Hello again friends!  I hope this week has been treating you well. The A.S. Senate Meeting on the Jan. 25 was a rather short one, but a lot of important material was covered so let’s jump right in.

The meeting began on one of those a abundantly chilly January evenings. The sun had set, and I made my way to the warm senate room bundled in fifty layers of clothing. The meeting began with public input from Burgundy Fletcher, the Vice President of the Native American Student Alliance and a co-author of the resolution that would pass through the senate today.

Senator Evan Jan gave a fantastic presentation about the Standing Rules of A.S. Council. In his presentation, he highlighted the many of the major issues of the documentation of Associated Students. From formatting issues to irregular font use, Senator Jan brought forth some of the issues that he has identified as needing to be fixed immediately such as little clarity of the responsibility of Senators, irregular sorting, and missing procedure (like the previously missing procedure of reappointment in the case of the resignation/removal of a Vice President.) When discussing solutions, Senator Jan recommended reformatting, simplifying and adding a table of contents. Senator Jan also mentioned progress reports and performance reports to increase transparency, along with publishing minutes from the meeting.

Props to Senator Jan for the presentation. I am looking forward to the implementation of some of the solutions he mentioned for the many problems plaguing the Standing Rules.

President Daniel Juarez announced a Q&A session for VP external selection. In absence of an election, the Q&A session will serve as a channel of direct student input to the selection committee on the decision. Date to be announced.

Financial Controller Pennish reminded the council that UC San Diego A.S. has teamed up with Uber to provide safe rides from UCSD in the now extended times of 6 p.m. to 3 a.m., seven days a week, for rides up to $10. Visit as.ucsd.edu/saferides for more information on how to use it.

President Juarez announced Open Forums for the position of Basic Needs Coordinator. As this paper goes to press, you will still be able to attend the session on Friday, Feb. 3 at 10:15 a.m. in the LGBT Resource Center Conference Room. This is a really important position because it coordinates many of the basic need efforts that have been thought of in the basic needs committee. This position is one that provides the structure for the ideas to become reality

The Senate moved to order into new business, where there was a motion to add a resolution calling for the administration to hire Native American faculty. This resolution is of acute importance now. Although UCSD claims to advocate the “increase the diversity of our faculty to enhance our intellectual, ethnic and cultural diversity,” there are currently no professors who self-identify as Native American as of January 2017. The resolution was passed with no objections.

In an additional point of news, President Juarez has noted that, due to it being winter quarter, there is a need to find a new elections manager for the upcoming elections. Anyone interested should contract President Juarez.

As for Senator Projects, Eleanor Roosevelt College Senator Matthew Arrollado has partnered up with the Sexual Assault Resource Center for a Valentine’s Day event on Feb. 13 on Ridgewalk from 12 p.m. to 2 p.m. The event features a healthy relationship board along with the distribution of relevant literature and consent buttons. Make sure to come check it out to learn about consent and healthy relationships! Senator Ricky Flahive has been working as an A.S. liaison to Triton Television. He has plans to work with his own production team from Triton TV to make five-minute recap videos of A.S. Council meetings every week. Hopefully, he isn’t too successful or else he will put me out of my job.

A.S. Council Senate meetings are open to the public and take place Wednesdays starting at 6 p.m. at the PC Forum, located on the fourth floor of Price Center.  

P.S. Shout out to Financial Chair Pennish for the shoutout in meeting.