Jeffrey Joh/File

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano will be appointed as the next president of the University of California system on Friday, pending approval by the UC Board of Regents next week.

Taking over in the wake of President Mark Yudof’s planned August resignation, she will be the first woman to occupy the position of UC president in the system’s 145-year history. She has served as governor of Arizona and was among more than 300 candidates considered for the position. Napolitano also resigned from her position as secretary of Homeland Security on Friday.

Though she lacks previous experience in university administration, Napolitano has served in various public leadership roles. She was the first woman to occupy the position of attorney general of Arizona from 1998 to 2003 and served two terms as governor of Arizona from 2003 to 2009. She was also the first woman to chair the National Governors Association.

“I am both honored and excited by the prospect of serving as president of the University of California,” Napolitano said in a statement Friday. “I recognize that I am a non-traditional candidate … In my experience, whether preparing to govern a state or to lead an agency as critical and complex as Homeland Security, I have found the best way to start is simply to listen.”

According to Tim Bee, associate vice president for state relations at the University of Arizona, “education was a top priority” for Napolitano during her tenure as Arizona governor. He noted Napolitano’s help establishing the University of Arizona’s College of Medicine in Phoenix, securing pay increases for Arizona university employees and allocating about $1 billion of lottery revenues for university infrastructure, among other things.

“At the time she left office, the university system in Arizona was receiving the largest total general fund appropriations in the history of the state,” Bee said. “Education was a very important focus of her efforts to build a strong workforce and a diversified economy with a focus on science, bioscience and technology.”

But Napolitano still represents an unconventional choice for the university, which only five years ago selected its first president from outside the UC system, Mark Yudof. Yudof had more than two decades of experience in university administration — which included heading the University of Texas and University of Minnesota.

The Board of Regents have set a more political course by selecting Napolitano, at a time when the state government is increasingly involved in its affairs. Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown attended a regents meeting for the first time in his term where he criticized the pace at which the university was pursuing online education. Brown’s 2013-14 proposed budget initially tied higher education funding to performance standards set by the state.

Raquel Morales, president of the University of California Student Association, chaired the student advisory committee that aided in Napolitano’s selection. She said the committee was looking for “someone outside of the system” who was “more of a political figure,” able to address issues with the federal government and the state governor.

“It will be exciting to work with her,” Brown said in a brief statement released Friday morning. “Secretary Napolitano has the strength of character and an outsider’s mind that will well serve the students and faculty.”

Student regent Cinthia Flores also said Napolitano’s political experience will help her in the role but that it might be difficult for her to interface with UC students without educational experience.

“I think her name recognition may assist the UC’s advocacy efforts at the state and federal level,” she said. “(But) Napolitano will have a difficult transition into the role of head university administrator. In particular, I think she may need strong guidance in helping build and nurture working relationships with students.”

As Homeland Security secretary, Napolitano has been involved in debates over immigration reform. She has supported provisions of the DREAM Act, allowing students who meet its criteria to remain in the country despite the act failing to pass in Congress.

However, some have expressed concern over her leadership role in the Obama administration’s deportation of more than 1.4 million undocumented immigrants since 2008.

“The Obama administration has deported a staggering number of people,” said ASUC Executive Vice President Nolan Pack. Napolitano’s support of the DREAM Act is also inconsistent with the policies of Homeland Security, he said.

Pack said he doubts whether Napolitano would gain any support from undocumented students in light of this inconsistency.

“It is important students have someone who can understand and empathize in high positions of administration,” Pack said.

Morales said she hopes Napolitano is willing to fight for student rights, which would include efforts to broaden the types of resources available for undocumented students.

“We hope she will be able to address these issues regardless of her background,” Morales said.

Napolitano was recommended to the UC Regents in a unanimous vote by a selection committee that included former student regent Jonathan Stein, former board chair Sherry Lansing, current chair Bruce Varner and regents Richard Blum and Russell Gould, as well as Brown.

Contact Micah Fry at mfry@dailycal.org.

Correction(s):
A previous version of this article misspelled Janet Napolitano’s last name.

A previous version of this article may have implied that Janet Napolitano was appointed as UC President on Friday. In fact, she will be appointed pending approval by the UC Board of Regents Thursday.

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Kore Chan/File

Last Tuesday, Berkeley City Council became the first city council in the nation to adopt an official policy to divest funds from 200 fossil fuel-producing companies, joining a nationwide movement to try to help curb global climate change.

Inspired by UC Berkeley student groups and the environmental organization 350.org, the city of Berkeley has committed to divest all city funds from direct ownership of publicly traded corporations defined by the city as “fossil fuel companies,” including BP, Chevron Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp. The policy prohibits the city from making any future investments in the listed companies and aims to complete the divestment process within the next five years.

“While fossil fuel companies provide an attractive return on investment, the city of Berkeley will suffer greater economic and financial losses from the impact of unchecked climate change,” reads the new investment policy, which was originally recommended to the City Council by Councilmember Kriss Worthington.

The 200 publicly traded fossil fuel companies were chosen by Berkeley City Council due to their perceived control over the majority of the world’s oil, coal and gas reserves. According to 350.org, nearly 80 percent of these reserves must go unburned in order to maintain global warming below two degrees Celsius, a target that the United States agreed to meet at the Copenhagen climate summit in 2009.

Worthington noted that nine other cities have also made commitments to divest, but Berkeley was the first to formally adopt an official policy solidifying its divestment.

“The momentum of getting cities on board is the significance,” Worthington said. “There have been hundreds of universities involved in this movement, and I thought, ‘If the universities can do this, why can’t we?’”

The policy follows on the heels of the ASUC Senate — which passed SB 10, a similar bill, in February — divesting funds and prohibiting future investments from the same 200 fossil fuel companies. These 200 companies were originally decided on by 350.org, whose 2012 Go Fossil Free Campaign helped spark a national movement in fossil fuel divestment.

“The Berkeley City Council’s vote to divest from the fossil fuel industry is really exciting,” said ASUC Executive Vice President Nolan Pack, who co-authored the ASUC bill. “There are divestment campaigns at universities and in cities across the U.S., and the Berkeley City Council’s decision to go fossil-free adds momentum to the movement.”

Ophir Bruck, a UC Berkeley student and fossil free fellow of 350.org, suggests that reinvestment in cleaner energy sources may also be an effective strategy to help achieve this goal.

“It is the logical move to reinvest divested funds in areas of the economy that are productive in climate-change adaptation and mitigation,” Bruck said.

Contact Andrew Dickey at adickey@dailycal.org.

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The first case, United States v. Windsor, overruled the federal Defense of Marriage Act, while the second case, Hollingsworth v. Perry, ruled on California’s ban on same-sex marriage, Proposition 8. The decision for the DOMA case, which allowed same-sex couples to receive federal marriage benefits, was decided 5-4, with the majority opinion written by Justice Anthony Kennedy.

Kennedy, a swing voter in recent years, was supported by the four liberal-leaning justices of the court. They ruled in the decision that the statute violated the Fifth Amendment.

In the Prop. 8 case, the Supreme Court, in effect, legalized same-sex marriage in California on procedural grounds, saying Prop. 8 proponents had no legal standing to appeal the case.

Jason Fauss, an ally of the LGBTQ community and a student participating in UC Berkeley’s Cal in the Capital program, was able to witness the decision announced at the U.S. Supreme Court building.

“It was nerve-wracking being in the courtroom waiting to hear the decision,” Fauss said.

As soon as DOMA was announced as overruled, Fauss said that there was an audible roar outside the courtroom doors.

Celebrations were not limited to the capital. LavenderCal, UC Berkeley’s network for LGBTQ faculty members, held a celebration on the steps of Sproul Hall at about noon. The city of Berkeley also held a celebration Wednesday evening on the steps of Old City Hall. The gathering was small but attracted passionate community members who shared their thoughts and personal stories.

At the celebration, California state Assemblymember Nancy Skinner, D-Berkeley, fought back tears as she shared a text message from her lesbian daughter: “Mom, we can get married at home. Happy tears when I read the headline.”

Ann Riley, a Berkeley resident and former UC Berkeley student, was also at the event and appreciated both the Prop. 8 and DOMA rulings.

“I plan to get married in 25 days,” Riley said.

Joi Soley, a communications director of Pacific School of Religion, a seminary in Berkeley, said that the school had an extremely positive reaction to the decisions. According to Soley, the school is extremely tolerant of people of all sexual orientations.

Many community members, however, continued to look toward the future, noting that the Prop. 8 ruling only affected same-sex marriage in California. Despite the procedural nature of the decision in the Prop. 8 case, Berkeley City Councilmember Kriss Worthington saw the decision as a sign of a changing social landscape.

“Although the decision was based on a technical standing, it is clear that the momentum is building astronomically,” he said.

ASUC Executive Vice President Nolan Pack, who identifies as queer, is an LGBTQ activist and was excited for the overall outcome of both decisions. However, he said he is concerned for other states that are still struggling to obtain marriage equality.

“If DOMA is a one and Prop. 8 is another one, we are at a 1.5 out of two right now,” Pack said.

Although the decisions are a victory for the LGBTQ community in California, more than 30 states still prohibit gay marriage, a concern to many members of the Berkeley community.

At the city’s celebration, Councilmember Darryl Moore, who is gay, furthered Pack’s sentiments.

“Let’s go out and celebrate today,” Moore said. “But remember, we have work still to do.”

Contact Saachi Makkar smakkar@dailycal.org.

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Anthony Sanchez/Courtesy

About 250 students and Berkeley residents attended the 15th annual Berkeley Pride event Monday afternoon, which took place at Freight & Salvage Coffeehouse and featured some of the Bay Area’s most renowned performers and speakers.

“Berkeley Pride 365: First Comes Love, Then Comes Marriage” was both a celebration and an educational event about the LGBTQ community. Important speakers included the first openly transgender superior court judge, Victoria Kolakowski, famous whistle-blower Daniel Ellsberg and ASUC Executive Vice President Nolan Pack. The event also featured drag shows as well as entertainment acts from singers and circus members.

“This is about people coming together and dancing and having a celebration but also to have a lot of local leaders talk about what’s going on around theSupreme Court decisions and specifically what’s going on within the LGBTQ community in Berkeley,” said UC Berkeley student and event volunteer Ella Bastone.

Councilmember Kriss Worthington, host of Berkeley Pride and the first openly gay elected representative on Berkeley City Council, remembers a time not so long ago when discussion of queer rights was considered taboo in the Bay Area.

“When we first started working on marriage equality, even in Berkeley, it was somewhat controversial,” Worthington said. “There wasn’t a unanimous vote at City Council when I proposed promoting marriage equality.”

Times have changed over the past 15 years since Berkeley Pride first began, but Worthington feels that some groups in the LGBTQ spectrum who do not identify as either “gay” or “lesbian” are not receiving adequate attention at pride festivals.

“Change is still needed on transgender issues,” Worthington said. “Today, very few people really know much about (them).”

Worthington said organizers made a special effort to include all members of the LGBTQ family, which represents the wide continuum of sexuality, including straight speakers and performers.

“Today is definitely less gay and more queer,” said Kirill, a UC Berkeley student and member of transgender student activist group Trans*Action, who does not use a last name.

According to Worthington, the drizzly weather may have led to a lower turnout than expected but did not dampen the overall spirit of Berkeley Pride. Berkeley residents and their children still enjoyed locally catered food, played in jump houses and participated in a resource fair — a departure from the boisterous festivities of the neighboring San Francisco Pride Parade.

“At this event, you can actually meet people who live in the Berkeley area,” said Pacific Center for Human Growth facility rental and volunteer coordinator Leo Brown. “It’s less touristy than other pride events.”

Contact Nico Correia at newsdesk@dailycal.org

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Wikipedia/Courtesy

California state senators unanimously passed a controversial online education bill Thursday that creates a grant program for faculty at the state’s higher education institutions to develop online courses.

Despite opposition from UC officials and faculty members in recent weeks, SB 520 passed in the Senate by a vote of 28-0 — with 11 senators not voting — and will now be sent to the state Assembly for review. Authored by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento, the bill introduces an incentive grant program that would allow faculty at state public colleges and universities to develop courses with private online providers such as Coursera and Udacity. Critics have said the bill is overly prescriptive and relies too much on private companies.

Previous versions of the bill required that the 50 most impacted lower-division courses in the state be made available online — in part by developing partnerships with private course providers. The bill passed on Thursday, however, reflects new changes that relax previous requirements, offering grants for 20 “high-demand” lower-division courses in each state system. Both versions aim to relieve enrollment pressures and cut costs at higher education institutions.

Rhys Williams, Steinberg’s press secretary, said the bill helps standardize education across public educational institutions in California. Although faculty members will not be required to develop courses on private platforms, they still have the option of using them.

“By creating a framework from which the faculty lead the decision-making, the decision is being taken to scale,” Williams said. “The faculty has the ultimate decision as to whether they want to proceed to the online option or not.”

But Robert Powell, chair of the UC Academic Senate, said the most recent version of the bill fails to address long-standing concerns about the use of private contractors in public education, especially at the University of California.

“The bill has not met the criticisms that we’ve had of the bills since the beginning,” Powell said. “They undermine the efforts that the university has been making … It’s overly prescriptive.”

UC spokesperson Shelly Meron also criticized the bill, citing the existence of similar plans, such as the Innovative Learning Technology Initiative, which could use $10 million in state funds to increase access to high-demand classes in the UC system. Although the language of SB 520 has changed, the content of the bill remains largely the same, she said, adding that the changes haven’t fully addressed the concerns that the UC has.

The bill’s emphasis on partnering with private contractors continues to be a problem for the university, Meron said.

According to Williams, the bill is a response to long waiting lists at UC campuses rather than a replacement for classes taken in person. But Nolan Pack, ASUC executive vice president, said that the bill is an attempt to address a problem that the Legislature created.

“The problem is that they’re advertising it as a way to solve the problem of long wait-lists,” Pack said. “I think the takeaway is that the crisis in higher education and in public education is not going to be solved through online education.”

Contact Chris Yoder at cyoder@dailycal.org. Follow him on Twitter @christiancyoder.

Correction(s):
A previous version of this article misquoted Meron as saying “Those changes haven’t fully addressed the concerns that UC Berkeley has.” In fact, Meron said the changes did not fully address concerns that the UC has.

The article also incorrectly quoted Meron as saying “The contract providers are still definitely a part of the bill, and that remains a problem with the university.” In fact, the private contractors remain a problem for the UC.

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The results come from the systemwide 2012 UC Undergraduate Experience Survey, with questions on academic engagement, community involvement and financial background.

According to the survey results, 82 percent of UC students responding said they were content with their overall education. Despite more than $900 million in state funding cuts to the university over the last five years, this percentage has remained relatively constant since 2006.

“I think that shows that despite the economic recession and the decreased funding to UC in recent years, we’ve been able to continue serving our students really well,” said Shelly Meron, spokesperson for the UC Office of the President, in an email.

But while academic approval has remained relatively constant, students are increasingly unhappy with the cost of getting a degree. The survey found that student satisfaction with the value of a UC education is now at 60 percent, down from 71 percent in 2006. The percent of students worried about the cost of tuition has increased from 64 to 71 percent over the last two years alone.

“Obviously we’re concerned about tuition increases, and we’re continuing to work with state legislators and the governor to resolve UC’s funding issues,” Meron said in the email.

Sereeta Alexander, research analyst at the UC Berkeley Office of Planning and Analysis, said that the campus’s own survey of new students has found similar results — that students are concerned about financing their education in the next few years.

“(The results) show that we should be thinking about how we should support students more with financial aid and scholarships — even if tuition and fees are rising,” Alexander said.

CalSERVE Senator and Executive Vice President-elect Nolan Pack said that higher student costs may reduce campus involvement, another issue studied in the survey.

“The more a college education costs, the more students have to work while they’re in school and the less time they have to do other things like public service or civic engagement,” Pack said. “The more we increase tuition, the more we’re chipping away at the holistic college experience.”

Pack also criticized possible plans to make tuition more affordable through online education, pointing out that the high academic satisfaction rates show that students value a classroom education.

“It’s clear that the quality of a UC education remains very high, but the state’s continued divestment from higher education puts that at risk,” Pack said. “The fact that students are overwhelmingly satisfied with faculty and instruction should say something. Online education … contradicts the experience of being in the classroom.”

Contact Alison Fu at afu@dailycal.org.

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Benny Grush/Staff

The ASUC Judicial Council heard oral arguments Wednesday in a case regarding the controversial divestment bill, SB 160.

The council heard the case, Ickowitz-Freeman v. ASUC Senate & SB 160, at Anna Head Alumnae Hall Wednesday morning. Petitioners Noah Ickowitz, SQUELCH! party chair and a former Daily Cal columnist, and Joey Freeman, former external affairs vice president, allege that the bill’s passage was unconstitutional because it legislated investments, did not pass through the ASUC’s investment committee and did not obtain the two-thirds majority required to approve investment legislation.

CalSERVE Senator Nolan Pack argued for the defense, saying that SB 160 makes no changes to the budget and therefore does not fall under the investment committee’s purview. He also said that SB 160 leaves the ASUC’s revenue sources  unaltered. If this is true, the bill’s passage would be constitutional.

On Friday, the Judicial Council approved a settlement agreement to the case that would remove language from the bill, making the passage constitutional. On Saturday, however, the Judicial Council backtracked on that decision, deciding instead that the settlement was invalid.

ASUC Attorney General Hinh Tran agrees with the petitioners that the bill’s passage was unconstitutional and decided not to represent the ASUC Senate in this particular case despite the attorney general’s traditional role of doing so.

“The settlement would have produced a constitutional SB 160,” Tran said. “I determined personally that there are parts of SB 160, as is, that are unconstitutional because the ASUC intended that anything finance-related would require a two-thirds vote in order for the ASUC to divest.”

SB 160 was originally passed on April 18 by a vote of 11 in favor and nine against after 10 hours of debate that continued through the night and into the following day.

Pack — in place of Tran — argued for the constitutionality of the bill’s passage.

However, despite the procedural nature of the case, both sides felt their personal beliefs on divestment were being brought into the debate, raising questions about whether individual values will influence the justices.

“A significant part of the defense’s arguments were personal attacks on the plaintiffs rather than arguments against legal claims that the plaintiffs were making,” Ickowitz said. “Personally, I felt that they harped on one of the violations I was asserting but briefly addressed the others.”

Pack said, however, that this is not about Israel or Palestine but about upholding the integrity of decisions made by the ASUC.

“I hope that the Judicial Council upholds the legislative decision of the senate to support SB 160 rather than affirming arguments that aim to use judicial council to achieve a legislative goal,” he said.

The Judicial Council declined to comment on this story.

Click here for a video of Ickowitz’s statement.

Contact Matt Trejo at mtrejo@dailycal.org.

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SB 158, originally introduced as an alternative to divestment bill SB 160, was authored by SQUELCH! Senator Jason Bellet and Student Action Senator Rafi Lurie. The authors themselves requested that the bill be tabled indefinitely saying that to that the bill’s language had been too watered down in the ASUC’s Committee on University & External Affairs.

“The authors of this bill submitted the bill with certain language and the bill was edited down and edited down,” Lurie said during the meeting. “The language we (originally) put in there is what our community wanted to see. Table this instead of passing some half bill.”

The bill would encourage the ASUC to take financial and political action to help end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, recognizing harm inflicted on both side and affirming the right for a Jewish State. The bill would also indicate that the ASUC supports a two state solution.

Lurie maintained that the discussion surrounding the bill would not be laid to rest but instead addressed in a different bill.

Other senators, including CalSERVE Senator Nolan Pack and Student Action Senator George Kadifa, also addressed issues with the bill’s wording.

“I wouldn’t necessarily be opposed to passing the bill as it came out of committee, but I am definitely opposed to many of the changes the authors are proposing,” Pack said in an email. “Specifically, the authors are packing the bill with loaded language that implicitly endorses disagreeable policies that may not be obvious at face value.”

Independent Senator Sadia Saifuddin said that that she felt portions of the bill were exclusionary to non-Jewish people living in Israel.

“I was not in support of some of the proposed amendments by the senators because the language was exclusionary by its nature and extraordinarily vague,” Saifuddin said in an email.

Bellet addressed concerns about the language of the bill saying that the bill is grounded in international law and correct in referring to Israel as a Jewish state.

“Jewish people and Palestinian people have a right to self determination,” Bellet said during discussion. “This bill supports Israel’s right to exist as a Jewish state.”

CalSERVE senator and ASUC President-elect DeeJay Pepito said she voted against tabling the bill because she felt the discussion while worthwhile, was too short.

“To be clear, Senators who voted yes on SB 160 were more than willing to vote yes on SB 158 also,” Pepito said in an email. “We just wanted a conversation on amendments and language use within its text. I am troubled tonight knowing that the conversation on 158 was so short. This bill deserved time on the Senate floor — the community supporting SB 158 deserved time on the Senate floor.”

Ally Rondoni is the lead student government reporter. Contact her at arondoni@dailycal.org.

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DeeJay Pepito, president-elect from CalSERVE, said her first move will be to continue working to improve campus safety, especially with regard to sexual assault, considering that the ASUC Senate recently passed a bill expressing no confidence in the university’s sexual assault policies.

Pepito said she has already met with with her co-authors on the bill, SB 130, to talk about creating more resources for victims of sexual assault and clarify the reporting process, among other policy changes.

Another big issue Pepito must grapple with as president is that of the campus climate in light of the recent senate vote to divest from companies affiliated with the Israeli military. Grant Fineman, a recently elected senator from SQUELCH!, said the vote “disheartened” many within the Jewish community.

“There’s definitely some rebuilding to be done, especially because some people are not confident about the ASUC,” Fineman said.

As part of this rebuilding process, Pepito said she intends to establish a campus climate department within the ASUC to address these issues and create opportunities for disparate communities to collaborate with one another.

“Regardless of what ‘side’ students might identify with, there were people hurt, and there were people impacted on both sides of the issue,” Pepito said. “We want to stay away from framing this as a one-sided issue. This bill (SB 160) really highlights that there are still problems on our campus. We all need to take responsibility and accountability by taking responsibility for our actions and acknowledging that our words hurt others.”

Pepito will start shadowing current ASUC President Connor Landgraf in the coming weeks.

Executive Vice President-elect Nolan Pack of CalSERVE emphasized that he aims to work closely with the new senatorial class and will meet with senators individually before the end of the semester to build constructive relationships.

“For the past few years, the power dynamic has been such that executives believe they do not have to act at the direction of the senate, and the senate has been reluctant to exercise its power as the final legislative and administrative authority of the ASUC,” Pack said in an email. “Instead, the senate has assigned itself an unreasonable amount of administrative tasks. This has made the senate a structurally inefficient body.”

Pack said he hopes the senate will feel more comfortable in assigning more tasks to the executive slate, which will allow senators more time to work on platforms and community projects.

Valerie Jameson of CalSERVE and Safeena Mecklai of Student Action, academic affairs and external affairs vice presidential-elects respectively, echoed Pack’s sentiments. Both said they look forward to reaching out to the new senators. In the past, Jameson said she has seen a “strong disconnect” between the executive officers and senators.

“It’s twofold,” Jameson said. ”The senators have to keep the executives accountable, and the executives have to be out there and to help them in their ideas.” Along with reaching out to senators, Jameson said she will continue working on her textbook scholarship program.

Although Mecklai was the only Student Action candidate elected to executive office, neither she nor any of the other newly elected executive officials expressed concern over partisanship.

“The four of us want to do what’s best for the student body and are going to work well together,” Mecklai said. “I am not looking to the future as concern but as a challenge. There are a lot of external issues and so much to be done.”

Contact Sophie Ho at sho@dailycal.org.

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Gracie Malley/Senior Staff

About 25 students gathered on the steps of Sproul Hall on Earth Day to rally support for an oil-tax initiative that would generate funds for education, among other government programs.

The California Modernization and Economic Development Act, drafted by UC Berkeley students in January, would implement a 9.5 percent severance tax on oil and natural gas extracted in California and could create anywhere from $2 billion to $2.5 billion in revenue.

The revenue from the oil severance tax would be dedicated to increasing funding for education, the environment, small businesses and county governments, according to UC Berkeley junior and campaign manager for the initiative Harrison Tibbetts.

The initiative expects to provide about $1.2 billion a year for education, with funds being apportioned evenly among the state’s public education systems.

“We have the right to an education,” said ASUC External Affairs Vice President Shahryar Abbasi at the rally. “By passing CMED, we can ensure we have that right.”

ASUC Executive Vice President-elect and current senator Nolan Pack spoke about the initiative at the Earth Day rally and criticized the state’s treatment of vulnerable communities and trends of deregulation.

“Help us repent Reagan’s launch into national politics and reinvigorate California’s economy,” he said.

Pack was among seven senators who helped pass an ASUC bill in support of the CMED initiative in February.

Tibbetts said the oil initiative’s campaign has gained momentum since he initially created the policy proposal earlier this semester.

He said that in the last three months, the campaign has doubled the size of its central team and recruited around 60 volunteers.

“The more people hear about the bill, the more positive feedback we get,” said campaign communications coordinator Kevin Singer.

Additionally, the campaign has received endorsements from high-profile figures, such as 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner and Distinguished Chair in Energy at UC Berkeley Daniel M. Kammen; former U.S. Secretary of Labor and UC Berkeley public policy professor Robert Reich; and state Sen. Noreen Evans, D-Santa Rosa, who proposed a similar bill in February.

Evans’ office endorsed the CMED Act on Friday, shortly after the campaign attended the California Democratic Convention in Sacramento last week.

“If we don’t have revenue, we have cuts,” said Evans’ communications director, Teala Schaff. “We are cutting to the bone and cutting off limbs now. If we don’t identify new revenues, we will see more programs cut.”

ASUC External Affairs Vice President-elect Safeena Mecklai said her office will aid the campaign’s outreach efforts and more directly work toward encouraging students to vote this November, despite the fact that it is not a typically large election year.

“We hope to get students engaged in the issues and use Prop. 30 as a jumping-off point for doing so,” Mecklai said.

Alex Berryhill covers higher education. Contact her at aberryhill@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @berryhill93.

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