Johnny Ma/HIGHLANDER
Johnny Ma/HIGHLANDER

There are many words one could use to describe the eventful year that ASUCR had. In the past eight months, UC Riverside’s student government faced a multitude of issues ranging from painstaking elections to controversial resolutions. In the end, “successful” was the word AUSCR President Liam Dow used to describe the year ASUCR had.

I recently sat down with the student body president to talk about his term and some of the most notable moments that took place inside and outside the ASUCR Senate Chambers.

When I first spoke with Dow just eight months ago in his office at the start of his term to cover an ASUCR meeting, what I remember most was seeing a poster behind his door where he had written a checklist of things he wanted to accomplish before his term was over. The list included priorities such as establishing a relationship with the chancellor, hiring interns, utilizing the room where the Exchange used to be and regularly attending ECAB and ex-officio meetings. As I sat in his office eight months later, I noticed that same checklist behind behind his door again. What I realized this time was that every item on that list had been crossed out. I asked him about it. He took one look at the poster and paused for a moment before proudly assuring me that every single priority listed on it had been accomplished.

With that in mind, I asked, “What were some of the highlights you can point to from your term?”

After another pause, he answered, “Voter registration was probably one of the high and low moments.” Dow was referring to the project that ASUCR and CALPIRG had spearheaded this past November where the two organizations were able to register thousands voters in and around the UCR community. “Just working really, really hard for something that you’re really passionate about and trying to register voters is a lot of fun and is also kind of hard because you have students who aren’t really engaged and totally apathetic about the whole situation … But it was a lot of fun … because it was at the beginning of the year. Not a bad way to start at all.”

Dow continued by reflecting on some of the goals he had originally set out to accomplish prior to the start of his term.

“I was really concerned about re-establishing student government and making it really kind of a new image for the office,” he stated. “So I really put all of my time into my job.”

As he said this, Dow went on to elaborate more on his time commitment to the student government and according to him, it was a stressful job. He stated that he was forced to put his studies on hold in order to focus on his duties as president.

“I’ve been spread so thin … I really put school on hold. The first quarter I was able to balance everything and I think the second quarter, the winter quarter, is when it really hit me … I missed so much class. I put my whole life on hold to try to really, really do a good job here,” he said.

“Was it a successful term?” I asked him.

“I think that it was a very successful term,” he replied. “I think that we did amazing things. Our office—we really changed the direction the student government was going … I was talking to the dean of CNAS and she was like, ‘The student government has been wonderful, just amazing this year.’”

The conversation shifted gears from that point to the Highlander’s April 16 editorial titled “Behind the veil of ASUCR,” which criticized the student government’s lack of transparency, accomplishments and elections system.

“My initial reaction was that it was very one-sided,” he responded. “It didn’t seem to encompass our year especially if you looked at the previous Highlander issues, you would see all of the accomplishment that ASUCR has made … And that was very confusing to me.”

He went on to point to one specific issue he had with the editorial.

“There was one instance that the Highlander criticized, I think, that was a snowball effect to the editorial. For example, the voting for the divestment, which, you know, affected students in adverse ways and was a very hot topic, to say the least. How we dealt with it was unique and it needed to be unique because it was a unique situation.”

He acknowledged that transparency was an issue that needed to be addressed by the senate. At the same time, he continued to voice his concerns over what had been written in the editorial.

“Some of those aspects are warranted like some of those [about] transparency,” he admitted, but went on to say, “I think a lack of transparency does not equal a lack of doing work and a lack of ethics. I think that was kind of the push of the editorial. It was like: Because there is a lack of transparency, they haven’t done any work and because they haven’t done any work, they’re just totally unethical and student money is going down the drain. And that was, like, very offensive …”

He went on to suggest that there needed to be a deeper understanding between the student government and campus media. “I think there has been kind of a break in communication, just in general,” he said.

Another topic of discussion that Dow mentioned was the recent ruling made by the judicial branch. On April 24 the ASUCR judicial branch outlined a reading policy that requires each senator to submit his or her input about every piece of legislation prior to voting on it. The branch also recommended that a questionnaire for students be created that asks about issues that matter to them. Next year’s candidates will have to provide responses to the questionnaire when running for office.

“When we reviewed the recommendations, they were recommendations,” Dow said, claiming that the ruling made by the judicial branch was not an absolute law. At the same time he admitted that there were certain aspects about the ruling that he was in favor of. He pointed specifically to the required reading of a legislation by ASUCR senators. “I think that needs to be written into a bylaw,” he stated.

With that, I asked him what he thought about the distribution of power the between judicial branch and the senate.

“The judicial branch makes ruling based on the constitution,” he replied, but he made it clear that he believes that the judicial branch does not have the power to create law.

From there, we moved on to next year’s senate and the changes that he hopes to see.

“There will be a more clearly defined road to what to do,” he said, referring to incoming ASUCR representatives. “With the training that they’ll receive, they’ll have more grasp on how to do it.” The incoming ASUCR representatives began their transition training this past Thursday, May 2. Next year’s staff will begin holding senate meetings in the fall.

With an entire year of experience under his belt, I asked him if he any advice for next year’s staff. He replied, “My advice would be to start early—get the ball rolling early.”