VP Student Life Cody Marshall kept the comedy ball rolling during reports of members with a reminder that council’s team-building event is happening this weekend.
“I saw this show where people went on a hike, and it totally changed their lives,” he said. “There’s nothing like a near-death experience to bring people together.”
On a sobering note, A.S. President Meggie Le reminded council that her office would be sending out a survey to identify students’ priorities in the transportation debate. She asserted that this is an issue that A.S. Council will be remembered for.
And just in case Tritons thought that new transportation fees were the only price hikes headed their way, VC Student Affairs Penny Rue had some wallet-shriveling news. Due to what can only be described as administrative optimism, undergraduate health insurance was originally created with a rich slate of benefits at too low of a cost. And because undergrads are fragile creatures who fear fresh air and sunshine, the Vice Chancellors will be raising prices in order to maintain SHIP.
When pressed to comment on UCSD’s budget in general, Rue reminded council that Prop 30 would not change California’s budget crisis overnight.
“The state walked away from higher education,” she said. “We didn’t push it away.” Rue did stress that a flurry of changes on campus made this an exciting time to be at UCSD. She also praised Chancellor Khosla for keeping students’ college experiences at the forefront of his priorities.
AVP Enterprise Operations Brian McEuen and A.S. Senator Irene Chang continued special presentations with a model of Triton Outfitters’ plan to adopt The Factory — a campus screen-printing organization made defunct by the closure of the Crafts Center. To support UCSD’s shuttles during the transportation crisis, Triton Outfitters designed a t-shirt with the slogan, “Everyday I’m Shuttlin’.”
Council finally turned to their previously tabled discussion of changing UCSD’s election code to separate college and campus-wide slates.
A primary concern last night was the benefits of immediacy versus the imperative of transparency.
ERC Senator Travis Miller, who supports the spirit of the legislation, worried that college councils were not given enough time to respond, and that A.S. Council was risking transparency by voting on the amendment that night. Five out of six college councils had already expressed enthusiasm for the change, with Travis’ ERC council as the final holdout.
