2013-2014 ASUCM Senate
ASUCM Regular Senate Meeting Agenda
5200 N. Lake Road KL169, Merced, CA 95343 – P: (209) 228-7468
E: asucm@ucmerced.edu W: http://asucm.ucmerced.edu
Spring 2014 Session
Wednesday, March 12th, 2014 at 7:30PM
Chancellor’s Conference Room (KL 232)
I.
Call to Order
a.
II.
III.
IV.
7:32pm
Roll Call
a.
All present except Senator Justo
b.
Senator He and Senator Prado tardy
Approval of Agenda
a.
Senator Garai motions to approve
b.
Senator Taylor seconds
c.
No discussion
d.
Approved
Approval of Minutes
a.
Senator Daniel motions to approve
b.
Senator Gaerlan
c.
Discussion
1. Senator Mondo: Senator Garai abstained in Bill 58
d.
V.
Approved
Guest Speaker- Michael Reese, Vice Chancellor for Business and Administrative Services
a.
You are incredibly efficient! It is a real honor to be here. Business and Administrative
Service is really dry but I don’t get to interact with students. I am a native Californian, third
generation. I got my degree from Riverside, I started in UCLA and started at Santa Barbara
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and decided to stay at UC Riverside. I did an internship during my last quarter there and
landed me a journalism job for the next 15 years. I am fascinated by politics and got to work
for Willy Brown, then became governor of San Francisco. So I have had a varied career. I
got the opportunity to work in the Office of the President. Prop 209 had just passed and
there was trouble there since it meant that the changing California could not be served. I
came to the campus about six or seventh months ago, you guys seduced me. I was here a
couple of weeks and I had fallen in love with the campus, what this campus represents and
fell in love what the future has. We can serve the people of California at UC Merced.
I oversee the accounting and the building. I had a meeting early today about the ECEC
because we are embarking a review on that center to see if it is serving the needs with the
campus today and moving forward. There was also a discussion on parking that affects all
of us. I got to tour the little lake amphitheater. So what I do impacts students but I have to
hear from you. I have an open door policy and I feel that you guys don’t take advantage of
that. I have a goal, I don’t want to be like Berkeley or UCLA. I want to build systems that
are appropriate for this time and I want to see UCLA come and do it our way. The
administration is too big and too expensive whereas we can reinvent. This is my second
week on the job as a Vice Chancellor. I would love to hear questions or concerns.
o Questions
o Senator Zisser: What are the future plans on parking?
o Reese: We have needed to go to an outside firm that could study ourselves and bring in
some new approaches so I would love to comeback to discuss those. We can’t just pave
and create parking lots. We will have to develop models like carpooling.
o Senator Garai: I met with TAPS today, how is your expertise with helping them with
your financial stance? How are they reimbursed for that or the financing?
o Reese: I am arguing for a pause in building any new lots until the Project 20/20 plan. We
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are about a few months away from delegating where the parking lots will go. We are
looking for options like Park and Rides in town. It will be inconvenient for a while
instead of building and wasting money.
o President Brandon: Will this be a committee that will be brought back up?
o Reese: let’s recreate it, absolutely.
o Senator Garai motions to extend time by 2 minutes
o Senator Daniel
o No discussion
o Extended
o Senator Garai: At the end of the letter, you state things that you would like to do as a
vice chancellor. What are you working on now?
o Reese: So far I have been doing reviews. I want to reinvent Merced Administrative
Systems. This campus had to move quickly and it opened 2 years before it should have.
They borrowed from other campuses, a total of 4. They are bad systems. First order was
to understand the organizational structures so I have reviewed the Student Financial
Services. We are accountable to the tax payers because we are a public institution. I then
moved to HR. It is a huge function for faculty and staff to reorganize it into a customer
service model. I just made a change in facilities and thinking about the future in 2020;
making sure that we do not do dumb things today. So I am going through my
organization to determine right structure and right people and making the changes that
we need to make in order to support the coming changes.
o Shelby: Is there any talk of improving benefits for custodial workers?
o Reese: We are doing a compensation philosophy with lower paid workers and from
there, emerges a strategy. We have a high number of employees who make under 10% of
the market but they choose to work here for the benefits and paying them criminally
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low. In about two months, there will be a completed study that suggests what areas are
underpaid, but custodians are and it is embarrassing. The chancellor will have to make
decisions and this will be transparent and cleared.
o Senator Brown: I know that a lot of the accounting goes to UCLA, I know that
researching accounting go through UCLA.
o Reese: their financial system is our financial system. It is as if we were a school at
UCLA and they treat us like that by the way.
o Senator Brown: is there thoughts of building our own accounting?
o Reese: Yes because it made sense 10 years ago but it doesn’t make sense today. We need
to get beyond an all UC Payroll System so we need to study our own system
o President Brandon: one thing that we remember was the plasmification system, and I
also heard that we take the composting and take it off campus about an hour away.
o Reese: As you may know, President Napolitano has established carbon neutrality by
2030. I also have a paper on my desk that address your concerns but the bad things is
that we have had all of these plans but never acted on them. We will need financial help
to accomplish her goals. The other thing that I would like to do for our triple net
campus, but we don’t have a robust sustainability structure. It will take bodies to make
our system real.
o Senator Zisser: you mentioned that you wanted to work closer with students, how can
ASUCM help?
o Reese: I would love to have a conversation to come up with questions. I would like to
have my hunches reinforced by evidence.
o Dr. Nies: I submitted a proposal in November to get new space and you got your new
space! Your space is now in College One. It will be highly populated with the new
building that will hold a lot of classroom space. Though there will not be any designated
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conference space. We are looking at getting a system that holds all the rooms. We will
not be able to move until July and it is a whole series of Dominos. I just got back from
the timeline of the SSB of the 3rd floor and we have to wait for them to be out so
ASUCM can move in. We have to think about ordering furniture and all of that stuff.
VI.
Chair's Report- Ivan Flores
Hey guys! Today we were informed that we got room in college one. Space is space so keep it clean! UC
Leaders was on Saturday. Senator Jones and Senator Garai were there. It was awesome seeing the kids.
There were tears in the keynote speaker, which was really good. I teared a little too. We had about 130
students show up. I sat in a session with Jane Lawrence. Study hours are tomorrow at 12pm. Senator
Garai cleaned up the office so keep it that way! We have our Executive Meeting at 1pm. I will be
meeting with Zach, Brown, President Brandon, Steve to discuss how the budget meeting will be ran.
Let’s have a good meeting.
VII.
Elected Officers Report
a.
Jefferson, EVP: Tomorrow I will be flying out to the USSA Conference. Currently, we have
5 lobby visits scheduled to begin at 7am. We will also be conducting joint meetings with
UCSD. Resolution 13: As for bill 67, it is important to be passed to maintain efficiency in
my office. There is talk of language for specificity, we are governed by UCOP and ASUCM
bylaws. SO let’s say that you amend it to the new proposed language, it just makes it more
specific, in the new language it states that those who are elected to travel will be the ones
who will be given per diem. So, I am governed by UCOP, UCSA and ASUCM by laws. My
staff are also appointed by me and as for the concerns of expenditures, they are safe guarded
by the economic process. I would not be reimbursed if I overspent because it is in the
bylaws. The remainder of my budget is available for per diem. This year, there are talks
about it being on the West Coast. This bill was short because there is no point in reiterating
the bylaws. Steve and Dr. Nies agree that this needs to happen.
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b.
Senator Daniel motions to extend time by 2 minutes
c.
Senator Gaerlan seconds
d.
No discussion
e.
Extended
f.
Jefferson, EVP: Prop 13, increase taxes to fund the UC. Can anyone here tell me how much
Disney used to pay for their property taxes in 2001? Around 777,000. How much should
they be paying? About 22 million dollars. With this bill going in, it would provide an
additional $6 billion dollars in taxes. $39 million of it went to education. Support the bill
and make it happen.
VIII.
Officer Reports
a.
Senate Pro-Tempore- Senator Brown
I have asked you people to make it known to say that you at least heard me. There are three people on my shit
list. One of them a lot, another quite a lot. Senator Teaze and Senator Rosenberg, you guys are on it. For as
long as I can remember, I have heard no projects and haven’t even heard you speak. I ask you to work on
something and speak your opinion so do it. In the third one isn’t on there, yet. I am going to say this to
everybody, there is some people here who could do more or less, and there are people here who could step it
up. The minority of the people can’t continue the majority of the work
b.
Sergeant at Arms- Senator Jones
Tells her hump day joke.
I want to thank Treasurer Ken for his hard work and everyone who took minutes. Let’s have a good meeting.
c.
Secretary- Senator Gaerlan
Point of Info, it is not in the Code of Ethics that says that you can’t curse at the table. I have a lot of projects
that I will tell. I met with ICC, along with President Brandon and Senator Daniel; we talked about by taking
away restrictions, like funding for travel. Also, I spoke with YSL about their mural. I am also fixing the
agenda. Jason Souza and a waffle maker resolution. And I want to thank everyone who took notes and went to
the budget hearings and hopefully all of the minutes or recordings will be mailed soon. I won’t call names but
please familiarize yourselves. I am not running for senate again.
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d.
ICC Liaison- Senator Wong
Nothing to report
e.
Court Liaison- Senator Daniel
We have an elections commissioner, Domenic Longarini. They are going over their bylaws and will present a
bill next week or after the budget meeting. Also, everyone should start going to the court meetings so you
could get familiar with the court clerks.
IX.
Committee Reports
a.
Budget and Finance- Senator Mondo
Met all present and had a discussion about ICC and their bylaws. Voted on everything. I will be talking about
Arrash and Maurice about the election timeline. Thursday 4pm in Acorn Room.
b.
Academic Affairs- Senator Brown
Met. Discussed all the bills except the Anthropological bill. FURS applicants were approved. We couldn’t have
it last year because the applications did not go out.
c.
Student Activities- Senator Wong
We met, everyone was there.
d.
Student Advocacy- Senator Gaerlan
We met, discussed all except in Anthropological Bill.
X.
Advisor's Report- Steve Lerer
A couple things, yay we have office space! To alleviate concerns, I will also be moving with you. I think that it is
exciting that we have space. Think of hiring an admin to serve as your receptionist. The little lake amphitheater
will open in April. It is a first come first serve basis and can be reserved 6 months in advance to hold weddings and
events like that. It will be managed differently. I am excited and it is really nice where cool events can be held. T
touch on Jefferson’s per diem, a background is the ability for compensation for meals while they are on business
travel. The language is not specific but the language is in place so that you can’t be reimbursed if you randomly
decide to take a trip. I do suggest that it be less specific for one position and I think that it is unfair that he has to
travel and pay for his meals. I will be gone Friday until Wednesday for a conference and I should be back in time.
If you need to you could still contact me.
One more thing: that was great conversation with Michael Reece. I encourage you all to keep researching!
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XI.
President's Report- Jaron Brandon
Morning Senate. I specifically took out cursing. Kudos to RAM for attempting to have a live meeting. Kudos to
Senator Brown and Senator Gaerlan for holding each other accountable. I wanted to say kudos to a lot of the
commissioners. Trevor is working on a Midsummer Night’s dream. Youssef is doing a number of events to bridge
the gap between Merced and UC Merced. Delanie is doing great on recruitment. Juan is working on a number of
events. The women’s council is picking up and have Molly as their advisor. We are looking for interested people
who want to be a part of the LGBTQ commission. Andrew is also doing a great job in both of this roles. I hope to
you apply for student lobby conference and they are important for perspective purposes. I want to say congrats to
court and I will see you soon because I have a case against me. I support Bill 65. Bill 66 make sure 10% is met on
that. Per Diem, please support this and the worst thing would be voting on this with misconceptions. Resolution 13
I strongly support and contact me about that. It is an interesting issue that can bring money into the campus. I
vetoed with recommendations for the Student Services Bylaws without changing the meaning and to clarify. I am
working on the budget with Treasurer Ken. I would like to see more of you out there. If you have noticed
something about the budget that you would like to change, let us know. ICC, for a long time, has been a less
appreciated aspect because for all the work that they do, they haven’t been at these meetings or have been in the
spotlight. Senate has been writing their bylaws. I want ICC to be empowered because they try and support club’s
activities. We need to create it and during this budgeting cycle will be able to give clubs self-determination. I will
be bringing more up regarding this. This is something that defines how the budget is operated. This bill that was
passed needs to be re-discussed. I know that a number of senators are working with ICC right not to build a base.
XII.
Treasurer's Report- Ken Gaffney
a.
Greets and shows PowerPoint
b.
General Fund: $150, 109.55
c.
Last year this week: $142, 690.99
d.
Balance: $34, 963. 62
e.
Bill 66: Anthropology Club
1. They had a deficit of $14.82
2. This happens because they don’t consider the taxes and their club funds pay for it
f.
Bill 67: Per Diem
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1. It is only for food and mandatory travel.
g.
Questions
1. Senator Garai: we have a few meetings to go, could you take some time to present on the Execs?
2. Treasurer Ken: The budget will be presented next meeting
3. Wong: Last year, the bills were sent beforehand can you do that?
4. Treasurer Ken: I will send them to you individually
5. Senator Jones: Have the clubs who didn’t make it been rescheduled?
6. Treasurer Ken: yes
7. Senator Jones: Can you send those?
8. Treasurer Ken: I will try
9. Senator Brown: Can you give us by next week, a general percentage of how much was granted
and how much was spent.
10. Treasurer Ken: remember some orgs were given but not spent yet. Sometimes they also hit a
ledger.
11. Steve: Just for clarity, I used Rec Services in fall and got the bill in January.
12. Senator Daniel: In regards to the percentages, would it be possible to send out documents to see
what is in each section?
13. Treasurer Ken shows budget outline and explains what is in each operation
14. Treasurer Ken: on the outline thing, we could do that but if you want to bring it back just
remember that you passed it and the president approved it.
XIII.
Public Forum
a.
Diana Burns, Anthropological Society: We have 20 students who go down to LA to visit 6 museums.
History is relevant in archaeology and I hope that you support our bill.
b.
Shelby, ICC Vice Chair: These are our first steps to reach out to Senate. We believe that the clubs
should have a larger say in what they can and cannot request and be informed on where to go to ask
for funds. We have been meeting to revise the bylaws. Just some things that we would like to assume
greater responsibility, increasing members, move our meeting place like on SAAC 217. A big thing
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is also create workshops for publicizing, leadership workshop, how to contact Senate. This is letting
you know that ICC is here and ready to change and grow if you guys are willing to let us so we
could help you. You all got a google doc from us so please fill it out. Feel free to contact us.
c.
Baltazar: I am here to talk about tomorrow and the Budget Meeting. They are planning on making it
a big event and will be requesting emergency funds.
d.
David Asencio: Resolution 13 (Reads Huber’s statement). This is a big deal and is supported by all
the UCs. Bill 66, Per Diem was something that I wanted to do but got too busy. I started the
language and I think having more experience with bylaws, I see the flaws. Per Diem means for day.
We need to be able to feed and pay for some expenses. It needs to get done because a majority of the
advisors will say that these are mandatory. It has been a strain on previous EVPs who travelled
more. It is crucial.
e.
XIV.
Valerie Smart, Editor of the Prodigy: The printer lost our paper and it is there now.
Old Business
a) Bill #65- Legislative By-Law Amendment (Introduced by Senator Gaerlan)
a. Senator Gaerlan motions to approve
b. Senator Taylor seconds
c. Committee Reports
i. Budget and Finance: didn’t have access to this, let me check the minutes, no.
ii. Academic affairs: approved
iii. Student Activities: Did not pass
iv. Student Advocacy: passed unanimously
d. Discussion
e. Senator Gaerlan: On page 5 in leg bylaws, it states that the elected officers report. We
need to have commissioner reports elected into the Senate. It is insulting to the aids to
have to speak in Public Forum and it is discriminatory. Court and ICC have liaisons.
They should be able to speak and have their own place in the agenda instead of in public
forum
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f. Vote
i. Senator Garai, Senator Teaze, Senator Rosenberg, Senator Brown, Senator
Mondo, Senator He, Senator Gaerlan, Senator Zisser, Senator Taylor, Senator
Daniel approve
ii. Senator Jones, Senator Wong, Senator Prado oppose
g. Passes
b) Bill #66- Anthropological Society Bill (Introduced by Senator Garai)
a. Senator Garai motions to approve
b. Senator Gaerlan seconds
c. Committee Reports
i. Budget and Finance: approved
ii. Student Act: Approved
iii. Academic affair: not discussed
iv. Student Advocacy: not approved
d. Discussion
e. Senator Garai: it is a trip to go to LA, to go to 6 locations. We did look a buses but was
more expensive. This trip is beneficial to history majors. We are looking how minorities
are depicted in these Eurocentric museums. I want to cut $400 and is all that the club
could do.
f. Senator Jones: Change whereas 4
g. Senator Garai motions to remove whereas 4
h. Senator Zisser: Will they be bringing anything back?
i. Senator Garai: There will be something and we can even come back to the table to
discuss the events
j. Senator He: That is all going towards gas?
k. Senator Garai: We managed to get funding from SSHA, about $600. We tried to find the
free museums and thought that these were the best ones to go to. We are taking our own
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cars because it is the least expensive.
l. Senator Zisser: the girl said 20 but there is 5
m. Senator Garai: There is a surplus but members are being charged to pay from their
pocket
n. Vote
i. Garai abstains
ii. Unanimously approved
c) Bill #67- Per Diem (Introduced by Senator Mondo)
a. Senator Mondo motions to approve
b. Senator Gaerlan seconds
c. Committee Reports
i. Budget and Finance approved
ii. Academic Affairs approved
iii. Student Advocacy: tied
iv. Student Activities: approved
d. Discussion
e. Senator Mondo: it is an expensive job to be president or EVP. It is only the right thing to
do and this can be used for things like a bus fair, or food. Please pass this bill and the
language has been changed to be more precise. Senate does not need to be travelling. It
should only apply to executives.
f. Senator He: Do you guys want to include all of ASUCM?
g. Senator Zisser makes a friendly amendment to add “who are elected and appointed, who
are required to travel for their position”
h. Senator Mondo accepts
i. Senator Brown: I feel like it should be amended to say “elected or appointed officials”
because we don’t know what roles will expand.
j. Senator Mondo: I think it is fine how it reads.
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Remove “ASUCM to External office.” To Jefferson.
k. Jefferson: It was written wrong up there. It was supposed to read “with exception with
ASUCM members, who are elected or appointed”
l. Senator Mondo: I want to change it to what Jefferson suggested
m. Vote
i. Unanimously approved
n. Passed
d) Resolution #13- Fund the UC (Introduced by Senator Gaerlan)
a. Senator Gaerlan motions to approve
b. Senator Daniel seconds
c. Committee Reports
i. Budget and Finance: approved
ii. Academic Affairs: approved
iii. Student Activities: approved
iv. Student Advocacy: tied
d. Discussion
e. Senator Gaerlan: This is a resolution to reform prop 13. The language is just a format.
Currently, prop 13, guarantees that companies pay proper property taxes. This was
passed by UCLA.
f. Senator Zisser: We are not all economists, I don’t know how many people take Econ
courses. While I think this is good to take money from corporations, it is not a good way
to do it.
g. Senator Jones: It supports the actions and I take a class on governing locality and
schools depend on taxes.
h. Vote
i. Senator Garai, Senator Teaze, Senator Rosenberg, Senator Brown, Senator
Mondo, Senator He, Senator Gaerlan, Senator Taylor, Senator Daniel, Senator
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Jones, Senator Wong, Senator Prado approve
ii. Senator Zisser opposes
iii. Senator He abstains
i. Passes
XV.
New Business
a) Presidential Veto of Student Services Bill (Senator Brown)
a. Senator Brown motions to overturn
b. Senator Jones seconds
c. Discussion
i. Senator Brown: I will submit a new bill and I will add the recommendations. We
need to get the process running.
ii. President Brandon: I spent time on these and worked on them. I encourage you
all to look them up. The veto was sent in on time. I did just finish that before
this was considered and I believe that you can review it. I would not suggest to
put in the bylaws as they are right now. It is important to get a cohesive set in
there. If we submit another bill, we will have spring break and it will be another
3 weeks when they are voted on. We only are going to have a month and a half
left, consider approving them.
iii. Senator Mondo: I do think it will be best to uphold veto and the language meets
a good standard.
iv. Senator Brown: I guess while we are in discussion, it is better to take the
recommendations.
v. Senator Garai: did you just say to approve now?
vi. Senator Mondo: to adopt the changes we would vote “no” on overturning
vii. Senator Brown: There are a couple of things with how the financial by laws are
written. My goals are for organizations that we partnered with. Something that
we created but another org that comes and partners with us, in the end it is better
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the way they are than they were before. Can I get thoughts on that?
viii. President Brandon: So my distinction in that, there are certain types of services.
By control, power to interpret and rewrite bylaws. I still would consider that an
independent sub unit. I would be careful to consider them as a sub unit. Board,
Committees and commissions and they have more than 30 of these entities.
They are given money but are not governed and with a few exceptions, do not
function well. I think that it is important to have execs to maintain the bylaws
and the only way to do anything with them is to only get rid of it. There is no
firm distinction. If we decided to do either way, it is what it should be rather
than what it has to be.
ix. Senator Brown: I motion to accept presidential recs
x. Senator Mondo seconds
xi. Discussion
xii. Senator Brown: it is an all or nothing deal. It may not be everything but it is
better than before.
xiii. Vote
1. Unanimously approved
b) Bill #69- Regent Scholar Society Conference (Introduced by Senator Zisser)
a. Senator Zisser motions to send to all committees
b. Senator Brown seconds
c. No discussion
d. Sent
c) Bill #70- Ohana Lu’au (Introduced by Senator Wong)
a. Senator Wong motions to send to all committees
b. Senator Gaerlan seconds
c. No discussion
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d. sent
XVI.
Announcements
a.
Senator Garai: I did meet with James and Karen. They answered all of my questions but they can’t
do much for us because they are in debt. I will fix all the responses and post them on Facebook.
They are looking into coming next week. As for their attitude, they were happy to meet with me. The
TAPS representative is not on top of her game and I want to invite her and ask questions. Another
project, going into the DC there aren’t labels on what people that are eating. We could go address
that together.
b.
Senator Gaerlan: One, thank you to Kappa Kappa Gamma for the Girl Scout Cookies. You could
state any of your projects in the Elected Officers report too.
c.
Senator Mondo to Domenic
Domenic: hello, I was appointed to be Elections Commissioner. I am looking for elections
commissioners. Give me some names and otherwise, I will try to have things on track by Monday.
Thank you for your time.
d.
Senator Daniel: In behalf of the DC Board, we are currently in process of informational on what
dining services does. We are talking to some of the workers and other departments, we are in the
process of drafting a student resolution.
To Huber.
Huber: Senate Bill 841: health care is going up for the senate education committee hearing. If there
is anyone who is interested in speaking.
e.
Senator Brown: The band is still looking for members, we are looking for winds and
clarinets. We are training him to learn and play music. If anyone plays the Tuba, that would
be great. We lost our tuba.
f.
President Brandon: I had a great experience on base drums. I will be hopefully bring the
budget outline. Please contact me or Treasurer Ken so that we can explain it. Also, please let
me know if you have considerations on the budget.
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g.
Senator Mondo: there will be a debate and I hope that there is yelling
h.
Senator Wong: The Networking and Etiquette dinner. It is a four course meal. The next
Thursday is the internship fair.
i.
Senator Gaerlan: If anyone wants another job, the intern position for OSL are due by Friday.
j.
Senator Mondo: it is Delanine’s birthday tomorrow
k.
Senator Daniel: it is research week, a large scale events
l.
President Brandon: One other thing, there is a committee positions that opened which is
now opening. And Applebee’s afterwards, “happy birthday baby!”
XVII.
m.
Senator Daniel: You are a student first, go to the study hours!!!
n.
Senator Jones: The women’s empowerment conference is Friday.
o.
Senator Daniel: There is a job opening in the Office of Jane Lawrence.
Adjournment
a.
Senator Daniel motions to adjourn
b.
Senator Zisser seconds
c.
Discussion
1. Senator Mondo: not out of Announcements
2. Senator Daniel: Senator Brown
d.
Senator Daniel rescinds his motion
e.
Senator Mondo motions to adjourn
f.
Senator Garai seconds
g.
No discussion
h.
Adjourned at 9:39pm
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