The ASUC’s weekly Wednesday evening meeting sought to address potential changes in the campus’s budget and a statement made by executive officers.
ASUC Vice President of Academic Affairs James Weichert said SB 118, signed into law by California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Monday, will undo the previously “significant” budget deficit campus faced due to the enrollment freeze. As a result, the reversal of the campus enrollment freeze provides an opportunity for several areas of campus’s budget to be reevaluated, according to Weichert.
“The ASUC budget committee will be pivoting to that news, identifying expenditures that can be cut — including, for example, UCPD — while also highlighting areas that need significant investment in support of students,” Weichert said during the meeting.
Weichert added this development further opens up a “great opportunity” to push the campus to redo its Long Range Development Plan for the next few years, while also having a lot of student input.
The end of the enrollment freeze could potentially create an opportunity to reconsider the Student Technology Fund, or STF, according to Justin Zhang, one of the general managers of the Open Computing Facility, or OCF. He added he was concerned about the lack of STF funding for the OCF.
Weichert said he agrees that the OCF should be funded by the STF. He noted the OCF is currently not included in services STF funds would support, but that it is a critical student resource.
“Both times that the administration — specifically student affairs — has proposed a version of a student technology fee, they have left out OCF, when student proposed versions have included (it),” Weichert said at the meeting. “(OCF) is within their realm to include. They include a lot that shouldn’t be in a student fee.”
Following Weichert’s report, Senator Muzamil Ahmad gave a stern warning to Weichert regarding a statement that he and other executive officers released.
According to Ahmad, Weichert and the other executives did not provide a disclaimer that their statement only speaks for those who signed it, not necessarily the rest of the ASUC. Ahmad noted he was broaching the subject on behalf of senators who disagreed with the statement, though he personally agreed the statement.
Weichert responded by saying that he stood by his words, but that he also respects the Senate’s authority.
“Executive officers are tasked with making statements within their purview. I personally believe in what was written in the statement, and I think I will leave it there,” Weichert said. “The Senate is free to adopt whichever stance it wants.”
The meeting concluded with a series of announcements. ASUC Student Advocate Era Goel’s chief of staff Crystal Choi announced the Student Advocate’s office will explore a “more formalized path” for how student misconduct accusations are handled. Choi said that even if a student is acquitted of charges, grading is still left to the professors’ discretion, a problem Goel hopes to solve.
Ahmad announced that he and others in the pre-health community plan on holding basic life support certification training, where 100 students, staff and faculty will be trained to react to heart attacks, strokes and other immediate health issues.
