On Friday, Feb. 19, ASUCR held their seventh meeting of winter quarter, where they approved a large-scale initiative to fund the use of reusable containers in UCR’s dining halls, discussed a piece of legislation outlining international students participation in ASUCR Elections and also discussed the R’Gear allocation for this year.
The senate approved a $15,000 large-scale initiative allocation for the Green Campus Action Plan (GCAP) presented by Vice President of Sustainability Vanessa Gomez-Alvarado to promote sustainability on campus. The project will launch a reusable to-go container program for takeout and online orders at the dining halls in Lothian and Dundee-Glasgow as early as this March. GCAP took some inspiration from Oregon State University, who has successfully integrated the Eco2Go program on their campus.
When implemented, students will be able to pick up their food in an Eco2Go container, eat and rinse after it is used and drop it off at a designated location around the dining halls where they will be cleaned and utilized again.
In the large-scale initiative proposal, GCAP stated that the project will eliminate at least 14 tons of trash from landfills and cut the university’s water consumption, as it currently takes 10 liters of water to produce a single disposable plate. It will also eliminate 58.9 metric tons of Co2. They are currently working with UCR Dining Services to implement the project and eventually spread the use of reusable containers across campus.
“This program is really just a big jumpstart to a sustainable future,” said CNAS Senator Barry Liu.
The allocation was approved with a vote of 13-0-0.
The senate also approved two pieces of legislation during LRC. The first, SB-W21-006 By-Law Amendment to Update International Student’s Voting Status was presented by President Pro Tempore Orlando Cabalo. The senate bill clarifies in the ASUCR constitution that only undergraduate students who pay the quarterly ASUCR fee are eligible to vote in ASUCR elections and run for office. Those who do not pay the fee are ineligible to participate.
SB-W21-006 was passed with a vote of 13-0-0.
Cabalo also presented SR-W21-008 Support for the UCR School of Business’ 4 Year Program. The senate resolution proposes to convert the UCR School of Business’s current method for obtaining a Business Administration (BSAD) degree from a two-year upper-division program to a four-year major program by allowing students to directly apply to the BSAD major as an incoming freshman. Currently, students interested in the School of Business must follow a two-year, pre-business track under the College of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences before being accepted.
The UCR School of Business has proposed this change to the academic senate multiple times, stating that the BSAD major at UCR has grown to become the largest undergraduate business program in the UC system with approximately 1,400 BSAD majors as of fall 2019.
The senate resolution was approved with a vote of 14-0-0 and ASUCR will be working closely with the School of Business to support the change.
Vice President of Finance William Wang briefly spoke to the senate about the R’Gear allocation for the 2020-2021 school year. Earlier in the meeting, one student expressed disapproval for R’Gear, stating that the allocation should be used to support students financially instead.
Wang stated that while he has not discussed any plans for R’Gear with Marketing and Promotions Director Ian Chew, he does not foresee it getting approved by the senate. “I personally think it is pretty insensitive to do R’Gear this year considering that we are in the middle of a pandemic,” stated Wang.
The public meeting was adjourned at 7:21 p.m. before the senate moved into a closed session.
