Although I have sat in on A.S. Council meetings in the past, tonight is my first time writing solo. I came into the conference room expecting to be treated like a fly on the wall, but several members of Council smiled and said hi, which was much more than I expected as a representative from the UCSD Guardian. Good vibes.
The meeting began with a special presentation from the relatively new Vice Chancellor of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Dr. Becky Petit, who introduced herself as an agent of change. Petit discussed her plans to combine the climate and diversity councils into a university level diversity structure that facilitates communication between students and administration. After the presentation, multiple council members asked Petit for information about receiving funding from her office and she seemed enthusiastic about helping in any way she could.
Vice President of External Affairs Krystl Fabella told Council that she’s meeting with UC President Janet Napolitano tomorrow, so I guess we’ll see how that goes. She’s also planning to create and distribute a PSA on sexual assault prevention with Triton TV.
The financial and legislative committees just approved thousands of dollars of funding for several organizations and appointed many people to different positions, but they went too quickly for me to actually process what was happening. Or maybe I zoned out. Oops.
Okay, back to special presentations. This one is from Food Pantry Student Manager Jeremy Snyder, and he has a powerpoint to go with his speech. Fancy. Wait, there are so many graphs on this thing. Wait, the food pantry gets a lot of money – including but not limited to $50,000 from VCSA, $75,000 from UCOP, $16,400 from the A.S. budget?! Whoa. Apparently, that still isn’t enough to provide food for the 250 students a week who use the pantry.
Anyway, Snyder has some really cool plans for the pantry. Expanding to supply perishable goods, delivery options for students who can’t physically go to the pantry, implementing a meal voucher program, bringing CalFresh food stamps to UCSD and setting up donation bins across campus were just a few of the ideas he told Council about during his presentation.
Oh no. Someone just asked Snyder about combining sustainability with the goals of the Food Pantry and he used Burger King as an example of what to avoid if we want to be more conscious of what we consume. I’m literally sitting two feet away from him sipping on a Burger King strawberry milkshake. Awkward.
Upcoming events discussed in open forum include Love Your Body Day on Oct. 13 and Bear Garden on Oct. 16. Senator Perez concluded the meeting by giving everyone an update on Taco Villa, which apparently won’t be finished “in our college lifetime.” However, he mentioned that the franchise is discussing the possibility of having a taco truck on campus while the facility is under construction.
It’s not even 7:30 p.m. and this meeting is over…what. Wait, not going to question it and definitely not going to complain about it. K bye.
