Tim Fucci
AS Beat Reporter
Following the Associated Students campus-wide elections held in April, five executives and 25 representatives will be sworn in tonight during the final AS Legislative Council meeting, which is set to turnover into the AS Senate next school year.
The 2011-2012 Legislative Council will convene one last time in the Flying-A room of the UCen to discuss and vote on old business items from the week prior, then hand power over to the new AS Senate. The changes to UCSB’s undergraduate governing body comes after a 2011 student-approved amendment, and while most changes are cosmetic, the replacement of six Representatives At-Large as Collegiate Senators will yield the most significant functional changes for UCSB’s elected student leaders.
2012-2013 College of Letters and Sciences Senator Jonathan Abboud said that along with typical AS senatorial duties, Collegiate Senators will also be responsible for meeting regularly with the executive committees and deans of the college they were elected to represent.
“The goal is to bridge the gap between administration and the Senate,” Abboud said. “Creating a formal relationship with them by having each Senator meet with the dean of their respective college will help create more collaboration between us and the administration.”
Goals Abboud said he wants to accomplish as Collegiate Senator for next year include streamlining the functionality of GOLD and embedding the university’s course waitlist system to the GOLD website, establishing campus-wide wi-fi connections and upholding and implementing the newly amended Student Bill of Rights.
The Wednesday, May 23 meeting will also make official the resignation of Betty Ayalem as Executive Vice President of Local Affairs. Her replacement, EVPLA runner-up Rhandy Sioridia, expressed gratitude for the opportunity to serve the student body as its official representative to Isla Vista and Santa Barbara County.
“I’m excited to meet people and be a resource for them,” said Siordia.
Siordia is not unfamiliar to the issues and concerns of students living in IV or the purpose of the EVPLA Office. The communication and psychology major worked in the EVPLA office his sophomore year as the major events coordinator and served as vice chair for the Isla Vista Community Relations Committee. This past school year, Siordia served as an Off-Campus Representative with the Legislative Council and spearheaded the creation of an Isla Vista brochure, which provides a map with IV points-of-interests and local resources for the ocean-side student community. The brochure will be distributed to visitors, UCSB freshman and their parents.
Siordia said he’s already taken steps to advertise and utilize the University’s Campus Security Officer service to answer student concerns regarding the recent uptick in crime in Isla Vista and will rely on his already established relationship with Isla Vista Foot Patrol Lieutenant Ray Vuillemainroy to ensure student safety.
Third-year sociology major Mayra Segovia, who will be sworn in Wednesday as Internal Vice President, said one of her major goals as the head of AS Senate for the next school year will be to open the lines of communication between the Senate, student organizations within the Office of Student Life, student work within AS and between AS Senators themselves. Segovia wants students to look at the Senate as an enabler and resource for students, and while next year’s Senate will be dominated by one political party, Segovia said she will urge Senators to represent their constituents as a whole.
“As long as we establish that we have a common vision, the means in which we achieve that goal may be different, but as long as we realize we have that in common, we can move forward,” Segovia said.