Some members of the public came to voice their disappointment in the dismissal of Leah Wong’s appointment as AVP Local Affairs.
Another member of the public denounced A.S. President Meggie Le for going to New York City during the A.S. budget meeting.
Le explained that she had gone to New York City to attend a conference about racial climate and diversity. She felt that with the atmosphere that UCSD has had in previous years it would be in the best interests of herself, the council and the campus to go learn relevant information and bring it back.
“It’s important that you came in and checked in on what I’m doing, I’m really grateful that you came in. It’s nice to know that students are paying attention,” Le said.
Annie Le from the SSC, Susie Kim from the Women’s Center and Kevin Quirolo a member of the Public Education Coalition stopped by the council meeting to give concerns and suggestions in the molding of an A.S. UCSD Human Rights Board.
“One of our main worries is that this board could claim a monopoly on the legitimacy of human rights activism,” one of the presenters said. “It has a few shared purposes, but not a lot of shared tactics.”
UCSB Human Rights Board founder Nicolas Pascal came by to voice his support for A.S. UCSD’s attempt at creating a similar entity. He presented council with the history behind UCSB’s Human Rights Board and the work that it has done since then, including raising $50,000 after the earthquake in Haiti in just over three weeks.
“This has immense potential and promises to extend beyond your time on this campus and to other campuses as well; this could become a multi-campus endeavor, Pascal said.
Andrew Buselt and Jillian Du from the Green Initiative Fund came by to discuss the grants they have allocated throughout this academic year and had recipients from each organization — BAAN, Engineers for a Sustainable World, Books for Prisoners and the Box Art Project — came by to explain what they’ve done with the money.
Michael Long from the Biofuels Action and Awareness Network explained that BAAN exists to develop the biofuels sector and provide a means of academic enrichment through real world research. He said that BAAN one day hopes to provide campus events and fuel campus transportation using biofuels.
Council approved AVP Academic Affair Sammy Chang’s decision to allocate his entire stipend to his staff.
SOVAC gave a presentation about their progress this year and reported that they’ve registered close to 2,000 students which brings UCSD from dead last to second within the course of a year in terms of registered voters among UC campuses.
