A variety of discussions and resolutions were discussed at ASUCI legislative council last week at their regular meetings on Tuesday and Thursday in the Student Center.
Tuesday’s meeting began as representatives from the Office of the President and Office of Student Services Vice President presented budget expenditures from their respective offices.
ASUCI Student Services Vice President, Joshua Nguyen, presented the budget report for his office, including expenses from Welcome Week and Shocktoberfest.
Nguyen reported that the $14,000 Student Services spent was technically more money than was actually budgeted for Welcome Week. This overspending arose from UC I Give Back, an event not initially included in Student Services budget. However, the office has plans to allocate money from other offices’ accounts, namely Administrative Affairs, to cover the cost. Additionally, they fell short for Welcome Week budgeting due to the fact that Student Services was anticipating near $20,000 from on campus sponsors, but only received $10,500.
Shocktoberfest was the other large expenditure reported by Student Services.
“This year might be the only year where Shocktoberfest goes in the black,” said Nguyen.
The office underspent in almost every department, including entertainment. With a budget of $100,000, entertainment costs totaled $95,000. On-campus sponsorships from the Alumni Association as well as Athletics amounted to six thousand dollars. Additionally, they netted $95,755 in ticket sales.
Office of the President Deputy Internal Chief of Staff William Ngo presented the budget expenditures on behalf of President Reza Zomorrodian. Many of the commissions under Office of the President did not incur any expenses thus far.
The 60 by 16 commission, however, marked a major exception.
The commission created by Zomorrodian with the goal of registering 60 percent of students to vote by the 2016 national election. Two weeks ago, the commission hosted a forum for Irvine city council and mayoral candidates to discuss their platforms. In conjunction with the Office of the Executive Vice President, the commission also registered students before the deadline for this election cycle. The 60 by 16 commission initially had $800 allocated to it. However, due to intense programming costs thus far, the commission has completely exhausted its allocated funds for the year.
“60 by 16 is in a critical state right now but most likely we are going to try to take money from the lower impacted budgets,” Ngo said.
The meeting also included R50-12, a resolution in support of more gender neutral bathrooms on campus. The resolution, authored by Councilmembers Negin and Negar Fatahi, urges the university to continue creating more gender neutral bathrooms on campus. According to the legislation, UC Irvine is one of more than 150 universities in the country to have gender neutral bathrooms. The resolution reads in part: “Let it be resolved that we urge the university to work towards creating gender-neutral bathrooms, either through renovations or by simply changing the signs on single-stall male/female restrooms.”
R50-12 passed with 11 in favor and 2 abstentions.
The next item was R50-13, a resolution proposing a change in the 2014 ASUCI fall elections dates. Voting will be open Monday through Thursday of week 9. Previously, the week 8 election dates conflicted with the week of Thanksgiving. The resolution states that it “follows the spirit of the ASUCI Elections for candidates to enjoy the full amount of campaign time allowed to candidates of other years.” R50-13 passed unanimously.
Following the scheduled resolutions, a motion was approved to add another item to the agenda. The council began discussion on R50-17, a resolution for the creation of an International Center Committee.
The resolution, authored by Zomorrodian and Administrative Affairs Vice President John Delshadi, called for the creation of an ad hoc subcommittee under the advocacy committee to address the concerns and need of international students on campus.
Further discussion regarding the resolution, as well as voting, will take place next week at legislative council.