Madeleine Lee
Campus Beat Reporter
Associated Students Senators sat down Wednesday night to tackle a full roster of legislation at their fourth meeting of the year in the University Center’s Flying A Room.
To address a pressing issue concerning Isla Vista presence, Off-Campus Senators Ashley Selki and Patrick Dohoney proposed a resolution to qualify voter registration volunteer hours as senator office hours. The resolution, that was sent to immediate consideration and then passed Wednesday night, put special emphasis on the then-looming Oct. 24 voter registration deadline and encouraged senators to provide active, bipartisan support.
“Our goal this year is to reach 10,000 voters across campus and Isla Vista,” said Proposition E and F campaign leader Cameron Schunk later in public forum, as he voiced concerns over senate’s lack of support in bipartisan voter registration thus far. “We are thousands behind that number right now, and we only have less than a week left.”
Finally, Off-Campus Senator Ashley Selki and On-Campus Senator Bryan Samayoa-Velasquez put forth a resolution to lower the cost of course readers by pushing professors to switch to A.S. Publications for printing in place of relying on the primary competitor, SB Printers.
“The money stays there so it benefits A.S. as well,” said Selki, “and it’ll benefit students in reducing material costs.”
Selki also emphasized the environmental benefits, as A.S. Publications uses 100 percent recycled white paper and 30 percent recycled colored paper. She said she spoke with one of the assistant publications coordinators to ensure that the business can handle more work without having wrap-around lines. Staff has agreed to diminish the work as best they could by purchasing more printers if workload increased, according to Selki.
Off-Campus Senator Bianca Fernandez agreed with the resolution’s intentions, but wanted more push behind it, calling for a bill instead of a resolution to better force professors to make the switch.
However, A.S. Executive Director Marisela Marquez reminded the senate that not even professors on academic senate would have the jurisdiction to “force” professors to make such a move, recommending it best to stick to a resolution and rely on persuading professors one on one. After moving to immediate consideration, the resolution passed.
Off-Campus Senators Cole Marting and Reilly Hobson also introduced legislation to create a new position within the Office of the External Vice President for Local Affairs to serve as a dedicated liaison between the EVPLA and the Isla Vista Food Cooperative.
“The EVPLA traditionally hasn’t had the opportunity or as much time as they’d like to really make an investment in the I.V. Food Co-Op,” said Marting. “The biggest issue right now is that they can’t allot the amount of time that they want to make sure that this is going well.”
According to Marting, the position would, for the first time, allow a channel of direct communication between the two entities and help to further improve the EVPLA’s breadth of outreach in the I.V. community. Communication between channels continues to be a point of improvement over past years in areas like landlord communication, in which EVPLA Ashcon Minoiefar has already instituted a similar liaison position to sit in on monthly Isla Vista landlord meetings. The bill to establish an I.V. Food Co-Op liaison was met with approval, and moved to an internal committee for further review.
Senators also passed all bills on the agenda that were sent to internal committees for review last week, including the bill that now establishes A.S. Alternative Transportation Unit as a part of Gaucho Ride, a bill to increase accessibility of A.S. Funds, and resolutions that increased efficacy of shared student government and created the new Senate Mentorship Program.