Stefan Elgstrand/Courtesy

After two years of planning, some students are raising concerns about the ASUC-sponsored Berkeley redistricting map because the proposed student district excludes Northside residences, including nine Berkeley student housing cooperatives and three residence halls.

Stefan Elgstrand, a UC Berkeley senior and an intern for Councilmember Kriss Worthington since June, has introduced the United Student District Amendment, a proposal that includes Northside residences.

While both the ASUC map and the USDA aim to create a student-majority district to help elect a student representative to Berkeley City Council, proponents of each disagree on how to best represent interests of students and city residents.

Currently, Elgstrand is rallying support for his amendment prior to the City Council meeting on Sept. 10, when the council will continue discussing redistricting.

The ASUC-sponsored Berkeley Student District Campaign map started as a campaign platform for 2011-12 ASUC external affairs vice president Joey Freeman, a Student Action candidate.

The BSDC map creates a student district that encompasses Southside housing, the Greek community and the residence halls, with a 90 percent student population. The map is detailed in ASUC Senate Bill 65, which passed unanimously in the spring of 2013.

“The fact that this (amendment) was introduced so late is really difficult to deal with,” said ASUC External Affairs Vice President Safeena Mecklai of the proposed amendment, which she said the ASUC team has not agreed to. “I wouldn’t be comfortable with it going forward unless the senate endorses it.”

After the BSDC map was submitted in mid-March, Worthington questioned its inclusivity and motivated Elgstrand to draft an amendment.

“The BSDC people mostly live in the fraternities and sororities, so there’s a bit of a bias in that,” Elgstrand said. “From my perspective, since I’m not connected to any of those groups, I can make it more inclusive.”

Proponents say the BSDC map has received support from the Greek community, Cal Berkeley Democrats, Berkeley College Republicans, all 20 ASUC 2012-13 senators and some leaders of the Berkeley Student Cooperative, including ASUC Senator Jorge Pacheco, who is endorsed by the co-ops.

Now, other leaders in the BSC are reconsidering their stances, saying that the BSDC map underrepresents Northside housing. They are giving preference to the USDA proposal, which Elgstrand says includes 87.4 percent of the cooperative population, while the BSDC map only includes 38.1 percent.

“If the intention is to create a unified student district, then not including Northside dorms and co-ops seems to leave out an important population of students,” said Michelle Nacouzi, the 2013-14 president of the BSC.

Nacouzi and other members of the BSC said they were told that it was not feasible to include Northside co-ops in a student-majority district.

Noah Efron, the ASUC redistricting director and local affairs deputy, said the BSDC made several efforts to include the input of student groups by inviting leaders from the BSC, the Greek community and the residence halls to participate in public forums about the plan.

Despite their differences, both Elgstrand and Mecklai said they would prefer to maintain a unified student voice in demanding a student district. However, the ASUC will continue to support the BSDC map without changes to include Northside residences, while Elgstrand plans to push forward his amended plan.

Contact Saachi Makkar at smakkar@dailycal.org.

Correction(s):
A previous version of this article stated that the district proposed by the ASUC represents 90 percent of the student population, defined as residents between ages 18 to 29. In fact, it represents 86 percent of the student population.

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Nacouzi is one of at least 11 UC Berkeley students and Berkeley residents confirmed to be uninjured in the aftermath of the deadly bombing of the Boston Marathon on Monday.

The historic Boston Marathon came to an abrupt halt after two bombs exploded near the finish line on Boylston Street. The explosions killed three people and injured more than 170, with approximately 60 people in serious or critical condition, CNN reported.

“We’re relieved that so far, it appears that members of the UC Berkeley community that were in Boston are safe and sound,” said UC Berkeley spokesperson Dan Mogulof. “At the same time, we all mourn the loss of the innocent lives that were lost in this horrible attack, and we hope that the perpetrators will soon be brought to justice.”

Nacouzi, a UC Berkeley junior, finished her first marathon alongside her sister. After passing the finish line, Nacouzi heard the first bomb go off and heard the second explosion a few seconds later.

“When we heard the second explosion and saw all the smoke, we realized what was happening and started rushing the opposite direction,” Nacouzi said. “The scariest part was thinking another bomb might go off somewhere closer to us and not knowing what was going to happen next or if your family was hurt.”

Nolan McPeek-Bechtold, another UC Berkeley junior, crossed the finish line and left the event before the first explosion occurred. He said that a police officer at the Boston Metro informed him of the incident.

“I was mostly just in disbelief that it happened,” McPeek-Bechtold said. “Everything about the race, especially the thousands of volunteers and hundreds of thousands of spectators, was so positive that it was hard to imagine that something so awful could happen.”

McPeek-Bechtold said he plans to run in the Boston Marathon next year because he believes that runners should not be deterred by the tragedy.

“I think it is important that everyone is careful and vigilant to ensure the future safety of the race, but also that we still come together and celebrate the race and honor those who suffered in this year’s tragedy,” McPeek-Bechtold said. “The race is not just about individual runners, but about the 27,000 runners and 500,000 spectators who come together and make the 26.2 miles of road from Hopkinton to Boston come to life for one day a year.”

The Daily Californian is still looking for UC Berkeley students, faculty and alumni as well as Berkeley residents who participated in the Boston Marathon. If you have any further information, please email newsdesk@dailycal.org.

Contact Seif Abdelghaffar at sabdelghaffar@dailycal.org.

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UC Berkeley undergraduates Michelle Nacouzi, Nolan McPeek-Bechtold and Annika McPeek-Bechtold said they finished the race before the explosion occurred. Both Nacouzi and Nolan McPeek-Bechtold confirmed with The Daily Californian that they were safe and far from the explosion at Boylston Street. Junior Catherine Hall, who was a spectator at the marathon, was also reported safe from the explosion.

Anna Lieb, a UC Berkeley graduate student, and Shinji Nakadai, a computer science research fellow on campus, also completed the marathon and were listed as safe on Google People Finder, an online database that allows people to report when they hear from others in the aftermath of a disaster.

Four others connected to the Berkeley community — Douglas Letterman, Cecillia Su, Laurel Collins and Carl Kempf — were also listed as safe on the database. According to the Boston Marathon database, 25 runners were from the city of Berkeley. Nineteen runners were confirmed to have finished the marathon before the explosion.

“It sounded like a water cannon went off,” said Lucretia Ausse, a Berkeley resident who was a block away from the explosion. “Then, 10 seconds later, there was a second explosion. And we saw the plumes.”

Ausse confirmed with the Daily Cal that she is safe and suffered no injuries.

According to campus Assistant Athletic Director Herb Benenson, no UC Berkeley student-athletes were at Boston competing in the world-renowned marathon.

The Daily Cal is still looking for UC Berkeley students, faculty and alumni as well as Berkeley residents who participated in the Boston Marathon. If you have any further information, please email newsdesk@dailycal.org.

Senior staff writer Amruta Trivedi contributed to this report.

Contact Seung Y. Lee at sylee@dailycal.org if you know any Berkeley residents or students who were participating at the Boston Marathon.

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Taryn Erhardt/Senior Staff

Following an over four-hour long discussion, the ASUC senate chose Student Action Senator Christine Yun as a new representative on the board responsible for overseeing income-producing assets of the ASUC.

At the last senate meeting of the year, junior James Ephrati was brought in — nominated by the Commercial and Student Services Board undergraduate representative selection committee — to be approved by the senate. But after heavy questioning, the senate moved to call in two other candidates for a second interview, leading to a heated discussion by the senators.

The Commercial and Student Services Board — formerly the Store Operations Board — is composed of students, faculty and staff. The board manages ASUC commercial activities like the Cal Student Store.

Both sophomore Michelle Nacouzi — another candidate for the position —  and Yun were brought in to be questioned by the senate as to why they would make good representatives.

SQUELCH! senator Noah Ickowitz — who was a main proponent of delaying the decision in order to find an excellent candidate — said choosing the student was a big decision because the entire senate previously used to make decisions now allocated to only a few representatives.

The senate attempted to vote for each of the three candidates at various points during the meeting, but none received the necessary 14 votes — two-thirds of the senate body mandated by the bylaws — to become the next representative. Senators repeatedly asked if those senators who voted no would be willing to change their votes.

ASUC President Vishalli Loomba said bringing in all the candidates repeated the process that the committee went through last year and suggested that the senate possibly disband committees in the future.

In an informal poll where the senators were asked to rank the candidates in order of preference, Nacouzi received the most first-place votes, and Yun received the most second-place votes.

Independent Senator Nairi Shirinian felt the final decision was undemocratic because the majority of senators had voted for Nacouzi in their decision.

“I think 10 people had to compromise tonight because two people didn’t compromise,” she said.

Several of the senators voiced concerns regarding a possible bias — stemming from Ephrati’s affiliation with the fraternity Delta Chi, Nacouzi’s involvement with the Berkeley Student Food Collective and Yun’s party affiliations — that could influence the decisions the candidates would make if appointed.

Student Action senator Aviv Gilboa, another member of the Delta Chi fraternity, denounced the relevance of Ephrati’s membership in his fraternity, saying that he rejected and disrespected the fact that it was brought into the discussion.

In May 2009, the board forgave The Daily Californian a portion of its rent for the office it leases. As a result of that agreement, a nonpolitical student member of the board, currently Hedy Chen, sits on the Daily Cal’s Board of Operations, which has no control over the paper’s editorial content.

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