The A.S. Task Force on Representation Structure released its final report on A.S. representation on April 20. The task force’s recommendations include the establishment of an open committee that would be a forum for all students to express their views, and the addition of transfer senators.
“I think the transfer senator is a vital addition so that we can both represent and get transfer [students] on A.S.,” said task force chair and Thurgood Marshall College junior senator Kate Maull. “I think that the Open Committee can be implemented easily as long as we publicize and do some grassroots organizing and networking with student organizations, and if it doesn’t work, then we end it.”
The report recommends that each college add one additional senator to represent transfer students. Under the proposal, all legislation would have to be submitted in the open committee before being passed on to the council.
All-Campus Transfer Association President Chris Terry approved of the recommendation to add transfer senators.
“I absolutely think that’s a good way to represent [transfer students],” Terry said. “It’s really hard to get transfers on council. You’re not here for [the first] two years, so when they go to run for elections it’s tougher because they don’t have all the votes behind them.”
According to Terry, some of the issues for which transfer students could use the increased representation include transfer student admissions, transfer housing and the Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum.
The open committee, which would be open to any registered student, would vote on any proposed legislation in order to provide an indicator of student support for each piece of legislation. According to the report, the open committee model could potentially help improve the representation of organizations and members of the student body who don’t feel that the current A.S. structure represents their interests. The open committee model is based on a system at the University of Wisconsin at Madison.
Other proposals include the establishment of an external committee and an academic affairs committee. The academic affairs committee would include eight representatives, each responsible for representing the interests of students in a particular field of study, such as social sciences or biology. The committee would then facilitate communication between UCSD and the other UC campuses. The internal committee and the proposed external committee would be changed to include eight members each, while the proposed finance committee would include six members.
Potential models of representation rejected by the task force include a “Council of Organizations,” which would include a vice president or commissioner of organizations and senators-at-large, which would be elected campuswide and not as representatives of any college. According to the report, some members of the task force felt that senators-at-large could concentrate power within a college or organization.
According to Maull, several A.S. councilmembers are drafting legislation in relation to the effort, but as of yet there is no concerted effort to implement the recommendations.
“For the recommendations [the task force] proposes to be realistic … future representational task forces should be chartered as to actually present a glimmer of hope that what they propose might someday become reality,” Sixth College representative Amit Mulgaonkar stated in his closing thoughts in the report.
Maull cited the lack of support from the A.S. Council during the process as the reason for the lack of implementation efforts.
“A.S. [Council] needs to better support the members of these task forces with information, opinions and encouragement,” Maull stated in the report. “I think that at many points, this task force had trouble hanging onto whatever mandate they had from A.S.”
In his statement, Eleanor Roosevelt College representative David Goodwin said that the report would be more useful as a guide for future task forces than as a basis for current legislation.
“There was by no means the full attendance necessary to sculpt concepts that had continuous input from all groups listed as members,” Goodwin stated in the report. “I would encourage any future person who is basing any arguments on this report to read and make available to fellow legislators the minutes of this task force.”
The full report and minutes of the task force are available in the A.S. archives.
A.S. President Jenn Pae has no immediate plans for another task force on representation.
“I don’t see it happening anytime soon, due to the fact that we have a lot to cover,” Pae said. “In that aspect, if there’s a desire and need for a task force, I will definitely support it. There are some great suggestions, so it’s definitely something to look into further.”
