ASUCD Senate

Spring 2005 Senate Meeting

The ASUCD Senate consists of 22 elected and non-elected students who collectively adopt and manage the association's 21 million dollar budget, considers bills and resolutions and individually and jointly undertake various projects designed to enhance the quality of life for students on campus . Senate meetings are open to the public, and usually held every Thursday during the school year, in the Mee Room (3rd floor of the Memorial Union) starting at 6:10pm. Minutes and agendas of each meeting are typically available in SGAO (3rd floor Memorial Union) and online on the documents section on the ASUCD website.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, ASUCD Senate meetings are held as Zoom Webinars, information of which can also be found on the ASUCD website.

As for elections, all undergraduate students at UCD can vote for anyone they want. In addition to independent candidates, there are "slates" here at UC Davis — akin to political coalitions that dissolve after each election cycle. 

See Senate History for historical information, or see Slates for newly formed, inactive, or past slates that do not currently have elected officials.  If you are interested in running for Senate and don't know much about the process, this could be a decent resource.

Composition

Presiding Officer: ASUCD Internal Vice President: Aarushi Raghunathan

(1, elected, breaks affirmative/negative ties)

Senators (12, elected, voting)

* President Pro Tempore of the Senate
**Interim Senator

Commission Chairs (6, appointed, non-voting)

Commission Chairs are ex-officio members of the senate and senators are ex-officio members of commissions.

Other Ex-Officio Members (5, non-voting)

The Senate is responsible for voting on and creating bills that say how ASUCD should operate. Senators are additionally able to pass resolutions asking University administration to address an issue or to suggest the implementation of a change. Senators vote to approve or reject the President's proposed budget each spring. Being a Senator is a very important job because of the sheer size of ASUCD. Also, ASUCD Senators and other executives are often invited, through the University, to various important social and political functions. An example of this is the summer 2005 function "Perspectives on Poverty", which featured Colin Powell, John Edwards, and John Ashcroft.

In the past senate seems to have had a bit of an attendance problem. This led 4 past senators to write a letter to the editor in the Aggie.

Senators also hire staff, who serve as volunteers to understand the workings of the Senate table and skill-build. Despite the fact that these are always advertised in elections as qualifications, they are typically sinecure offices.

Power Structure

Due to recent elections reforms, no slate possesses a majority. In the event of a tie, Vice President Ragunthun, holds the tie-breaking vote.

Election Information

The Elections Committee is responsible for elections matters. The Senate is elected using the Choice Voting method.

• Check ballot data for Senate and Presidential Elections since Winter 2013. 

Scandals/Corruption

ASUCD's legislative body wasn't always so contentious.

The ASUCD Senate has generated some interesting scandals recently. These include:

• Chad Roberts graduating and finishing his term without actually doing anything. http://theaggie.org/article/1990
• The Fall 2005 ASUCD Election/Unqualified Candidates Scandal - ineligibility of elected candidates
• The ASUCD Senator Ackerman Scandal - theft of books by a senator
• Lamargate - IRS investigation of illegal endorsement of political candidates
• Fall '04:
  • Campaigning in Dorms Controversy - Campaigning in dorms by Student Focus
  • Elections Committee modifying candidates' statements.
• Rob Roy's Disqualification Controversy - Winter 2005 Senate Candidate Rob Roy was disqualified by the Elections Committee due to not turning in all receipts for his campaign.
• It is documented that members of the ASUCD Senate have been routinely invited to join the ranks of the secretive organization known as Sword and Sandals.
• It is rumored that Senators smoked marijuana during the 2004 Budget Hearings. Original Daviswiki Source Amusing ED Article
• In 2006, Commissioner Steve Ostrowski was fired, by unanimous vote, after attempting to coerce the ASUCD Recorder into editing the minutes of a meeting.
• Fall 2012 ASUCD Election, the NOW Slate and the SMART Slate were involved in election complaint controversy, aptly titled Beergate by an anonymous member of the public. An outlandish assessment by the Elections Committee resulted in the disqualification of candidate Alyson Noele Sagala, who was later reinstated after all allegations against all Senator-elects were dropped before being sworn in as originally planned.
• Winter 2018 elections saw the disqualification of Golden Slate executive ticket due to the VP candidate, Shreya Deshpante, I missing the mandatory candidate workshop to attend a dance competition in Atlanta, presenting a doctor's note to excuse herself. In light of missing the workshop, an attempt to attend or make up the workshop was made several times, with no response.This spurred a $100,000 lawsuit to be filed by presidential candidate Adam Hatefi against the elections committee. Judicial council upheld their ruling on their disqualification. The Aggie Article
• Following the January 10, 2019 murder of Davis Police Officer Natalie Corona, the Ethnic and Cultural Affairs commission created a controversy that reached national news and led to ASUCD leadership struggling with how to respond to the controversy and to the murder itself. Members of the UNITE slate led an attempt to pass a resolution honoring Officer Corona's life, but this resolution failed. Ultimately, a majority of ASUCD elected leaders signed a nonlegislative statement honoring her life and presented this statement to the Davis Police Department. Those in the Ethnic and Cultural Affairs commission who created this controversy faced no penalty and stood by their actions. The full ECAC - Natalie Corona Controversy can be found here. 

Common Beginnings and Campus Affiliations

Greek Life:

ΔΣ: Darnell Holloway

ZBT: Atanas Spasov

KKΓ: Daniella Aloni

XΩ: Alisha Hacker

ΔΔΔ: Meital Machulsky

ΑΓΡ: Micheal Gofman, Ryan Wonders

AXΩ: Lauren Smith, Mallika Hari, Kristin Mifsud

AΣΦ: Michael C. Navarro 

ΣΧ: Andrew Bianchi, Danny Garrett, Lamar Heysteck, Trevor Taylor, Devin Whitney, Mahan Curduny, Lucas Fong, Alec Pitts

ΘΧ: Artem Senchev

ΧΦ: Roman Rivilis, Lee Weissman, Josh Dalavai

ΦΑΔ: Lula Ahmed-Falol, Naomi Amaha, Sergio Blanco, Aarom Bloom, Eli Yani, Tracey Zeng

Campus Organizations:

Afghan Student Association at UC Davis: Harris Razaqi

Muslim Student Association: Maahum Shahab

Project Rishi: Ambar Mishra

Model United Nations at UC Davis: Mohammad Qayum, Alisha Hacker, Alexis Ramirez, Edgar Masias Malagon, Maria Martinez, Camille Randolph, Lauren Smith, Kristin Mifsud

Mock Trial at UC Davis: Maria Martinez, Ashley Lo

Davis Anime Club: Miles Thomas, Maxwell Kappes

Davis College Democrats: Kevin Rotenkolber, Khalil Malik, Tariq Azim

Movimiento Estudiantil Chicano de Aztlán: Ivan Carrillo, Miguel Espinoza, Abrham Castillo-Ruiz, Beatriz Anguiano, Armando Figueroa, Nicholas Sanchez and Andrea Velazquez.

DUGG / HvZ (so NERF): Maxwell Kappes

ASUCD:

Business and Finance Commission: Ryan Meyerhoff, Artem Senchev, Parteek Singh
Internal Affairs Commission: Maxwell Kappes, Gareth Smythe, Roman Rivilis, Radhika Gawde, Juliana Martinez Hernandez, Ambar Mishra
External Affairs Commission: Felicia Ong, Azka Fayyaz, Amelia Helland, Brendan Repicky, Erica Padgett, Anabiah Syed
Academic Affairs Commission: Liam Burke, Rashita Chauhan
Ethnic and Cultural Affairs Commission: Nicholas Sanchez, Mariah Kala Watson, Casey Nguyen, Ricardo Martinez, Shreya Deshpande, Kabir Sahni

See ASUCD Elections for more in-depth information on past elections.