2012-2013 ASUCM Senate
ASUCM Regular Senate Meeting Agenda
5200 N. Lake Road KL184, Merced, CA
95343 – P: (209) 228-7468
E: asucm@ucmerced.edu W:
http://asucm.ucmerced.edu
Spring 2013 Session- Week 10
Wednesday, April 03, 2013 at 7:30PM
Chancellor’s Conference Room (KL 232)
1. Call to Order
a. At 7:31pm
2. Roll Call
a. Absent: Jessica Perez,
b. Tardy: Ivan Flores (came at 7:45) and Jefferson Kuoch-Seng (came at 7:40)
3. Approval of Agenda
a. Jaron Brandon motions to approve the agenda
b. Dmitry Filipoff seconds
c. Amsal Wajihuddin motions to suspend the legislative bylaws and amend the agenda
d. Dmitry Filipoff seconds
e. Amsal Wajihuddin withdraws his motion
f. Discussion
i. Amsal Wajihuddin: They could not book the Lantern so they are cancelling the
event. They contacted me.
g. The agenda is approved
4. Approval of Minutes- 3-20-13
a. Jaron Brandon motions to approve the minutes
b. Dmitry Filipoff seconds
c. The minutes are approved
5. Guest Speaker- David Dunham Director of Recreation and Activities (15mins)
a. David Dunham: Thank you for your time! I just wanted to take you a few minutes to update
you about what has been going on in Recreation and Athletics. As many of you know, we
have a new building! It is a combination of recreation and athletics as well as student
activity space. We have four meeting rooms up there and they are open to all student groups
and departments on campus. The students have finally figured out that we are there; in the
fall it was very underutilized, but I just did the report and we had over 150 reservations last
month. Unfortunately it is becoming difficult to reserve space in there as well. The cardio
and weight rooms are not nearly as impacted as they have been in the past. The building is
also the home of the Outdoor Center; last week we led a trip to the Grand Canyon. There
were 11 spots and it filled up in 2 hours. Other than that, the building usage is high.
Somewhere around 80% of students are using the Recreation Centers and we are very
pleased about that. Intramurals have been going really strong this year for the first time. We
were able to fill a complete Women’s League in two sports and that is a huge step forward
for us. This is year number two for athletics and we have been having a great year. All three
of our women’s team have the Freshman of the Year. So Soccer, Volleyball, and Basketball
had all-conference Freshman of the Year selections. In Men’s Basketball, Aki Chambers was
Player of the Year for the Conference and he was also named All-American to the third
team. So we have our first All-American on campus, which is a great thing for us and our
programs. We had about 15 of our student athletes receive some kind of honors. All of our
teams qualified for post-season; not all of them were automatic qualifiers, they had to win
some games to qualify and that was very exciting for us. In a few years we will be taking
some more polls to the campus to find out what sports are ready to be added to our school.
We are in the final stages of finalizing our soccer coach for the campus. They will be on
campus next week conducting the final interviews for that position. So we are really on track
with where we thought we would be with athletics and, in some aspects, we are ahead of the
game. I think there has been some confusion as to what the space is for in the new building. I
have heard people say that they thought it was only for athletic programs. But those spaces
are there for students. Four rooms on the second floor are available for organization and
groups, and that is available every minute that the building is open. We are working to better
train our staff to help people reserve these rooms as well. We have an online reservation
process to request the space; that can be found at recreation.ucmerced.edu. We have also
launched a new website off of our recreation site that you can go and look at any of our
spaces and see if they are available. You can’t reserve online that way, but you can go and
look at the schedule of all our facilities and see what is available. As we continue to have
more student activities and events, we begin to feel the pressure that other spaces on campus
are feeling because there is just so much demand. We have come to the agreement that
availability is pretty fair and consistent, but if you do hear concerns, please let me know.
b. Garrett Patton: Thank you for coming! I just wanted to say that the Recreation Center and
Athletics are doing a great job. But I noticed that it is only an in-person form to reserve the
space.
c. David Dunham: It is an online form now. We had some trouble with our website that has
been resolved, so it is online now. You fill out the form and it gets sent to Hannah and she
will usually get back to you within 24 hours.
d. Will Torrez: You mentioned that Men’s Softball will be added? Do you see any perspective
for Men’s Baseball?
e. David Dunham: It is actually Men’s Soccer that is being added. As far as baseball, it does
not seem like we have not had a lot of success from a club’s standpoint. There has been
difficulty filling a consistent team that is competitive. For some reason we have not had a lot
of people in the skilled positions, and that is really what you need to build a team around.
The other thing is that it is not a conference sport yet. And we don’t have a facility for it. So
it is not out of the question, it is just not in this first round; but it might be later when we
reevaluate what we do.
f. Amsal Wajihuddin: I heard that there are plans for a swimming pool?
g. David Dunham: We have to do a ten-year capital plan every year for the University of
California. Right now on that plan is an aquatics center, an outdoor competitive field with
lights, basketball courts, tennis courts, and indoor volleyball courts. With the 2020 plan that
the Chancellor is working on, those still remain a priority for us but we don’t know where
they will be on the campus footprint. So on the current ten-year plan there were defined
spaces for each of these, the only thing we had to do was find ways to pay for them.
However, we have to wait and see what the 2020 plan puts forth to see where those go, and
then we are back in the position of figuring out how to raise funds for them.
h. Amsal Wajihuddin: When can you expect this to actually happen?
i. David Dunham: That is a tough one. A field complex is about $3million and an aquatics
center can be up to $12million. We are funded by students and so we will have to hope that
the economy grows and that the state gets in better shape.
j. Jess Lopez: What about a football team?
k. David Dunham: We are not ready. There is only one local place to compete, so there would
not only be the outfitting costs, but also extensive travel costs. So it is not in the near term as
to where we are.
6. Chair's Report- Baltazar Cornejo
a. Baltazar Cornejo: As you guys know, we have the budget tonight. We have a lot of people
here so please try to make it go as smoothly as possible. Next Saturday is Bobcat Day so
please sign up to table. Also, you cannot wear those shirts on Election Day if you are
running for a position. Tonight we are also voting on overturning a veto for the Resolution
last week. There was an updated version sent to us a few hours before the meeting, and you
guys never voted to amend the Resolution; so you guys actually passed the original
Resolution that was introduced weeks before. And that was the one that a lot of people didn’t
agree with in the first place, so you guys needed to make a motion to amend that. So if you
guys are going to overturn it, then you will end up passing the original Resolution 8. We also
have an item entitled Initiation of Impeachment Proceedings. This is a little tricky. The
Impeachment Bylaws are very vague. So what you are voting on today is simply to start the
process; so you will vote to create an Adhoc Committee to investigate. Keep in mind that we
do not have a Code of Ethics and that if you are going to impeach someone then it needs to
be for a violation of the Constitution or the bylaws. For the long term, you should consider
writing a code of ethics so that these types of issues can be handled better in the future.
7. Officer Reports
a. President Pro-Tempore, Matthew Wainwright
i. Matthew Wainwright: Nothing to report.
b. Sergeant at Arms, Adam Brown
i. Adam Brown: Nothing to report.
c. Secretary, Domenic Longarini
i. Domenic Longarini: Nothing to report.
d. ICC Liaison, Jess Lopez
i. Jess Lopez: ICC has a lot of money. Like a lot of money.
e. Court Liaison, Jefferson Kuoch-Seng
i. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng: Court met today and discussed the procedures for
impeachment. They decided that the appropriate procedure for pursuing
impeachment proceeds as follows: First, the Senate must vote by 50%+1 to form an
ad-hoc committee to explore any allegations of misconduct. Should the action pass,
the Senator who initiated the vote shall serve as the temporary Chair of the
committee, while it is populated and a Chair is formally nominated and approved.
This committee, once formed, should take an appropriate amount of time to
investigate any allegations of misconduct, and reach an advisory conclusion. They
may then present this conclusion to the Senate as appropriate. Court asked that these
proceedings were generate by referring to Legislative By-Laws Section 6.7, as well as
the official impeachment by-laws There were three guest speakers today: Amsal
Wajihuddin, Garrett Patton, and potential Associate Court Justice, Kristina Calogne.
There was a Petition for Relief filed by Marko Zivanovic against President Garrett
Patton and Treasurer David Ascenio. The allegations read as follows: President
Garrett Patton and Treasurer David Ascencio failed to furnish good cause and
reasoning for rejecting the proposal of the plaintiff, the author of the Prodigy’s
budget proposal for 2013-2014 ASUCM budget. The plaintiff demands judgment
against the respondents and requests the Court to compel respondents to release a
written statement, providing in substantial and sufficient detail, the grounds and
reasoning for rejecting the plaintiff’s budget proposal. Further, the plaintiff requests
for an injunction against legislation pertinent to the matter and passed during the
ASUCM Senate budget meeting taking place today until the Court has ruled that the
injured parties are satisfied. Court has filed ASUCM Judicial Order S13-01: Be it so
ordered that the ASUCM Court hereby orders that President Garrett Patton and
Treasurer David Ascencio release a statement, providing "in substantial and
sufficient detail, the grounds and reasoning" for rejecting budget proposals from any
student services or clubs, and specifically that of The Prodigy. The vote was approved
unanimously with the exception of Chief Justice Grauman who did not vote. Court has
also filed ASUCM Judicial Order S13-02: Be it so ordered: Quorum for the ASUCM
Court shall be defined as a majority of the sitting justices (50%+1). Note that this
definition refers exclusively to the ratio of justices present to justices who currently
hold seats on the Court, and not the ratio of justices present to the Constitutional
membership of Court. Prior to this order, quorum for the ASUCM Court has never
been defined in jurisprudence. Accordingly, the ASUCM Court has taken it upon itself
to establish this definition. The vote was approved unanimously. Associate Justice
Ana Zivanovic has created the procedures document for Court and will be fully
discussing the document at the next Court meeting. Court will be speaking to KKG on
arbitration and mediation this Sunday. The meeting adjourned at 7:35pm.
8. Committee Reports
a. Budget and Finance, Jaron Brandon
i. Jaron Brandon: We met on Mondays from 4:00pm-6:00pm in KL119. Everybody was
present except for Veronica Flores. We reviewed everything and went over the budget
in depth.
b. Academic Affairs, Adam Brown
i. Adam Brown: We met today from 5:00pm-6:00pm in the Lantern. We went over the
Resolution and Bill that was withdrawn. Jessica Perez was absent.
c. Student Activities, Agnes Wong
i. Agnes Wong: We met on Tuesday from
11:00am-12:00pm in the Lantern. Matt and I
were there, Amsal was absent. We did not
have quorum so we could not vote on the Bill
that was originally on the agenda.
d. Student Advocacy, Emily Zisser
i. Domenic Longarini: We were not able to meet because Jess and Emily Zisser could
not make it.
9. Advisor's Report- Steve Lerer, Assistant Director for Student Government and Leadership (10mins)
a. Steve Lerer: I heard you all had an interesting meeting while I was gone. Baltazar made
some good comments. As your Constitution dictates, this meeting will not adjourn until the
budget is passed. This is probably the most important meeting of the year. You are setting the
agenda for ASUCM for the next academic year and you are deciding what is important to
your organization, as we talked about a few weeks back. So you should think long and hard
about what you are doing tonight. It is a lot of money, about $600,000, that you are working
with to decide how the course of the campus will run next year. Remember what Baltazar
said about impeachment. You do not have a code of ethics, so you need to be very clear that
a charge can be about abuse of power or dereliction of duty as a Senator. According to your
current Constitution and your current impeachment bylaws, it has to fall within those two
areas. Also, I was a little confused by the Court updates. The Constitution states that the
Chief Justice and at least four Associate Justices shall meet and are required to do so. So
without five people there, I am confused about the quorum situation. I think we need to work
all of that out to make sure that we are consistent with the Constitution and the Court
bylaws. We have been working to get some appointments to the Court so that we don’t have
that issue. Especially with elections coming up, I imagine that there will be a lot of
complaints coming to Court, so we need to try to get more people into Court. Aside from
that, we are going to have a lot of good conversations tonight and I look forward to seeing
how it goes.
10. President's Report- Garrett Patton (10mins)
a. Garrett Patton: A student reached out to Baltazar and myself about the UC Merced
Facebook Confessions page and does not think that the administration should allow this to
happen. I also spoke with the admins of the Facebook page and they stated that “The admins
of the page will take active measures to ensure that a single individual or group of the
campus community isn't a target for hate or racism, or any other ism's that the UCSB student
government is writing the resolution for.”
Currently, the page only violates one expectation of the University because it is titled UC
Merced Confessions so that would make the site appear to be a service of the University. The
site could be called Confessions at UC Merced, instead of the current title. In regards to UC
Santa Barbara’s Associated Student resolution the students recognized that they have no
control over the Facebook group. They denounced racism, sexism, and statements that
undermine groups on campus, but also realized that this group is uncensored.
I have decided to veto Resolution 8 because of the content of the resolution. While everyone
was viewing the legislation that Senator Zisser had sent out Wednesday night there was
never an official motion to adopt the changes so the resolution from the previous week was
the piece of legislation that was passed. I would suggest that you rename the resolution and
change the number because it is an entirely different piece of legislation. The first resolution
that was put forward was about divestment neutrality, whereas this resolution is about
foreign policies and a broader set of topics.
Next week April 10th I am speaking at the Merced High School Election Convention. I want
to talk about how as a representative of student government you represent the students. I am
sure that all of you are familiar with representing your constituents and doing what is best
for ASUCM and UC Merced. I think that a relationship between Merced High School and
ASUCM is extremely beneficial for both campuses as it allows each group to understand
each other and foster a relationship between high school and University levels of student
government in Merced.
This upcoming weekend on April 13th I will be chairing the Student Regent Selection
Interviews in Berkeley. We have a wide range of candidates to interview from Northern
California. The next step in this process is to send 10 candidates from Northern and
Southern California to the UCSA Board who will then select 5 candidates to be interviewed
by the Board of Regents of the University of California. While this process is going on, so
will Bobcat Day. Bobcat Day is a very important event that takes place on April 13th and
invites students who have submitted their intent to register with UC Merced. This is our
opportunity to convince these students to come to UC Merced in the Fall where we will have
another opportunity to meet them during orientation. I believe that we do have tabling and a
sign up for volunteers to be at Bobcat Day to let students know why ASUCM is awesome!
The original divide of budget items is as follows:
1) Government Operations: 35%
2) New Services & Programs: 5%
3) Student Services & Programs: 15%
4) Registered Campus Organizations: 20%
5) General Fund: 20%
6) Savings & Investment: 5%
Currently the Gov Ops portion is at 50% because it absorbed ICC as a Gov Ops. Without
ICC it would stand at 38% of the budget which is satisfactory. The rest of the budget needs to
be adjusted because RCO= 13% and should be 20% and Gen Fund= 9% and needs to be
closer to 20%. Services and programs and savings and investment are too high and need to
be reduced by 5% each. After meeting with Budget and Finance on Monday, we were able to
increase the RCO and General Fund sections of the budget. The General Fund currently
stands at approximately 20% at its intended allocation at the beginning of the budgeting
process. Yesterday I met with Kathy Jefferds alongside the ASUCM Treasurer and our
Budget Analysts to discuss the current budget and projected allocations. Kathy helped
David, the interns, and myself focus on being creative in a budget process that can be rigid.
i. Don Edwards: How much are you trying to cut from the Prodigy?
ii. Garrett Patton: It would be completely cut.
iii. Amsal Wajihuddin: So you have only received an email from one person that claims
to be threatened by the Confessions page, correct?
iv. Garrett Patton: Yes, and it was a very specific instance. There was an issue there;
there was something that was pretty contentious and this student has been reaching
out to a lot of people to let them know that that kind of thing is going on.
v. Jaron Brandon: If we don’t overturn the veto but then resubmit this trying to get it on
the table tonight, would you support the Resolution as we already agreed before, not
as it was originally passed?
vi. Garrett Patton: So you want to resubmit as a new Resolution?
vii. Jaron Brandon: Right. So I think that it is something that is something that is
definitely valid to do, it is just a Robert’s Rules error that we had done.
viii. Garrett Patton: Yeah, I think that you guys should proceed with doing what you
wanted to do initially. It would be Resolution 10.
11. Treasurer's Report- David Ascencio (10mins)
a. David Ascencio: I want to start off with this year’s budget. We currently have $813.701 left
in the General Fund. But we do not have any bills this week, so we are okay. I do want to
touch on the email that was sent to me and Garrett from the Prodigy. We did respond and
Garrett did a really good job of explaining why they were not included in the draft budget for
next year. We had a meeting with Kathy Jefferds who is the Budget Director for our campus
budget. Me, Garrett, and the interns met with her and we had very good discussion about our
budget and how the RCO portion of the budget broke down. The entire budget was really
discussed in detail and we got a lot of input and kudos from her. I am really proud of the
interns who helped out with that.
i. Agnes Wong: How much money can Senate allocate if clubs are coming to us for the
rest of the semester?
ii. David Ascencio: It is that $800 that is in the General Fund.
iii. Chris Grauman: Are you funding OSL?
iv. David Ascencio: I will get to that.
b. David Ascencio: So going on to next year’s budget. I receive all of the budget call
proposals, we have the hearings, it goes to committees, and then me, Garrett, and Baltazar
draft the budget. In the bylaws, it says that the budget draft has to be submitted before spring
break. That is why is came to the table two weeks ago. But today is the big day where we
approve the budget. Hopefully it is a short meeting, but I am excited to see what happens.
And to answer Chris’s question, we do fund OSL and I can discuss that further when we get
to the budget.
12. Public Forum (5mins/each)
a. Chris Grauman: I plan to speak on the behalf of several organizations. I am the Chief
Justice of the ASUCM Court. First, about impeachment, you may want to check out the
bylaws section 3.1 under article 3. That refers to the initial actions and procedures for the
impeachment process and it is probably the most relevant section for you tonight. Moving
onto quorum specifically, it is not formally addressed in the Constitution. It says that the
Court must have the Chief Justice plus four Associate Justices present in order to hold a
meeting. It does not formally define that as quorum. We have taken it upon ourselves to
create our own definition of that; I can answer any questions about that after, but that is in
Article 6 section 2. We entertained a motion from Marko Zivanovic on behalf of the Prodigy.
He was asking us to issue an injunction preventing Senate from passing the budget tonight.
We decided not to grant that injunction but we did issue a Judicial Order asking President
Patton and Treasurer Ascencio to make clear their reasons for not funding the Prodigy.
Now, speaking on behalf of the Prodigy, the reason that we asked for funding is so that we
can go to conferences. We are completely self-sufficient through our ad money, but we do
come to ASUCM to help fund our conferences. The reason we ask for that money is so that
we can improve. We do not have an Academic Journalism program at this school and we do
not have an advisor to oversee us. So we try to fill that gap with these professional events
that include guest speakers from the New York Times, The Associated Press, etc. If you are
interested, there is an interested scandal going on with UCR’s Associated Students. You can
read up on that in the Highlander. I know you have had some transparency concerns in the
past, so that may be particularly interesting to you. Speaking about Resolution 8, I think that
you should consider UCOP policy. I was a little perturbed that you were not interested in
taking a position on the issue. I understand the motivation for that, but you should realize
that UCOP has student governments so that we can be taking positions on these types of
issues. That can be found specifically in section 61.12, 60.12, and 62 of UCOP policy. Those
refer to the reasons behind supporting student governments. I noticed you all had no issue
taking a position on Prop 30 in the November elections. It is interesting to kind of pick and
choose, that is your call, but it is a very strange action to say that now you don’t want to take
a position on anything ever. In regards to the budget tonight, UCOP says that you are to
oversee the allocation of student fees. I understand specifically that OSL puts on a number of
great programs and you want to continue funding it; I have no objections to that. What I do
have objection to is that you want to give money to OSL to do that. If you are using student
fees to fund programs for students, that is great. But the purpose of having student
government is so that there is student oversight. For you to give the money back to OSL is to
say that there is no purpose for us to exist.
b. Shereef Khafagi, Calpirg Energy Service Corps: We just wanted to thank you guys for
funding us for our Alternative Spring Break where we met with some of the other UC’s that
are also involved in Calpirg Energy Service Corps. We got the chance to reach out to the
community, we talked to over 2,000 students, and we met with the mayor in Santa Monica to
talk about everything we do with furthering sustainability. We also did a weatherization
project at Midnight Mission where they help transitioning homeless families as they get back
on their feet. So we have been doing a lot in the community and I can personally say that it
does help to bring out leadership within the students. I have only been a part of this for a
short time, but I have already had a lot of leadership roles.
c. Will Torrez: I am the Director of Communications. I was hoping that you will please where
the t-shirts on Elections Day, unless you are running for a position. Also, on Bobcat Day, I
was hoping to give the ASUCM T-shirts to everyone who submits their SIR. If you guys can
table for us, I am providing lunch for everyone who participates so please sign up if you
want that.
d. Samantha Gaerlan, American Medical Student Association: We are from the AMSA to put
out the word about Relay for Life. It is a Merced community fundraiser dedicated to
spreading awareness about cancer. We are encouraging everyone to go to this walk-a-thon.
It is being held on April 27th and 28th from 9am to 9am at the Merced College track. 100% of
the proceeds go to the American Cancer Society to help fund cancer research. We are
working with other clubs like Business Society, AMSA, Colleges Against Cancer, and the
American Red Cross; but it is still growing. Thank you for your time!
e. Don Edwards: I am not representing anyone, but I will be speaking about the Prodigy. I
think that you guys should give the Prodigy some kind of funding because they are used by a
lot of students, myself included. Rather than cutting it completely, perhaps you can look at
cutting it back. And maybe you can look at inside expenditures as well; you guys fund your
retreat which costs over $8,000. But the Prodigy is a way that you can be keeping the
students informed. During my Ice Cream Social yesterday I found in my survey that only
14% knew three Senators and only 26% knew who the President is. So if you could use the
Prodigy as voice and a way to project ideas, you could possibly use that as a way to bring
students in and bring change.
13. Old Business (20mins/each)
a. Initiation of Impeachment Proceedings: Introduced by Senator A. Brown
i. Adam Brown motions to initiate the Impeachment Proceedings
ii. Emily Zisser seconds
iii. Discussion
1. Veronica Flores: Can we initiate this on the agenda even though we do not
have an Adhoc Committee?
2. Baltazar Cornejo: This would create the Adhoc committee.
3. Adam Brown: There is not a whole lot to discuss on the issue of just creating
a committee, unless you think this process is completely wrong.
4. Jaron Brandon: I just wanted to reiterate that impeachment is a two part
process. The first part is to open up the proceedings to hear both sides of the
case. Removal is upon a vote at a later date. So right now we are only
discussing looking into it and gathering evidence about what has happened.
5. Dmitry Filipoff: I think that we should make the committee even if we do not
make any binding decisions or remove anybody, I think that it will clear things
up and possibly remove some of the animosity.
iv. Vote to open up the impeachment process
1. Approved by: Matthew Wainwright, Emily Zisser, Agnes Wong, Domenic
Longarini, Jess Lopez, Ivan Flores, Jaron Brandon, Jefferson Kuoch-Seng,
Dmitry Filipoff, and Adam Brown
2. Opposed by: Veronica Flores
3. Abstained by: Amsal Wajihuddin
4. The impeachment process is open
v. Dmitry Filipoff motions to create an Adhoc Committee
vi. Matthew Wainwright seconds
vii. No discussion
viii. Vote
1. Approved by: Matthew Wainwright, Emily Zisser, Agnes Wong, Domenic
Longarini, Jess Lopez, Ivan Flores, Jaron Brandon, Jefferson Kuoch-Seng,
Dmitry Filipoff, and Adam Brown
2. Opposed by: Veronica Flores
3. Abstained by: Amsal Wajihuddin
4. The Adhoc Committee is created
ix. Adam Brown motions to open the table to nominations for the Adhoc committee
x. Dmitry Filipoff seconds
xi. Nominations
1. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng nominates Jaron Brandon and he accepts
2. Jaron Brandon nominates Jefferson Kuoch-Seng and he declines
3. Jaron Brandon nominates Veronica Flores and she accepts
4. Agnes Wong nominates Emily Zisser and she accepts
5. Dmitry Filipoff nominates Adam Brown and he declines
6. Emily Zisser nominates Agnes Wong and she accepts
7. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng nominates Jess Lopez and she declines
8. Adam Brown nominates Matthew Wainwright and he declines
xii. Jaron Brandon, Veronica Flores, Emily Zisser, and Agnes Wong are added to the
Adhoc Committee with Dmitry Filipoff as the Chair
xiii. Discussion
1. Steve Lerer: The Adhoc Committee now has 10 business days, so two weeks,
to come up with a decision that you have to present in two ASUCM meetings.
At that point, the organization will vote to decide if they want to go to an
impeachment hearing. So make sure that you take the time to have those
meetings.
2. Amsal Wajihuddin: Can anyone show up to these committee meetings or is it
open?
3. Steve Lerer: That is up to the Chair.
4. Jaron Brandon: I just wanted to point out that this is just to find out if there is
enough evidence to proceed. It is not the actual hearing or trial.
5. Baltazar Cornejo: If they do not feel that there is enough evidence, we will
not vote on it next week.
b. R#09- Support for UC Merced’s Official School Chant: Introduced by Senator A.
Wajihuddin
i. Committee Reports
1. Budget and Finance did not approve
2. Academic Affairs unanimously disapproved
3. Student Activities could not vote because they did not have quorum
4. Student Advocacy did not meet
ii. Amsal Wajihuddin motions to recommit the Resolution to committees
iii. Dmitry Filipoff seconds
iv. Discussion
1. Jaron Brandon: When I was a freshman in ASUCM, we worked to create an
Alma Mater for the school. Nothing has been done with it and it is not used at
all. So to take this Resolution and say that we are just using this as a template
and we are not using the wording, I feel that this is not the right way or time to
do this. It needs a full and complete rewrite. It is a bad time and I don’t see the
purpose in discussing this.
v. Vote:
1. Approved by: Amsal Wajihuddin and Dmitry Filipoff
2. Opposed by: Jaron Brandon, Veronica Flores, Emily Zisser, Agnes Wong,
Matthew Wainwright, Jefferson Kuoch-Seng, Adam Brown, Ivan Flores, Jess
Lopez, and Domenic Longarini
3. The Resolution is not recommitted
vi. Amsal Wajihuddin motions to withdraw the Resolution
vii. Dmitry Filipoff seconds
viii. Vote:
1. Approved unanimously
ix. The Resolution is withdrawn
c. B#66-2013-2014 ASUCM Budget Bill: Introduced by Senator E. Zisser
i. Emily Zisser motions to approve the Bill
ii. Dmitry Filipoff seconds
iii. Committee Reports
1. Budget and Finance feels that the ASUCM Payroll can be changed because
there is no longer an ASUCM office in the OSL. They also felt that the EVP’s
budget could be lowered to match the IVP’s. They also recommend that
Education and Enrichment part of the Director of Academic Affairs budget be
removed because it seems redundant with the other line-items in that category.
They also recommend that for any CAB conferences, any non-UC Merced
students may be funded by that, specifically related to any staff. Under
Director of Communications, they recommend that the budget be decreased to
$500. They also recommend that the print supplies budget be decreased to
$500. They also recommend bringing the New Programs and Services Fund
down to $0 because it is not being spent on that at the moment. They
recommended that the Democrat’s travel fund be lowered, but that was under
different information so they want to remove that recommendation. They also
recommend decrease the Future ASUCM Payroll section. All of these will be
used to increase the General Fund.
2. Academic Affairs did not have enough time to discuss the budget.
3. Student Activities discussed it, but did not discuss it in details. They feel that
they should be thinking about next year’s General Fund and the money that
Senate will have to allocate.
4. Student Advocacy did not meet.
iv. Domenic Longarini motions to extend time by one hour
v. Jaron Brandon seconds
vi. Vote to extend time:
1. Approved unanimously
vii. Time is extended by one hour
viii. Domenic Longarini motions to invite Garrett Patton and David Ascencio to the table
for discussion
ix. Dmitry Filipoff seconds
x. Vote to invite Garrett Patton and David Ascencio to the table:
1. Approved unanimously
xi. Emily Zisser motions to approve the budget line-item by line-item
xii. Amsal Wajihuddin seconds
xiii. Vote to approve the budget line-item by line-item:
1. Approved unanimously
xiv. Line-items
1. UC Student Association
a. No objections to keeping the amount as is
2. US Student Association
a. No objections to keeping the amount as is
3. ASUCM Payroll
a. Discussion
i. Garrett Patton: I think that this is a much larger issue than
just ASUCM saying that we want to split the payroll. If we want
to take money away from OSL or not pay our Secretary, then
we have these departments that we are only meeting halfway.
And then people might begin to lose their jobs.
ii. David Ascencio: I would concur with that. It is really a bigger
issue than what ASUCM can deal with. We would have to work
with HR for a while before we could stop funding a specific
employee, like the OSL front desk clerk. So it is a lot to do and I
don’t think that this should be removed.
iii. Agnes Wong: I was wondering if the copy that you sent out a
few days ago is the same or different?
iv. David Ascencio: This is the one I sent out a few weeks ago.
v. Garrett Patton: Looking at last year’s budget, ASUCM payroll
is actually at $40,000. So it would be great to get it back up to
that, otherwise we are cutting it.
vi. Jaron Brandon: This is something we did not make a
recommendation on in Budget and Finance because we did not
know the legal terms of it. But ASUCM used to have an office in
the OSL. Since we do not have that anymore, it makes less
sense to be funding that. But right now, we have three positions
that we pay. It is the Senate Secretary, the OSL front desk, and
part of Cindy’s salary. So the Secretary does a lot and so does
Cindy, however, I do not believe that the front desk does very
much for ASUCM, except for accepting packets. So being able
to cut that front desk position would return probably over half
to the fund for other efforts that are more appropriate. But I do
understand that there are some legal issues that go with it so
we cannot cut it right now. But I do not think we should forget
about this.
b. Jaron Brandon motions to increase the amount to $40,000
c. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng seconds
d. Vote to increase the amount to $40,000:
i. Approved unanimously
xv. Emily Zisser motions to have a 5 minutes recess
xvi. Amsal Wajihuddin seconds
xvii. No objections
xviii. Senate has a 5 minute recess
xix. Line-items
1. ASUCM Compensation
a. Discussion
i. Jaron Brandon: So Garrett and I do not receive compensation.
Is there a way that people who decline compensation can have
that money sent straight back to the General Fund?
ii. David Ascencio: It can be done, but it is a long process.
b. No objections to keeping the amount as is
2. President - General Fund
a. No objections to keeping the amount as is
3. President - Commissioners
a. Amsal Wajihuddin motions to reduce the amount to $3,000
b. Jaron Brandon seconds
c. No objections
d. The amount is reduced
4. President - Events/Town Halls
a. Jaron Brandon motions to reduce the amount to $1,000
b. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng seconds
c. No objections
d. The amount is reduced
5. President - Travel Fund
a. No objections to keeping the amount as is
6. Internal Vice President - General Fund
a. No objections to keeping the amount as is
7. Internal Vice President - Civic Leadership/Civic Engagement
a. Discussion
i. Jaron Brandon: I believe that this was originally $8,000 and it
was cut to $2,000. That being said, I think that it is important to
discuss what that $2,000 will be used for.
ii. Ivan Flores: I talked to Steve and Dr. Nies about this. A few
years ago it was used to fund individual students who couldn’t
get money from ASUCM. So I think that $2,000 is not a lot of
money, but it can do a lot.
iii. Baltazar Cornejo: This year it was used to send students to a
Leadership Conference.
iv. Jaron Brandon: Right. So we created the Neighborhood
Relations Commission this year which is included in this. I feel
that this was used for leadership and the organization is
looking to do something with it. But moving this into the
General Fund, we would have more money in the budget to
help them out.
v. Steve Lerer: A couple years ago this fund was created by the
IVP. The point was that to come to ASUCM to get funds, you
have to be part of a club. A student cannot come and get
funding to go to a conference. But we do not work that way; we
expect clubs to come to us for funding. So this fund was meant
to make that possible, but it has not taken off in the past few
years. So this and the Neighborhood Relations Committee were
meant to be two different things. If you want to rebirth that
program, that is up to you.
vi. Veronica Flores: I think it is a great opportunity for people
who are not involved in clubs to go to conferences and such.
However, considering that students do not seem to know about
it, I don’t think it needs to change too much. Maybe we could
keep it the same or add $500 to it. If it works out then we can
add more in the future.
b. Jaron Brandon motions to decrease the fund to zero
c. No one seconds
d. Jaron Brandon motions to move $1,000 into the General Fund
e. Dmitry Filipoff seconds
f. Vote to move $1,000 into the General Fund:
i. 9 objections
ii. The amount is not moved
g. Vote to keep the amount as is
i. 1 objection
h. The amount stays as it is
8. Internal Vice President - You See Leaders Conference
a. Discussion
i. Jaron Brandon: This program does a lot for the students.
However, I feel that it is a fair discussion to have because it is
such a large amount that is being asked for. That amount is
mainly for t-shirts and water bottles and things like that. So we
need to decide if that is something we want to fund.
ii. Agnes Wong: What is the bottom line that this program needs
to still function?
iii. Garrett Patton: Last year they received $23,000 and this year
they are asking for $18,000. But it does bring in students from
all over and it is a good event.
iv. Amsal Wajihuddin: I feel that this is a wonderful way to
recruit people into ASUCM and UC Merced. We get to
showcase ourselves to potential students and I don’t think there
should be any cuts.
v. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng yields the floor to Alex Hamilton
vi. Alex Hamilton: I volunteered for this last year. And I got to
see firsthand how much people gained from this event. It really
taught the students in the Central Valley a lot and they got to
get a better perspective about what their future could be like. A
lot of kids in the Central Valley do not expect to go to college,
but this event is very motivating for that.
vii. Baltazar Cornejo: To clarify, last year they asked for $23,000
and only used about $18,000. So this year they asked for
$23,000 again in hopes of growing, but it has been cut to
$18,000 by David and Garrett.
b. No objections to keeping the amount as is
9. Internal Vice President - ASUCM Retreat
a. Discussion
i. Amsal Wajihuddin yields the floor to Steve Lerer
ii. Steve Lerer: For this retreat we have to get a bus there and a
bus back, one night there, meals, and a ropes course. The
reason that we upped the amount from last year is because this
year we brought Court, Execs, Senate, and other ASUCM
people. So next year there may even be more, which is a good
thing because it is a great event. So with more people, it will
put us at at least 50 people. Plus for each 10 people who go,
you have to have one facilitator, so there is that expense. So it
comes out to about $200 per person. I think that the retreat was
really successful last year. You guys told me what you wanted
to do and I simply figured out how much it would cost. So if you
cut the cost, then you just cut people.
iii. Jaron Brandon: I would like to recommend that we bring this
back to the old levels of 2012-2013. With the Senate and Execs,
that is 24 people. We can expand to Court and maybe some
other. I think that having three branches specifically would be
good.
iv. Garrett Patton yields the floor to Don Edwards
v. Don Edwards: I just wanted you to consider how this will
impact students every day on campus. Perhaps you guys can
have a retreat on campus. Has that been explored? I know that
a lot of clubs want to go on retreats and they have to make cuts.
So out of respect for the other clubs, you should consider that.
vi. Veronica Flores: It greatly has an impact on students because
it shapes the leaders to communicate and collaborate with each
other to work together more efficiently at this table. So it is
beneficial to leaders and the students.
vii. Domenic Longarini: Every year here I have heard that people
in Senate just do not get along. But this retreat builds a much
more able community for us to work better at this table and
know more about the clubs and ASUCM in general. So we learn
to work together and it translates to how we do our job here.
viii. Garrett Patton: It definitely has enriched the experience for
someone who has been in ASUCM. But it also improves the
dynamic of the leadership here as a whole. I think that if you
look at ASUCM, we are a department. Other departments on
campus have retreats. I think that we should be benefitting our
own membership. If we were to reduce it to $10,000, that is
about 1% of the budget, which is very cost-effective.
ix. Amsal Wajihuddin: I think that the definition of a retreat is to
be away from home. So to have a retreat here on campus is not
beneficial to us or the student body.
x. Don Edwards: What has been explored for something
different? Maybe you guys could go somewhere different that is
cheaper.
xi. Steve Lerer: Wonder Valley is one of the most economical
places to do this kind of thing. We do other retreats there and
we are working to build a relationship with them in order to
lower the prices in the future. That is the plan. And for $200, it
is very cheap. If we were to do it on campus, the dining alone
would cost close to that if not more.
xii. Jaron Brandon: Regarding the CAB retreat which was cut, my
personal opinion is that CAB and ASUCM do not have a lot of
overlap. Do you think it is important for us to have one
combined retreat, or would you like to have a CAB retreat
where you are a leader?
xiii. Jaron Brandon yields the floor to Alex Hamilton
xiv. Alex Hamilton: So the $1,000 was spent on our members
anyways. So if we get that money back, it will not really benefit
us. But this year, CAB was included for the first time and I
think that was very beneficial. Now some of the people on the
board are looking into running for more positions in ASUCM.
You guys can talk about this, but now you know what CAB
does. But we learned a lot about leadership and working as a
group because of this retreat.
xv. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng: CAB and ICC are part of ASUCM and
we all work together very well. I think that is definitely because
of the retreat.
b. No objections to keeping the amount as is
10. External Vice President - General Fund
a. Discussion
i. Jaron Brandon: We all realize that some of these events have
gone over budget. I think it is poor planning that we are
expecting things to go significantly over budget and it allows
for that type of planning. In Budget and Finance we made the
recommendation to lower the amount to the same as what the
IVP receives.
b. Jaron Brandon motions to decrease the amount to $1,000
c. No one seconds
d. The amount is not decreased
e. Discussion
i. Garrett Patton: I think we need to know the breakdown better.
Having $5,000 in your budget without a budget is kind of
inefficient.
ii. Garrett Patton yields the floor to Jonathan Ly
iii. Jonathan Ly: I totally understand Jaron’s concern about not
being responsible or bad planning. Our biggest issue is that our
cost per conference is not set in stone, it does change annually.
We bend over backwards to try to bring students to our event
that happens during the summer. Our costs fluctuate because it
is hosted by campus. We had a generous donation, but we still
had to put in about $200 per student for the room and for food
and whatnot. We are part of this student-wide representation. If
you want to make it more specific, I am fine for that because we
do want to be more accountable. We try to use that cost so that
we do not have to come back to the Senate table in the middle
of the year and ask for more money. But our cost will change
from campus to campus because of where our campuses are
located.
iv. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng: Just to add to that, the prices for buses
can change at any time. It is usually likely that costs like that
will go up. We also have to host one board meeting during the
year and that cost us about $500 to do that. To address Jaron’s
part, most of it is not due to poor planning. It is due to the
difficulty to predict the cost of buses, hotels, and things like
that.
v. Jonathan Ly: Also, our membership is the students. That leads
to very interesting involvement levels. The Students of Color
Conference usually has a great turnout, but other conferences
don’t always have that. So it is a matter of us trying to get more
students to come, but we cannot predict how well that will
happen.
vi. Jaron Brandon: I just wanted to review what is in the External
Office right now. We have thousands of dollars allocated for
the different conferences and a huge part of that is travel. So I
am recommending that we remove $500.
vii. Jonathan Ly: Overall, for us to host a board meeting here, we
are asked to provide lunch for both days as well as snacks and
water. So the cost might be a little bit higher, but we are also
contributing back to the community.
f. Jaron Brandon motions to take $1,500 out of the EVP General Fund
and put it into a new line-item entitled “UCSA Board Retreat”
g. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng seconds
h. Vote to create a “UCSA Board Retreat” line-item with $1,500 from the
EVP General Fund:
i. Approved unanimously
i. Discussion
i. Jaron Brandon: So we now have $3,500 in the EVP General
Fund and I think that there is no need for $2,500 of that.
ii. Jonathan Ly: So if we are in the midst of planning an event
and we need more money, would you like us to come back for
that? Or can you leave us a cushion for that?
iii. Emily Zisser: I think that with everything that the EVP does, I
don’t think that giving them a little bit of a buffer is not too
much to ask for. I do not think that $3,500 is ridiculous and I
trust that it will be used for the right things.
iv. David Ascencio: It is a good contingency just in case. It is
good to have a little bit of wiggle room for me and for the EVP.
v. Jess Lopez: I agree that $3,500 is necessary because when they
go on these conferences they are very expensive. So when they
do go over, they don’t go over a little bit, they go over a lot. So
I feel that this is necessary so that they can be prepared for
that.
j. No objections to keeping the amount as is
11. External Vice President - UCSA Board Meeting
a. No objections to keeping the amount as is
12. External Vice President - EVP Travel
a. Discussion
i. Jaron Brandon: How much was sent on travel by the current
EVP?
ii. David Ascencio: Last year was $12,000 and I decreased it to
$9,000. But I cannot say the exact amount because there is a
time delay and those amounts have not hit the ledger yet. But I
think that it is almost completely used.
b. No objections to keeping the amount as is
13. External Vice President - UCSA Congress
a. Discussion
i. Jaron Brandon: So this went up from $7,000 to $10,000. And I
felt that this is one of the coolest things we did; I got to attend
and network and it was a great experience. I think that the
extra money will be used very well and it will be very beneficial
for everyone involved.
b. No objections to keeping the amount as is
14. External Vice President - Students of Color Conference
a. Discussion
i. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng: This is the biggest conference that the
EVP does. This year over 100 students got to go and it is a
great event.
ii. David Ascencio: We actually spent a little more this year
because it was held in Riverside. It was held in Davis before, so
there was more money spent on travel. But I got to attend this
conference and it was an amazing experience.
iii. Jaron Brandon: I got to attend as well and I noticed that we
had two full buses of students going to this. I got to go and have
a great discussion with the Native American group, which I
actually identify with, although I may not look it. However, I
did not feel that there was much to bring back to campus from
this event. The other concern I had was that there was a forum
called “How America Fucks Up The World” and I felt that it
was unpatriotic and unfair. I really did not enjoy that and it
worried me. Also, a student came up to me at this conference
and told me that because I look white, I should not be able to
speak or attend this conference. This is what worries me. I felt
like it didn’t give people a way to speak in a positive way, it just
gave them the chance to get upset. But anyways, once we got
back, we have not made any use of what we learned there. We
put more effort into the Campus Climate Survey than we did
into putting these ideas to work on our campus. I feel that it
was very expensive for something that we are not utilizing on
campus.
iv. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng: There is always going to be some
negative comments about any conference. I know that Jaron did
not have a completely negative trip; there were some really
good parts. And we have been working to put what we learned
into place. UC Berkeley and other campuses where they have a
ton of protests. But on our campus, we do not have that so
much and so we don’t have a lot of training on this.
v. Baltazar Cornejo: Just because ASUCM doesn’t do something,
it doesn’t mean that the other students who went did not do
something with it.
vi. Domenic Longarini: That is my point as well. Going as a
white, male, straight, right-handed person, I was basically the
target of everything they were saying. But I got to voice myself
by asking what we are going to do about this. I felt incredibly
attacked and upset by the end of it, but others felt a sense of
community in that they could talk to each other about their
challenges. There were many UC Merced students who did
speak very positively about this conference and it gave them
that support as well.
vii. David Ascencio: At this conference I became more aware of
my culture struggles and I learned a lot about first-year college
students and how they suffer. So it kind of opened our eyes to
the struggles that students here and at other UC’s have. So I
think it is beneficial in helping us open the discussion on these
issues. I think that I came out of it as a better human being and
ASUCM should fund it.
viii. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng: Also, you may have had a bad
experience with one thing, but it is at a different campus every
year. And there are different workshops every year.
ix. Jaron Brandon: I just want to reiterate the question of what
we are taking away from this conference. And also, you should
all be okay with speaking up and being critical. I am trying to
get more money for clubs next year, so let’s see what we can
do.
x. Garrett Patton: Last year it was $10,000 that they were asking
for.
xi. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng: I think I wrote a bill for it at the
beginning of the year to help provide for buses.
xii. Jonathan Ly: Something we saw this year was that there was a
very strong increase in how many students that wanted to go on
the conference. So we asked for it to be increased from $10,000
to $13,000. So this is the range that has been used before and it
works.
xiii. Amsal Wajihuddin yields the floor to Domonique Jones
xiv. Domonique Jones: Conferences like this open up the
opportunity for people from different backgrounds to come
together and discuss the issues that face us. I am still in contact
with some of the people that I learned there. So it was a great
networking experience and very beneficial for me and everyone
that I went with.
xv. Dmitry Filipoff yields the floor to Sandra Suarez
xvi. Sandra Suarez: I think that the connections that were made
were very beneficial actually. If you don’t think that you have
seen the information learned there come back to this campus,
then you should probably reach out to the students who went
and you can see what they have done with it.
xvii. Amsal Wajihuddin: If you do not find it beneficial, then do not
go. Do not ruin it for the people who want to go and learn from
it.
xviii. Adam Brown: I do not think that the conference is anti-white.
We wouldn’t be continually supporting something that is
blatantly racist at all.
b. Amsal Wajihuddin motions to increase the amount by $100
c. No one seconds
d. The amount is not increased by $100
e. No objections to keeping the amount as is
15. External Vice President - Student Legislative Conference
a. Discussion
i. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng: I think that this conference is one of
the most beneficial. We got to lobby and also meet with White
House Staffers. It was a great experience for everyone who
went.
ii. Jaron Brandon: I also attended that and I noticed that a lot of
people did not even attend the workshops. Many people left to
go lobbying. So I feel that this is an area where we can cut
money for the General Fund.
iii. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng: Flight tickets are unpredictable, they
fluctuate. Also, the EVP will be bringing his office and there
has always been the want to bring the Director of Student
Advocacy, so I don’t think that it should be cut.
b. Vote to keep the amount the same:
i. Approved by 11
ii. Opposed by 1
c. The amount is kept the same
16. External Vice President - Student Lobby Conference
a. Discussion
i. Jaron Brandon: The main cost of this was to fund a bus, but
there were only three people on that bus. Most students took
their own cars.
ii. Domenic Longarini: For that circumstance, people had their
individual reasons for having to leave or miss it. But hopefully
in the future this will not happen. So I think that if this is the
amount that they need, it should not be changed. It was a great
event where I was able to make so many connections, and I
thought that it was an amazing conference.
iii. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng: This is where every UC comes together
and marches to the state capitol to lobby for what we want. So
everyone comes together and fights for the same thing.
iv. Jaron Brandon: To reiterate, we sent an entire bus that
carried 3 students. So I think that we should send the same
amount of students, but allow them to drive themselves.
v. David Ascencio: We can lower it, but the issue is that
reimbursement for gas has to be included. So we either have to
increase EVP travel for that, or lower it less than what you are
probably hoping for. It is a little bit cheaper to do that, but it is
still pricey.
vi. David Ascencio yields the floor to Jonathan Ly
vii. Jonathan Ly: I understand Jaron’s concern but overall I think
it is fine for students to take their own cars. This year we had a
lot of people who have their own cars, but we do not know if we
will get lucky for that to happen again.
b. No objections to keeping the amount as is
17. External Vice President - Lobby Corps
a. Discussion
i. Jaron Brandon: I think that because we do not have an
established Lobby Corps, we should not give them a lot of
funding, but perhaps give them $500 to get going.
b. Jaron Brandon motions to add $500
c. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng seconds
d. Vote to add $500:
i. Approved by 5
ii. Opposed by 5
iii. No abstentions
iv. $500 is not added
e. Jaron Brandon motions to add $200
f. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng seconds
g. Vote to add $200:
i. Approved by 8
ii. Opposed by 1
iii. Abstained by 1
iv. $200 is added
h. No objections to keeping the amount as is
18. Treasurer
a. Discussion
i. David Ascencio: I wouldn’t be opposed if you all want to
increase it.
ii. Domenic Longarini: What would you like to increase it for?
iii. David Ascencio: I used it this year for when clubs needed it
and also for the budget hearings where I bought food. So it is
really just for the budget hearings so that I can give the Execs
and RCO’s some refreshments for coming. That cost about
$300.
b. Domenic Longarini motions to increase the amount to $300
c. Ivan Flores seconds
d. Vote to add $300:
i. Approved unanimously
ii. $300 is added
e. No objections to keeping the amount as is
xx. Jaron Brandon motions to extend time by 35 minutes
xxi. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng seconds
xxii. Vote to extend time:
1. Approved unanimously
xxiii. Time is extended by 35 minutes
xxiv. Line-items
1. Director of Academic Affairs General Fund
a. Discussion
i. Jaron Brandon: So what is this for?
ii. Jaron Brandon yields the floor to Jacob Gutierrez
iii. Jacob Gutierrez: The General Fund is to take over items that
spilled over otherwise. So if another area goes over, we can
pick that up.
iv. Jaron Brandon: Okay, so why would there be money for
cushion?
v. Jacob Gutierrez: The amounts fluctuate. We cannot have an
exact budget because of that.
vi. Garrett Patton: We did huge outreach over the summer and I
think that this money gets spent very well on that.
b. No objections to keeping the amount as is
2. Director of Academic Affairs - Research Grants
a. Discussion
i. Jaron Brandon: Could you give a brief summary of what this
is going to and who controls it?
ii. Jacob Gutierrez: So I didn’t get around to this. But if you want
to do something that is not covered in your class, you can come
to me and I can help fund that. There are bylaws for this.
b. No objections to keeping the amount as is
3. Director of Academic Affairs - Educational Resources
a. Discussion
i. Emily Zisser: I don’t get the difference between resources and
enrichments.
ii. Emily Zisser yields the floor to Jacob Gutierrez
iii. Jacob Gutierrez: Resources would be scantrons and blue
books. It is for testing materials in general. I can answer the
other part when we get to that.
b. Emily Zisser motions to lower the amount to $1,500
c. Jaron Brandon seconds
d. Vote to lower the amount to $1,500:
i. Approved by 5
ii. Opposed by 6
iii. The amount is not lowered
e. Discussion
i. Garrett Patton: I think that this is something that directly
helps students and I know that many people rely on it.
ii. Jaron Brandon: If we are going to keep this and the
Educational Enrichment section, I feel that it is redundant. We
should either cut this one or the other one.
f. Domenic Longarini motions to increase the amount to $6,000
g. Jaron Brandon seconds
h. Vote to increase the amount to $6,000
i. Approved by 10
ii. The amount is increased to $6,000
i. No objections to keeping the amount as is
4. Director of Academic Affairs - Educational Enrichment
a. Discussion
i. Domenic Longarini: What is Educational Enrichment?
ii. Domenic Longarini yields the floor to Jacob Gutierrez
iii. Jacob Gutierrez: Educational Enrichment and Educational
Resources are different. For example, Society of Automotive
Engineers. You guys could not fund them fully, so I donated
some of my money to them because it is very educational. Also,
I donated money to Toastmasters. You cannot use the money
from Educational Resources for this. And also $6,000 in
Educational Resources is way too much.
xxv. Jaron Brandon motions to reconsider the previous motion
xxvi. Amsal Wajihuddin seconds
xxvii. Vote to reconsider the previous motion:
1. Approved unanimously
xxviii. Line-items
1. Director of Academic Affairs - Educational Resources
a. Domenic Longarini motions to decrease the amount to $3,000
b. Veronica Flores seconds
c. Vote to decrease the amount to $3,000:
i. Approved unanimously
ii. The amount is lowered
d. No objections to keeping the amount as is
2. Director of Academic Affairs - Educational Enrichment
a. Jaron Brandon motions to decrease the amount to zero
b. Ivan Flores seconds
c. Discussion
i. Domenic Longarini: I like the idea of having this. I think that
it is a good way to fund events that we cannot.
ii. Jaron Brandon: Every club on campus is focused around some
sort of educational purpose. That is why we have Senate and
ICC. This is under Academic Affairs. So the Director of
Academic Affairs is giving out money which is a loose abuse of
power. Even if it a good cause, it is not democratic.
iii. Garrett Patton: Maybe we can better define this line-item.
Jacob is willing to adopt a more specific use for this money.
iv. Domenic Longarini yields the floor to Jacob Gutierrez
v. Jacob Gutierrez: I am fine with that.
vi. Veronica Flores: Is there a process that these clubs go through
to get this money or is it up to the discretion of the Director?
vii. Veronica Flores yields the floor to Jacob Gutierrez
viii. Jacob Gutierrez: It is up to the Director. If you want to change
it, I am very open to that.
d. Vote to decrease the amount to zero:
i. Approved by 8
ii. The amount is decreased to zero
e. Discussion
i. Domenic Longarini: Is it possible to change this to a more
specific name
ii. Baltazar Cornejo: Yes. But if you rename it is still going to be
at the discretion of the Director.
iii. Jaron Brandon: The wrong approach is to give some money
that may be spent in ways that are not in line with our values as
an organization.
iv. Domenic Longarini: I really like the idea of having $2,000 or
$3,000 to go towards study halls and things like that. I really
liked that idea. Would we be able to do that?
v. Jaron Brandon: I am a huge fan of having a study area
because it affects a lot of students. Perhaps we can section off
an area for that and fund a library worker to regulate the sound
in there.
vi. Garrett Patton: I think that we should keep this pertaining to
what we are handling now; it should not be a bunch of “what-
if” proposals.
vii. Baltazar Cornejo: The Directors wrote their budget. So this is
what they are asking for.
viii. Garrett Patton: Jacob, what do you think?
ix. Jacob Gutierrez: I appreciate you asking me for my opinion,
but at the end of the day, you guys make the call.
x. Jaron Brandon: Jacob submitted this as an amount that he
thinks the future Director will need. So they are going to see the
$3,000 in their account rather than what we are talking about
them using it for now.
f. Jaron Brandon motions to change the name to Study Hall/Study
Programming
g. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng seconds
h. Discussion
i. Emily Zisser: I think that by doing that, we are telling the
Director how to do their job. I think we should leave it vague
and let them spend it as they see fit.
ii. David Ascencio: I agree with that.
iii. David Ascencio yields the floor to Jacob Gutierrez
iv. Jacob Gutierrez: Study halls will not be happening for a long
time. Agnes Wong and I have talked to Charles about this, and
it will not be occurring for a very long time. They have
discussed taking down the wall between 209 and 217 and
making it a study hall, but that is not going to happen for a long
time. So if you put money there then it is just going to sit there
for a while.
v. Jaron Brandon: I would like to see us put money in an account
with some direction as to what it will be used for. I would like
to see this line deleted and put into the General Fund. We might
have a club come and get this funding and it may not be fair or
efficient. That has already happened so I am sure it could
happen in the future.
i. Vote to change the name to Study Hall/Study Programming
i. Approved by 8
ii. Opposed by 4
iii. The name change is approved
j. Discussion
i. Dmitry Filipoff yields the floor to Jacob Gutierrez
ii. Jacob Gutierrez: Doing this does not guarantee that the
money will be spent on that.
k. No objections to keeping the amount at zero
3. Director of Academic Affairs - Undergraduate Research Journal
a. Discussion
i. David Ascencio: Undergraduate Research Journal submitted a
proposal and so did the Director of Academic Affairs. That is
where I had the issue. So I had a conversation with them about
combining those proposals.
ii. Dmitry Filipoff yields the floor to Jacob Gutierrez
iii. Jacob Gutierrez: They have a new staff or a new advisor. So it
was failure to communicate between her and myself, so that is
why that came up.
b. No objections to keeping the amount as is
4. Director of Academic Affairs - Events and Programs
a. No objections to keeping the amount as is
5. Director of Student Activities - General Fund
a. No objections to keeping the amount as is
6. Director of Student Activities -Summer Events
a. No objections to keeping the amount as is
7. Director of Student Activities -RCO Early Year Event Fund
a. Discussion
i. Jaron Brandon: Was all of this money used last year?
ii. David Ascencio: Yes it was completely used I believe.
iii. David Ascencio yields the floor to Alex Hamilton
iv. Alex Hamilton: Yes, we did use the funds. We were able to get
more students involved too. We decided that this is for events
on campus because ICC does not meet during this time. So they
can come to us and we are able to fund them.
b. No objections to keeping the amount as is
8. Campus Activity Board - General Fund
a. Discussion
i. Jaron Brandon: Why has this increased from $15,000?
ii. Jaron Brandon yields the floor to Alex Hamilton
iii. Alex Hamilton: Just so that we can have more events. We
learned a lot of new things this year from our conference and
so we want to be able to do new events. We added a bunch of
new events this year and they had great turnouts so we want
that to happen more in the future.
b. No objections to keeping the amount as is
xxix. Dmitry Filipoff motions for a 5 minute recess
xxx. Amsal Wajihuddin seconds
xxxi. No objections
xxxii. Domenic Longarini motions to extend time by one hour
xxxiii. Dmitry Filipoff seconds
xxxiv. No objections
xxxv. Line-items
1. Campus Activity Board - CAB Retreat
a. Discussion
i. Jaron Brandon: There is no money in it so maybe we should
get rid of it
b. Jaron Brandon motions to remove the line-item
c. Matthew Wainwright seconds
d. Vote to remove the line-item:
i. Approved unanimously
ii. The line-item is removed
2. Campus Activity Board - CAB Conferences
a. Discussion
i. Jaron Brandon: Why did it increase?
ii. Jaron Brandon yields the floor to Alex Hamilton
iii. Alex Hamilton: Every year I get to go and 3-5 students go with
me. But if we increase it by $500 then we can bring another
student and I think that is a great thing.
b. No objections to keeping the amount as is
3. Campus Activity Board - CAB Comedy Jam
a. No objections to keeping the amount as is
4. Campus Activity Board - CAB Welcome Week
a. Discussion
i. Jaron Brandon: I wanted to know why the amount has
increased so much.
ii. Jaron Brandon yields the floor to Alex Hamilton
iii. Alex Hamilton: We used some of the money for new events like
CAB Palooza and Comedy Jam. At the beginning of the year,
we did not have CAB members. So I had to plan these events by
myself. But for the future, we would like to have a beginning of
the year concert like we did two years ago.
iv. Jaron Brandon: So we are past Comedy Jam, but why is
Welcome Week being increased?
v. Alex Hamilton: It is so that we can have a small concert at the
beginning of the year.
b. No objections to keeping the amount as is
5. Campus Activity Board - Soul’D Out Poetry Jam
a. No objections to keeping the amount as is
6. Campus Activity Board - Chill with the Chancellor
a. Discussion
i. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng yields the floor to Alex Hamilton
ii. Alex Hamilton: This is not the amount that I asked for; it has
been decreased dramatically. So I am not sure why that
happened, but we need to provide t-shirts and food for this
social event. We do not have to pay to have the Chancellor
there, but we do need to pay for these special items. I think it
was at $2,600 before but we actually went over that because we
had to have the t-shirts expedited. Also, we went over on food.
So we tried to increase this to $3,000.
iii. Jaron Brandon: This was $2,000 last year.
b. Jaron Brandon motions to increase the amount to $2,000
c. Domenic Longarini seconds
d. Discussion
i. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng: We did go over budget with this and
we also had AKPsi help. So there is a lot of money that goes
into food. So by decreasing it, I don’t think it will be good at
all.
ii. Jaron Brandon: I think that it was a great event but maybe it
went over budget because of a budgeting issue. Having food is
good, but it shouldn’t be the reason that an event costs 50%
more.
iii. Garrett Patton: This is a great event. It is an opportunity to
have students meet the Chancellor; even some ASUCM students
have not even met the Chancellor.
e. Vote to increase the amount to $2,000
i. Approved by 11
ii. Opposed by 1
iii. The amount is increased
f. Vote to approve the amount at $2,000
i. 1 objection
ii. The amount is approved
7. Campus Activity Board - Dance Off
a. No objections to keeping the amount as is
8. Directory of Student Advocacy - General Fund
a. Discussion
i. Jaron Brandon: I am curious as to why this amount has gone
up. I believe that this money was used this year to buy an iPad.
So I am wondering why it is being changed.
ii. David Ascencio: The reason we used the money for that is
because the money was not being spent elsewhere. So we felt
that it was a good way to be spent.
b. No objections to keeping the amount as is
9. Director of Communications - General Fund
a. Discussion
i. Jaron Brandon: In Budget and Finance we discussed
decreasing this to $500. We really feel that we want the
Director of Communications to be flexible and start an idea,
but that they would still have to come to us for support and
approval. I think that if we increase the fund, we definitely need
to have a better budget breakdown as to what it will be used
for.
b. Jaron Brandon motions to reduce the amount to $500
c. Veronica Flores seconds
d. Vote to reduce the amount to $500:
i. Approved unanimously
ii. The amount is reduced to $500
e. No objections to keeping the amount as is
10. Director of Communications - ASUCM paraphernalia
a. Discussion
i. Jaron Brandon: I feel that we should clarify the name better.
Perhaps it can be something like ASUCM advertising.
ii. Garrett Patton: I think that “paraphernalia” is more in the
lingo of our bylaws.
iii. David Ascencio: My concern is that if we change it then it will
make it difficult to follow the bylaws and really understand
what they say. I think we should leave it as is.
b. No objections to keeping the amount as is
11. Director of Communications - Special Projects
a. Discussion
i. Veronica Flores: Can anyone give insight as to what “special
projects” are.
ii. Jaron Brandon: I do not have an answer for that and I think
that we should decrease it to zero.
iii. Garrett Patton: This might be your opportunity to make an
advertising fund by relabeling it.
iv. David Ascencio: I agree with that because it is specifically
supposed to be for t-shirts and bags and things like that, so that
would work really well.
v. Jaron Brandon: How do we feel about having $1,000 in that?
vi. Domenic Longarini: I think that it would be good to turn this
into an advertising line-item
b. Jaron Brandon motions to rename “Special Projects” to “ASUCM
Marketing”
c. Domenic Longarini seconds
d. Vote to rename the line-item to “ASUCM Marketing”:
i. Approved unanimously
e. No objections to keeping the amount as is
12. Director of Communications - Xerox Color Cube Supply
a. Jaron Brandon motions to reduce the amount to $1,000
b. Domenic Longarini seconds
c. Discussion
i. David Ascencio: I think that maybe $1,100 would be more
accurate so that we can have some more wiggle room. Garrett
and I have been using it a lot and it is very useful.
ii. David Ascencio yields the floor to Alex Hamilton
iii. Alex Hamilton: CAB really uses this a lot to print handouts
and flyers and posters. So we really need this to advertise for
our events.
iv. Jess Lopez: So this is for everyone to use? Senators can use it?
v. Baltazar Cornejo: Yes, as long as it is relevant to ASUCM.
vi. Jaron Brandon: About $850 has been used and I think that
$1,100 is reasonable
d. Jaron Brandon resends his previous motion
e. Jaron Brandon motions to decrease the amount to $1,100
f. Emily Zisser seconds
g. Vote to decrease the amount to $1,100:
i. Approved by 11
ii. Opposed by 1
iii. The amount is reduced
h. No objections to keeping the amount as is
13. Director of Communications - Office Supply
a. No objections to keeping the amount as is
14. Court
a. Discussion
i. Jess Lopez: Why does Court need $500?
ii. Jess Lopez yields time to Chris Grauman
iii. Chris Grauman: We cannot even buy gavels right now
because we don’t have the money to do it. It is embarrassing.
And it is only $500. We are only going to spend that money on
things that will help the Court and help the students. We are
looking at trying to buy robes as well and possibly to do some
outreach.
iv. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng: A lot of what Court spends on is the
graduation cords, the gavel, and things like that. Court is really
trying to get out there. They want to reach out to students and
let them know that they are here for all clubs. Court really
needs money to do that.
v. Amsal Wajihuddin: I think that some of us our worried that
this money will be spent on things to make you look good. I like
to look good too, but I would be all for seeing this money being
spent on outreach.
vi. Matthew Wainwright: The gavel and robes do serve a
purpose though. If we are funding all of these other clubs, I
think that we should take a little money to fund something that
is a branch of our own organization.
vii. Jaron Brandon: Court already has $200 and gavels do not
cost $300. We like to reward organizations for what they do.
But I never see Court out there tabling or reaching out to clubs;
money is not holding you back from tabling. So I do not think
that Court needs this money.
viii. Jess Lopez: I agree with Jaron. You said that $200 is useless
but I think that $200 could do a lot for outreach.
b. Jaron Brandon motions to reduce the amount to $200
c. No one seconds
d. The amount does not change
e. Discussion
i. Domenic Longarini yields the floor to Chris Grauman
ii. Chris Grauman: We had discussed having one gavel or seven.
We decided that buying seven of them was not feasible. But we
are trying to get a gavel that looks nice and will last. As far as
outreach to clubs and organizations, we are actually speaking
to Kappa Kappa Gamma this Sunday and we are trying to get
the opportunity to speak to other clubs.
iii. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng yields time to Jacob Gutierrez
iv. Jacob Gutierrez: These purchases are one time. So they will
not be making these purchases every year. So purchases should
be the least of your concerns. You should be more focused on
how they operate.
f. No objections to keeping the amount as is
15. Elections Commission
a. No objections to keeping the amount as is
16. Inter-Club Council
a. No objections to keeping the amount as is
17. Sustainability Council
a. Discussion
i. Jaron Brandon: I think that they should have at least $200 for
advertising to get people involved
b. Jaron Brandon motions to increase the amount to $200
c. Veronica Flores seconds
d. Vote to increase the amount to $200:
i. Approved unanimously
ii. The amount is increased to $200
e. No objections to keeping the amount as is
18. Neighborhood Relations Council
a. Jaron Brandon motions to add $200
b. Domenic Longarini seconds
c. Vote to add $200:
i. Approved unanimously
ii. $200 is added
d. No objections to keeping the amount as is
19. Multi-Cultural Student Council
a. Discussion
i. Jaron Brandon: I spoke to the head of this group and he felt
that $500 would be very helpful.
b. Jaron Brandon motions to increase the amount to $500
c. Agnes Wong seconds
d. Vote to increase the amount to $500:
i. Approved by 11
ii. Opposed by 1
iii. The amount is increased to $500
e. No objections to keeping the amount as is
20. ASUCM New Programs and Services General Fund
a. Discussion
i. Garrett Patton: At our meeting on Monday we decided to
strike this. Otherwise this is just money that is held up and
unnecessary.
b. Jaron Brandon motions to reduce the amount to zero
c. Domenic Longarini seconds
d. Vote to reduce the amount to zero:
i. Approved unanimously
ii. The amount is reduced to $0
e. No objections to keeping the amount as is
21. Early Childhood Education Center Scholarship Fund
a. Discussion
i. Garrett Patton: I think that it would be fair to remove $1,000
b. Matthew Wainwright motions to decrease the amount to $15,000
c. Emily Zisser seconds
d. Discussion
i. Domenic Longarini: Based on what the group said that came
to speak to us, this program is increasing and they do need
more money. So I think we should be adding $1,000 instead of
taking it away.
ii. Jaron Brandon: I think that this is something we should
support because I cannot imagine having a kid right now and I
know that the people who do have a child really need all the
funding and support that they can get.
iii. Garrett Patton: I think that we should continue to support
ECEC but I think that $15,000 is enough.
iv. Veronica Flores: I think that the amount should stay at
$15,000 because we are not going to always increase the
funding as the ECEC grows.
v. Jess Lopez: I think that we should keep it at $15,000 because
we can use that money for other students. I know that it is
students that are getting this funding, but I think that $15,000 is
plenty.
vi. Garrett Patton: I think that as ASUCM we should be
monitoring how they are using these fees. Because they help
graduate students as well so they should be going to the
Graduate Student Association for that funding.
vii. David Ascencio: Danielle Waite who is the director of the
ECEC said that she is willing to submit reports weekly or
monthly that will hold them accountable for the money.
viii. Agnes Wong yields the floor to Alex Hamilton
ix. Alex Hamilton: The funding for women and families is very
limited and I think that money should be used for programs like
this.
x. Agnes Wong: I think that $15,000 should be our max for right
now because some of it goes to graduates.
xi. Amsal Wajihuddin: So what I have collected is that we should
be reducing the amount by more than $1,000. We have all this
distrust for how they are using it, so we should decrease it by
more.
xii. Garrett Patton: You should also take into account that our
population is growing so our parent population is probably
growing as well.
xiii. David Ascencio: Originally they asked for more. In the past we
have been kind of unsure as to where the money is going
because of confidentiality reasons. But she was very clear that
whatever specifics that we have, we can make it very clear and
she can address those.
e. Vote to decrease the amount to $15,000:
i. Approved by 10
ii. Opposed by 2
iii. The amount is decreased to $15,000
f. Amsal Wajihuddin motions to reduce the amount to $13,000
g. Agnes Wong seconds
h. Discussion
i. David Ascencio: This is a decrease from last year’s amount
that we gave them and they are growing. So it doesn’t seem
rational to lower the amount that we give them. She came here
and told us how useful we are to them and it isn’t fair to
decrease them as they are growing.
ii. Amsal Wajihuddin: I lowered the amount because I do not
support the fact that we fund them at all.
i. Vote to decrease the amount to $13,000:
i. Approved by 2
ii. Opposed by 13
iii. The amount remains at $15,000
j. No objections to keeping the amount as is
22. Law Clinic - General Fund
a. Discussion
i. Jaron Brandon: I know that this is a service and not a council;
but why are we giving money to them and not groups like the
Prodigy. I feel like there are more cost effective ways to reach
out to students.
ii. Jess Lopez yields the floor to Jacob Gutierrez
iii. Jacob Gutierrez: I know what Law Clinic does with this
money. Right now we are focusing on new events like Know
Your Rights where we provide food, which is costly.
iv. Jaron Brandon: I would like to know how much the Law Clinic
used of what we gave them.
v. David Ascencio: The used $580 out of the $3,000 that we gave
them. But that does not include the Know Your Rights event that
happened a few weeks ago.
vi. Jacob Gutierrez: Some of those line-items from last year have
been cut completely. For example, Parking Permits got cut
because we found that it was more effective to point students in
the right direction towards a law office, rather than having
them come to campus.
vii. Jaron Brandon: I think that we should cut this amount because
I have not seen any advertising on Facebook or anywhere that
it is free. Putting ads in Prodigy is one of the most expensive
ways to advertise. But we will get to that after this discussion.
b. No objections to keeping the amount as is
23. Law Clinic - Prodigy Ads
a. Discussion
i. Ivan Flores: In Budget and Finance we discussed this. I felt
that this is something that it should be kept at because it is a
good way for them to advertise and they met us halfway.
xxxvi. Amsal Wajihuddin motions to extend time by one hour
xxxvii. Veronica Flores seconds
xxxviii. No objections
xxxix. Line-items
1. Prodigy Ads
a. Discussion
i. Jaron Brandon: I think that we should be changing the name
so that they can use the money for other things like printing
cheap posters.
b. Jaron Brandon motions to rename the line-item to “Marketing Funds”
and decrease the amount to $200
c. No one seconds
d. Discussion
i. Veronica Flores: From what I remember, we were funding
them per ad, which I believe is $60. I think that we should leave
it at that amount and keep the name as is because that is how
they want to advertise.
ii. Jess Lopez: Didn’t they say that they wanted money from the
General Fund to promote themselves?
iii. David Ascencio: I think that was more for programming like
for food and whatnot. So this way it is more flexible and they
can have a new program or service in the future if they wish.
e. Jaron Brandon motions to decrease the Prodigy Ads section to zero
f. Jess Lopez seconds
g. Discussion
i. Garrett Patton: I don’t think that it is fair to say that the
Prodigy is an ineffective use of advertising, but it is expensive
and there are more cost-efficient ways to advertise.
ii. Jess Lopez yields time to Jacob Gutierrez
iii. Jacob Gutierrez: Senate had the opportunity to get in on the
Prodigy Ads, but it didn’t work out at the time.
iv. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng yields the floor to Don Edwards
v. Don Edwards: I have seen a lot more effective advertisement
done for free on Facebook.
vi. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng yields the floor to Domonique Jones
vii. Domonique Jones: If you are saying that the Prodigy is
ineffective, then why aren’t you working with them to make
them more effective? You should be telling students about it and
making sure they know what is going on.
viii. Jaron Brandon: We are spending a lot of money on
advertising through the Prodigy when we could be doing other,
more cost-effective ways of advertising.
ix. Matthew Wainwright: I think that the misunderstanding that
is going on is the idea that you have to do one or the other.
They can be advertising in other ways as well as going through
the Prodigy. And it helps the Law Clinic and the Prodigy at the
same time. It is a very small amount anyways.
x. Domenic Longarini: Also, I have seen the Law Clinic tabling
every day for the last two weeks.
xi. Garrett Patton: I agree that it is a small amount but it is a
slippery slope because other clubs can make that same
argument.
xii. Veronica Flores: I just wanted to point out that we can’t tell
them what to use it for. If they don’t use it, then the money will
come back to us.
h. Vote to reduce the amount to zero
i. Approved by 3
ii. Opposed by 9
iii. The amount is not reduced
i. Discussion
i. Jess Lopez: They say that they need the money for marketing
so we should change the name
j. Jess Lopez motions to change the name to “Marketing”
k. Domenic Longarini seconds
l. Vote to change the line-item name to “Marketing”:
i. Approved unanimously
ii. The name is changed
m. Jess Lopez motions to lower the amount to $300
n. Jaron Brandon seconds
o. Vote to reduce the amount to $300:
i. Approved by 3
ii. Opposed by 7
iii. Abstained by 1
iv. The amount is not reduced
p. Discussion
i. Agnes Wong: Jacob, do you know how much the
advertisements cost?
ii. Jacob Gutierrez: I believe that it is $90 per ad
q. Vote to approve the line-item as is
i. 3 objections
r. The line-item is approved at $720
2. Business Cards
a. Discussion
i. Garrett Patton: I think that business cards should be
something that we all get at once and it should come out of the
paraphernalia fund. It would be cheaper and more efficient. I
would suggest removing this line-item and getting involved in
the group when the Director of Communications puts in the
order
ii. Garrett Patton yields the floor to Jacob Gutierrez
iii. Jacob Gutierrez: I want to make sure that this is guaranteed.
iv. Garrett Patton: It is through the executive bylaws
b. Jaron Brandon motions to remove the line-item
c. Adam Brown seconds
d. Vote to remove the line-item
i. Approved unanimously
e. Line-item is removed
3. Disability Services
a. No objections to keeping the amount as is
4. Facilities; Recycling - Earth Day Celebration
a. Discussion
i. Amsal Wajihuddin: I have no idea what this about. What does
it entail?
ii. Jaron Brandon: I think that we should be trying not to fund
Facilities in general. There are a lot of great programs the
school hosts but they have their own funding for that.
iii. David Ascencio: They are receiving funding from
Sustainability Council for this. But I put it in there just to make
sure they had some funding for next year. So they actually
asked for a little more, but the Sustainability Council does not
have enough money to fund that. If you all decide not to fund it,
they can come to Sustainability Council or to Senate. So just
because you cut it now does not mean it won’t happen.
b. No objections to keeping the amount as is
5. Food Pantry
a. Discussion
i. Jaron Brandon: I was curious as to how much has already
been spent on Food Pantry.
ii. David Ascencio: We have never funded it in the past because it
is brand new. So this money is for transportation and hygienic
materials that the state government does not fund. So this is not
for food.
iii. Ivan Flores: Next year you plan to buy those kinds of
materials?
iv. Steve Lerer: We are in a trial period of this program. But we
go through the government so it is free for us. But this money
would provide a pot, a pan, some oven mitts, and other things
that allow them to cook the food we give them. So this money
will not go for food at all.
b. No objections to keeping the amount as is
6. Information Technology - Audio and Visual Technical Support for Student
Events
a. Discussion
i. Jaron Brandon: How much was spent?
ii. David Ascencio: I would have to check that.
iii. Domenic Longarini: So to clarify, this is to pay someone to be
at the events to make sure the tech stuff works right?
iv. David Ascencio: Yes.
v. Domenic Longarini: I have a friend that works in this
department and he told me that this is very critical because if
one thing goes wrong then it can ruin the event.
vi. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng: If we cut this at all then we would not
be able to have any events in COB because only IT staff is
allowed in the back rooms where all the technical stuff is.
vii. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng yields time to Alex Hamilton
viii. Alex Hamilton: Without them, we would not be able to have
any CAB events.
ix. Jaron Brandon: I agree that it is a very important service, but
I never found out how much was used.
x. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng: They use all of it.
xi. Adam Brown yields the floor to Alex Lin
xii. Alex Lin: I work for IT. You should know that they work more
hours than what the club has asked for. In some events, the club
will start the event like two or three hours late, so the event will
go past midnight. So they put in a lot and they are very
dedicated.
xiii. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng yields the floor to Alex Hamilton
xiv. Alex Hamilton: They do go above and beyond and they really
should get paid for it. This fund is being used effectively I
promise.
xv. Jaron Brandon: I am hoping that we would have receipts of
this?
xvi. Baltazar Cornejo: Yes, but we cannot contact Cindy this late.
b. No objections to keeping the amount as is
7. Open Access Computer Lab
a. No objections to keeping the amount as is
8. Information Technology - Print Credits
a. Discussion
i. Jaron Brandon: This is something that confuses me. I think
that a lot of students do not know that they have this money.
Also, it was put into place when you could only put in $20 at a
time. But that has been updated and you can put in one dollar
at a time if you choose. So I think that this isn’t necessary.
ii. Garrett Patton: I think that this is really affordable to be
reaching the entire student body. I think that we should market
it more and let students know that we do this for them.
iii. David Ascencio: I think that this has accounted for the growing
population. The people that do use it, they use it to the max.
iv. Ivan Flores: I agree with Garrett, I think that we should market
it more. It is something that we should keep and we should
publicize it more.
b. 3 objections to approving the line-item, but not majority
c. The line-item is approved
9. Office of Student Life - Senior Week Activity
a. Discussion
i. Domenic Longarini: What is this?
ii. David Ascencio: This is for graduating seniors to encourage
them and send them off with a bang. Hopefully it will give them
a memorable experience of UC Merced on their final days here.
iii. Amsal Wajihuddin: What is the point of having a senior
function when we don’t do this the rest of the year?
iv. David Ascencio: It is right before graduation so they can
celebrate.
v. Garrett Patton: We can lower this by about $2,500.
vi. Domenic Longarini: I think that it is good to have this event
where we can spend the money that the seniors have paid into
for the past four years.
vii. Emily Zisser: I think it is a good last thing to do. It is the last
time to hang out with your classmates and I don’t think it
should be cut.
viii. Amsal Wajihuddin: My only concern is that there are parties
throughout the year. So having this as the “cherry on the cake”
is not worth $5,000
b. Amsal Wajihuddin motions to cut the entire amount
c. Jaron Brandon seconds
d. Discussion
i. Domenic Longarini: I see this as the four years that they paid
into and it didn’t all get used. So it is kind of sentimental to
have an event to celebrate them.
ii. Jaron Brandon: My feeling is that this is something that CAB
should take on. We can give the money to CAB and we will
have more accountability and the money can be used more
efficiently.
iii. Garrett Patton: This hasn’t happened in the past. I think that
we should reduce it because we can say that we want to see it
happen, but we would like to see some growth.
iv. Matthew Wainwright: I agree that it should be brought down,
but to completely cut it is not sensible.
v. Jaron Brandon: Alex, what do you think about moving this
money to CAB?
vi. Alex Hamilton: I think it would be great, but we have never
done it. Until we are able to find out what it is all about, I do
not want to put the expectations on us that we can pull it off.
vii. Garrett Patton: I think a good idea would be to partially fund
it and then CAB can get involved in it if they choose.
e. Vote to reduce the amount to zero
i. Approved by 1
ii. Opposed by 11
iii. The amount is not reduced
f. Discussion
i. Ivan Flores yields the floor to Steve Lerer
ii. Steve Lerer: I just wanted to let you know that you have all
funded OSL at $25,000. Until this year, all of that money has
gone to events. This year, you have moved money around and
in a sense you have cut the amount that you are giving Student
Life because of the way that you combined events and lineitems.
g. 1 objection to approving the line-item as is
h. The line-item is approved
10. Office of Student Life - Winter Ball
a. Discussion
i. Jaron Brandon: This is something that I had big concerns
with. Most of the money is going to food. The way this was
presented is that they asked for money and on top of that they
charged about $25 for a couple to go. That is a lot of money.
When bringing up whether we can cut it or not, it seems like
they will just raise the ticket price. I felt that was inappropriate
because they are charging students for something we are
already giving them $11,000 for.
ii. David Ascencio: OSL originally asked for $99,288. They asked
for $15,000 for the Winter Ball. So it has already been cut.
iii. Garrett Patton: I think that we should cut this and the next two
line-items so that it reduced the entire OSL funding by about
$2,000. I don’t think that would be too much to where it would
ruin the activities.
iv. Domenic Longarini: The problem is that if we cut it too much
then they will raise ticket prices for students, which means that
fewer students will go.
v. Baltazar Cornejo: Why can they double charge students like
that?
vi. David Ascencio: It is not technically double dipping; we do not
have a policy against it. It is a subsidy for the ticket. But they
have to pay for the venue which is very expensive.
vii. Jaron Brandon: I think it is a really shady way that they are
doing this. We are funding them and they are charging
students. Plus we don’t have any idea where the money is going
or what is happening there.
viii. Jaron Brandon yields the floor to Alex Hamilton
ix. Alex Hamilton: All of the students who go to this have a great
time. It is a really good event and I don’t think that cutting it or
giving it to CAB is the right way to do it.
x. Jaron Brandon: So in all the discussions that I have, there is a
loophole in the bylaws where you don’t have to pay back the
amount unless you make more than what you are given. I feel
like this is taking advantage of that oversight. Just because it is
not in the budget does not mean we will not fund it. If we cut it
now then they will come to our table and we can negotiate it
then.
xi. Garrett Patton: OSL asked for this, not CAB. And we cannot
tell them how to run their event and we definitely cannot take
their event and give it to someone else.
xii. Jaron Brandon: I am trying to say that this is something that
we should have them propose next year. It seems like they are
using a loophole in our bylaws to make this fundraiser happen.
A lot of events that are very good are $25 total cost.
xiii. Steve Lerer: This isn’t a fundraiser. They are not trying to
raise any funds, it is just an event. OSL is not trying to profit off
of you guys.
b. No objections to keeping the amount as is
11. Office of Student Life - Leadershape Conference
a. Discussion
i. Jaron Brandon: I would like to get more clarification as to
why it is so expensive to send each student.
ii. Steve Lerer: It is a six-day program which includes food and
the supplies and the speakers and everything like that. It is the
premier leadership program in the country. I have never been,
but everyone I have talked to speaks very highly about it.
iii. Jaron Brandon: In past years we have funded this at $8,000
and I think that would be a better amount for them to work with
b. Jaron Brandon motions to increase the amount to $8,000
c. Domenic Longarini seconds
d. Vote to increase the amount to $8,000:
i. Approved by 6
ii. Opposed by 6
iii. Baltazar Cornejo breaks the tie
iv. The amount is not increased
e. Discussion
i. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng: Steve is in the process of creating how
the program will work for four years. I think we should see how
it goes before we start asking to add money.
f. No objections to keeping the amount as is
xl. Domenic Longarini motions to extend time by 1 hour
xli. Dmitry Filipoff seconds
xlii. No objections
xliii. Time is extended by one hour
xliv. Line-items
1. Office of Student Life - Social Justice Retreats
a. Discussion
i. Jaron Brandon: Along with the discussion about Students of
Color Conference and whatnot, I feel like a lot of these
conferences and retreats are the same kind of thing
ii. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng yields time to Alex Hamilton
iii. Alex Hamilton: This is a retreat, it is not a conference. It is a
chance to bond and create goals for ourselves.
b. No objections to keeping the amount as is
2. Fraternity and Sorority Council Support Fund
a. Discussion
i. Domenic Longarini: Can you speak more about what they use
this money for?
ii. Jaron Brandon: I am the leader of this group and we have
limitations in our bylaws as to what we can use this money for.
We use some of this money to go specifically to Greek Week
and activities like that. Some of the money was not used or has
not been used yet. But we do have some Greek events coming
up. But this amount is a decrease from $3,000 and I support
that $500 decrease.
iii. Matthew Wainwright: Would you be okay with removing
another $500?
iv. Jaron Brandon: I would not support that. This money is going
to philanthropy and good causes in the community. So I would
not support removing any more money.
v. Veronica Flores: Will that go against our bylaws that you will
be using the money for philanthropy?
vi. Jaron Brandon: No. That is actually one of the only things we
can use this money for.
b. No objections to keeping the amount as is
3. Bobcat Radio - Conferences
a. Discussion
i. Jaron Brandon: As a freshman senator, we had discussed this
being ineffective. So this is the third year of them being an
ineffective group. Most people don’t even know it exists or
where to find it. I would support it more at like $200 which will
allow them to advertise and outreach. But I think in the future
they need to come here and tell us how they are going to
improve.
xlv. Domenic Longarini motions for five minute recess
xlvi. Amsal Wajihuddin seconds
xlvii. Senate has a 5 minute recess
xlviii. Line-items
1. Bobcat Radio- Conferences
a. Discussion
i. Domenic Longarini: I understand that we may not be aware of
many things that Bobcat Radio does, but it is a way that
students can get involved in the radio field. We do not have a
major associated with this, so it is a way to teach people how
radio works.
ii. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng: They have new leaders and they
envision for it to get it going again. Also, we have already cut
their amount by half. If we give them zero then they will never
get off the ground.
iii. Jaron Brandon: The issue is that we have been saying that for
the last few years. We put money in up front and then ask them
to plan later. But we are accountable for their actions if we are
giving them money. We cannot just put money there and expect
that they will use is appropriately. They need to have
leadership that can show us that they have a sufficient vision.
iv. Domenic Longarini: Did anyone at the hearing see that their
new leadership has a good vision?
v. David Ascencio: I kind of agree with Jaron. I think that we can
give them some money so that they can show what they can do,
but this year I have not received any input from them. The new
president seems like he is trying to create a new image for
Bobcat Radio and he is very willing to work with ASUCM.
vi. Ivan Flores: From what I recall, this guy was very flexible on
working with us. The reason a lot of people have not heard of
them is because they are on podcast. But I am down to cut their
conference amount.
vii. Veronica Flores: I have been here for 3 years and I have never
heard of Bobcat Radio. I just Googled it and their website came
up; they have not updated it since November, 2010. It seems
like they talk about it a lot but they do not get much done.
viii. Amsal Wajihuddin: I am all for cutting their funds as a way to
evoke them to come to us personally.
b. Emily Zisser motions to reduce the amount to zero
c. Ivan Flores seconds
d. Vote to reduce the amount to zero:
i. Approved by 11
ii. Opposed by 1
iii. The amount is reduced to zero
e. No objections to keeping the amount as is
2. Bobcat Radio - Licenses
a. Discussion
i. Jaron Brandon: I feel that this is something that every year is
spent but is not really used.
b. Jaron Brandon motions to reduce the amount to zero
c. Amsal Wajihuddin seconds
d. Discussion
i. Domenic Longarini: I would actually like to keep the licensing
money so that if they find a way to make it work halfway
through the year, they will have the money to license the radio.
Otherwise they will be marketing for a club that doesn’t exist.
ii. Emily Zisser: They can’t outreach if they don’t have the
licenses because they won’t have the music to fee.
iii. Jaron Brandon: You can advertise something to get people
involved in an idea. Also, Veronica Flores said that they have
not added anything since 2010. So they have been paying for
those licensing fees, but they are not using them. So if they can
get people excited about Bobcat Radio, then they can come to
us and get funding for the money for licensing.
iv. Amsal Wajihuddin: The only intent that we have of completely
draining their funds is to get them here.
e. Vote to reduce the amount to zero:
i. Approved by 7
ii. Opposed by 5
iii. The amount is reduced to zero
f. No objections to keeping the amount as is
3. Bobcat Radio - Equipment
a. Amsal Wajihuddin motions to reduce the amount to zero
b. Veronica Flores seconds
c. Discussion
i. Jaron Brandon: I would like to see this money go to some sort
of outreach fund. I would like to see this come back, but I don’t
think that the money needs to be used for equipment.
ii. Adam Brown: You have taken away their conference money
and their licensing money, why not just cut it and have them
come to Senate for everything later.
d. Vote to reduce the amount to zero:
i. Approved by 7
ii. Opposed by 4
iii. Abstained by 1
iv. The amount is reduced to zero
e. Jaron Brandon motions to create a new line-item entitled “Outreach”
with $200
f. Domenic Longarini seconds
g. Discussion
i. Domenic Longarini: I know that it is a really small amount but
I do like the idea of giving them some money to work with.
ii. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng: For equipment, they are requesting
microphones. For outreach, what are they going to do? They
cannot hand out flyers saying that you should listen to them, but
they don’t have the licensing fees to put anything on the radio.
iii. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng yields time to Alex Hamilton
iv. Alex Hamilton: If they haven’t done anything since 2010, they
should be here fighting for it. I don’t think we should be
handing them money when they haven’t done anything.
v. Amsal Wajihuddin: These outreach efforts will only be
applicable if they are doing something, which they clearly
aren’t.
vi. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng: If you just throw $200 at them, it is
going to be useless without licensing fees.
vii. Domenic Longarini: I would like to see this club succeed, but
we have already taken away the other items. So I think that it
would be useless to give them the $200.
h. Vote to create the “Outreach” line-item with $200
i. Approved by 1
ii. Opposed by 11
iii. The line-item is not created
i. No objections to keeping the amount at zero dollars
4. Prodigy
a. Discussion
i. Jaron Brandon: We do not have a journalism program on
campus, and the Prodigy allows students to get experience in
that field. I recognize that they are independent. In the long
run, the Prodigy should be completely independent of ASUCM.
However, cutting their funding from $10,000 to $0 is just
unfair. I think it would be better to cut it to $5,000 so that they
can send some people on the conferences, but then we can cut it
more in the future.
b. Jaron Brandon motions to increase the amount to $5,000
c. Domenic Longarini seconds
d. Discussion
i. Emily Zisser: David, why did you decide to lower the amount
to zero?
ii. David Ascencio: Me and Garrett and Baltazar discussed it and
it came down to a vote. We felt that if they are self-sufficient
then they shouldn’t need ASUCM.
iii. Baltazar Cornejo: Let me clarify that they are self-sufficient as
far as everything they do on campus; but going on the
conference will improve the quality of their work.
iv. Garrett Patton: Do you feel that it is practical for us to cut
you?
v. Garrett Patton yields the floor to Chris Grauman
vi. Chris Grauman: Just as Baltazar said, we can function
without your funding, but it comes down to the difference of us
functioning and us functioning well. We do not have an advisor
or academic oversight. So going to conferences kind of gives us
that direction that we need which we do not get on this campus.
We are working to get some donors for these trips in the future;
so we plan to wean away from ASUCM, but to cut us
completely is just not feasible. This is our only educational
opportunity and our only chance to get feedback from the
journalistic community.
e. Vote to increase the amount to $5,000
i. Approved by 7
ii. Opposed by 5
iii. The amount is increased to $5,000
f. Discussion
i. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng: I think that we should increase the
amount. Cutting them off by half each year is too much.
g. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng motions to increase the amount to $8,500
h. Amsal Wajihuddin seconds
i. Discussion
i. Emily Zisser: Already, to give them $5,000 is more than what
we give most RCO’s. So I don’t think that we should go higher.
ii. Domenic Longarini: They are not an RCO, they are a service.
Also I think that we should be supporting them in making the
paper as good as possible. They have been bringing in people
who teach them what it takes to put together a newspaper and it
really is a learning experience for everyone involved.
iii. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng: Just so you know, their spring
conference is in New York, so it is very costly. Their fall
conference shifts around in location so you may not know how
much it will cost.
iv. Jaron Brandon: I feel more comfortable giving them $5,000.
We are not cutting them off cold turkey, but we are weaning
them off in a short time span.
v. Veronica Flores: Do you guys have requirements for people
who go on these trips?
vi. Chris Grauman: Yes. The people who go have to be involved
for at least one semester before they can go on a conference.
vii. Amsal Wajihuddin: Is there another route where you guys get
money?
viii. Chris Grauman: We are self-sufficient so we make all of our
money through the ads that we sell.
ix. Amsal Wajihuddin: So if we cut this down to $5,000 then you
can still go on conferences?
x. Chris Grauman: Yes, it would be possible.
j. Vote to increase the amount to $8,500
i. Approved by 7
ii. Opposed by 5
iii. The amount is increased to $8,500
k. No objections to keeping the amount as is
xlix. Domenic Longarini motions to move to Savings and Investment and return to RCO
section later
l. Veronica Flores seconds
li. Discussion
1. Jaron Brandon: I think we should go through in order. I think that we should
go through RCO’s first so that we are not just more tired when we come to
clubs.
2. Garrett Patton: I don’t think it really disrupts anything and it will only take
about 10 minutes
3. David Ascencio: We have been adding and subtracting to the General Fund.
So our concern is that we have $500 in the red. So we don’t have any money to
allocate. So we need to loosen up some money for the RCO’s.
4. Jaron Brandon: I think that we should be considering that our General Fund
is what is left over and I don’t think we need to change the order
lii. Vote on moving to Savings and Investment
1. Approved by 11
2. Opposed by 1
3. Savings and Investment is moved to be before the RCO discussion
liii. Line-items
1. Savings and Investments - Student Union
a. Discussion
i. Garrett Patton: The goal is to increase this every year. The
savings just sits there every year but we hope that it becomes a
substantial part of the budget so that we can use it for
something one day.
ii. Veronica Flores: So at the moment, there is no Student Union?
iii. Garrett Patton: No
iv. David Ascencio: We are saving up so we can add a building
one day.
v. Garrett Patton: Do you guys want to cut it or leave it as is?
vi. Agnes Wong: How much did we invest last year?
vii. Garrett Patton: $16,324. So we have been putting away a
portion of our budget and as the budget gets bigger, that
percentage gets bigger.
viii. Domenic Longarini: Going off of the Student Advocacy survey,
we had about 280 responses. We did have a question about the
Student Union and 85% of the students said that they did want
it on campus.
ix. Jaron Brandon: One thing to consider is that this is incredibly
expensive. It is tough enough to fund our offices right now; but
we do have this money banked away and it could be cut without
sacrificing the future of the Student Union. We are a long, long
way away from being able to afford a building.
x. Steve Lerer: To clarify, this is not to build the building. That
costs millions of dollars. But this fund will be for the tables and
chairs and things like that. So this fund is for when the building
is built and ASUCM will be able to write the check to furnish it.
b. No objections to keeping the amount as is
liv. Jess Lopez motions to extend time by one hour
lv. Domenic Longarini seconds
lvi. No objections
lvii. Time is extended by one hour
lviii. Line-items
1. Savings and Investments - Future ASUCM Payroll
a. Discussion
i. Jaron Brandon: This fund is here so that in the future when
there is a growth issue that we can hire a new person. I don’t
think that will be an immediate problem. Also, if you are a
graduating senior then you won’t get to see this at all even
though you are paying into it.
b. Jaron Brandon motions to reduce the amount to zero
c. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng seconds
d. Discussion
i. Domenic Longarini: So this will cut the money from Steve
Lerer’s position?
ii. David Ascencio: No that is separate. We are just paying into
this account so that we can have the money to hire a new
position, such as an accountant and their assistant, when the
time comes that we need that. This has only been in existence
for one year.
iii. Jaron Brandon: This is a recurring line-item and I think that it
is very unnecessary. Again, the people graduating would not
get to see their money going to use.
e. Vote to reduce the amount to zero
i. Approved unanimously
ii. The amount is reduced to zero
f. No objections to keeping the amount as is
2. Biomedical Engineering Society Conferences
a. Discussion
i. Garrett Patton yields time to Ken Gaffney
ii. Ken Gaffney: Clubs ask for a certain amount to be
appropriated to them, but you guys usually give them less. But I
have this spreadsheet which shows the percentage of that
amount that you gave them.
lix. Matthew Wainwright motions to approve the travel section items as a whole
lx. Domenic Longarini seconds
lxi. Vote
1. Approved by 7
2. Opposed by 5
3. The travel section items are approved as a whole
lxii. Travel section line-items
1. Discussion
a. Emily Zisser: I would like to talk about NSBE because their amounts
are tripled
b. David Ascencio: They are a very good group on campus. They have
received awards out of any NSBE in the nation and also they have
representatives on the West Coast chapter. So this was kind of a kudos
for them and we are funding them in hopes that they can do more.
c. Agnes Wong: We already gave them a lot of money and I don’t think it
is fair to other engineer clubs
d. Ivan Flores: I think that we should commend them for putting UC
Merced in a national spotlight. They put in a lot of work and Lacy won
the position she told us they would.
e. Emily Zisser: I don’t think it is fair to judge a club based on that
because you are forgetting about the clubs that also put our name on
the map. I think it is insulting to those clubs to say that NSBE does a
better job of representing the school than they do.
f. Garrett Patton: We are not saying that. But they have built this web of
national contacts and have done so much with what we are giving
them. We are only giving them about 27% of what they ask for. It is a
small percentage of the club.
g. Veronica Flores: Clubs are always going to ask for more than they
need because they know we are going to cut them back. I know for a
fact that they are going to come back either way. So I think that we
should cut it to $4,000 or $5,000
2. Veronica Flores makes a motion to reduce the NSBE line-item to $4,500
3. Domenic Longarini seconds
4. Discussion
a. Jaron Brandon: They are one of the largest organizations and I feel
that the amount they are asking for is reasonable for everything that
they do
b. Agnes Wong: I think that giving them $4,500 is ideal because they do
a lot of things and so they deserve that amount. But it shouldn’t be up
to us to say that NSBE did good work so we should give them more
money. The other clubs are doing good work as well.
c. Matthew Wainwright: I think that is the point of Senate actually. If
someone is making us look good on a national scale, then we should
fund them as much as we can. That is why we are elected here.
d. Jess Lopez: I want to agree with what Matthew Wainwright said and
also I think it is important to note that we are giving them more
because they are asking for more.
e. Steve Lerer: I think that it is important to tell these groups that this is
the amount that we believe that we can fund them. So we should give
them this money and they should not be coming back to us in the
future.
f. Matthew Wainwright: I think that this is how much they deserve,
nothing more and nothing less so we should vote on it
5. Vote to reduce the NSBE line item to $4,500
a. Approved by 4
b. Opposed by 8
c. The NSBE line-item is not reduced
6. Discussion
a. Jaron Brandon: The Science and Engineering Association
Conferences asked for more money so why are we cutting it by $300?
b. Garrett Patton: This group has a very small membership. They send a
select group to go on these conferences. These are the two things that
they do with regards to ASUCM. Other groups do things on campus
and bring those experiences back to campus, but they don’t do that. So
we are advising them to start doing that.
c. David Ascencio: At the hearings they all seemed very knowledgeable
about it and that was because they had all gone two or three times to
the same conferences. So I really have not seen them as an active
organization and I feel like they haven’t really been in tune with the
campus.
d. Garrett Patton: Campus community is important and I think it is
important that we fund this so that they can start to come to us so that
we can have those conversations.
e. Jaron Brandon: If the reasoning is that they have very small
membership and that they haven’t done anything on campus, why are
we giving them $3,700? By sending repeat people and very few people,
those are both reasons to not send them again.
f. David Ascencio: Our word choice was off in that they do have events.
They have study sessions and an Academic Night where they have
speakers come.
g. Jaron Brandon: I wanted to also ask why Society of Women Engineers
amount got cut.
h. David Ascencio: It didn’t really get cut much; the two funds are just
separated. Also, I have had issues with contacting them. Plus they did
not submit their mid-year progress report.
i. Garrett Patton: So we did decrease their funding because of the lack
of communication and whatnot.
j. Jaron Brandon: I also wanted to discuss Society of Engineers. I know
that we had issues with them this year, but they are a very dedicated
club and they also bring us national attention.
k. Garrett Patton: For conferences, we gave them enough money to send
some people and bring the information back to the club.
l. Amsal Wajihuddin: I noticed that the Hmong Student Association was
allocated more money than they asked for and I was wondering why
that happened?
m. Amsal Wajihuddin yields the floor to Ken Gaffney
n. Ken Gaffney: HSA said that they would not mind having the amount
lowered. They would be fine with the minimum to be $1,500. They are
just asking for the money for travel but they will cover registration and
the money to spend while they are there.
7. Amsal Wajihuddin motions to decrease the HSA travel fund to $1,500
8. Domenic Longarini seconds
9. Discussion
a. Emily Zisser: I think we should reward HSA for trying to cut the
amount that they are asking for and trying to fund themselves
b. Agnes Wong: They also fundraise a lot so we should reward that
10. Amsal Wajihuddin resends his motion
11. Discussion
a. Jaron Brandon: I want to recommend that we add the $1,800 into the
Society of Automotive Engineers Conference so that they can send
more people
12. Jaron Brandon motions to increase the Society of Automotive Engineers
Conference fund to $3,000
13. Domenic Longarini seconds
14. Discussion
a. Emily Zisser: My understanding was that we are just funding their
registration.
b. Jaron Brandon: Even if we decide not to necessarily increase it, I
think you should all consider how much work they do. I was not
particularly supportive of funding their car building, but I think that
letting them attend a convention and make those connections is very
beneficial to them. I think it would really help them if we increase their
funding.
15. Vote to increase the SAE Conference line-item to $3,000
a. Approved by 8
b. Opposed by 3
c. The amount is increased to $3,000
16. Discussion
a. Jaron Brandon: I wanted to look at the Business Society’s travel fund.
In the past they have asked for $2,500 and that has been lowered to
$2,000 so I would suggest raising it to $2,500
b. Garrett Patton: Their president asked specifically that the $500 go to
their new project, the Management Review. So you can still increase it,
but that is up to you.
c. Jaron Brandon: Business Society has been very well organized on
campus and I think that they are very conservative about asking for
money from ASUCM.
17. Jaron Brandon motions to add $500 to the Business Society Conferences and
Trips fund
18. Agnes Wong seconds
19. Vote to add $500 to the Business Society Conferences and Trips fund
a. Approved by 9
b. Opposed by 3
c. The amount is increased to $2,500
20. Jaron Brandon motions to increase the Alternative Spring Break fund to
$2,500
21. Veronica Flores seconds
22. Jaron Brandon resends his motion
lxiii. Jess Lopez motions to extend time by 1 hour
lxiv. Domenic Longarini seconds
lxv. 3 objections, but not majority
lxvi. Time is extended by one hour
lxvii. Discussion
1. Jaron Brandon: For Lambda Alliance, I got to go on one of these trips and I
think that it was a great opportunity. They are looking to receive $4,000 and
that was cut. But I think it should go back.
lxviii. Jaron Brandon motions to increase the Lambda Alliance Women Regional Conference
fund to $4,000
lxix. Veronica Flores seconds
lxx. Discussion
1. Veronica Flores: They are a great group and I have seen them tabling and
putting in a lot of work so I think we should do this.
lxxi. Vote to increase the amount for Lambda Alliance fund to $4,000
1. Approved unanimously
lxxii. Jaron Brandon motions to add a line-item for ASME Conferences for $2,100
lxxiii. Dmitry Filipoff seconds
lxxiv. Vote to add the ASME Conference line-item with $2,100
1. Approved unanimously
lxxv. Jaron Brandon motions to add a second line-item for ASME with $500
lxxvi. Dmitry Filipoff seconds
lxxvii. Vote to add the second ASME line-item with $500
1. Approved unanimously
lxxviii. Vote to approve the entire Travel Fund block as a whole with all of the new changes
1. Approved unanimously
d. Campus events, Programs, and Services
i. Emily Zisser motions to remove the SAE line-item
ii. Agnes Wong seconds
iii. Vote to remove the SAE line-item
1. Approved by 9
2. Opposed by 2
3. Abstained by 1
4. The line-item is removed
iv. Veronica Flores motions to increase SAE Materials line-item to $3,000
v. Matthew Wainwright seconds
vi. Discussion
1. Jaron Brandon: I feel that Materials was one of the big issues that we had
last year. I do not think that we should be increasing it.
vii. Vote to increase the SAE Materials line-item to $3,000
1. Approved by 9
2. Opposed by 2
3. The line-item is increased to $3,000
viii. Emily Zisser motions to increase Ohana’s line-item to $3,550
ix. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng seconds
x. Discussion
1. Emily Zisser: This is one of the biggest events on campus and I think that we
should give them what they need to make it awesome again.
2. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng: I worked it this year and it is a great event.
3. Garrett Patton: They funded it themselves last year and that was unfortunate
that they had to do it that way but I think we should fully fund them now
xi. Vote to increase Ohana’s line-item to $3,550
1. Approved unanimously
xii. Discussion
1. Jaron Brandon: I wanted to talk about Psi Chi
2. Jaron Brandon yields the floor to Don Edwards
3. Don Edwards: I think that if we can increase the funding that we get then we
can definitely reach out to hundreds of more students
4. Ivan Flores: I agree with that. If we bump up the funding then it will open the
door for more psychology students to get involved. We have so many
psychology students on campus and I think that we should bump it up.
xiii. Ivan Flores motions to increase the Psi Chi line-item to $1,400
xiv. Jaron Brandon seconds
xv. Discussion
1. Garrett Patton: We fully funded them with this amount
2. Garrett Patton yields the floor to Don Edwards
3. Don Edwards: If you look at the amount of students to the amount of funding
we are given, we are very efficient.
xvi. Vote to increase the Psi Chi line-item to $1,400
1. Approved by 2
2. Opposed by 9
3. Abstained by 1
4. The amount is not increased
xvii. Discussion
1. Jaron Brandon: I think that Business Society does an amazing Haunted
House each year and we should fully fund them
xviii. Jaron Brandon motions to increase the Business Society Haunted House line-item to
$1,260
xix. Agnes Wong seconds
xx. Discussion
1. Agnes Wong: Business Society is always looking to improve and expand and I
think that $900 may not be enough to expand again. This year we did a
collaboration carnival and it was really successful.
2. Jaron Brandon yields the floor to Alex Hamilton
3. Alex Hamilton: I have gone to the Haunted House every year and it is
thoroughly enjoyable. They do so much with this money and I think that it is a
great event.
xxi. Vote to increase the Business Society Haunted House line-item to $1,260
1. Approved unanimously
xxii. Emily Zisser motions to increase the Hip Hop Movement Programming to $5,000
xxiii. Jaron Brandon seconds
xxiv. Discussion
1. Domenic Longarini: How much are we at for remaining funds?
2. David Ascencio: We are at $9,000
3. Amsal Wajihuddin: My suggestion would be to spare the leftover money for
the General Fund unless you specifically want them to get more money
4. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng: These clubs took the initiative to come to us and we
have already cut them a lot. So I think that we should increase their funding.
xxv. Vote to increase the Hip Hop Movement Programming to $5,000
1. Approved by 11
2. Opposed by 1
3. The line-item is increased
xxvi. Jaron Brandon motions to add a new line-item American Society of Mechanical
Engineering AIT Classes with $500
xxvii. Emily Zisser seconds
xxviii. Vote to add an ASME AIT Class line-item with $500
1. Approved unanimously
xxix. Discussion
1. Jaron Brandon: I would like to talk about Chi Alpha because they come to us
every year for the same amount and this year we cut it significantly
2. Domenic Longarini: What was it actually for?
3. Garrett Patton: I believe that it was for their retreat
4. Baltazar Cornejo: A retreat is travel and it is not a campus event
5. Jaron Brandon yields the floor to Ken Gaffney
6. Ken Gaffney: Yes, it is for their Chi Alpha fall retreat conference, so it should
probably be under travel
xxx. Domenic Longarini motions to increase the Chi Alpha line-item to $5,000
xxxi. Jess Lopez seconds
xxxii. Discussion
1. Veronica Flores: How many people are going on this conference?
2. Baltazar Cornejo: It has a lot of people. Like 45 or something.
3. Jaron Brandon yields the floor to Ken Gaffney
4. Ken Gaffney: They asked to send 44 students.
5. David Ascencio: If you guys do approve this then it will take over half of what
is left to give to other clubs
6. Domenic Longarini: It seems like we have the funding and this club does
things constantly. They have over 40 people going and it is a good trip for
them.
7. Veronica Flores: Last year they came back to us for funding so as long as that
doesn’t happen again, I think it is reasonable to fund them completely.
xxxiii. Vote to increase Chi Alpha’s line-item to $5,000
1. Approved by 7
2. Opposed by 5
3. Line-item is increased to $5,000
xxxiv. Domenic Longarini motions to move the Chi Alpha line-item to travel funds and
rename it with “Fall Retreat”
xxxv. Veronica Flores seconds
xxxvi. Vote to move and rename the Chi Alpha line-item
1. Approved unanimously
xxxvii. Jaron Brandon motions to increase the Latino Associated Student Cinco De Mayo
line-item by $3,060
xxxviii. Domenic Longarini seconds
xxxix. Discussion
1. Veronica Flores: I have gone to this event every year and it is always
different. It is a very successful event and very cultural. I think that we should
fully support this.
2. Jaron Brandon: This is a club that works with various other clubs on campus
and that is commendable and we should be rewarding that
xl. Vote to increase the Latino Associated Student Cinco De Mayo line-item to $9,565
1. Approved by 8
2. Opposed by 3
3. Abstained by 1
4. The line-item is increased
xli. Discussion
1. Jaron Brandon: I wanted to discuss the Enactus line-item. This club is
something that we should try and fund as much as we can. I know it would be
dipping into the General Fund a little bit, but I think that it is a club that deals
with issues that are so prevalent in society.
xlii. Jaron Brandon motions to increase the Enactus line-item to $2,500
xliii. Domenic Longarini seconds
xliv. Discussion
1. David Ascencio: When I deleted the Chi Alpha I noticed that it was in the
other area as well, so we won’t have to dip into the General Fund to fund this
xlv. Vote to increase the Enactus line-item to $2,500
1. Approved by 8
2. Opposed by 1
3. Abstained by 2
4. The amount is increased
xlvi. Discussion
1. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng: Ohana is a great club and we should increase them
more
2. Emily Zisser: I agree. I only increased their amount by a little to be
conservative but we have the money and it is a great event.
xlvii. Emily Zisser motions to add $150 to the Ohana line-item
xlviii. Adam Brown seconds
xlix. Discussion
1. David Ascencio: We cut the Psi Chi line-item and now we are talking about
adding more to a club that we already gave money to
l. Vote to add $150 to Ohana line-item
1. Approved by 0
2. Opposed by 11
3. Abstained by 1
4. The amount is not increased
li. Matthew Wainwright motions to add $150 to Psi Chi
lii. Veronica Flores seconds
liii. Discussion
1. David Ascencio: This looks really bad that we are adding money to something
we just voted against
2. Matthew Wainwright: It is only $150 and they deserve the money
3. Jaron Brandon: This is about the principle because we already went over
their bill
4. Jaron Brandon yields the floor to Don Edwards
5. Don Edwards: Please think about how many students this will effect.
6. Veronica Flores: The only reason why I voted for them not to get more money
was because we weren’t sure where it was going to go to. But it is only $150
more and I urge you to fund them.
liv. Vote to increase the Psi Chi line-item by $150
1. Approved by 7
2. Opposed by 5
3. The line-item is increased
lv. Discussion
1. Jaron Brandon: I think that we should be funding The Entrepreneurial
Society fully. They provide on campus leadership and great skills.
lvi. Jaron Brandon motions to move $3,000 from the General Fund and move it to The
Entrepreneurial Society line-item
lvii. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng seconds
lviii. Discussion
1. Emily Zisser: I think that we should leave the money in the General Fund and
see how they do with the event this year. If it goes well then we can fund them
more next year.
2. Garrett Patton: They also have a lot of senior leadership so we should wait
and see how they do in the fall with the change in leadership.
lix. Vote to add
1. Approved by 2
2. Opposed by 10
3. The amount is not increased
e. Veronica Flores motions to increase time by 30 minutes
f. Emily Zisser seconds
g. No objections
h. Vote to approve the Campus Events, Programs, and Services Line-Items
i. Approved unanimously
i. General Fund
i. Discussion
1. Jaron Brandon: Why was the Contingency Fund increased this year from last
year?
2. David Ascencio: Because our campus is growing so I am accounting for that.
3. Jaron Brandon: About the petty cash reserves, the reimbursements process is
terrible. Is there a way that we can make that easier for the EVP?
4. David Ascencio: Petty cash reserves are different from reimbursements. Petty
cash is set to this amount by the bylaws. So you can’t do anything about it.
5. Jaron Brandon: Is there a way that we can create another line-item to do
something about the reimbursements?
6. David Ascencio: Not right now.
ii. Vote to approve the ASUCM General Fund
1. Approved unanimously
14. New Business
a. Overturning of Presidential Veto-Resolution #08
i. Domenic Longarini motions to overturn the Presidential Veto
ii. Emily Zisser seconds
iii. Discussion
1. Jaron Brandon: I don’t know what was exactly passed because of all of the
changes.
2. Baltazar Cornejo: If you overturn this then you will be passing the original
resolution with no amendments
iv. Vote to overturn the veto
1. Approved by: Jaron Brandon
2. Opposed by: Matthew Wainwright, Emily Zisser, Agnes Wong, Veronica
Flores, Jess Lopez, Ivan Flores, Jefferson Kuoch-Seng, Adam Brown, Amsal
Wajihuddin, Dmitry Filipoff, and Domenic Longarini
3. The veto is not overturned
15. Announcements
a. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng: CAB is having a CAB bingo this week and there will be double the
amount of prizes. Jess, Jeffrey, and myself will be going to UC Irvine to discuss issues and
I’m sure that divestment will be on there.
b. Garrett Patton: Thank you to everyone you guys did a phenomenal job. Last year it was
done really hastily and it was bad planning for this year. So thank you for doing this right.
c. Steve Lerer: You guys did a great job and with my calculations you really increased the
funding of on campus events
d. Domenic Longarini: The Impeachment Adhoc Committee will be meeting on Friday at
12:00pm in KL 368
e. Jaron Brandon: Derby Days is coming up next week
f. Ivan Flores: Relay for Life is coming up and I think it would be great for ASUCM to be there
g. Jefferson Kuoch-Seng: There is a new event this Friday in the bowl. It will be similar to
Battle of the DJ’s.
h. Jaron Brandon: For SFC we had our elections and if you want to start working with the
governing body of Greek life please let me know.
16. Adjournment
a. Ivan Flores motions to adjourn
b. Dmitry Filipoff seconds
c. 4:31am