Disclaimer: The weekly A.S. Council column is not meant to be a news story but rather an individualized account of what occurs at Council meetings. If the most interesting part of a three-hour meeting is President Suvonnasupa’s haircut or an outburst from Senator O’Neill, the writer has the stylistic freedom to mention that in his column.
It’s been exactly one year since I attended my first A.S. Council meeting, and Council’s gift to me was going from 0 to 100 real quick, ending the meeting real fuckin’ quick. Maybe their hotline blinged? Also, thank you to my friend Luc who reminded me that I used to talk about burping in these articles and reminded me why the Internet is scary.
Anyway, the meeting started with Public Input, and UCSD alumnus Richard Thompson encouraged students to take advantage of the benefits of the transportation referendum that was passed a couple of years ago; specifically, to visit San Diego museums this month, as there is a museum pass valid only this month that is offering half-priced admission.
Next, two CALPIRG representatives discussed their organization’s purpose – essentially for students to create solutions to problems that impact a lot of people – as well as what they have been up to recently. They have been working on a textbook campaign to reduce the prices of textbooks and to have more be offered open and online. Also, they revealed that supposedly $1.5 billion of financial aid goes toward textbooks and that CALPIRG will also be coming to a classroom near you next week when they start their pledge drive.
For reports of members, Krystl Fabella said that there are discussions about increasing the amount of housing, which would be nice if it could happen by this fall since, according to Fabella, UCSD is expected to have 750 more new students than in years prior. I mean, at this point, admin might as well tell us to bring a tent and pitch it on Library Walk or Geisel; that’s almost better than being in a triple. She also mentioned that there’s a possibility of automatic voter registration upon enrollment, which would decrease the amount of work SOVAC has to do to get students to register.
Rush Patel reported that he will be talking to one of the vice chancellors next week to discuss the possibility of increasing the minimum amount of units a full-time student must take from 12 to 13.
Next, two members from the Student Sustainability Collective presented about how they’re urging the University of California to divest from fossil fuel companies in an attempt to further the UC’s goal of being carbon neutral by 2025. They are asking the UC regents to stop new investments and to remove current ones within the next five years and to re-invest in clean energy companies.A.S. Council passed a resolution for divestment in 2013 and now they are waiting for it to be passed in the Academic Senate; all the other UC schools have passed similar resolutions in their respective student governments.
After this, council members thanked and said their goodbyes to Jason Grimm, who was also the factor of the week. They also honored last week’s factor, David Moll, for organizing Spirit Night. I’m glad I had the privilege of seeing two council members prancing around the Forum. With my secondhand embarrassment in tow, I pranced right out, as that was the end of the meeting!
