the interview process
  38. Jaroszewska – They have an institutionalized training system too.
  39. Nguyen – I served on the hiring committee, I wouldn’t vouch for them if they weren’t qualified.
  40. Nahabedian – I’m sitting at this table, and I’m a freshman, and I have little experience. Conventional experience is less important than willingness to learn. More experienced judges will help them. Can I ask what the training process is like?
  41. Alex – We maintain a document of formal justice training. Happens within 10 school days of confirmation. Everything in the document, plus a writing experience and trial experience.
  42. Nahabedian – We can see past the lack of experience, but if I can get a good story about a time that you’ve had to make a difficult decision, that’s where I’m standing.
  43. Aixin Huo (Tinsley) – Like now, I’ve come here to attend this meeting, and everyone is talking about this. It is difficult as my first experience, but I choose to stay here.
  44. Sneha Patrachari – Publicity chair for CALPIRG. A lot of CALPIRG is visibility. We had to make a major decision on what campaigns would create better visibility. You had to fight for campaigns that you thought were important.
  45. Chollampat – Just wanted to address confirming one student over another. I just wanted to mention that English is not her first language, just because she’s not comfortable answering a question, doesn’t mean one candidate is better than the other. If both of them are here, then they’re willing to learn. You have 2 people standing here who are eager. Just because one person can eloquently say what they want to say, doesn’t mean the other isn’t just as eager to learn.
  46. Rivilis – There’s the idea that we confirm court and commission on the same standards. These are people who serve their entire term in Davis. Historically, on the court, we typically appoint people who either had a lot of experience making decisions or experience in understanding bylaws. We’re confirming 2 candidates that don’t have experience or knowledge of bylaws. Willing to learn for commissions is different from willing to learn in court.
  47. Confirmed (7-4-1)
  1. Unit Director Reports
  1. The Aggie
  2. Munna – RFP we were working on. Got no bids on it, so we’re going to do RFI with business contracts. We finished our website, so we’re in better position to sell online ads and display videos. We started selling classifieds. We just launched our creative submission magazine. We’re doing a video desk, started doing hirings. We’ll have a video editor. We are planning on partnering with UWP, they are thinking about delegating a faculty member to be our official mentor. They’re also thinking about establishing a freshman seminar, mandatory for incoming Aggie reporters. Also looking into seeing if other UC newspapers partner with campus writing programs.
  3. Lee – Equipment for video desk?
  4. Munna – Staff members have personal equipment.
  5. Bach – How short are you on writers?
  6. Munna – We’re not too short on writers. We already have an agreement with UWP for students with an adequate news story.
  7. Nguyen – Reaching out to clubs so they can buy advertising?
  8. Munna – Haven’t done it yet, willing to look into it.
  9. Hill – Do you want to talk about financials and history of printing situation?
  10. Munna – As it stands, we amount to $3000 in expenses, not including distribution van.
  11. Hill – Do you want to tell the table about the debt situation you’re in?
  12. Munna – Slowly creating debt over 10 years now. Aggie Recharge fees, electricity, WiFi, 55-60k in debt.
  13. Hill – How do you plan on recouping some income?
  14. Munna – We put up our business manager apps 5 times, got 2 applicants. We have 1 ad manager, 2 sales reps, working on training them.
  15. Kapur – Is that possibly a reason why another org doesn’t want to take you on?
  16. Munna – Our debt isn’t really out there in public domain, but it’s a reason why we’re not reaching out to alumni. As far as other news orgs go, we are a valuable partner to have.
  17. Kapur – Any talk of a fee initiative?
  18. Munna – Talked with Chandler, it’s our Plan B. Plan A is boosting online ad revenue.
  19. Kapur – Would that even come close to how much a fee initiative would create?
  20. Chandler – Yes, it could, but a fee initiative would do it instantaneously.
  21. Kapur – I’m leaning towards the fee initiative.
  22. Rivilis – What else can you learn from UCLA and UC Berkeley newspapers?
  23. Munna – I don’t think we found another system that they’re implementing that we could use, but they’ve been offering their assistance to get us back on our feet.
  24. Rivilis – How willing are you for fee initiative?
  25. Munna – I’m willing, would have to talk to editors.
  26. Bach – You say Daily Bruin makes 40k a year?
  27. Munna – Yes, just from classifieds.
  28. Garcia – Let’s say a student had a question about how they were represented in an article. Who would they talk to? I was interviewed, pronouns were wrong.
  29. Munna – Email me, managing editor. I apologize for your situation, will pass that along to writers.
  30. Garcia – Would you be willing to get together with me and a few others so that writers can be required to ask for pronouns before interviews?
  31. Kapur – On the topic of UCLA and Berkeley, they are in a lot different media markets than Davis, be aware of that. I was in a meeting about comparing with UCs, we can compare with any school around the country, expand minds beyond UC. Another question: archives. Students don’t know about them, would you make them more accessible?
  32. Munna – I think we should make that available. Yeah.
  33. Tresh – You said debt started accruing 10 years ago? How did that happen?
  34. Munna – It was just us not being able to get enough ad revenue to meet aggie recharge fees.
  35. Hill – They used to print real newspapers, operating budgets were much higher. About a year ago, they stopped going into print. They accrued a lot more because they were operating on a larger scale.
  36. Tresh – Approx. what’s your annual revenue?
  37. Munna – Right now, we’re not making any revenue. Last year, when we went out of print, we didn’t want to dig into a deeper hole.
  38. Tresh – Talk to B&F, look into fundraising? You should try to look into outside revenues.
  39. Munna – Completely agree, searching for more.
  40. Priano – I was wondering if you could rent older archives to museums as a source of revenue?
  41. Fatayerji – Would you consider an art exhibit for Picnic Day?
  42. Munna – Showing off our archives? Never considered it, but maybe.
  43. Aggie ReUse – 9:09
  44. Chyunyen – During this quarter, Aggie ReUse has been closed because we recently moved from the MU to the Silo. There were multiple logistic issues, so we were more focused on the back-room issues. Aggie ReUse closed on Dec. 5th. We spent a lot of time planning out the storefront. Fire safety inspection was pushed back over and over again. We passed the inspection last Friday, so we’re officially ready to open. Aggie ReUse has 2 members on the admin staff level. Unit Director hirings are happening right now. Future plans: open on the very first day of Spring Quarter. We’ve been working our way on social platforms, garnering more attention than other quarters. We are sending out volunteer scheduling soon.
  45. Bach – You plan to open first day of spring quarter, so moving process is fine?
  46. Chyunyen – Yes.
  47. Jaroszewska – How much help do you need in terms of advertising the opening for the spring? Do you need help publicizing the unit director posiition?
  48. Chyunyen – We have been posting on new director hirings. We plan to post again sometime next week. We sent out emails to volunteers and general public. We have been gathering attention, and not just from students of ASUCD. We would like more people to help us publicize. Just search us up on Facebook.
  49. Rivilis – Have you had any difficulty selling your inventory?
  50. Chyunyen – We don’t have an issue accumulating inventory. We have been getting some emails from people about looking into our inventory, so we need to re-index. In general, we don’t have an issue selling, but one thing that has come up is that we have to reform our prices. Our prices have been updated, and we’re reforming so that value matches price.
  51. Garcia – You might want to check in that people who are no longer working with you shouldn’t be allowed to manage your social media. I know previously that GASC grouped together with Aggie ReUse to have a workshop. Do you think that’s an option in the future?
  52. Chyunyen – We are always happy to have other organizations collaborate with us. GASC is one example, and also the Sustainability Office has been coming to us for old t-shirts to make t-shirt bags. Definitely more publicity to let student orgs know we are a resource; that will give us publicity and help us promote our message of up-cycling.
  53. Garcia – Change of prices. As someone who likes the 50 cent binder deal, I highly recommend not changing that. On another note, would you consider a back-to-school sale?
  54. Chyunyen – I’ll definitely take that into consideration, and especially in the first week, we’ll run sales to generate publicity.
  55. Garcia – Would you consider having tutorials?
  56. Chyunyen – We can definitely collaborate. We’ve also been trying to get collaborations with Experimental College, and getting in contact with Crafts Center. Unfortunately, this has kind of died down the last few quarters because the entire admin staff has changed, and because workers are just busy and couldn’t keep in touch.
  57. Hill – I just wanted to congratulate you for being one of the highest revenue-generating units. You guys are doing a great job, keep it up.
  58. HAUS
  59. Liu – We hosted a big event this quarter, Housing Day. We successfully finished this event. Right now, we are planning on making some records about promoting Housing Day and making it better.
  60. Hill – How is PR going, how are you reaching students to let them know about what you offer, and how is contacting department directors going?
  61. Liu – One critical part is to make invitation letters and reserve them space.
  62. Hill – Senators, HAUS has been having trouble getting students to their event. If people on the table want to flex their social media muscles, it will be better for HAUS and ASUCD as a whole.
  63. Bach – Is your next event just next year’s Housing Day?
  64. Liu – Yes.
  65. Rivilis – Any ideas or suggestions for things in between Housing Days?
  66. Liu – We hosted a feedback meeting here, and we got suggestions from all the housing complexes. Next year we’ll definitely start planning a lot earlier.
  67. Garcia – I do hope that Housing Day starts a little earlier, so that apartment complexes can get feedback from their current residents.
  68. Liu – We’ve talked about this with all the apartment complex managers, and we’re planning on moving it earlier, such as second week of January, when people haven’t signed leases and don’t have midterms.
  69. Bach – Since the next event is next year, you should invite him back next year in fall quarter to brainstorm.
  70. Tresh – With only one event all year long, I would assume you have time to work on other projects. Have you guys considered a sort of website?
  71. Liu – Yes, we’re trying to make Housing Day a brand. Making a Facebook page, getting on social media.
  72. Kapur – Do you have your assistant positions hired?
  73. Liu – Yes, assistants. Just one assistant.
  74. Kapur – The last Unit Director graduated after 3 years of doing really well, and this guy got hired after. So this is just one of those things to work on.
  75. Liu – Yes, and we’re working on making a record for future Unit Directors.
  1. Committee Reports – 12:37
  1. Rivilis – INC voted on bill you saw tonight, brought up an agenda item of looking into investigating accessibility of ASUCD website. URSAC, agenda items for space for expanding Aggie ReUse, SHIP renewed UC SHIP, Academic Senate Committee voted on changing GE requirements for language courses.
  2. Kapur – I sit on two PACs. They’ve decided to meet next week during finals, no one responded to emails for changing the times. If you’re on committees planning on meeting during finals, tell them that’s not cool. Katehi has office hours in CoHo.
  3. Lee – Student Org Special Committee, chair resigned. Talk to me to re-brainstorm.
  4. Nguyen – There’s going to be a student subcommittee for campus community review team.