Public Input opened with an Ethiopian-Israeli speaker who came at the request of several councilmembers to talk about growing up in Israel. She was addressing the tensions brought on by VP External Affairs Olamide Noah’s controversial video, shown last week, depicting the alleged forced sterilization of Ethiopian immigrants living in Israel.

Ben Hass, president of Tritons for Israel, also spoke on the issue, condemning the video as malicious and bigoted.

Can we please just go back to talking about fee increases?

Triton Lobby Corps kicked off Special Presentations with an overview of its plans for the coming year. The fairly new organization will be holding biweekly meetings with district representatives to discuss student interests, such as transportation. I hope this means that they will shortly procure saddled kangaroos for all students.

During the Lobby Corps’ presentation, Campuswide Senator Caeser Feng passed me a note from AVP College Affairs Leonard Bobbitt that simply said, “You should quote Leonard Bobbitt. <3 Leonard Bobbitt.”

I probably would’ve quoted him eventually, “irregardless” of the note. You’re hilarious, Leonard! Sean O’Neal, representing the Student Fee Advisory Committee, continued presentations with a Mario-themed Prezi regarding SFAC’s role on campus. He showed a helpful, if somewhat depressing, infographic regarding how student fees are distributed between the various clusters of student life.

And just when I thought Bobbitt had concluded his weekly words of wisdom, he came back fighting during reports of committees.

“We had our dodgeball event last weekend, which Muir College won,” he said, and without missing a beat, continued, “And I believe all students should be equal in the eyes of the law.”

A.S. President Meggie Le reported that she received a letter from the Anti-Defamation League regarding Noah’s video. She and Noah will write separate replies to the letter.

Le also announced that a meeting with Transportation Services resulted in quite a victory for students — the changes to transportation scheduled for July will no longer happen this summer. So for the time being, our shuttles, bus passes, and permit prices will stay put. Major kudos to Le and her committee.

Also in the realm of fantastic news, Campuswide Senator Matthew Mayeda reported that the deadline to submit fee increases for UC SHIP, originally slated for March 1, will now be pushed back to April.

“The quick-and-dirty about healthcare is that one side wants to try and help everyone, while the other thinks we should only help ourselves,” Mayeda said. “We’ll be hosting a town hall meeting Tuesday from 5 to 6:30 p.m. to inform students about what’s going on.

And finally, Caeser fed me blueberry yogurt pretzels, and the meeting was over by 7:59 p.m. This was the best A.S. Council meeting ever.