Last night’s council meeting began with a healthy dose of
social awareness but later gave way to an hour-long debate about the
appropriateness of using A.S. Council funds for college-specific matters.

A presentation by members from the Student Affirmative
Action Committee alleged that UC management is not negotiating fairly with
representatives from the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal
Employees, which represents more than 20,000 service and patient care workers
throughout the university system.

The speakers stressed the long hours and low wages that
AFSCME service workers endure at UCSD, saying that UC negotiators made student
observers wait for three hours before ultimately refusing to begin talks with
AFSCME while students were present.

After the presentation, the council approved a resolution
expressing support of the 2007-08 contract campaign.

Next up was a resolution criticizing the county’s response
to last month’s wildfires. It was motivated in part by the plight of a family
of undocumented immigrants that was detained, and later deported, after being
accused of stealing supplies from the evacuation center at Qualcomm Stadium.

The resolution advocated the suspension of immigration
enforcement during crisis relief and the dissemination of emergency information
in multiple languages.

The council approved the resolution and was met with rounds
of applause from the audience.

Later in the meeting, Earl Warren College Senator Peter Benesch
took the floor to school the council on UCSD’s impending parking crunch.

“Over the next five years, there’s going to be a steady
decrease in the number of parking spots [for undergraduates], but the
university is growing,” he said. “It’s going to get bad.”

In exploring ways to alleviate the parking problem, the
council considered increasing bus services, promoting bicycling and carpooling
and restricting freshman parking.

The night’s most contentious event, however, originated with
a $63 funding bill sponsored by Sixth College Senator John Cressey, who
requested the funds for Sixth College pride buttons.

Though financially insignificant on its own, the bill came
to symbolize an unresolved question from last year’s A.S. constitution
overhaul.

The bill’s most vocal opponents, A.S. President Marco
Murillo and Vice President of Student Life Donna Bean, argued that the limited
budget and council’s campuswide scope essentially deferred funding of
college-specific matters to individual college councils.

However, Thurgood Marshall College Senator Kyle Samia
supported Cressey: “The college experience is irrevocably linked to the
university experience … I’m really disappointed in some of the officers for
excising the colleges.”

The funding measure passed with applause, but Samia observed
that the cause of the dispute remained unresolved.

“Bring your soapboxes next week because it’s going to get
settled,” Samia said.