As part of a pilot program, the UC Student Association will nominate three students each year to act as “student observers” for the UC Regents. These students will participate in the regents’ committee meetings to lend student perspective to discussion. The UCSA will place the observers on three of the board’s committees.

“The big goal is to make sure student voices are being heard,” said UCSA President Kareem Aref. “With this extra opportunity, students will be able to get into those spaces so the regents never act without student input.”

UC San Diego student Vanessa Garcia is a prospective observer and has been nominated by the UCSA for confirmation by the regents. The board will consider her nomination at its November meeting, according to UCSA Communications Director Bridget Botelho. Aref said he is unsure whether the other two observers will be confirmed in November as well. Student observers will change with each school year.

The regents have had students observers in the past. The Committee on Investments has had a student observer for the past two years, according to UC spokesperson Brooke Converse. This year, however, marks the start of an official student observer pilot program — a project that is the result of collaboration between the UCSA, UC Student Affairs and the Office of the Secretary and Chief of Staff to the Regents, Converse said.

Aref said the additional three observer positions were modeled on those positions. He said the California Constitution prohibits the addition of student regents to the board, which led advocates for greater student representation to seek alternative avenues to gaining access to the university’s top decision-makers.

The three student observers will join UC Student Regent Cinthia Flores and Student Regent-designate Sadia Saifuddin as student representatives to the body.

“Overall, the biggest impact students are going to have as observers is to contextualize issues as they relate to students, and that’s a very effective way of changing conversations,” Flores said. “The board does recognize the importance of the student opinion.”

ASUC External Affairs Vice President Safeena Mecklai said there is still more to be done to guarantee student access to the regents.

“Student presence and student voice should be the norm,” Mecklai said in an email. “We need to continue to be critical of how we can negotiate more access for students in the Regents, and continue to look at ways to encourage Regental reform and improved student representation at the systemwide level.”

Libby Rainey is the lead higher education reporter. Contact her at lrainey@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @rainey_l.

The post Plan will add 3 student observers to regents committees to provide student perspective appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Kore Chan/Staff

A quinceanera-themed party hosted by Delta Chi on Sept. 21 has been met with controversy by students of color and has prompted the introduction of an ASUC Senate bill condemning the event.

Many students criticized the party as an act of cultural appropriation of Latino culture. The bill, SB 16, calls for the ASUC to “condemn culturally appropriated theme parties” and urges the university to implement a racial sensitivity curriculum for the Greek community.

The bill also asks Delta Chi to write a public apology to the campus Latino community for appropriating its cultural traditions and reproducing cultural stereotypes for entertainment purposes.

According to SB 16, authored by CalSERVE Senator Wendy Pacheco, some party attendees were dressed in attire “reflective of ‘cholos.’ ”

“For people in the Mexican community, quinceaneras are usually for young women who transition from being a girl into a woman,” Pacheco said. “That’s very important in our community, and for someone to take that and turn it into a party scene and dress up with sombreros and mustaches and reflect those stereotypes of what Mexican culture is is not OK.”

Members of the fraternity, however, say there was no ill intent behind the party or its theme, which Delta Chi President Cody Kermanian said was suggested by Mexican members of the fraternity.

“A lot of the rhetoric in the bill assumes what our thoughts were without even talking to us about it,” Kermanian said. “The intention was never to marginalize, and it never has been nor will be.”

Student Action Senator Liza Raffi, who is a member of the Greek community, was in attendance at the party. She said her costume and the costumes of friends were not meant to mock Latino culture.

“If there were derogatory costumes there, I did not see them, but I understand that everyone’s definition of offensive is different,” Raffi said. “I now understand that the idea of a fiesta plays into larger concern of cultural appropriation that has history stretching beyond the party.”

According to Dustin Page, a LEAD Center coordinator for fraternity and sorority advising and leadership development, fraternity chapters must register social events through their respective councils, which then share the events with the LEAD Center for review. The LEAD Center is a unit of the ASUC Auxiliary in student affairs, and it advises CalGreeks as well as other student organizations.

Page said that because Delta Chi’s event was not registered with the Interfraternity Council, the LEAD Center had no prior knowledge of it.

The party at Delta Chi is part of a larger pattern of cultural appropriation on campus, said David Jaramillo, a sponsor of the bill and a member of a campus Latino fraternity, Lambda Upsilon Lambda.

“We are a part of CalGreeks, and we feel very disappointed in the fact that the Greek community is continuously perpetrating acts of cultural insensitivity and racism,” Jaramillo said.

Last year, another campus fraternity faced condemnation from the ASUC Senate. The fraternity, Theta Delta Chi, was accused of racism after hanging a figure outside of its house during Halloween. Although the fraternity claimed the figure was a zombie, others said the decoration resembled a lynching. In response, the senate approved a bill that urged the campus and the Interfraternity Council to hold Theta Delta Chi “responsible for reckless disregard of the risk of terrorizing the campus community.”

SB 16 also includes language referencing the “Compton Cookout,” an event hosted by a UC San Diego fraternity stereotyping black culture that garnered national attention.

External Affairs Vice President Safeena Mecklai, however, who is an active member of the Greek community, said Delta Chi’s party cannot be compared to the Compton Cookout. She said the bill uses examples of racial insensitivity from other schools to villainize the Greek community.

“Cultural appropriation is a problem across campus, not just the Greek community,” Mecklai said. “I think it would be more constructive to look at the climate of the entire campus.”

The post ASUC Senate to consider bill condemning quinceanera-themed frat party appeared first on The Daily Californian.

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_.

The post ASUC Senate unanimously passes bill to support reforming Prop. 13 appeared first on The Daily Californian.

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.

The post ASUC Senate introduces bill in support of reforming Prop. 13 appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Anthony Bongco/Staff

The ASUC Senate unanimously passed a bill at its meeting Wednesday stating that it will express no confidence in incoming UC president Janet Napolitano if she does not meet a list of nine demands by a deadline set by the senate.

The bill, which was authored by CalSERVE Senator Sean Tan, was amended so the senate would express no confidence only if Napolitano does not meet the nine demands listed in the bill by the third week of October.

“(Napolitano) has something to prove to students, but students have nothing to prove to her,” Tan said. “We are giving her a chance.”

ASUC External Affairs Vice President Safeena Mecklai will present the bill to the UC Student Association board with the list of demands to Napolitano, some of which call for her to ensure the UC system will be a safe place for undocumented students and to prohibit the use of riot police in interfering with student acts of disobedience, protests and rallies on UC campuses. Additionally, ASUC President Deejay Pepito will propose a review of the selection process of the UC president to the UCSA Council of Presidents.

“I think votes of no confidence have proven time and time again on campus and across campuses all over the UC that discussions like this can create productive dialogues and more healthy relationships,” Pepito said at the meeting. “I think that making it known that students are concerned and not happy about the appointment will allow the UC Office of the President to really understand how students feel.”

Some UC Berkeley students have expressed concern over Napolitano’s appointment due to her work as head of the Department of Homeland Security. Of concern is her enforcement of immigration policies such as Secure Communities, which allows police officers to hand over those they arrest to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Some students fear that her prior work will make undocumented students feel unsafe.

At the ASUC meeting, Ivan Villasenor Madriz, a UC Berkeley sophomore who said he was undocumented, asked the senate to support the motion.

“We’re here fighting, and we just want you to fight with us,” Madriz said.

Although the senate passed the bill unanimously, discussion about it did not lack tension. At one point during the meeting, Mecklai called out Executive Vice President Nolan Pack for a blog post he wrote regarding her vote at a recent UCSA meeting. There, Mecklai voted against a bill that stated UC students had no confidence in Napolitano, as did a majority of the board.

In the post, Pack blasted Mecklai for her vote against the bill.

“All of this comes from the same elected official who is attempting to appropriate the narrative of the radical activism of ‘Berkeley in the ’60s’ while simultaneously embracing the lukewarm politics of doublespeak and fear of authority,” Pack wrote in the post.

Mecklai personally addressed Pack at the meeting during her executive report, saying she will not be “bullied” by him.

“The idea that you’re using your blog as an attempt to slander my character because I disagree with you is deplorable,” Mecklai said. “I stand here today to tell you that I am not afraid of you. I have a right to my opinion. I have never fully rejected the idea of a vote of no confidence.”

Although she did not support the UCSA bill, Mecklai said she supports the amended version of the ASUC bill passed Wednesday night.

“It ended up being a good bill,” Mecklai said. “I plan on introducing this resolution to the UCSA board of directors, and I’ll sponsor it, and as the chair of the board, I’m totally comfortable doing that.”

Jane Nho covers student government. Contact her at jnho@dailycal.org.

The post ASUC Senate passes bill calling for Napolitano to meet demands of students appeared first on The Daily Californian.

That said, the council should wait a week before voting on the measure.

On Wednesday, the ASUC Senate should vote on whether to endorse an amended student district map as the best way to represent student voices. Because of legislative procedure, there was no earlier meeting possible for them to consider this, and the opinion of the ASUC should be known before City Council members convene to vote on a matter of such vital interest to Berkeley students.

The district plan proposed by the Berkeley Student District Campaign, an effort spearheaded by the Office of the ASUC External Affairs Vice President, is a flawed effort that does not represent the interests of all students. The plan as it currently stands does not include the voices of students living in Northside student housing co-ops or those living in the Unit 4 residence halls (Foothill, Stern and Bowles).

Tackling this problem, members of the Berkeley student community have proposed an amendment to the student district plan -— the United Student District Amendment. While the USDA is also not a perfect plan, it at least addresses the exclusion of Northside students in the original plan put forth by the BSDC.

ASUC External Affairs Vice President Safeena Mecklai asserted in a recent op-ed in The Daily Californian that the original plan best integrates student populations with the larger Berkeley community because it doesn’t split up the Downtown and North Shattuck neighborhoods. Although Mecklai’s commitment to making sure students and other community members live in harmony is laudable, her argument that the USDA disrupts these neighborhoods and communal interests is unconvincing.

Even though the USDA map does split up those neighborhoods, there’s no indication that those areas contain concrete interest groups the same way the Northside concentration of co-ops and residence halls represent hundreds of students in the space of a couple city blocks. Simply put, it is not worth advocating for a “united student district” if it doesn’t actually unite the voices of enough students.

The post Fixing the student district appeared first on The Daily Californian.

After two years, Berkeley City Council is on the brink of making a historic decision Tuesday night regarding the creation of a student-majority district.

It has taken countless meetings, a ballot measure and a handful of maps, but the council soon may finally approve a new City Council district map that would create a student-majority district within the city of Berkeley. Many say such a district would be the first of its kind in the United States.

The council, at its Tuesday night meeting, will take its first vote of two to adopt an ordinance adjusting the City Council district boundaries to those suggested by an ASUC-backed map called the Berkeley Student District Campaign, which was proposed in 2011.

In the summer, controversy arose when some students recognized that three residence halls on the east side of campus, along with International House and the Berkeley Student Cooperatives on Northside, were not included in the student-majority district the map suggests.

In July, Stefan Elgstrand, a senior and an intern for Councilmember Kriss Worthington, submitted the United Student District Amendment, which included the previously omitted housing units.

Creating a student-majority district will pave the way for electing a council member who can advocate for the student population, which comprises 25 percent of the city’s total residents, according to ASUC External Affairs Vice President Safeena Mecklai.

“We need representatives on the council who walk amongst us and experience what we experience,” said Mecklai, whose office is overseeing the student-majority-district creation process.

According to Councilmember Jesse Arreguin, city officials intentionally created district lines in 1986 that divided the campus’ student voting bloc. Berkeley kept these controversial boundaries for decades, he said, despite the fact that they prevented the formation of a student-majority district.

Last year, the City Council voted to delay redistricting until after November 2012 so voters would have a chance to approve a ballot measure allowing district lines to be redrawn.

After the measure passed, campus and community members alike began the process of redrawing the boundary lines and debating over which map, including several that proposed the creation of a student-majority district, was best.

On Tuesday night, the City Council will consider two final maps. While the council is slated to do its first formal approval of the BSDC map, it is still possible for the council to put that process on hold to give further consideration to the USDA map.

“(The USDA map) still has the value of creating a student district,” said Michelle Nacouzi, president of the Berkeley Student Cooperative, which voted to support the USDA in July. “But it’s one step better than the original map because it includes Northside.”

Elgstrand, the creator of the USDA map, said he believes that one major amendment is necessary, although his map does not radically differ from BSDC’s, which he used as a template.

“We want to optimize the inclusivity of the student district to make sure the voices are heard,”  Elgstrand said.

Councilmember Max Anderson, with Arreguin and Worthington, favors the newer map.

Former ASUC external affairs vice president Joey Freeman, who oversaw the beginning phases of the student-district campaign, said the BSDC map creates a student-majority district that does a good job of representing as many students as possible while still following criteria in the city’s charter about redistricting.

Mecklai said the Northside cooperatives still would be adequately represented in the BSDC-created student-majority district because the elected official would be accountable to the concerns of the cooperative community.

“When you’re making a district of around 14,000 people to represent a community of 35,000, it’s impossible to make sure everyone is in the district,” she said. “That does not mean, however, that the needs of the community will go unheard.”

Gladys Rosario covers city news. Contact her at grosario@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @gladysrosario93.

The post Berkeley City Council to consider two student-majority district maps on Tuesday appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Jeffrey Joh/File

The UC Student Association decided against a vote of no confidence in incoming UC president Janet Napolitano at its monthly board meeting Saturday.

The motion was introduced at the previous UCSA Congress board meeting by a coalition of UC undocumented student organizations and their allies. The coalition called for the UCSA, an advisory board that aims to represent students across the UC system, to take a stance against Napolitano. The board previously had passed five other demands.

Many students have expressed concern over Napolitano’s enforcement of immigration policies while she served as Secretary of Homeland Security and say her appointment will make undocumented students feel unsafe on UC campuses.

In a 9-6 split, the UCSA voted not to pass the motion of no confidence. Many board members said such a vote might strain the board’s relationship with Napolitano before she has even taken office.

“Speaking from a purely relationship-building standpoint, regardless of who is in the UC Office of the President, we need to have a relationship with them so that we can demand things for students,” said Safeena Mecklai, ASUC external affairs vice president and chair of the UCSA board. “If we set up a list of demands and she doesn’t follow through with them, that would be a time to explore a vote of no confidence.”

The UCSA board, which consists of up to three student leaders from each UC campus, created an online forum after its last meeting to gauge student opinion on Napolitano’s appointment. Some said, however, that the results of this forum were not acknowledged by the board at its meeting Saturday.

“There was no mention of the forum even though an overwhelming majority of the forum described the discomfort of students in terms of Napolitano’s appointment,” said Sean Tan, a CalSERVE senator who recently authored an ASUC bill calling for an expression of no confidence in Napolitano. The bill was introduced at last week’s ASUC Senate meeting but has yet to be voted on.

Both Tan and Mecklai said they did not expect the UCSA’s decision to have much influence on the upcoming senate vote.

UCSA board members also discussed a different resolution asking the UCSA to endorse nine demands that will be sent to Napolitano by a multicultural coalition of UC student groups. One of the demands would ask Napolitano to make the UC system a “sanctuary,” ensuring that campus officials would not enforce Secure Communities, a program implemented by Napolitano that allows police officers to turn over people they arrest to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

The UCSA decided to postpone voting on the resolution until October.

“The resolution and the demands are very constructive,” Mecklai said. “They’re tangible demands, and I really encourage the ASUC to look at tangible demands because I think they’re stronger than no confidence. The fact that we didn’t even get to really consider those as a whole was frustrating.”

According to Andrea Gordillo, the campus organizing director for the Office of the Executive Vice President at UC Irvine and a co-author of both resolutions, the results of the meeting have left many students disheartened about the future of undocumented and minority students at the UC system. Gordillo questioned whether the board was acting on behalf of the students it represents.

“I don’t really believe in that organization anymore,” Gordillo said.

Somin Park covers academics and administration. Contact her at sominpark@dailycal.org.

The post UCSA rejects vote of no confidence in Napolitano appeared first on The Daily Californian.

Jeffrey Joh/File

The ASUC Senate wasted no time at the beginning of the academic year, gearing up in its first meeting to debate a bill expressing that the senate has “no confidence” in Janet Napolitano as the incoming UC president.

Napolitano’s appointment raised concerns due to the policies she implemented in her previous position as Secretary of Homeland Security. In response, the ASUC Senate will debate SB 2, titled Bill in Support of Undocumented Students and Immigrant Communities, on Monday.

“The ‘no confidence’ comes from a lot of history — she has deported over 2 million undocumented immigrants,” said ASUC Senator Sean Tan, who authored the bill. “There’s a lot of fear in terms of what is her main priority as UC president, because she comes from a background of surveillance and apprehension and security.”

As Homeland Security Secretary, Napolitano played a role in enacting immigration policies such as Secure Communities, a program that allows local governments to report undocumented immigrants to federal officials.

Under her leadership, the Homeland Security Department deported a record number of undocumented immigrants, according to a report by UAW Local 2865, a UC student workers’ union.

“We call for a president devoted to rebuilding our capacity for teaching, research, and learning — not a specialist in cyber surveillance, law enforcement, and border security,” the union’s release states. “We demand that the UC Regents retract Napolitano’s nomination for appointment and reopen the process for selecting the UC president.”

If the bill is passed, ASUC External Affairs Vice President Safeena Mecklai will present a list of priorities detailed in the bill to the UC Student Association. These priorities include holding mandatory annual trainings for the rights of undocumented citizens, holding town halls for the UC campuses in both Northern and Southern California regions and ensuring that Secure Communities will not be implemented on UC campuses.

“A vote of no confidence is more effective when someone has already been in office,” Mecklai said. “For me personally, it’s more impactful to list eight demands with a timeline of when she needs to follow through with them.”

But some UC officials feel it is too soon to judge how Napolitano will perform as UC president. UC spokesperson Steve Montiel believes students will see that she is a person of “great integrity” as they learn more about her.

“She’s coming to lead the University of California, not coming to lead an immigration enforcement program,” Montiel said. “It’s a whole different world.”

The bill also calls for ASUC President DeeJay Pepito to propose a review of the UC president’s selection process to the UCSA Council of Presidents because some students felt that they were unfairly represented in her appointment.

“We as a senate could look at possible policy changes on how the UC president is selected, because we had a real problem with how student voices weren’t heard,” Mecklai said. “My fear is that we’ll only attack Napolitano and not the process, and in 10 years, this will happen again.”

Student Regent Cinthia Flores said the bill provides a proper avenue for students to voice their positions about Napolitano’s appointment.

Jane Nho covers student government. Contact her at jnho@dailycal.org.

The post ASUC Senate bill expresses no confidence in Napolitano appeared first on The Daily Californian.

But is it enough?

Councilmembers Kriss Worthington and Gordon Wozniak mentioned some short-term fixes to safety issues, such as installing new lighting and clearing pedestrian walkways. While it is encouraging to see city officials proactive about immediate fixes that can be done to help the problem, there is little sign these measures do anything to address long-term student safety issues.

Fixing crime and creating a safer environment for students can’t be accomplished through instant solutions. While it would be nice to add more cars to the BearWALK fleet or use newer, more environmentally sustainable bulbs on street corners, campus and city leaders also need to collaborate on a long-term plan to create a secure living space for Berkeley students.

In her book “The Death and Life of Great American Cities,” urban theorist Jane Jacobs argued that crime was not the result of an imbalanced equation of cops and robbers but rather a symptom of deeper social ills. Berkeley is a city with a number of complicated problems, ranging from staggering wealth inequality to surging rents, and to adequately address the crime issue, we must also tackle the socioeconomic causes that foster criminal activity.

That is not to say we can only develop economically oriented solutions, however. Increasing awareness of the night shuttle and expanding its reach are tangible steps that would produce meaningful gains for the Berkeley student community. For the many students who stay up late working on campus and live farther away than Clark Kerr or Foothill, those drop-off points are inadequate.

For these reasons, among many others, it was welcome to hear Worthington express support for a “bolder, more comprehensive approach” to addressing crime in Berkeley. Developing action plans that unite Berkeley residents and students, expand police presence to places students use at night and create a greater sense of community investment are all elements of any “comprehensive approach” that could succeed at making Berkeley safer.

And with a new chancellor and fresh academic year ahead of us, what better time to act than now?

The post Tackling crime in Berkeley appeared first on The Daily Californian.