The A.S. Council reconvened for its first meeting of the new
year without the tension and heated exchanges to which it was accustomed in
2007.

In the two meetings leading up to the break, members argued
vociferously over funding college-specific events and the council’s failure to
show up for the La Jolla Christmas Parade.

Last night’s 45-minute meeting, the shortest yet, did little
to address these lingering issues. Perhaps the eggnog and good cheer from the
three-week vacation have yet to wear off.

Amy Ifurung of the Women’s Commission began the meeting during
public input to update the council on the philanthropic efforts of the Kappa
Alpha Theta sorority. The sorority was seeking two dashing A.S. Council models
to be immortalized in a fundraising calendar.

At the previous meeting, Associate Vice President of
Academic Affairs Long Pham and Vice President of External Affairs Dorothy Young
walked away with the council’s nominations for calendar models, but Pham
declined the offer and Young was unable to participate because of a scheduling
conflict.

Although Muir College Chair Dave Payne volunteered to model,
the council held a second vote to nominate Associate Vice President of College
Affairs Tanya Piyaratanaphipat to fill the remaining spot.

Former council president Harry Khanna, now a graduate
student at Johns Hopkins University, also spoke during public input. He urged
council members to resist a recommendation from last year’s Sun God Report to
move the festival from mid-May to late April.

Khanna said that discouraging students from nearby schools
from attending Sun God by moving it further away from summer would also make it
harder for alumni to attend.

Khanna also spoke in favor of an amendment to implement
instant runoff voting for council elections, a method that allows students to
rank multiple candidates when voting on TritonLink, instead of choosing only one candidate.

In an e-mail sent to councilmembers in December, Khanna
wrote that IRV will help prevent elections from merely turning into
competitions between two slates of candidates.

In its only substantive action of the night, the council
passed the IRV amendment without objection.

Thurgood Marshall College Senator Kyle Samia kept his
“fabulous parade” pet project alive by suggesting the creation of a parade
planning task force to investigate potential routes and participants and
formulate a report for next year’s council. However, the fabulosity remains far
off in the horizon.

Facing a dearth of important business, councilmembers
exchanged the usual tidbits of oddball information during open forum.

Eleanor Roosevelt College Senator Stephanie Usry, either to
update computer-less students or to taunt the blind, promoted the recent
redesign of the UCSD Web site and TritonLink.

Catering to the council’s closet gamers, Sixth College
Senator Micah Jones plugged this weekend’s video game competition, Winter
Gamefest. Jones did not indicate whether he would participate in the “pwning”
himself.