UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS ASSOCIATION
UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS ASSOCIATION
COUNCIL
Tuesday, March 20, 2012
417 Kerckhoff Hall
7:00 p.m.
PRESENT: Emily Resnick, Kristina Sidrak, Joelle Gamble, Daniel Soto, Jamie Yao, David Bocarsly, Andrea Hester, Raquel Saxe, Michael Starr, Jason Smith, Tamir Sholklapper, Ronald Arruejo, , Dr. Deb Geller, Dr. Berky Nelson, Laureen Lazarovici, Bob Williams, Patty Zimmerman, Elizabeth Hardy
ABSENT: Kinnery Shah, Dan Chikanov
GUESTS: Liz Andrews (Calpirg), Chloe Groome (Calpirg), Jillian Beck (Daily Bruin), Amanda McDowell (Calpirg)
I. A. Call to Order
- Resnick called the meeting to order at 7:00 pm.
B. Signing of the Attendance Sheet
The attendance sheet was passed around.
B. Signing of the Attendance Sheet
The attendance sheet was passed around.
II. Approval of the Agenda
-Saxe moved to strike the cultural affairs mini grant
-Sidrak moved to make election board committee assignments to an action item
-Resnick took a vote and the vote was 9-0-0. Now it is an action item
-Sholklapper asked if there was a specific reason
-Raquel moved to approve the agenda.
-Sholklapper seconded it
- Starr moved and Hester seconded to approve the agenda, as amended.
-- Resnick called for Acclamation. Resnick asked if there were any objections to approval by Acclamation. There being none, the agenda was approved, as amended.
III. Approval of the Minutes
A. *3/13/12
--Sholklapper asked why should he vote in 30 seconds
to Sholklapper asked Singh for a 30 second elevator pitch as to why he should vote
-Sholklapper agrees. He said if it fails, they would set up a tainted image. He said if it doesn’t go through, it would show that the need is there rather than tainting the image for it.
to Sholklapper agree. He said if it fails, they would not set up a tainted image.
-Zimmerman introduced Elizabeth Hardy who was taking the minutes for Katrina
- Saxe moved and Borcarsly seconded to approve the minutes for March 13, 2012, as amended
-- Council voted to adjourn with a unanimous vote. Resnick called for Acclamation. Resnick asked if there were any objections to approval by Acclamation. There being none, the minutes were approved, as amended.
IV. Public Comments
Chloe with Calpirg
-Update about the plastic bag campaign. They have set a date for voting on the bag ban from the committee to the entire county of Los Angeles for next Thursday. If passed tonight, it is a great show of support and would mean a lot to move it forward.
Liz-Campus Organizer with Calpirg
-Here in favor of plastic bag resolution.. Wanted to say thanks and hello
Amanda with Calpirg Community Service Core
-Here in favor of the plastic bag resolution. They are collaborating with UC Riverside, San Diego and going to San Luis Obispo. They are going to San Luis Obispo and wanted to know if any of council was interested in going.
VI. Appointments
A.
VII. Fund Allocations
A. Travel Grants
-Gamble said there are three allocations to approve tonight. Design for a Better Future requested $550 and $450.00 was allocated to go to Washington D.C. Amazon Medical Group requested $624.00 for transportation and $444 for accommodation for a total of $1068 and they were allocated $100. Swipes for the Homeless were awarded $450, I think this is old though because they already went to DC. That leaves the amount left to be allocated at $ 2686.50
D. *Contingency Allocations
-Sholklapper moved to approve contingency. Saxe seconded.
-Ron said A total of $7,235.94 was requested from contingency.
A total of $2,297.50 is recommended for allocation for this week .
There is a total of $55,963.52 left in the Contingency Programming Fund.
There are a few typos. Groups 12 and 13 in the last column stills says Line Item 1, just disregard that.
-Saxe called to question. Christina seconded.
- With a vote of 10-0-0, contingency allocations for this week were approved.
VIII. Officer and Member Reports
President- Emily Resnick
Resnick said the campus email will be sent shortly. Want to make sure the USAC website is clean. Wanted to remind everyone of the email to install anti-virus software if you have visited the site after this morning to keep comps safe and running. Still have a few Lot 4 and 5 yellow lot parking left. Let her know if you want one for you or anyone in your office. Tomorrow she has a meeting with Roxanne Niel who is in charge of orientation and let her know if there is any information that needs to be relayed. A shoutout to Joelle for setting up the meeting last Wednesday. It was productive. The town hall will be held Thursday of second week in Moore 100. Hold that date if you are interested in attending. More info will come out. Thank you to Joelle for co-sponsoring and anyone who came to the panel discussion on higher education last week. We will be having a referendum-wording meeting with Kris Kaupalolo on first Monday back from Spring Break. Thank you to Andy for already having the preliminary meeting. This will be to hash out further referenda language before they go to the table on the first week's meeting. Keep in mind 2-3pm on that Monday that was his only availability. Good luck with finals.
Internal Vice President- Kristina Sidrak
Last week Patty, Kinnery, Raquel and Sidrak met as a constitution review committee and we reviewed the bylaws, constitution, election code ASUCLA constitution and bylaws and it was a very productive meeting. They are asking that council members over Spring Break, after finals, look at their respective positions in the constitution and bylaws, especially if you are on certain committees or part of certain awards or responsibilities that you just found out about that you feel might be a little outdated. Please make note because Raquel, Kinnery and I are meeting back up Spring quarter to look at the bylaw changes that we plan to propose to council. Please help them out about your respective positions and make any recommendation to Eeva about ballot randomization. She is here and will address that tonight.
External Vice President- Joelle Gamble
UC regents are having their meeting next week during spring break to talk about Campus protest policies and some ballots issues as well as student health government. In regards to the tax initiative bill, if you have not already heard, the governors office struck a deal with the millionaires tax, CFT, etc, etc and have combined theirs with a tax initiative that would be regressive and progressive. So regressive in that it increases the sales tax, so it will not just affect people in a lower income bracket, it will affect everyone. They changed it from a half a percent increase to a quarter percent increase as a compromise with the Unions with CFT. They are going to keep the progressive tax aspect of it but it is going to increase the income bracket that affect, not just millionaires but also people who make $250,000 and above. More details to come, they are still getting responses on that. She states that most of the leadership of the unions like it mostly because it is a compromise making it more likely to pass. Many of the people who have backed the millionaire's class are a little apprehensive of endorsing it because of the progressive tax aspect of it and the sales tax increase. Gamble said they are waiting to see happens. Gamble says no statewide student organizations have taken a stand. The event with speaker Perez has been pushed back to April 20th (a Friday) and he will be there to get students input and speak about the middle class scholarship. The application for system wide climate committee is due at the end of this month so let people you know.
Academic Affairs Commissioner-Raquel Saxe
Saxe said that last week they met the Writing Success Program board and they are going to have a new appointment position from the Academic Affairs Commission on the board of directors as student representation. Specifically they will make sure that the Writing Success program is something that all students on campus are aware of as their money is currently going to support it. She also met with some of the leaders of the Student Issues Access Committee for an evaluation of the leadership success conference and how it went and how they can continue to work together. Also, Saxe said, just confirming some of the clarifications she made last week concerning them. If you have any question s they wanted to speak to anyone directly. Met with Frank Wad, the UCLA registrar, to discuss enrollment issues. People in her office had discussed graduating seniors want to increase the cap of enrollment are also based on certain lab requirement in South campus, students are having a hard time signing up for units on first pass. Saxe was already aware of these issues but had to clarify with registrar to look at what could do and see about changes for Gradebook. They are trying to work together to see what there is, these are all preliminary discussions. Lastly, Saxe said, the faculty executive committee on Friday approved the community conflicts of the modern world requirement. Will let everyone know what the next steps are. Will see what the IT updates need to be so we know if we have the capacity to handle all of it.
Patty Zimmerman- Student Government Services
Zimmerman says there was an issue with USAC website. Working with UCLA IT and they are wiping it clean. Should be up and running in the next few days. They are checking where our vulnerability points are to see where the malware came from. They did virus scans on their computers and they did not have anything. If anyone needs further instructions she can pass that out and will forward that to everyone. They have cancelled all of the webmasters. If your Webmaster needs access then contact Patty and we will get them.
Someone wanted to know about parking passes
-Zimmerman said sometimes they come during Spring Break but her office has not received them.
-Dr. Debra Geller said since some of them would be meeting with Chris and working on language for the referenda, I wanted to give you a few things to keep in mind as you do that. The first thing you need to specify in the question you write whether the fee would be collected only during the three regular quarters or also during summer. So you need to make an intentional decision, those are your two choices. The second thing you need to make a decision on is whether or not you want to make an automatic inflationary increase attached to this portion of the fee. If you do, you need to specify in the question how frequently it would be reviewed and what measure it would be tied to, so what inflationary rate you are using. The third thing I wanted to try to do, is to try and clarify, there seems to be some confusion about the return to aid component. The requirement is that 25% of the total collected would go to financial aid for undergraduates. You can get there either by coming up with an amount you want to charge back out one quarter, the other three goes to your programming the other quarter goes to aid. Or, you can start with the amount you want for your program and add a third on top of that. They are the same number but two different ways to get to it. You will need to specify in your question the amount that will go to what you are using it for and the amount that will be returned to financial aid for undergraduates. That is the kind of language you want to use. Use “return to aid for undergraduates” as the language. You don’t want to get into which students it will be awarded to. Because you are running this as a stand-alone referendum it will not put a return to aid component previously passed that is already in place.
-Resnick asked David to explain the math again for everyone.
-David: So We have already used the number $3. What that means is that a quarter of it goes to return to aid so .75 cents goes to aid and $2.25 goes straight to contingency and that times 26,000 students times three quarters = $175,500. That is how we get that number.
-Resnick thanked him for the clarification.
IX. Old Business
There was no old business this week.
X. New Business
-Sidrak moved to approve the election board committee member appointments. Bocarsly seconded.
-Eena said between last Tuesday and today, she got her election board together and chose 4 chairs. There will be 2 extra board members to make a total of 7 people.
Election Board Appointments
Cynthia Carvajal - Vice Chair (3rd year poli sci major)
Jessica Carroll - Investigations Chair (Fourth year transfer student English major)
Maryam Nouh - Publicity Chair (First year hoping to double major in global studies and
Ryan Eckert - External Chair (History major)
Jacob Goldberg - Board member (Majoring
Matthew Richardson - Board member (First year astrophysics with a minor in statistics)
-Eena said the main thing she was looking for people who she thought were good because she worked with them or they were recommended. She sent out an email to them that outlined time commitment. Because it was fast she jumped into interviews. Not a lot of applications because of the short time. In the end, the positions they picked played their strengths. Went with what their involvement was and why they wanted to be election board. Everyone is neutral except for two who worked in USAC offices. Miriam and Jacob. They have applied to drop their involvement to remain impartial for the elections. Other than that, they have not been involved in anything political. Also, yesterday they finalized and were expected to do the election code today but since there is a virus they did not. They are looking to maintain fairness and to be prepared.
-Resnick asked for questions
-Gamble said the election code is a PDF so if they are done on the computer they wanted to know what they know about USAC elections
-Christina said she knew that not many people vote and this is the main reason she wanted to be a part of it.
-Myram said that Eena sent an election codeguide review and she studied it. When she was an intern from the president’s office they had a presentation about the elections, which was impartial. It outlined the entire process. She got a little more knowledge through that
-Jessica said she also looked through the cheat sheet and has a basic knowledge. Knows it gets out of control. She knows they can see the very best and the worst of candidates and their campaign managers. She is prepared to work with Chris and Eena to make sure policy is followed.
-Ryan has voted and has a basic knowledge.
-Jacob has voted in 2 elections. He has seen them play out and understands that they must make sure people conduct themselves as fair as possible.
-Matthew is involved in politics and enjoys those things and excited to learn about the process.
-Lazarovici asked Jessica what her experience has been with investigation things and where she transferred.
-Jessica said In terms experience in investigation she believes she is well versed in mediation from being an R.A. She understands that they need to be well versed in policy. Went to Cerritos College
-Jan asked Myram what ways they will get people (undergrad students, especially first years) to understand the process? How is she going to get first year students involved in elections?
-Myram said that since she is a first year and her friends have no clue about USAC elections. She believes this is an advantage. She wants to work with ORL to provide an impartial view of candidates on the hill, even though she knows there is no campaigning on the hill. Most freshman and sophomores live on the hill. She is working to do that.
-Eena said that since on the hill is a taboo topic; she wants to work with administrators of ORL to make sure staff members are not put off by elections. When students go to them with questions, they feel like they cannot say too much. Making it easier for RA’s and ORL staff members. Wanted to use a website to deconstruct the election process and wants more student debate to get students involved in process and be able to contact the election board
-Hester wants to know how you are going to target transfers and target the people who do not walk on Bruinwalk?
-Jessica candidate-worked with transfer dean and believes the website would be a great start since people are connected through media online. Wants to work with Delta Terrace and on the Hill.
-Hester wants to know how you are going to reach to people not on the hill?
-Jacob says there is a transfer office in the student activities center and we can reach out to them
-Jason wants to know whom and what events have you been to in terms of last year’s elections? Debates? What would you want to change?
-Cynthia said she has been to the debates. She did not like how they were split down the middle. Knows the debates are about the slate and not about the position that the candidate represents.
-Jason clarifies that it is for things that have to do with the election
-Jessica she has not been part of the election process. She said she looked online and saw how heated they get. She wants to mitigate how intense the debates get and making sure that everyone is heard.
-Jacob said he has not attended a debate but has been to a bruin republican and bruin democrat debate. He wants to give voices to people applying for independent positions.
-Gamble asks Ryan if he is a first year
-Ryan said he is a second year, never been to debates, wants everyone to be heard
-Andy wants to know since a few have not attended debates, why they haven't they attended and how they could use this to get students involved
-Jessica said she did not know about them. She believes it is her job to get students to go and wants podcast.
-Saxe asks Chris, wants to know his thinking on these individuals
-Chris says that as the advisor board and he leans on them to make good choices. He relies on them and Eena. She evaluated them on what she feels is important and then interviewed them. They went back and forth and how she could represent her and council.
-Saxe says that it is important to have people who know how this process works
-Jamie Yao talks about how elections get slate driven and how this turns students off. Wants to know how they will get students interested
-Cynthia said it is her job to get people to vote, not who is on what team. She wants to stress the idea that students should read and be informed.
-Myram wants to change the way students vote and how they perceive the whole process. Wants to get people to go out and vote and increase USAC importance. Wants to change how they advertise
-Jessica said that she thinks it is difficult to do that. Believes it is hard to see the policies and platforms students have and they instead look at the candidates.
-Eena said she wants them to increase voter turnout. She wants students to be informed about election in general. Believes the main goal is USAC elections and what they need to have as an informed voter.
-Jessica wants to dispel the drama and make sure it is not building and that it gets handled beforehand. This way, students are thinking about the platforms rather than the drama. They want to address things early on.
-Gamble asked for clarification on “addressed early on”
-Jessica wants to create transparency
-Eena advocated for students to have access to the election board in general. When policies in the election code are left to interpretation then that is where drama comes in and where the daily bruin comes in and this is what students see. Wants to start week 1 by having their office available
-Gamble feels that the election board was accessible. It is a matter of how quickly they enforce things and not just transparency.
-Sidrak asked Eena about ballot randomization.
-Eena said there were a few suggestions to work on with their board and one was ballot randomization. They are meeting with MYUCLA tomorrow. It is hard to work on this year because of all the procedures involved. They are working on other elections during this time. So it may not be done this year. They are still talking to them to see what they can do for this year. This is a heads up that it is not likely to happen this year but they are pushing for it next year. They only have 8 weeks to do this.
-Chris said whenever they change the ballot in the election they need to do go thorough testing and that takes about a month. If they had someone working on it earlier, they could have pushed it along earlier. They want a stable ballot.
-Saxe said it came up last year. She wants know since last year, they said next year’s will do it and now you are saying next year is doing. Wants to know if there is a commitment from anyone to follow through for next year.
-Eena said in the election code there is something that says that when you send emails out there must be this thing that says you can’t print this out or redistribute this without election board approval. Facebook and myspace and social media are supposed to be treated like emails. There is this gray space that we need to determine if this include messages and chats and links. Instead of doing amendments to election code, they want to make a cheat sheet to put in candidate packets. The election board wants to come together and see what a wall post says. The cheat sheet might have shots of what you can do and what the wording can be. They will go for facebook and twitter for sure on the cheat sheet, noting what sending messages through facebook means. Will bring copies of that week 1 Tuesday. If there are major changes to cheat sheet she wants council to look at it and dissect it.
-Jason wants to know if it is restrictive so that students feel that it is against free speech
-Eena says that she cannot speak for election board, but the things we put on wall post is free speech. She wants to make it very clear that according to election code, social media is treated as email. For example, do they need a disclaimer at the end of every wall post. She wants to make sure everyone is on the same page. Does not want candidates to think they cannot use twitter or wall post but wants to be within the election code.
-Sidrak said that if it is included in candidate packet, don’t call it a cheat sheet. Call it “election code at a glance” or something
-Eena agreed.
-Resnick asked for further questions. They started approving the election committee individually.
With no further questions, the appointments were called to question.
-Only chair members need to be approved.
-Eena talked about Cynthia, the vice chair.
Resnick asked for a motion on the table call to question for Cynthia as vice chair
-Hester moved and Saxe seconded.
-Resnick declared with a vote of 10-0-0 Cynthia is Vice Chair
Resnick asked for a motion on the table call to question Myram for Publicity Chair
-Starr moved and Gamble seconded
-Resnick declared with a vote of 10-0-0 Myram is Publicity Chair
Resnick asked for a motion on the table call to question Jessica for Investigations Chair
-Bocarsly called to question and Sholklapper seconded
Resnick declared with a vote of 10-0-0 Jessica is approved as Investigations Chair
-Resnick asked for a motion on the table call to question Ryan for External Chair
-Starr called to question and Smith seconded
9-0-1, He was approved
The other two board members are a consent item.
Gamble called Chloe to talk about ban plastic bags:
Chloe said we spend a lot of taxpayer money to clean up plastic bag trash. Reusable bags are a big step. This ban is a big step communicating to Los Angeles that this is important. Berkeley just banned plastic bags in Alameda County. Santa Barbara is working on it. They had it passed it then got sued and un-sued. Davis is close to voting on the bag ban. Los Angeles can be the next step.
-Sidrak wants clarification if it applies to paper bags
Chloe said that Calpirg does not mind paper bags because plastic is more of an environmental emergency. Los Angeles is focusing on both. County by county is different.
Smith-has a plastic bag. Wants to know since they are given out on the hill, if they are biodegradable.
Chloe said if it is put into a biodegradable environment it will biodegrade. If it ends up in the ocean then it will not biodegrade. So that’s why they are aiming for both. Less than 5% of plastic bags are recycled or composted.
Smith-does UCLA dispose of these correctly?
Chloe-Yes.
Saxe said she's been to cities where they will charge 5 cents for plastic bags. If I walk into a grocery store and don’t have a bag would I have to buy re-usable or can I spend the 5 cents
Chloe said the fee worked well. It is not possible here. The next most effective thing is a total ban. You will have a lot of time to adapt. There is a year bubble to inform people this is happening. You can make your own re-usable bag out of t-shirts.
Sidrak asked for clarification from the FAQ. It says restaurants; coffee shops etc are exempt for health reasons
Chloe-the first stores affected are big stores like Wal-Mart’s, then 2 years later pharmacies. Fresh produce bags will not go away for health reasons.
Resnick asked for everyone to look at the resolutions.
Sholklapper asked if they needed to read it first.
Sholklapper read the resolution
Amending of the resolution
Bocarsly said he wants to put a comment like “USAC supports ASUCLA employees”...it should be a whereas or just that we support ASUCLA’s missions to do this.
Saxe-wants to put “encouraging the continued efforts of ASUCLA’s initiative”
Gamble asked Chloe what was the date. Then we should put it more specific to the date to make it pointed
Calpirg is worried about putting a precise date, they said this march but we are worried they might push it back.
Gamble said they could say scheduled for
Calpirg agreed
Bob- a resolution to get ASUCLA to do something is too specific. It is more about ASUCLA to continue great programs. Stay away from what the employees will do.
Gamble thinks it is fine to say decrease the use of plastic bags. Its fine as is
Sidrak moved to added new let it be resolved about ASUCLA.
The date now says, “Scheduled for”
David called to question the resolution. Sholklapper read it.
Saxe asked how we will encourage people to attend the event.
Gamble will make it visible through computers and Internet
Resnick will put this in at the end of the campus wide email to send out before Spring Break.
As a note to council members, Resnick said they can send to their staffs and send the link.
Bocarsly called to question the resolution
Starr seconded
With a unanimous vote, the resolution in support of Calpirg's campaign to ban single use plastic grocery bags passed with a vote of 10-0-0.
Resolution in Support of UCLA CALPIRG Student Chapter’s
Campaign to Ban Single Use Plastic Grocery Bags
WHEREAS, the Los Angeles City Council will be voting on whether to implement a single use plastic bag ban in the city of Los Angeles, and
WHEREAS, less than 5% of single use plastic bags are recycled, and a similarly small number is reused, and (1) (2) (3)
WHEREAS, the low biodegradability level of single use plastic bags means that they will effectively last forever, and
WHEREAS, UCLA as an institution supports sustainability and practical solutions to environmental problems, both of which a single use plastic bag ban fulfills through:
Saving the state and the city of Los Angeles tax payer money from cleaning up plastic bags (4)
Preventing the further growth of the Plastic Trash gyre in the Pacific Ocean and keeping California beaches pristine (5)
Encouraging the use of reusable alternatives
Protecting human health given that plastic bags leach toxic chemicals into ground water and even into food products (6)
WHEREAS, the UCLA CALPIRG Student Chapter works to fight for the public interest on environmental issues through encouraging the Los Angeles City Council and showing broad UCLA student support.
THEREFORE, LET IT BE RESOLVED, that the Undergraduate Students Association Council formally endorses the ban of single use plastic grocery bags in the City of Los Angeles.
LET IT BE FURTHER RESOLVED, that the Undergraduate Students Association Council encourages the continued efforts of ASUCLA towards decreasing the use of plastic bags for purchases.
LET IT BE FINALLY RESOLVED, that members of the Undergraduate Students Association Council will encourage members of the campus community to attend Los Angeles City Council meetings on this topic, including the meeting scheduled for Thursday, March 29, 2012.
Coauthored by Chloe Groome (CALPIRG) and Joelle Gamble
Sponsored by Emily Resnick, Michael Starr and Joelle Gamble
[1] "City of Los Angeles: Proposed Reusable Bag Policy." City of Los Angeles, Sanitation Department of Public Works. 2012.
[2], [3], [4], [6] “City of Los Angeles: Proposed Reusable Bag Policy Frequently Asked Questions.”City of Los Angeles, Sanitation Department of Public Works, 2012.
[5] "Pollution 101: Plastic Trash." About the Bay. Heal the Bay, 2012. Web.
XI. Announcements.
-Jan said you can miss up to three meetings but attendance is important
-Sholklapper when we get back for Spring quarter there is the roll-aids event in the Ackerman Grand Ballroom. April 4th
-Andy will email outline of her meeting with Chris
-Resnick said they will vote on the language on the first meeting back. over break there will be a Google doc for people to change. it will be sent out on the agenda at spring break.
-Michael massages and pizza are in study space
-Patty Zimmerman wants people to make sure the admins are on the referendum.
-Dr. Debra said she does not have access to the Google docs
-Resnick said she will add admins separately
-Zimmerman asked to be in loop on meeting with Chris
XII. Signing of the attendance sheet.
The attendance sheet was passed around.
XIII. Adjournment
- Starr moved and David seconded to adjourn the meeting.
- Resnick called for Acclamation. Resnick asked if there were any objections to approval by Acclamation. There being none, the meeting was adjourned at 8: 35pm. by Acclamation.
XIV. Good and Welfare
Respectfully Submitted,
Elizabeth Hardy
Filling in for the USAC Minutes Taker
2011-2012
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