Senate Minutes 3-14-12

Type: Full meeting

Location: Chancellor’s Conference Room KL 232

Called to Order: 7:30pm

II.

Roll Call:
Absent:
Tardy: J. Borobia, B. Smith

III.

Approval of Agenda

A. Mohammed moves to approve the agenda

-Seconded

-Discussion

B. Cornejo moves to suspend the legislative bylaws to amend the agenda

-Seconded

-Discussion

B. Cornejo I want to add the Entrepreneur Society bill to New Business

J. Brandon You’re not doing committee as a whole right?

B. Cornejo Nope

-Objections: none

The legislative bylaws are suspended

B. Cornejo moves to add Bill #60 to New Business

-Seconded

-Discussion

-Objections: none

Bill #60 was added to New Business

G. Patton moves to add Sergeant Gongora as a guest speaker in the agenda

-Seconded

-Discussion

Dr. C. Nies Typically, we don’t have guest speakers speak on behalf of their bill. Just trying to make sure we don’t do that.

G. Patton He will be talking about UC Merced’s police department and its programs

-Objections: none

Sergeant Gongora was added as a guest speaker in the agenda

-Objections: none

The amended agenda was approved

IV.

Approval of Minutes:
A. Mohammed moves to approve the 3.7.12 minutes

-Seconded

-Discussion

J. Malone Should I bring up elections being called and that being in the minutes? I want there to be an announcement where Sarah Dutchover passed out the elections guidelines during Public Forum saying that’s when elections were publically called for.

J. Malone moves to include a statement in Public Forum stating Spring 2012 elections have been publically called for

-Seconded

-Discussion

A. Mohammed So, I put that in there?

J. Malone Yes.

-Objections: none

Added

-Objections: none

The 3.7.14 minutes were approved

Guest Speaker

Even Heit, Code of Ethics

E. Heit Thanks for the invitation. It’s an honor to be here. At first, I wondered why was I invited I here and I thought… well, I am somewhat ethical. I’ve been here at UC Merced since 2005. I have experience with policy making and I’ve been involved with Academic Senate. We have lots of committees in Academic Senate. I was actually the chair of the Senate last year. In my research and teaching, I talk about whether people follow instructions. I’ll be happy to go over them. If you were here in 2005, you would know that it was like the Wild West. There were no rules and people just did what they wanted to do. It was a chaotic time. We have policies now like how to hire people, approve majors et cetera. We relied on default UC policies a lot and we looked at sister UC campuses. We have borrowed and stolen from other campus shamelessly. We don’t say we will just be just like Davis because we are UC Merced. We have lots of committees in Academic Senate as I mentioned. We have spelled out what all the committees have to do. In 2006, I was chair of UGC and we approved a lot of majors without any rules. For example, we say we want a Political Science major. We vote on it and tell the Chancellor we get one. If we did that now, we’d be run out of office. Faculty is governed by a UC Faculty Code of Conduct. It talks about relationships with students, misconduct and many other things. It is very specific and is a good document. It is clear with clear sanctions, but probably not enough and as a faculty we have to review this every 2 years. Ethic codes work, but not perfectly. Lawyers and doctors get into trouble even though they sign a code. The SunStar a few years ago had a columnist on morality. She would dispense moral advice and was fired for plagiarism because she had signed a document that said she wouldn’t plagiarize. Steroid use in baseball is another example. They peaked in the 1990s and steroids were banned in the 1970s and were explicitly banned in 1991. Academic honesty policies… McCab found that when schools have codes of ethics they have lower levels cheating. The research I want to talk about is by Dan Ariellie from Duke. He has a theory of honesty and ethics… people don’t like to think of themselves as dishonest. Use that to your advantage. They will more likely follow rules if you remind them of the rules. Less ambiguity helps too. So, this was his experiment… he gave people a test with opportunity to cheat. They took test and were allowed to grade themselves. They get paid base on their performance on the exam. To see various effects, he had people think about the Ten Commandments before the test. He also gave people either cash or tokens redeemable for cash. People cheated less when they thought about the Ten Commandments before the exam and cheated more with tokens maybe because they are more ambiguous. The conclusion is that a code of ethics is not silver bullet, but is a natural part of the maturation of a campus. Please rely on other UCs because they have gone through this too and more recently than you may think. Make it as salient and noticeable as possible and as specific as possible so there is no ambiguity. You want people to know when they are being ethical or not.

J. Brandon My question is would it be more effective to have this as a resolution because if it is a law it will not be held in the same esteem? Should it be a binding code of ethics or more self imposed?

E. Heit Well, I can’t tell you what to do… but faculty sets up a small committee to look at the code, who talks about them and they are voted on then a handbook is handed out. But I can’t tell you which it should be. Everyone should talk about this. The fear is you pass this, but the new senate may not feel the same.

D. Medvedko How do you make the code less ambiguous, keep it broad but specific?

E. Heit Google ‘UC faculty code of ethics’. It has general principles like ‘be honest’… and it goes on in depth saying you should be honest in research and teaching. It has about 30 different points. It gets as specific as ‘you should return students’ work in timely manner’. Not specific in the way like saying ‘a week’. It says you should be good member of the UC community like don’t break state laws while on campus. Back in 50s and 60s when the government had all faculty take loyalty oath, it was so people were being not communist off campus. Don’t impose something on yourself you don’t think should be imposed on you.

J. Malone The difference between resolution and bill, a resolution is more ‘lax’… a resolution suggests what you should do, bills demand what you should do. Do you think there isn’t much of a necessity of us controlling what people do in their private lives? If a senator is caught smoking weed and is posting it on FaceBook, is that something we deal with when it comes?

E. Heit The line with FaceBook and off campus is blurry, so I think what you’re doing is good for a bill more than a resolution…. For the off campus thing, it is up to you look to other campuses.

J. Brandon In your research, have you seen that if something is mandated people will more likely to follow it? This will be inaugural and will be reviewed each year.

E. Heit Hopefully, next year’s senate will not see you as an outside authority. If Charles wrote your code, I wouldn’t recommend that. As long as it is written by students, people will feel a part of it. Be ethical and be good. If you want to affect people’s behavior, that won’t have a good effect. Thank you for the invitation. Good night.

Sergeant Gongora, UC Merced Police Department

I see everyone’s on all on FaceBook and texting ‘why are there cops here’. Thank you again for invitation. I’m Sergeant Gongora from the UC Merced Police Department. I’m here to talk about the proposal I put forth when you had budget call, but before that I will get into what UCMPD is about and our philosophy. We are a law enforcement agency. We take crime reports, we do traffic enforcement, and make arrests and citations, but we are greater than that. We are focused on improving the community through other things like mentor programs which have been here since 2006. Students in the program go to mentor 4^th grade students. If you think about it, this year those 4^th grade students are now in high school. . The impact is still with those students today. The kids you see in yellow shirts are doing the escorts, registering your bike and electronics; they table and promote our events and public safety. We are an educational body. You are here because you want to be here. We offer classes that provide education like the RAD program which is self defense for women only. During those 3 weeks, students and staff learn not only physical stuff, but mental aspects to get out of situation without physical force. We have had the Citizen Police Academy program since 2008. It is a 10 week program open to everyone. We take about 15 people per semester and talk about lots of things like the criminal justice system as a whole ‘what is community policing’, ‘what is a computer crime’. We talk about those things and how to keep yourself safe and what to do. We talk about cultural diversity and how it applies to us and you. We talk about the hiring process to educate you, not to recruit, but because it might apply to your career path. Those are some of the programs we offer in addition to the twenty-four seven’ law enforcement services we provide. We offer the DUI investigations class. This isn’t the most important session, but it still is very important. This is one of the times were you get to participate. It is not just us doing a power point. It is more interactive. Years ago, we got to use fatal vision goggles. Who has not heard of these? Everyone has. Good. We allow people to try on the different levels from one drink to toppling over. It does not complete simulate what it is like to be intoxicated. I know that. It is not a perfectly accurate simulation of being drunk… it is a visual impairment tool to simulate that. I go over the powerpoint when I teach the class to go over basic concepts like don’t drink and drive. It leads to getting arrested, your car towed, lots of money, and you can die! We try to emphasize this with a combination of tools. We will have someone do field sobriety tests with those goggles. Some people do fine and that happens in real life too. I’ve seen that, so that simulation works. I’ve seen it in training and in the field. I haven’t arrested people for DUI during the day. I have people put on the goggles and I’ll try having them do simple tasks like catch a ball. It usually will hit them in the face, but maybe you find way to defeat the goggles. That happens. Every time we use we borrow them and they are not always readily available. I saw the box in back. We will graciously accept those goggles, but sometimes we have large events and we have more than 3 people out there, so having another set will help us accomplish our goals. Even stuff off campus. It is not the tell all of alcohol education. It is a tool to help accomplish our overall goal. With that, I ask if there are any questions about anything I said or the programs or the use of goggles. I’ll be happy to answer them.

J. Brandon moves to extend guest speaker time 1 minute

-Seconded

-Discussion: none

-Objections: none

Guest speaker time was extended 1 minutes

J. Brandon If you don’t mind staying, we will have the bill on the table soon and we can ask questions then.

D. Medvedko Why not ask questions now, so he can go home?

J. Brandon Because of what Charles said. He can’t talk about the bill now.

S. Gongora Thank you for your time.

VI.

Chair’s Report – Alex Ela

I sent out an email and I’m standing because I don’t think you listen if I don’t. Good evening everyone. The elections packet is available in the OSL and is due 8pm on Monday April 2^nd. That is the day we come back from break. I am planning a transaction retreat which will include an ASUCM handbook. I will send email to the committee chairs. I’m working with the executives right now to get that started. In internal vice president’s office we are finishing electronically filing legislation. We are looking for some of the missing ones to upload. We are looking to have a CROPS folder for the general public. You can see legislation from past years now. I’m trying to move legislation into the digital age. Go green! I’m working with Connie and Cindy to digitize our current legislative process like digital pdfs. I’m planning to complete these this year, so lets finish strong. I looked up the 20 minute discussion thing. It is not each motion is 20 minutes long; it is says 20 minutes per agenda item in the bylaws.

VII.

Officer’s Report
Senate Pro-tempore – Garrett Patton
At 6pm, I met with the executives in Budget and Finance and discussed the RCO budget. On Friday there will be a discussion on the government operations part. Contact me, K. Ellis or any executive, we will be happy to speak with you about your concerns

Sergeant at Arms – Alonzo Karahamuheto
Last week it got energized in here. Try to keep it down and keep decorum.

Secretary – Adrian Mohammed
I’m trying to revise those minutes. Stay posted and let me know if they are adequate.

ICC Liaison – Brendan Smith
I was absent, but Jennifer took notes. 5 proposals were discussed and approved. If everything goes through, over 2 thousand dollars will be allocated.

Court Liaison – Lao Yang
Court met yesterday at 6pm and talked about court bylaws and made some revisions.

VIII.

Committee Reports
Budget and Finance – Adrian Mohammed
Met today at 1pm in the lantern. We changed our time to meet with the executives to go over the budget. That is not our regular time. We went over legislation and sent out the minutes. A. Karahamuheto’s absences were excused.

Academic Affairs – Jacob Malone
Met today at 1pm and discussed the iGEM bill. All senators were present including G. Patton, B. Cornejo, and A. Mohammed.

Student Activities - Yoli Manon
Met last Friday at 12:30pm. B. Leppla was absent. Sally from CAB was there talking about the dance off. They are looking for a judge. Let me, Gee, or her know if you know someone.

Student Advocacy – Dmitri Medvedko
Met today at 6pm in the cubicle. No legislation but talked about, but the current agenda was discussed. I was late, but everyone was there.

IX.

Advisor’s Report – Dr. Charles Nies

I just came back from a conference this afternoon in Arizona. There were a lot of great things there as well as 7 of our staff. We will bring back lots of good ideas I hope. What I want talk about is you, senate. Before, I talked about the education purpose part of why you all exist. You might disagree, but an import piece is your relationship with Recognized Student Organizations, so they can provide opportunities for the students. It is important for you to make good decisions to allocate the money. Don’t tell them how to do their events; you can decide what you want to fund which makes them make hard decisions. Don’t tell them they have to stay at a certain place or ‘we don’t like this restaurant’ or ‘it’s cheaper at Subway’. You may only fund to a certain levels. That’s fine, but it’s not okay to say you don’t like their speaker. You need to provide the same funding sources for similar organizations and events. That’s why Keith keeps talking about a rubric, so you can make these decisions so people can look at the average of hotel stay in the area or something. It is the same with someone picking a bad day. Like April 21^st because of Bobcat day and the dance off. If someone else wants to do something on the 21^st you should tell them that’s a bad idea, but not that they can’t. I read the ICC bylaws and nothing says you have that oversight. You have the responsibility for funding. Make sure you lock that law in. We are not overlords over their decisions and events. Thank you everyone.

President’s Report – Miguel Lopez

I created suggestion box. It is up in the OSL and I got about 11 suggestions already. I went to Berkeley on Saturday. The Council of Presidents is having a meeting with Yudoff this Friday. Jon Stein is working on UNITE with all the UCs to have a committee on campus climate. Budget! I talked to senators from the Budget and Finance meeting at 2 on Friday. Next Monday I’m having a forum for the final released budget. Thank you.

XI.

Treasurer’s Report – Keith Ellis

The general fund is at 40 thousand and some change. I’m not going to go through a detailed report this week because I will go back through this year’s budget to see what money we have and look at roll back so everyone knows our balance. ICC has 89 hundred plus the 5 thousand you gave them, so they are shy of 14 thousand with their roll back. They should be okay. Please give feedback to Miguel and I on difference sections, services, and government operations. We got a good handle on the RCOs. We got a good rationale, so I think we are okay. I think what we did was reasonable. Talk to those folks who were at that meeting there. You lose a lot if you just read the words. Talk to us since it is important more than a report. Any questions? Any money we don’t spend goes back into the general fund. Any money in contingency goes to savings. What we don’t spend this year gets rolled over next year. I’ll let you know what Sustainability has.

XII.

Public Forum

Sarah Dutchover

Just as an update, Commissioner Fidel has resigned. We will find a replacement, so there is a change. If you are running, Anita is pouring over the bylaws to be there for you. The entire commission is there for you, but she can give you special attention. Next week there will be an information meeting. I’ll email you about it. You can get signatures in OSL, but you can’t be campaigning in OSL. People are doing their stuff and you do not need to be impeding their work process. My mistake on the timeline, you can start campaigning immediately. Sorry, my bad. Just be safe and read the guidelines and bylaws. Ryan and Kevin haven’t nominated to the election commission.

Damion Harriman

I’m Damion the Director of Student Advocacy. I had an ‘ombuds’ meeting today. They deal with any complaints or general concerns on behalf of the staff or students.

Sergeant Gongora

Thank you for letting me speak about my proposal. It basically asks for a 12 pack of fatal vision goggles. They come in carry case similar to what Charles is holding. It comes with a CD explaining how to use them and comes with various levels from 1 drink to total intoxication. It comes with goggles for day and night. The vendor of the goggles says the total cost is 16 hundred dollars. This is not the tool, but a tool for an overall lesson plan. It benefits students and everyone in this room because everyone has been affected by a drunk driving incident in some way. The 5 goggles here will serve their purpose, but I’d like to have more to serve more people. I’d like to be able to show each class without rushing through them. In real life, everyone acts differently. It is valuable for our department to have so we can educate the student body. We do other presentations in the community as well. I’ll take any questions. There are 5 vision goggles in there… 2 for the night and 3 for the day. All the cases I have investigated are at night. Citizens Academy for example, has a DUI topic. We have CSOs that go out in the community… me or the other officers will be handing out applications. These programs are not exclusive for the student body, but they are the first people we deal with. The first seats are open for students.

Keith Ellis

I’m your CAPRA representative which is an Academic Senate thing. We are talking about re-benching…. We talked about the Office of the President tax thing. We keep our tuition dollars, re-benching is playing with the other dollars. They are tinkering with faculty pay scales. This is ten times more petty then our compensation conversation. If you want to know how much the faculty gets paid, go to sacbee.com. There is a strategic plan for each of the schools. We are waiting for Engineering to send theirs. Each school tries to forecast what they will need in the future. I’m in SSHA, so all I know is what they need, but I want to hear from Natural Sciences and Engineering folks. I don’t know what your major needs from course offerings to TAs. I’m just trying to get all that feedback from you. Any questions about any of that stuff? Cool.

Asia Johnson, Pre-Pharmacy Club

We are asking to attend 6 annual symposium on April 7th at UC Berkeley. It is a good opportunity for people in that field to network. We want 30 students to attend, so we want travel and conference fees. Thank you.

Jacob Gutierrez

I’m chief of staff to Kyle. I want to share something I have been working on for while since mid semester last semester which is to start the prelaw minor start on campus. Mark Harris is helping us make that drive since he help start the law clinic. For our faculty we want Thomas Handford. We will meet up with him as soon as possible. As far as talking to people, I talked to the Dean of SSHA and the Chancellor who are advocating for an ENV course that focuses on environmental law. With help from Kyle and Sean Lambert-Diaz, I fashioned a petition to garner the prelaw people on campus. The next step is to get that petition out. We are talking about what classes should be in the minor like logic and critical reasoning. They do not completely expose to what happens in law school but hopefully solidifies what they can expect. My email is jguttierrez24@ ucmerced.edu. I just wanted to share. Thanks

Aaron Delacerda

In light of Ralph Nader… he pointed out civic courses in student bodies. I just want to see who will get on board. I was asked to do research on that curriculum. Other professors have already signed off on this. I think it is a great idea; you might have thought of this as well. I’ll be glad to work with you. We can collaborate. Thank you, please email me at adelacerda2ucm

XIII.

Old Business

Bill #48- ASUCM Code of Ethics: Introduced by G. Patton, D. Medvedko, A. Mohammed

G. Patton moves to approve Bill #48

-Seconded

-Discussion

J. Malone moves to approve Bill #48 section by section

-Seconded

-Discussion

J. Brandon I like, personally, the Budget and Finance revisions. Maybe we should adopt them and work from them.

A. Mohammed Our amendments accepted Jaron’s amendments. That’s all we did.

J. Malone We will be working off what was what Budget and Finance did. You accepted the amendments made by Budget and Finance. We should talk about it.

G. Patton I think we should still go about section by section.

D. Medvedko Which aspect is not specific?

J. Malone Is this germane to going section by section?

D. Medvedko Yeah, how specific is each section?

VOTE

For: G. Patton, A. Mohammed, J. Malone, Y. Manon, A. Karahamuheto, B. Mayes, B. Cornejo

Opposed: B. Smith, B. Leppla, J. Brandon, J. Borobia, L. Yang, D. Medvedko

Abstentions: none

Bill #48 is being approved section by section

Addr moves to approve Section 5

-Seconded

-Discussion

J. Brandon I’m confused. Now we can adopt?

J. Brandon offers a friendly amendment to adopt the Budget and Finance amendments

G. Patton does not accept

Dr. C. Nies When Evan talked about behavior outside, it only said that if they are outside and they represent themselves as a University person. If I said ‘I’m Charles Nies, Associate Vice Chancellor’. I am representing myself and the UC. That’s what this last line here is talking about. If you go to a city council meeting and say you are Garret, a senator from ASUCM, he is not longer representing a student, but is representing Senate which has some weight.

J. Brandon I’d like to politely disagree with Charles. This is so when we are introducing ourselves saying we are senators but we are not ASUCM. I feel we should have the ability to represent ourselves without speaking for everyone else at the table to keep individualism.

Miguel Who does this authorize to act on behalf of ASUCM?

A. Mohammed Can we add in a provision saying that ‘I’m conscious that I am a part of ASUCM and if I am given opportunity to represent the campus, I will follow these guidelines’. Can we add that in specifically?

J. Brandon I think that would stifle us being able to discuss things. There have been different events where various members have spoken. Say a topic came up that we haven’t written a resolution about. You can’t talk about it the way this is written. We are representing the students because the majority voted for us. We cannot represent every single person, but everyone as a whole.

B. Mayes If you put in ‘if’ whether than ‘when’ who are you authorizing? If you are Miguel out tabling, then you are authorized? Is the logo authorizing you?

Dr. C. Nies ASUCM is a official unit of the University, so it is different than an org organization or club. If school gets sued because something you said is in the newspaper, we are liable for that. It assumes a different level of responsibility.

J. Malone Anytime where the title of senator can be attributed to you, as a basic rule of any ASUCM capacity. If you’re in a class, it never comes up. You wouldn’t be addressed as a senator. If you are in a sociology class and you are talking about our interactions here at the table this is where your affiliation and opinions come into play. If we want to limit it to discussing your title we can discuss that as well.

K. Ellis Email! A lot of people have their lovely long blah blah ‘ASUCM Senator’ that counts here. It is automatic. You may not think about it. If you send that to SunStar, they will take that and put it in the paper.

J. Brandon I can’t imagine anything major happing with the law, but that would involve impeachment. I feel there are lot of things like protests that are walking on gray areas. There is this duality saying we are always an ASUCM senator. We should also be able to act individually as well.

Dr. C. Nies I agree with you Jaron. I go to a lot of protests…. I just don’t wear my name tag. It could be something small and next thing you know it say ASUCM supports the Walmart distribution center. I think D needs to be reworded. You need to be mindful that if you do use your title in those situations, how are you mindful of that?

B. Smith You want to do these things, but you want to use your title… why do you need to use in every situation?

J. Brandon I’m thinking of putting an E on there. When we introduce ourselves as a senator, we are acting on behalf of ourselves not as the senate as a whole.

Dr. C. Nies That stills comes back to ASUCM. I’m not acting on behalf of ASUCM but I am an ASUCM senator. What is the point of that talking through both sides of the mouth?

W. Hamilton We have 4 people very active in protesting like your EVP Jon, Damion, Keith, and I. It is a sticky situation.

G. Patton How would you like to reword it then? If not conducive to the EVP…?

W. Hamilton I will only act behalf of ASUCM if…I don’t know I’m tired.

J. Malone moves to extend discussion 10 minutes

-Seconded

-Discussion

B. Leppla We have spent 20 minutes with this section, we have 5 sections left. If we have a minimum of 20 minutes per section, we will be here close to 3 hours.

J. Malone We are approve section by section. I think once the general concensus comes to we should put this off to another day since we are not engaging it anymore we can stop wherever we get to. We have only 5 meetings left, so I encourage we press on.

M. Lopez Or create an ad hoc committee to hammer this out and come out with something.

VOTE

-For: G. Patton, A. Mohammed, D. Medvedko, J. Malone, Y. Manon, A. Karahamuheto, B. Mayes, J. Brandon, J. Borobia, L. Yang, B. Cornejo

-Opposed: B. Smith, B. Leppla

-Abstentions: none

Discussion is extended 10 minutes

A. Mohammed I fully agree with Charles.

J. Malone I fully agree with Senator Mohammed fully agreeing with Charles.

G. Patton adopts Dr. C. Nies’s changes.

J. Brandon I want to change that to I actively seek feedback, but that seems redundant.

G. Patton accepts Jaron’s friendly amendment

VOTE

-For: G. Patton, A. Mohammed, D. Medvedko, J. Malone, Y. Manon, A. Karahamuheto, B. Mayes, J. Brandon, J. Borobia, L. Yang, B. Cornejo

-Opposed: none

-Abstentions: B. Leppla, B. Smith

Section 5 was approved

J. Malone moves to approve section 6

-Seconded

-Discussion

J. Brandon moves to adopt the Budget and Finance amendments

-Seconded

-Discussion

G. Patton I see that you said you are questioning the phrasing. Do you have any thoughts to explain?

J. Brandon The amendments change that to ‘I’m ready to respond to issues in the community’. I felt the second part was unnecessary, but the first part is just an obvious thing that if we respond to someone we won’t scoff at them. It is respectful…what is that? Our approach? Bluntness? It goes back to the ambiguity? I keep trying to keep this at 7 to 8 words as a goal of mine.

VOTE

-For: B. Leppla, B. Smith, D. Medvedko, J. Brandon, J. Borobia, L. Yang, B. Cornejo

-Opposed: A. Mohammed, A. Karahamuheto, B. Mayes, G. Patton, Y. Manon

-Abstentions: J. Malone

The motion does not carry

J. Brandon offers a friendly amendment to state ‘I’m ready to respond to issues in community…’

G. Patton accepts J. Brandon’s friendly amendment

VOTE

-For: G. Patton, A. Mohammed, D. Medvedko, J. Malone, Y. Manon, A. Karahamuheto, B. Mayes, J. Brandon, J. Borobia, L. Yang, B. Cornejo

-Opposed: none

-Abstentions: B. Smith, B. Leppla

Section 6 was approved

G. Patton moves to approve Section 7

-Seconded

-Discussion: none

VOTE

-For: G. Patton, A. Mohammed, D. Medvedko, J. Malone, Y. Manon, A. Karahamuheto, B. Mayes, J. Brandon, J. Borobia, L. Yang, B. Cornejo

-Opposed: none

-Abstentions: B. Smith, B. Leppla

Section 7 was approved

G. Patton moves to approve Section 8 and adopt the Budget and Finance amendments

-Seconded

-Discussion: none

VOTE

-For: G. Patton, A. Mohammed, D. Medvedko, J. Malone, Y. Manon, A. Karahamuheto, B. Mayes, J. Brandon, J. Borobia, L. Yang, B. Cornejo

-Opposed: none

-Abstentions: B. Leppla, B. Smith

Section 8 was approved

G. Patton moves to approve Section 9

-Seconded

-Discussion

J. Brandon offers a friendly amendment to adopt the Budget and Finance amendments

G. Patton accepts part E of the Budget and Finance amendments

J. Brandon moves to extend discussion 15 minutes

-Seconded

-Discussion

G. Patton You want to finish last the last 2 sections? And vote next week?

Miguel I think if you approve the next 2 sections, the whole bill will be approved.

J. Brandon As I mentioned, we never voted on the be it enacted clause, so we would not be approving the bill since we did not go over the be in enacted section.

Dr. C. Nies You moved to approve the bill by section, so once you approve the sections you approve the bill.

J. Malone We are voting to what we want to be in the bill. We are voting what we are getting into the final bill.

Dr. C. Nies Sure, but you moved to approve section by section, so you don’t go back. You would have to change your motion.

J. Malone moves to have the be it enacted section be the final section approved by a 2/3 majority vote

-Seconded

-Discussion

G. Patton Why 2/3?

Ela Because it is a bylaw change.

J. Malone amends his motion to include the be it further enacted section

-Seconded

-Discussion: none

-Objections: none

The be it enacted and be it further enacted will be the final sections approved with a 2/3 majority vote

VOTE

-For: G. Patton, A. Mohammed, D. Medvedko, J. Malone, Y. Manon, A. Karahamuheto, B. Mayes, J. Brandon, J. Borobia, L. Yang

-Opposed: B. Smith, B. Leppla

-Abstentions: B. Cornejo

Discussion is extended 15 minutes

J. Brandon For section D, it is redundant. We are always acting in best interest of ASUCM. It is clear. We are conducting professionally when we are representing the students though we are acting as an individual.

J. Brandon moves to adopt Budget and Finance amendments for part D of Section 9

-Seconded

-Discussion

G. Patton I don’t understand why you wouldn’t want to act in best interest of UC Merced. What is the conflict?

J. Brandon We represent the students more so than UCM or ASUCM

A. Mohammed It makes more sense with UCM. I think it is best to have it as UCM.

J. Brandon resends his previous motion and moves to change legislation to say in best interest of UC Merced

-Seconded

-Discussion

B. Smith That doesn’t imply we are representing any employee of UC Merced does it?

J. Brandon That is why I just wanted students. I don’t see it as a big problematic thing. I’m willing to compromise.

K. Ellis One instance that is contrarian to best interest of the campus is the fee increase. To students they are mean and evil, but to the campus as a whole they are good. They help them not shut down tomorrow. Jon and I are advocating against fee increasing, but that’s not in the best interest of the campus, so this is a conflict of this. Are we just representing the undergraduate students which is in our constitution?

A. Mohammed Do we want to change it to undergraduate students, so we are consistent?

J. Brandon resends his previous motion and moves to further change the wording of the legislation to ‘undergraduate students’

-Seconded

-Discussion: none

-Objections: none

The wording in the legislation was changed

VOTE

-For: G. Patton, A. Mohammed, D. Medvedko, J. Malone, Y. Manon, A. Karahamuheto, B. Mayes, J. Brandon, J. Borobia, L. Yang, B. Cornejo

-Opposed: none

-Abstentions: B. Smith, B. Leppla

Section 9 was approved

G. Patton moves to approve Section 10

-Seconded

-Discussion

J. Brandon I made the change to A because I felt that it was kind of an odd statement. It didn’t make sense. We try to assist our peers, but not to any capacity, not with tests…

G. Patton accepts J. Brandon’s friendly amendment

J. Brandon offers a friendly amendment changing the wording of the legislation, we are not forcing ourselves… we are doing this on our own resolve

G. Patton accepts J. Brandon’s friendly amendment

J. Brandon offers a friendly amendment to further change wording of legislation

G. Patton declines

J. Brandon offers a friendly amendment to change the wording in legislation

G. Patton accepts J. Brandon’s friendly amendment

J. Brandon offers a friendly amendment

Dr. C. Nies If you break law in your private life, you still will be held accountable and told to resign.

J. Brandon We have our own value systems…

G. Patton does not accept J. Brandon’s friendly amendment

J. Brandon moves to adopt the Budget and Finance amendments on the section of accountability

-Seconded

-Discussion

B. Leppla I support Jaron because every single one of these statements start with valuing professionalism. Let’s say few years down the road some representative does something unethical… like underage drinking at a party. Let’s say someone takes you to the judicial board. The only thing you have to say is you still value them… ‘I broke them but I still value them’, so there is not accountability. There isn’t much of backbone to it. I feel like this as a whole needs to be a resolution or over enchanting idea and concept. The more ambiguity there is, the less likely someone will follow it. If we want to make a bill that will say ‘you will not do this’ it is okay, but there is nothing specific about any of this, so witch hunts are perfectly plausible.

J. Malone moves to extend discussion 5 minutes

-Seconded

-Discussion: none

-Objections: none

Discussion is extended 5 minutes

J. Malone I think that we should remember the ultimate enforcer of this is Charles. He is the one constant in all of this that holds through. In all seriousness, he allowed us to storm all we wanted to. He was not on our nuts all the time. This is meant to be reserved to be held to for offences. Heit talked about the fact of us having and reviewing this will keep us in line more than we would without it. To that affect, I would implore you to think of this less as someone walking behind you saying your violating this… it is more of a principle of community. It helps you act toward each other as a member of the community. It is not a contract. You won’t be sued over it.

B. Smith It is always left up to interpretation. In the future, what will the next senate think? Court? We are leaving it up to these possible witch hunts for going to a party. It is possible to be sued by this. It is a bylaw.

J. Brandon moves to extend discussion 10 minutes

-Seconded

-Discussion

J. Brandon Brendan is right. This should be a resolution.

A. Karahamuheto We have extended time a lot already. It is not fair for people here.

G. Patton moves to table Bill #48 for 1 week

-Seconded

-Discussion

Dr. C. Nies I put the faculty code up. I encourage you to look at them. Without that, you can’t challenge the grade you were given. It doesn’t mean the guy will get fired. It gives the ability for someone to examine their case.

J. Brandon We only have a few things to go through. We should just knock this out tonight. We can do it next week, but we will have more on our plate.

A. Ela We spent over an hour on this already.

J. Malone We should look with fresh eyes next week.

VOTE

-For: G. Patton, A. Mohammed, D. Medvedko, J. Malone, Y. Manon, A. Karahamuheto, B. Mayes, J. Borobia, L. Yang, B. Cornejo

-Opposed: B. Smith, B. Leppla, J. Brandon

-Abstentions: none

Bill #48 is tabled for 1 week

Bill #51- UCMPD Alcohol Awareness Bill: Introduced by G. Patton

G. Patton moves to approve Bill #51

-Seconded

-Discussion

G. Patton Last week we discussed an import aspect of this bill. We did research to see how effective this is. It turns out that the short term affect it might not carry on after for some weeks. If you use the goggles, it works better and lasts longer. The article says that the police encourage people to use rather than watch people use goggles. I feel we should pass this.

J. Brandon I think they will really help students. It was profound to me in high school. I did research on my own. He mentioned he did a 50 minute presentation to 30 students. He got through them with 2 goggles. Essentially he did it every 40 seconds and he said he wouldn’t need more. People need these goggles to enhance the lesson, but buying more goggles is not the answer. I cataloged what we did have. We have 2 night goggles 1 for less than .16 and the other one is .2. I think we should take this as we already gave them 5. There are 3 for the day time. Another medium for the day and medium night should be fine. It would give them 6 goggles. This program served 80 people over 3 years. The fact we have 6 is 3 times more than the one the officer had for 30 kids.

B. Leppla offers a friendly amendment to change the be it enacted clause

G. Patton accepts B. Leppla’s friendly amendment

S. Gongora It is for more than just that one class. We do more than just the academy. We offer more presentations. This will be used for all alcohol awareness programs. Whether we are tabling or in a classroom doing a demonstration or presentation.

J. Malone I think this is exactly not doing what Charles told us to do. We are telling them what to use them for or spend money on. If you can make the argument they have 5 goggles and do it that way, it would be more effective that these goggles need to be purchased rather than these goggles.

A. Mohammed I wanted to reiterate Jake’s point.

A. Karahamuheto I feel, though I respect, we shouldn’t tell him how to run the programs. I don’t think we should scrutinize the bill to this extent if it can save one life. It is not that much money lets drop this and go.

J. Brandon I would like to clarify, I do mean, that there is a lot of benefit of having the 12 goggles. We do club funding. We don’t typically fund none RCO things, so I want to advocate us helping them purchase 6 goggles saying we are supporting this 50%. Since he just got 5, it seemed just logical that since they have low and high it was reasonable to fill it with medium. I don’t think it is right to play the ‘it can save someone’s life card’ saying that if I don’t vote for this I might be killing someone. I think we get full benefit from the program with just 6 goggles. This is not slashing and cutting. It is how much we are willing to give for those programs on campus. I think we should support it, but 6 is the number I think is enough. Maybe the clubs feel that that is not a little about of money.

B. Smith You said this is usually not something we fund, but this is something we should be funding. Alcohol is big part of college life and we should be funding this education. If they say they need these goggles they are the experts. Yeah, we should do our research, but they are ultimately the experts. They are just requesting money to educate us students.

S. Gongora I know that you do not normally to spend money on this. It is not normal for someone got in a hit on run, but I say someone and he hit light pole in a U turn during Korean Culture Night. A lot of people were out and someone could have gotten hurt. Could that have been prevented? Possibly through education… maybe, I don’t know. But I do know we have been able to reach a lot of people through our programs and presentations. I’m looking for a complete set. However we get that I’m glad. My goal isn’t just to get a bunch of people through. I want people to experience the vast array to see what it is like to do various tasks. That is something we make that determination when we teach that class. Whether you fund the remaining 7 or full set of 12, that will give us options on how to teach the class.

B. Leppla There are sometimes disagreements, better than badger those people, just motion to vote and respect.

B. Leppla moves to move to a vote

-Seconded

-Discussion

A. Mohammed Charles has something to say.

B. Leppla resends his motion

Dr. C. Nies We got these in 2006. They were used by H.E.R.O.E.S. and other offices. They stopped using them, so they are giving them to the UCMPD for the alcohol awareness week.

J. Malone Will 1 thousand round it off to get you the other 7?

S. Gongora I believe it would. I would have to get the book, but I’m sure 11 hundred will do for 7.

J. Malone offers a friendly amendment to change bill amount to 1,100 dollars

G. Patton accepts J. Malone’s friendly amendment

J. Malone moves to end discussion and move to a vote

-Seconded

-Discussion

J. Brandon We need 8 because one is a separate set and doesn’t match the set, so we should reflect that.

-Objections: none

Discussion is ended and Senate moves to a vote

VOTE: unanimous

Bill #51 was approved

Bill #55- iGEM Competition: Introduced by J. Malone, J. Karahamuheto

J. Malone moves to approve Bill #55

-Seconded

Committee Reports

Budget and Finance: Unanimously approved

Student Activities: Abstained from voting due to the lack of timeline, location, and knowledge of who is being funded

Academic Affairs: Unanimously Approved

-Discussion

M. Urner It will be held in the San Francisco area and we need to be registered by the end of March. It will be in mid October.

Y. Yuen They said it will be in Stanford or UCSF… just the bay area. We are looking to only fund at undergraduates right now because this is a main concern for undergraduates and the advisors also.

J. Malone We can’t fund graduate students

M. Urner The transportation is just for the undergraduate students.

B. Leppla Unfortunately, I really love that you want to do this, but I will vote no. Next year’s general fund will not have much. We are in a deficit for next year. I’m concerned about this, it is 8 students using 18.4% of our budget; it is 12% of next year’s budgets. Another conference is sending 30 people for 1 thousand. Don’t hate me. I don’t think it is fair to spend 1 thousand per student. Unfortunately, there is not much money. I would like you to get a grant, fundraise, or something

Y. Manon The purpose needs to be cleaned up. We technically are funding ourselves.

B. Smith You said it is in October. We are not allowed to spend money for stuff outside the fiscal year.

J. Malone The money will be spent before that.

K. Ellis If it happens after July 1^st we have to use that year’s budget, so if this happens before June 30^th that is fine. You can’t pay for anything since it is in October.

Dr. C. Nies You are splitting hairs.

J. Malone Do I have to suspend the financial bylaws? I was going to make them take another shot. It’s an inside joke.

B. Smith That was going to be my recommendation.

J. Brandon I’d like more information on this. Last Senate meeting we had long discussion on hotels. This is more than 100 dollars than the other hotels. I want to see where it is to give you for average room there and leave up to you.

M. Urner When I talked to Cindy at the OSL, she said it is reimbursed at 48 cents per mile, so I just did San Francisco city area from UC Merced.

Y. Yuen This is in our own cars.

J. Brandon offer a friendly amendment to change reimbursement to 55 cents per mile

J. Malone accepts J. Brandon’s friendly amendment

L. Curl The mileage is 55.5 cents since you all are trying to be exact.

K. Ellis The section is 5.5.1 Senate Allocations and Restrictions. Read that. I’m going with Malone’s and Charle’s interpretation. We can pay for registration, not travel.

Dr. C. Nies It is up to you all. You won’t be sued… maybe challenged, but not sued since money has to be spent this fiscal year

J. Malone amends the bill to take out transportation and hotels

J. Brandon So for the 4 advisors, it is amended, it is taking twice the cost of the jamboree fee. It seemed that you didn’t know it was in the bill because they were paying for their own transportation. Why are 4 advisors needed for 8 students?

M. Urner They are each an expert in a different part of biology, so we might need to have them there for specific engineering.

B. Leppla Reminder to all other Senators… just for the concert Gee needed 40 thousand, so if we plan for next year he will need 40 thousand. We were fortunate to have roll over for this year. I hope that we stop saying we can keep spending. We will have to take responsibility. For this money, clubs could have events. There may not be a Korean Culture Night next year. We have to start going ‘this is a lot of money’ and next year’s senate needs money.

G. Patton We started this year 80 thousand and after with the ….

K. Ellis This year was an oddity. We are an outlier with 200 thousand in your general fund. Our carry forward was to 20% of the budget. We are meant to spent 80% of that budget. The idea is that we collected that money from these kids, so we have to spend it on those kids.

J. Malone moves to extend discussion 10 minutes

-Seconded

-Discussion

-Objections: none

Discussion was extended 10 minutes

J. Malone With respect to Brandon, there were 3 of us here before that and we had not seen even half of that. Because of the huge carry forward and return to aid this year was completely bazaar. Next year, we won’t have that money. We won’t have nothing, but it will be small 58 thousand is the smallest we will have. We are spending the money we have right now. It will come to 17 hundred from next year’s budget. The 58 hundred now must be spent by the end of month. We can tell them this money may not be available next year. The hand outs we gave this year cannot be expected next year, so they can work on getting grants and money from other places. This is going to an academic and professional cause. I’m a SSHA major and 58 hundred dollars is a lot of money, but I understand that their bread and butter is much more expensive than other schools. This is cool; we should definitely fund this. We only have 5 meetings left and we have 40 thousand dollars left. We are on track to spend 8 thousand each week. I fully support this bill. These guys are great.

J. Brandon My concern is transportation and hotel. This is the cutting edge of bio engineering. It is a whole new industry that will be popping up soon. I support this, but my advice is that, I assume you will come next year, get a location as best you can and get the names of people. It alarmed me that half as many advisors as students are going but after you explained I understand the specialty thing.

VOTE

-For: G. Patton, A. Mohammed, B. Smith, D. Medvedko, J. Malone, A. Karahamuheto, B. Mayes, J. Brandon, J. Borobia, L. Yang, B. Cornejo

-Opposed: B. Leppla

-Abstentions: Y. Manon

Bill #52 was approved

XIV.

New Business

Bill #56- SIFE Regional Competition: Introduced by G. Patton

G. Patton moves to send Bill #56 to the Budget and Finance and Student Activities committees

-Seconded

-Discussion

-Objections: none

Bill #56 was sent to the Budget and Finance and Student Activities committees

Bill #57- MSA Islam Awareness Week: Introduced by G. Patton

G. Patton moves to send Bill #57 to the Budget and Finance, Student Activities, and Student Advocacy committees

-Seconded

-Discussion: none

-Objections: none

Bill #57 was sent to the Budget and Finance, Student Activities, and Student Advocacy committees

Bill #58- Northern California Pre-Pharmacy Symposium: Introduced by J. Malone, J. Boroia

J. Malone moves to send Bill #58 to committee as a whole

-Seconded

-Discussion

Tong The event is on April 7^th. It did not pass in ICC, so Jake and Jeniffer helped out. Registration ends on March 18^th. We have 20 people lined up; we plan to get the 10 extra, if not we will not spend the money. We want to pay for the registration fee.

B. Leppla You would need Miguel to sign it and talk to Connie to get the money on time.

-Objections: none

Bill #58 was sent to committee as a whole

J. Malone moves to move into committee as a whole

-Seconded

-Discussion: none

-Objections: none

Senate moves into committee as a whole

J. Malone This was the quickest it could get to us because the proposals were voted on last week’s Tuesday. This was lumped into the 5 other proposals that were denied due to lack of funds. I disagree with ICC because of the amount of money and people. I think we should fund this.

J. Malone moves to move out of committee as a whole

-Seconded

-Discussion: none

-Objections: none

Senate moves out of committee as a whole

J. Malone moves to approve Bill #58

-Seconded

-Discussion: none

VOTE: unanimous

Bill #58 was approved

Bill #59- 2012 LeaderShape Conference: Introduced by J. Malone, J. Smith

J. Malone moves to send Bill #59 to all committees

-Seconded

-Discussion: none

-Objections: none

Bill #59 was sent to all committees

Bill #60 Entrepreneur Society Conference: Introduced by B. Cornejo

B. Cornejo moves to send Bill #60 to the Budget and Finance and Student Activities committees

-Seconded

-Discussion

J. Malone Affairs as well since it is professionally related

B. Cornejo amends his motion to include Academic Affairs

J. Brandon Please to all since it falls on Bobcat Day

B. Cornejo amends motion to include all committees

-Objections: none

Bill #60 was sent to all committees

XV.

Announcements

G. Patton Tomorrow night is the 3^rd conversation of entrepreneurs. Ronnie, she is CEO of a company and great entrepreneur. She will talk about her business.

J. Malone New Prodigy and the front page is the Ralph Nader event. Merced pre law event! The signups for teams will be until the 23^rd. It is a 2 person per team competition. We encourage you all to contact Brian Gruaman, if interested. Know Your Rights event on is on Thursday.

B. Leppla Derby Days for Sigma got to 5 thousand dollars. Get tickets for the Black and White dance.

J. Brandon There will be a Sig auction for all. We are selling ourselves for a date. All the proceeds go to charity. The Democrats and President Obama are releasing a movie about the presidency. Watch that.

A. Mohammed A Princeton professor and prominent writer is coming to speak in my African Literature class in the California room at 4pm. There is good article written by Rachael in the newspaper. Read about us. This is how the students see us. It was accurate and I liked it.

B. Smith Please go to career services so you can get compensated.

A. Ela Next Tuesday at 6pm in the California room CAB is doing Chill with the Chancellor and is having PAA, Taiko, and HHM performances. Come support them.

XVI.

Adjournment:
J. Malone moves to adjourn the Senate meeting.
-Seconded
-Discussion: none
--Objections: none
Senate meeting adjourned at 10:41pm

Next Meeting:

Wednesday, March 21^st at 7:30pm in the Chancellor’s Conference Room.

Public Sign-In:

William Kyle Hamilton

Alma Fausto, The Prodigy

Keith Ellis

David Ascencio

Rachel Johnson

Even Heit

Sarah Dutchover

Jacob Gutierrez, Chief of Staff, Director of Academic Affairs

Damion Herriman

10.

Miguel Lopez

11.

George Gongora

12.

James Paul Gonzalez

13.

Tahsena Mahen

14.

Aja Johnson

15.

Shatyra Williams

16.

Ernesto Tea

17.

Ismael Verduzco

18.

Amsac Wasihudoin

19.

Gee Her

20.

Ryan Zamora, Hip Hop Movement

21.

Brian Grauman

22.

Aaron Delacerda

23.

Geneva McDaniels

24.

LeTrice Curl

25.

Michael Urner

26.

Yale Yuen

27.

Grant Ivison-Leric

28.

Isamar Garcia, Hip Hop Movement

29.

J. Daniel Croswhite

30.

Jorge Cividanes

ASUCM

Senate Minutes 3-14-12

Leadership