Tuesday, October 16, 2007
Last week, on ASUC
Kiira Johal, Joseph Guzman, and Reuben Duarte were nominated for the Judicial Council. Recall that they only have four members now, and one of them is ending her term pretty soon. Josh Daniels tried to nominate Kiesha Oliver to one of the open GA positions, but I think he needs three for it. It turns out that, because he's taken so long, the right of nomination for the GA seats got put in the hands of the ASUC President. And since Van Nguyen's taken so long, I think it's in the hands of the Senate. I don't know anything about these people, by the way, and I don't see their appointments on the agenda for this week.
Mr. Louie said he wanted to address the length of time Senate meetings have been. He felt they've been doing a great job not silencing anyone's voices. However, he did not think it was feasible for their meetings to last until 3:00 or almost 4:00 in the morning. He thought as Senators, they should all respect the discussions and decisions that happen in committees and respect each other's health and well-being, and of course respect Mr. Litwak. So Mr. Louie said he would urge all Senators to be as efficient as possible at meetings, especially with recesses and their length. He felt that the more time Senators spent at Senate meetings, the less time they had being out with their constituencies. You heard him! Efficiency! Oh, wait, there's something else...
Also, he wanted to say "Go Bears!" Um.... dude... after your speech on efficiency... nevermind.
The ASUC approved finding (and possibly paying) a co-op rep. Interesting exchange:
Mr. Kunert asked what philanthropy events were coming up that were directly involved with the campus, and how the ASUC would be involved. A speaker said a lot of confusion he saw was that there was very little understanding of exactly what the co-ops were. Their community works with community, neighbor, and University relations. They worked with the City to open an auditorium in one of the houses. They don't really do philanthropy and instead, do community service. The ASUC and the co-ops both want to serve students, and having this liaison position whole help both of them do their jobs better....
Mr. Kunert said he understood wanting to get involved on campus, but asked why that would require an ASUC liaison. Also, he didn't hear of any specific events for the future other than to unite and serve students. Ms. Coleman said they've been underrepresented in the ASUC and the External Affairs Committee helped her get elected. They wanted a liaison to establish better communications, bring events to campus, and to get more people involved. Well, I guess I'll just say I'm unconvinced.
When unappointing Ross Lingenfelder, they didn't really address the question of whether they could legally do so. Much of the discussion was outside of the minutes, so there's not much to say. The discussion afterwards suggests that folks were concerned about the ability to "recall" the Solicitor General (there's no explicit procedure for it).
Mr. Shams said he was concerned about Mr. Lingnfelder's role as President of the BCR. It seemed like a conflict of interest that would be of concern around election time. He thought Sen. Jackson's solution, appointing a Senator, was workable. Yeah, man. When it comes to people who don't have vested interests in political parties, current Senators are the way to go. Admittedly, the actual plan is to appoint someone who won't do the job, and then have that person resign when they find someone who would do the job but isn't scary.
So, what do you think the vote was on this appointment which initially passed "unanimously by voice vote with no debate"? 14-0-3? 8-1-5? Try 1-14-1. Zouch. I'm really curious what scared so many Senators off, now.
The committee to go lawyer hunting ended up with Taylor Allbright and Curtis Lee as executives (and not Van). It had 2 SA senators, 2 CalSERVE senators, and Shams.
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