Philanthropy reigned supreme at last night’s A.S. Council
meeting, while councilmembers heard pleas for cancer research and humanitarian
relief but did not encounter any serious debates of their own.

Two representatives for UCSD’s upcoming involvement in Relay
For Life took the floor to urge councilmembers to participate in the April 12
event. The centerpiece of the fundraiser, organized by the American Cancer
Society, will be a 24-hour relay on North Track during which participants make
rounds through day and night in honor of people affected by cancer.

While expressing her passion for the event, Thurgood
Marshall College
junior Lorraine Leynes recounted the deaths in her immediate and extended
family from cancer and asked
councilmembers if they knew anyone affected by the disease, prompting
most of them to silently raise their hands.

Leynes said that she hoped the event would raise up to
$90,000.

On a similar note, Associate Vice President of Athletic
Relations Stephanie Chang took the opportunity to promote UCSD’s involvement
with “Row for the Cure” later this month. The fundraising event, sponsored by
the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation, is based around a series of timed
races in Mission Bay
with prizes for top finishers.

Athletes from UCSD as well as a boatload of councilmembers
(two boats of A.S. would-be kayakers, to be exact), will be rowing away.

Kayaking and cancer research aside, two students from San
Diego State University
came to the meeting to introduce a new humanitarian endeavor. During the last
week of February, SDSU will be hosting their “Under One Roof” campaign to
celebrate multicultural diversity and raise funds to support a devastated Ninth
Ward family in New Orleans still
recovering from Hurricane Katrina.

Through all the philanthropy efforts and the Katrina relief
collection bucket, the council did cover some more mundane topics.

Earl Warren College Senator Peter Benesch reported the
results of a recent Parking and Transportation Services survey. Eighty percent of 260 respondents
protested proposed plans to build a new parking structure.

“A lot of people wanted parking but didn’t want to pay for
it,” he said.

Benesch also said that a proposed parking structure near Thornton
Hospital was approved but that the
university’s usage of the structure (and its portion of the bill) had been cut
back from 40 percent to 20 percent.

Associate Vice President of Student Organizations Andrew
Guichet reported that quarterly funding requests from student organizations
weighed in at over $300,000, a figure that will have to be pared down
considerably to match the $70,000 of available council funds.

Eleanor Roosevelt College Senator Stephanie Usry solicited
feedback on the recent overhaul of TritonLink in order to relay the comments
back to the committee that led the redesign.

The council didn’t jump on the opportunity to critique
UCSD’s newest hunk of XHTML, but Vice President of External Affairs Dorothy
Young queried, “Can we ask them to change TritonLink back?”