Internal Affairs Commission

The Internal Affairs Commission (IAC) is a subordinate body of the ASUCD Senate. IAC reviews most matters of association policy and procedure before they go on to the Senate of the undergraduate student government. As such, many of ASUCD's policy wonks get their start in IAC, reviewing exciting stuff such as bylaws, administrative plans, and other "internal" matters. The commission is made of nine members and a few alternate members.

IAC has open meetings on Mondays at 5:10 PM in the MU Garrison Room. The meetings are typically longer than any other ASUCD Commission, as they have so many bills to review. IAC is also mostly responsible for writing the Long-Range Plans for all ASUCD units.

The commission has been described as "Infernal Affairs", as they get all of the hard legislation and none of the glory that comes from running programs. However, IAC does hold programs like ASUCD legislation-writing clinics. The most recent one was successful, as five of the six newly elected senators attended.

Commission Chair: Amy Hartstein

• Matt Shannon (Spring 2009)
  

• Amy Hartstein (Fall 2008-Winter 2009)
  

• Jill Weinstein (Spring 2007)
  

• Mike Rivera (Fall 2006-Winter 2007) and (Fall 2007-Spring 2008)
  

• Paul Harms (Spring 2006)
  

• Kai Savaree-Ruess (Spring 2005-Winter 2006)
  

• Marvin Zamora (Spring 2005)
  

• Kahliah Laney (Spring 2004-Winter 2005)
  

• Bob Gill (Fall 2003-Spring 2004)
  

• Maya Kwiat (Winter 1995-Fall 1995)
  

• Peter Nguyen (Fall 1993-Winter 1995)
  

• Larissa Adams (Fall 1992-Spring 1993)

Though IAC itself doesn't have much power, there is a high incidence of powerful people coming from the ASUCD Internal Affairs Commission. Currently IAC alumni make up one-third of the ASUCD Senate.

A few examples:

• Peter Nguyen, former ASUCD President 1995-96 and co-author of the Democracy at Davis Constitutional Amendment
  

• Aaron Bloom, former ASUCD Vice President 1995-96 and co-author of the Democracy at Davis Constitutional Amendment
  

• Missy Lyla Whitney, current ASUCD Court Chief Justice
  

• Darnell Holloway, former ASUCD President 2006-2007
  

• Brett Leggett, former former ASUCD Senator 1995-96 and Director of the ASUCD Academic Affairs Office 1996-97
  

• Dorothy Yee, former Director of the ASUCD City/County Affairs Office 1995-96 and former Assistant Director of the ASUCD Academic Affairs Office 1996-97
  

• Maya Kwiat, former ASUCD Senator 1995-96
  

• Erica Rios, former ASUCD Senator 1995-96
  

• Amos Tubb, former ASUCD Senator 1995-96
  

• Jason Capitan, former ASUCD Senator 1995-96
  

• Tom Aguilar, GSA Vice Chair 2007-2008, GSA Chair 2006-2007, GSA External Chair 2005-2006 (was actually the Internal Affairs Representative to the Legislative Assembly, back in the long, long ago)
  

• Derick Lennox, Director of ASUCD Lobby Corps
  

• Matt Shannon, Director of ASUCD University Affairs
  

• Amy Hartstein, ASUCD Chief of Staff
  

• Kevin Powers, ASUCD Chief of Staff
  

• Kai Savaree-Ruess, ASUCD Controller 2006-2007
  

• Paul Harms, ASUCD Controller 2007-2008
  

• ASUCD Senators Michael Lay, Molly Fluet, Marvin Zamora, Janine Fiel, Darnell Holloway, Robert Gill, Justin Patrizio, Erin Lebe, Kevin Massoudi, Previn Witana
  

• ASUCD Business and Finance Commission, Gregory D. Webb 2008

IAC was very influential under the leadership of one of its longest-serving chairs, Peter Nguyen. Serving first as member and Vice Chair of the IAC from 1992-93, Nguyen went on to chair the commission from Fall 1993 through Winter of 1995 when he was elected ASUCD President. During this era, a large number of ASUCD leaders emerged from IAC (see above), and IAC was the primary progressive resistance to the Davis College Republicans-dominated Executive Council. In fact, so many Council bills died in IAC that, for purely political reasons, the Executive Council called a closed session to discuss the job performance of Nguyen as chair in Fall 1994. Nguyen opened up the closed session to the public, exposed the political gambit to the press, forced the Council majority to back down from removing him as Chair, and caused a backlash against the Davis College Republicans which led to their fall from power in the Winter 1995 election.

• Rather dramatically, RevChad was forced to resign from IAC when he joined the 2005/2006 Elections Committee as you can only hold one Senate-confirmed position at any given time.
  

• Pledge of Allegiance Controversies (2006-2007): Steve Ostrowski has been a frequent cause of drama, as has the commissioners' overreactions to Ostrowski. Steve introduced a bill to add the U.S. pledge of allegiance to the Senate agenda three times, it failed three times. Due to the surprise of various ASUCD officials at being videotaped, the meeting was shortly adjourned. The tape was turned into a seven minute Youtube video with music, stock images, and written commentary in the form of title cards. The cameraman was funded by the conservative Leadership Institute. There was also a letter written by former DPD Officer and former Controller Cameron Menezes that attacked the commissioners position on the Pledge.

Comments:

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2007-02-07 11:53:39   Where can I find the bills that have been proposed before ASUCD regarding the Pledge of Allegiance? —CarlosOverstreet

http://asucd.ucdavis.edu/government/gov-documents/senate-bills/bills.html Bill #12 is one of the previous bills to have the pledge mandatory in senate meetings. ~Matt


http://asucd.ucdavis.edu/government/gov-documents/senate-bills/2005-2006 The 05-06 year, bill #84.


• I see how its only a minor change in the agenda of the meeting, however, I would like to know why it was oppossed with such vehemence, besides the fact Steve Ostrowski was the author? — CarlosOverstreet
  

• There were a variety of reasons, including that it went against the uc davis principles of community. I'm not in a good state to answer your question.
  

• I read through the principles of community and I don't see how the pledge of allegiance (without a real loose interpretation of the principles) contradicts this. — CarlosOverstreet
  

• It's a violation of the Principles of Community because the Pledge of Allegiance is, in part, a form of blasphemy in my religion. As a Discordian, I'm sure that "Under God" really means "Under Goddess", so I'm cool with that. But it says "To the republic, for which it stands." This is clearly false, as Emperor Norton, our saint, has clearly declared the United States an empire. To say anything different would sully the name of Norton I, Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico, and people should be ashamed to recite this desecrating nonsense. —BrentLaabs
  

• Do you refrain from saying the pledge of allegiance at all? — CarlosOverstreet
  

• In the last several Senate meetings, Peake or Molnar have been leading the Pledge of Allegiance, during public discussion, which is when I normally read off the names. There have been varying degrees of participation, and varying degrees of "Under God", but in public discussion it is completely voluntary, and people are allowed to say and think what they want. —MaxMikalonis
  

• Emperor Norton did tolerate the continued presence of Congress, after they did not follow his orders and break up. That can be viewed as him tolerating the duel existance of the Republic. —JosephBleckman
  

• This bill parallels the placement of the flags at Senate. It has the possibility of alienating those that 1) do not identify themselves as American or 2) do not want to or feel it is necessary to pledge to any flag or country. The pledge can also be a very intimidating event for anybody that is attending Senate who is not comfortable with reciting or even hearing the pledge. The flags are a passive display, whereas reciting the pledge is an invasive event to some. Granted, recital of the pledge is voluntary, but listening to the pledge is not. Taken in account with bylaws that require certain people to be present at Senate, the passing of the bill can create a very unfair environment to some. So in the end, this bill can serve to alienate those that are mandated to attend Senate meetings and may even discourage student participation in ASUCD. —EricWu
  

2007-02-07 12:21:27   The IAC should've known better, Mason Harrison anyone? I don't think it's a big deal but then again I wasn't there. —GregWebb

As such I want to prevent any speculation or claims regarding this incident, I dislike drama and would like to not see it on this wiki. ~DavidPoole

Linking the video is rather pointless due to how the video itself is rather misleading. The only substantial part of the entire clip is when someone who isn't even on the commission tells the camera man to turn it off. Most people who watch it have absolutely no idea what is really going on, and I'd rather not have misleading clip posted here to confuse people. Aside from that, if people feel that the event is worth a paragraph on this page so be it. ~Matt Shannon

• I'm inclined to second Commissioner Shannon's motion. The clip implies that both former-Chairman Harms and Senator Peake are IAC Commissioners, which is an unfortunate implication to draw in this case. Unless this footage actually does make some semi-major media/news providers, the misrepresentation of the Commission is rather shady to have on this page. Now, if the footage does make Fox News, or something like that, then it'd have a place here, due to the noteworthiness of it. —Commissioner Bleckman
  

• Is there a law in ASCUD prohibiting the video recording of ASUCD Commission meetings? Why was steve recording in the first place? — CarlosOverstreet
  

• I agree with all of you, I linked it to mitigate an edit war, I guess I rather not have pointless reverts etc. I think the issue has passed though.
  

2007-02-28 16:53:32   Wow. That video is ridiculously stupid. —TusharRawat