Fourth year, Christopher Buchanan, spoke during public comment of the sixth Associated Students of the University of California, Riverside (ASUCR) meeting. Buchanan brought up concerns regarding students balancing post-college endeavors with completing their degree requirements. To remedy this, he suggested a modification to the degree audit platform, recommending that external certifications, such as the Medical College Admissions Test (MCAT), Certified Public Accountant (CPA) exam and brokerage license are included with their requisite degrees on the audit.
President Pro Tempore (PPT) Leila Haidar added on to his statements saying that this was an issue across the UCR colleges. Executive President Choy mentioned that she could bring it up in her regular meetings with the Provost, Chancellor, University of California Students Association (UCSA), and Jordan Steinhauser who is the Graduate Student Administration president.
Elections Director (ED) Kevin Arizmendi then opened up the prospective timeline for ASUCR elections for the 2025 to 2026 school year. ED Arizmendi explained that the timeline spans across winter and spring quarter with candidacy applications opening up Jan. 1, and election results being posted May 2nd.
This year the Belltower, Lothian, Glasgow, the Associated Students of UC Riverside (ASUCR) office and the Highlander Union Building (HUB) will be polling locations. Concerns were brought up over candidates not being allowed to loiter near polling locations, given that so many of the polling sites were close to ASUCR offices. However ED Arizmedi assured senators that there would be “watchdogs” and volunteers monitoring the sites to make sure that no candidates would be abusing the set locations.
Senate Bill F24-006 detailed the need for a stipend for the position of external executive assistant under the Office of External Affairs. Vice President of External Affairs Vivian Herrera described the aid of the current executive assistant as a “huge support.” Senate Bill F24-007 also reflected this change in the list of paid positions for the External Affairs Office, detailing the $990 stipend for the 2024-2025 school year that the assistant would be getting paid. Both bills were approved 14-0-0.
Senate Bill F24-008 would mandate transparent committee documentation in the form of quarterly reports from all the ASUCR committees detailing their goals, what they have accomplished and other information to better inform the Senate as to their activities. There will be an option to submit a report, for which the committee members will need to follow a pdf with instructions on what to write, or another option to simply schedule a meeting with ASUCR.
President Abby Choy shared that this bill would ideally make it easier for committees to draft their end of year report as well as for ASUCR to check in on their progress throughout the year. College of Humanities & Social Sciences Senator Anahita Hooshyari Far brought up transparency concerns on how the public would be able to view the committee reports. The bill was rejected 14-0-0 so it could be sent back to the Legislative Review Committee for further edits.
Senate Bill F24-009 discussed the new criteria for committees to be removed from ASUCR. President Choy explained that as of right now it is very easy to add or create committees but very hard remove them, even if they no longer serve their purpose. She continued, explaining how this is problematic when committee functions overlap or are no longer being held to a high standard of quality.
SB F24-009 mandates that committees will be evaluated on select criteria and reviewed during week nine of spring quarter to see if it is a good idea for them to continue. However, because the Government Relations and Highlander Action Committee were not included in the list of committees immune from evaluation, the bill was rejected in a vote of 14-0-0 and sent back to legislative review committee.
Both Green Grants proposed by the Green Campus Action Plan were approved. Senator Hooshyari Far detailed how the American Institute of Chemical Engineers at UCR requested $3,500 to bring new chemical engineering students onto their initiative to create a sustainable innovation project. This project consists of making two cars to compete with each other at the end of the academic year — $3,500 is the maximum amount of money they would be spending on the project including testing and the creation of the actual competition course.
UCR’s R’Garden has also applied for a $4,000 grant, to “continue [expanding] the growth of fresh organic produce in an efficient and sustainable way … [and] help them with providing higher crop quality, increased yields and longer growing seasons for students”
CNAS Senator Anthony Wei, CNAS Senator Karen Vo and Bourns College Of Engineering Senator Uma Akundi were excused. CHASS Senator Carter Anderson and CNAS Senator Vinisha Lalli were late.
