CalSERVE Senator Sevly Snguon authored the bill, SB 17, in response to a Sept. 17 printing of an advertisement in the Daily Cal for Dr. Chase Lay, a Bay Area cosmetic surgeon, that emphasized Lay’s expertise in “Asian eyelid surgery” and “Asian facial plastics.” The ad also included photos of Asian women who had undergone eyelid surgery.

The bill was originally introduced Sept. 25 but was tabled until this week. If it is passed, the Daily Cal will be urged to publish an apology for the advertisement online and in print. ASUC President DeeJay Pepito would also be asked to create a task force to investigate campus climate for students of Asian or Pacific Islander descent.

Snguon said at the senate’s external committee meeting Monday that the advertisement was “defining forms of beauty.”

UC Berkeley is a “community where we should feel comfortable,” he said. ”We’re not here to define what people should look like.”

At the committee meeting, Sarah Burns, the Daily Cal’s editor in chief and president, explained the newspaper’s process of screening potentially controversial advertisements. The Daily Cal’s Senior Editorial Board can review such advertisements prior to publication and determine whether to publish them. Although this particular advertisement was not reviewed before publication, the board decided not to let it print again after receiving criticism from the campus community, Burns said.

“We decided to pull the ad because we were cutting off a portion of our readership,” she said.

Lay said he understood why it was pulled but that he did not intend to offend the community.

“I just thought I’d put my expertise on display in areas where the demand was high,” Lay said in an interview shortly after the bill’s initial introduction. “It was not a chance to take advantage of a demographic or patients that are insecure about themselves.”

The external committee approved SB 17 unanimously Monday, allowing the bill to be considered by the entire senate Wednesday.

Jennie Yoon is the lead student government reporter. Contact her at jyoon@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @jennieyoon_.

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Michael Gethers/File

The ASUC Senate unanimously passed a bill last Wednesday in opposition to the Food and Drug Administration’s lifetime ban on blood donations from gay men.

The bill, SB 14, garnered full support from senators. Additionally, 16 out of the senate’s 20 members co-sponsored the bill.

Government officials on the national level, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) and a number of openly gay and lesbian members of Congress, have also denounced the ban, calling it discriminatory and outdated.

Authored by CalSERVE Senator Caitlin Quinn, the bill calls on ASUC President Deejay Pepito to write a letter to President Barack Obama as well as to Sens. Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein and Rep. Barbara Lee expressing the ASUC’s concerns about the FDA’s lifetime ban on blood donations from men who have sex with men.

“After talking to some community members, I figured as the queer-endorsed Senator I should take a stand against this institutionalized form of homophobia,” Quinn said in an email.

The FDA ban was established in 1983 due to growing concerns surrounding the HIV/AIDS epidemic that swept the nation and particularly affected the American gay community. The ban remains in place despite 30 years of technological and medical advancement that allows HIV testing, said UC Berkeley senior Michelle Carney, who co-sponsored the bill.

According to a study by the Williams Institute at the UCLA School of Law, lifting the ban would allow more than 2.6 million eligible men to make blood donations, providing 219,200 pints of donated blood.

Carney said 24 percent of blood donations for the American Red Cross in the Bay Area comes from high school and college students, making this issue particularly important for members of the UC Berkeley community.

“From organizing the blood drive ourselves (on campus), we as students were tired of seeing our community feel helpless and hopeless,” Carney said.

According to the FDA website, the ban on such donations is “not based on any judgment concerning the donor’s sexual orientation.”

In a statement released in June, however, the AABB (formerly known as the American Association of Blood Banks), America’s Blood Centers and the Red Cross said they believed that the FDA’s ban “should be modified and donor referral criteria should be made comparable with criteria for other behaviors that pose an increased risk for transmission of transfusion-transmitted infections.”

“I definitely think it’s a really good start,” said UC Berkeley freshman Anthony Barros, who works in Quinn’s office and was involved in writing the bill. “Bringing visibility and awareness of this issue to Cal will be the best first steps to make change on this issue.”

Jennie Yoon is the lead student government reporter. Contact her at jyoon@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @jennieyoon_.

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CalSERVE Senator Wendy Pacheco introduced the bill Sept. 25 to address cultural insensitivity on campus after the campus fraternity Delta Chi hosted a quinceanera-themed party Sept. 21.

The bill, SB 16, was discussed at Monday’s external committee meeting, where members of both the multicultural and Greek communities gathered to discuss concerns about Delta Chi’s party.

Many members of the campus Latino community said at the meeting that they were upset by party’s theme, which they claimed appropriated Latino culture and mocked Mexican traditions. Members of the Greek community at the committee meeting recognized the concerns about Delta Chi’s behavior.

The bill was amended significantly during the committee meeting after students in the Greek community raised concerns about what they said was harsh language in the bill. Student Action Senator Lauren Week, who is in a sorority, said she felt she was “being attacked” by the language of the bill.

Interfraternity Council President Andrey Kisel also emphasized at the meeting that the bill’s language was especially harsh toward the Greek community.

The amended version of the bill was altered to reflect these concerns and notes that “this incident (at Delta Chi) is not reflective of the individual sentiment of each individual in the Greek community.”

The bill’s title was changed from “A Bill to Censure the Inter-Fraternity Council (IFC) for the Appropriate of Latin@/Xican@ Culture” to “A Bill Condemning the Negligence of Cultural Awareness within the Inter-Fraternity Council (IFC).”

The amended bill addresses more specifically what the ASUC believes it and the Greek community should do to make the Greek community a more “culturally aware body.” According to the bill, Delta Chi will be asked to write a public apology to the Xican@ and Latin@ community, and “cultural awareness training (will) be urged by ASUC for all student organizations on campus.”

The bill calls for the implementation of additional training programs and provisions within the Greek community to increase cultural sensitivity as well as communication and collaboration between the IFC and the UC Berkeley LEAD Center to raise cultural awareness.

“This bill is not about communities of color versus the greek community,” Pacheco said in a statement. “Instead this is the start of a conversation and hopefully a partnership between both communities to not only address the issue at hand but also to create a safe campus environment for everyone.”

Kisel echoed Pacheco’s sentiment that both communities should work together to address the incident at Delta Chi.

“(We) agree that what happened is major issue,” Kisel said. “We don’t want this to be a battle between any two communities.”

After a short senate meeting Wednesday, SB 16 passed without discussion.

“I wasn’t that surprised that it passed, only because there had been a considerable amount of working together with the Greek community and the senators that represent (it),” Pacheco said after the meeting.

Jennie Yoon is the lead student government reporter. Contact her at jyoon@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @jennieyoon_.

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SB 9, co-authored and sponsored by External Affairs Vice President Safeena Mecklai, calls upon the ASUC to express its position on Prop. 13 to the university and elected officials, including Gov. Jerry Brown.

The bill proposes a number of reforms to Prop. 13, including the regular reassessment of nonresidential commercial property, which would lead to at least $6 billion in additional revenue for state funding.

The bill attributes California’s dramatic higher education funding cuts to the state’s “inequitable tax structure.”

Supporters of Prop. 13 reform hope the additional revenue will help reverse a trend of deep cuts to state funding for higher education that have caused UC Berkeley’s tuition to rise from $6,654 in 2007 to $12,834 in 2013. The cuts have made it increasingly difficult for low- and middle-income students to attend college.

Jennie Yoon is the lead student government reporter. Contact her at jyoon@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @jennieyoon_.

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The bill, written and co-sponsored by CalSERVE Senator Caitlin Quinn, opposes the construction of the extension of the current Keystone pipeline that could harm the environment and the economy due to the harmful nature of extracting and refining crude oil from tar sands.

The bill, which passed by an 18-1 margin, instructs ASUC President DeeJay Pepito to write a letter to President Barack Obama formally expressing the ASUC’s position on the Keystone XL pipeline.

The pipeline would be harmful to the “environment, agriculture, native peoples, farmers in the Midwest, the health and safety of Americans, unionized workers, and the American economy,” the bill states.

The bill addresses concerns that pipeline construction will harm the environment without helping economies. It states that the Keystone XL pipeline would create only 35 permanent jobs and that 85 to 90 percent of the temporary jobs created by pipeline construction would not go toward job creation in local communities.

The Amalgamated Transit Union and the Transport Workers Union have also expressed opposition to the construction of the pipeline, according to the bill. The workers’ unions stated that rather than investing in the pipeline, jobs should go toward energy conservation research and public transportation improvement.

Jennie Yoon is the lead student government reporter. Contact her at jyoon@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @jennieyoon_.

Correction(s):
A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that the ASUC Senate passed SB 11 unanimously. In fact, the bill passed on a vote of 18-1.

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Kore Chan/Senior Staff

The ASUC Senate has introduced a bill in support of reforming Prop. 13, an amendment to California’s constitution that placed limits on property taxes, in hopes of raising state revenue and increasing funds for higher education.

SB 9, which was co-authored and sponsored by ASUC External Affairs Vice President Safeena Mecklai, calls for the ASUC to formally express support for Prop. 13 reform as part of a larger long-term campaign by the UC Student Association to increase college affordability.

Additionally, if the bill is passed, Mecklai would express the ASUC’s position to university officials and elected public officials, including Gov. Jerry Brown.

After its passage in 1978, Prop. 13 decreased property taxes, which subsequently decreased government revenue generated from these taxes.

SB 9 states that “because Proposition 13 allows commercial property owners to avoid paying their fair share in taxes, the resulting budget deficit causes the State Legislature to continue to reduce funding for education.”

“We want to use the student voice and our student power to encourage our legislators to look at ways to use revenue from commercial property taxes to refund our education,” Mecklai said in an email.

UC tuition has increased from $6,654 in 2007 to $12,834 in 2013, according to the bill, making it increasingly difficult for middle- and low-income students to attend UC Berkeley. According to SB 9, budget cuts have also caused a significant number of faculty layoffs as well as increased class sizes and an increase in the number of graduate students teaching classes.

By reforming Prop. 13, property taxes would be able to produce much-needed revenue for the state to increase funds for higher education and other priorities, said Tanay Kothari, a third-year UC Berkeley political economy major who co-authored the bill.

“Even limited, reasonable Proposition 13 reform such as this would go a long way toward allowing the state to provide better services for its residents,” Kothari said in an email.

The bill proposes reforms to Prop. 13, including the regular reassessment of nonresidential properties, which could generate $6 billion in additional revenue for the state.

According UC Berkeley professor of economics Alan Auerbach, the “split-roll” approach to property taxation, the reform method outlined by SB 9, separates commercial property from residential property.

“Supporters (of this approach) have viewed it over the years as more politically feasible than the simple repeal of Prop. 13, and it would raise a substantial amount of additional revenue,” Auerbach said in an email.

Jesse Rothstein, a professor in the UC Berkeley Goldman School of Public Policy, also said he supports the proposed reforms to Prop. 13.

“I think the proposed change to the assessment of commercial property is a good move,” Rothstein said. “The state needs to break out of the chains that Proposition 13 created, and this is a good step in that direction.”

However, others questioned whether reforming Prop. 13 would actually help garner funds for higher education. Auerbach said that higher education funding has historically not been discussed in relation to Prop. 13.

He noted, however, that “like a lot of other states, California faces continuing pressure from increases in some areas of spending … and a consequence has been a squeeze on other parts of the budget, including higher education.”

SB 9 will be discussed in committee on Monday and brought before the senate at Wednesday’s meeting.

Jennie Yoon is the lead student government reporter. Contact her at jyoon@dailycal.org.

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Carli Baker/Senior Staff

As many entrepreneurs have discovered, there is a huge difference between having an idea and making it a reality. Free Ventures is attempting to bridge that gap.

Founded by UC Berkeley students Sam Kirschner, Jeremy Fiance, Cameron Baradar and Kirtan Upadhyaya, Free Ventures is a student-run nonprofit-incubator program for undergraduates who need a boost in launching startups.

As part of the program, students take a two-unit DeCal course, a student-facilitated class. To participate in the DeCal, students form teams and submit their applications on the Free Ventures website.

The program will support six teams during the fall semester, with two to four students per team, and each will receive between $300 and $500 for its projects, depending on individual needs.

Although there are already a number of entrepreneurship clubs on campus, Kirschner and Fiance said they have noticed a significant gap in students’ knowledge of how to get their startup ideas off the ground. Free Ventures will provide access to mentorship and other resources for students who are in the early stages of creating a startup.

Fiance, co-founder of the UC Berkeley chapter of Kairos Society, a nonprofit entrepreneurial organization, and an active member of other entrepreneurial projects, such as Dorm Room Fund and Dropsense, said the inspiration for Free Ventures came from his own experience with startups.

“Oftentimes, I felt like working on a startup wouldn’t help toward graduation, even though I was learning a lot from it,” Fiance said.

The founders hope that by providing mentors, workshops and units for the program, they will teach students from all fields of interest what opportunities and resources are available to them to assist in creating startups.

Free Ventures will fund the teams with a grant received from Big Ideas@Berkeley, an annual campus competition that aims to encourage student innovation. Competing with 160 other student entrepreneurial teams at the 2013 competition, Free Ventures won third place in the Improving Student Life category, along with a $2,500 grant.

Students will have the opportunity to work with experienced venture capitalists, product managers and legal professionals to learn more about the process of launching a successful startup.

Kirschner, who co-founded the Design Engineering Collaborative, a student group that provides resources to students interested in design and engineering, said Free Ventures hopes to expand to support 12 teams by next spring.

Phillip Denny, manager at Big Ideas@Berkeley, said Free Ventures seeks to “catalyze the ingenuity and creativity of students” and inspire student innovation.

“(Free Ventures) is hoping to identify and support a growing number of UC Berkeley students that want to combine academic interests with their personal interests,” Denny said.

Jennie Yoon is the lead student government reporter. Contact her at jyoon@dailycal.org.

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The senate meeting, which continued past midnight, concluded with a vote of 11-9 against the bill, SB 3. Many senators cited concerns about the haste with which the map was drawn.

Student Action Senator Quinn Shen said he strongly felt the development of the redrawn map was a “rushed process” that needed more time for evaluation.

The new plan, the United Student District Amendment, was proposed to the City Council in July and would include the student residences that were excluded from the original redistricting proposal. SB 3 would have expressed formal support for the USDA map.

The senate’s failure to pass the bill reflects the ASUC’s decision to continue its support for the original plan, the Berkeley Student District Campaign. The map laid out in the BSDC plan, which the ASUC Office of the External Affairs Vice President has supported since 2011, does not include International House, Northside cooperatives and three campus residence halls.

The bill’s failure could be attributed to a number of factors. Some senators brought up concerns about whether proposing an entirely new map would hinder the progress of creating a student-majority district. Others noted redistricting is not just about the interests of students but also about what is best for residents.

“It’s important to recognize that this is also a city issue,” said Noah Efron, the ASUC redistricting director, who spoke in opposition to SB 3. “Therefore, it’s also important to consider what neighborhoods get split.”

Additionally, some senators expressed concerns about whether either map would fully represent the UC Berkeley student population. Approximately 86 percent of the student-majority district proposed by the BSDC plan would be students, while the district created by the USDA proposal would be 90.3 percent students.

Although the bill failed, many expressed a desire to continue fighting for the proposal.

“I truly cannot understand why anyone would not support including more students, especially students who have been marginalized in the last redistricting process and barely got into the district we’re in now,” said CalSERVE Senator Caitlin Quinn.

Other students echoed her disappointment.

“Tonight showed that students are conflicted on what exactly it means to have an inclusive student district,” said James Chang, vice president of external affairs for the Berkeley Student Cooperative and a co-author of the bill.

The senate spent a large part of the meeting making amendments to the bill in hopes of reaching an agreement. Even after hours of discussion and numerous comments from the public in support of SB 3, however, the bill failed to garner enough votes to pass.

CalSERVE Senator Briana Mullen said she was disappointed by how the senate handled discussion of the bill.

“I think the 20 of us should put forth the best public policy for students, and I don’t think that happened tonight,” Mullen said.

Jennie Yoon is the lead student government reporter. Contact her at jyoon@dailycal.org.

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Seeking to address problems that have plagued the ASUC in the past, such as consistent budget deficits and complications in student group funding, the EVP office has developed a streamlined application process for funding student groups and increased public access to senate meetings, among other changes.

The ASUC’s most visible and most notable change is the institution of a new application process for student groups seeking funding, said Nolan Pack, the executive vice president. Every year, the ASUC provides funding for hundreds of student groups and organizations on campus.

Whereas the old method of funding required a senator to sponsor a student organization and submit a bill on their behalf, the groups can now apply for funding independently through CalLink, a website that will help streamline the application process.

According to Pack, CalLink is currently in the testing phase and will be rolled out to all students groups within a few weeks. He said he hopes that the new application process will make funding opportunities more accessible to students while encouraging the ASUC to allocate its funds in a more responsible way.

“The whole form was online and it was really quick and efficient,” said Eniola Abioye, co-facilitator of Zawadi, the Black LGBT Community at Cal, who filed the sponsorship forms for the organization.

As the executive responsible for running senate meetings, Pack says he aims to increase transparency within the body. He will make ASUC meetings available via podcast so that more students can get involved in senate discussions.

“The goal is to make the discussion that’s happening transparent, to keep people accountable to what they say in senate and what goes on there,” he said.

The process of public comment at senate meetings will see changes this year as well, according to Senate Vice Chair Lizzy Hennes.

Hennes said that students can now access the agenda and send feedback through the ASUC website that will then be sent to the appropriate senate subcommittees. Additionally, there will be a public comment table with cards that people can fill out at the meeting, as well as an opportunity for public comment for each bill discussed.

The bill screening process has also been changed to accommodate public comment. The deadline for senators to submit bills for consideration has been moved up a day each week, allowing the public more time to give feedback and voice their opinion on a given bill before senate meetings.

Hennes said these changes will allow senators to make informed decisions with the public’s opinion in mind.

Jennie Yoon is the lead student government reporter. Contact her at jyoon@dailycal.org.

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May 16: Berkeley SHIP

UC Berkeley announced the details of its new campus-run health insurance plan, which expands coverage but increases premiums, after the emergence of concerns about a projected $46.5 million deficit faced by the university’s previous health care provider, UC SHIP.

May 21: UC medical strikes

Thousands of health care workers employed by the University of California participated in a two-day strike regarding pension reforms at UC medical centers and student health centers across the state.

May 22: Students file complaint alleging that UC Berkeley violated federal regulations regarding sexual assault

Nine UC Berkeley students filed a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education alleging that the university violated federal regulations on the handling of sexual assault.

The complaint said the university discouraged sexual assault survivors from reporting incidents to local authorities, failed to notify the campus community of immediate threats to their health and safety, and persistently underreported sexual battery, sexual assault and rape.

UC Berkeley students filed complaints under the Clery Act in coordination with students from Swarthmore College, Dartmouth College and the University of Southern California.

On Aug. 21, a committee of the California State Legislature approved plans to audit the university’s compliance with Title IX — a federal law that prohibits discrimination based on sex in educational programs that receive federal funding.

May 26: Judicial Council rules divestment bill violated ASUC bylaws

The ASUC Judicial Council unanimously ruled parts of SB 160 unconstitutional, removing clauses that require the ASUC to divest from companies affiliated with the Israeli military.

June/cont’d August: BART Strike

Unions representing BART workers announced they would strike July 1, after unsuccessful negotiations with BART administrators over a labor contract four days in June and again in August. Parties disagreed over pay increases and policy changes to improve worker safety, among other issues.

June 12: Man killed after leaving RSF

Aya Nakano, 22, was shot and killed on his way home to Emeryville, after playing basketball at the Recreational Sports Facility, in a confrontation with another driver after being rear-ended in north Oakland.

June 12: Residence halls found to be below seismic safety standards

An April inspection of the seismic safety of Units 1, 2 and 3 found four high-rise buildings in each residence hall complex were below UC safety standards. The buildings are rated between a IV and a V on the university’s scale for seismic safety, implying a risk to life between “small” and “serious,” according to UC policy.

June 16: Middle Class Scholarship Act

California lawmakers voted to establish a middle-class scholarship program that will cut tuition for middle-income students at UC and CSU schools by up to 40 percent.

June 16: Shooting near CREAM

Multiple gunshots were fired at a vehicle near the intersection of Telegraph Avenue and Channing Way near popular ice cream sandwhich shop CREAM.

June 24: U.S. Supreme Court sends Fisher vs. UT Austin back to circuit court

The U.S. Supreme Court ordered Fisher v. University of Texas at Austin, a case regarding the constitutionality of considering race in university admissions, sent back to lower courts.

June 27: Brown signs state budget increasing UC funding

Gov. Jerry Brown signed a state budget that aims to improve higher education in California by increasing funding of the state’s public universities by 5 percent, or about $125 million more than in the previous year.

July 2: Cream vs. Dream

Berkeley City Council approved the construction of an ice cream shop named Dream on Telegraph Avenue across from ice cream shop CREAM at its meeting, despite opposition from CREAM.

July 2: City Council moves forward with ASUC redistricting map

Berkeley City Council moved toward approving a new district map by passing a motion supporting the ASUC-sponsored redistricting plan, which would create a student-majority district south of the UC Berkeley campus.

July 5: Eshleman comes down

Eshleman Hall, a campus building that housed a variety of UC Berkeley student groups — including the ASUC and The Daily Californian — officially came down after a month of slow demolition.

July 17: Man shot and killed on Derby Street

Jermaine Davis, 26, was shot and killed on the 1800 block of Derby Street.

July 27: Protesters camp out to fight sale of local post office

Between 20 to 30 protesters began camping outside of the historic Berkeley main post office on Allston Way to fight its sale by the U.S. Postal Service.

Aug 1: 24-year-old man killed on San Pablo Avenue

Dustin Bynum, 24, was shot and killed on 1800 block of San Pablo Avenue near Delaware Street, marking the second homicide at the intersection this year.

Aug. 2: Open Access Policy

The UC Academic Senate announced that it will require UC faculty to make their research freely available to the public.

Aug. 19: Christopher Edley, Berkeley Law dean, announces resignation

Christopher Edley, dean of UC Berkeley School of Law since 2004, announces his resignation, citing health concerns.

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