ASUCM: Senate Overturns Presidential Veto and Funds Conference

A presidential veto was overturned, two bills passed, and two executive positions were filled at last week’s ASUCM Senate Meeting. 

President Miguel Lopez vetoed an ICC proposal submitted by the Business Society.

The proposal was to allocate funding to the Business Society for travel to the Women In Leadership Conference. This proposal was voted on and passed through Inter Club Council (ICC).

President Lopez vetoed it because he and Keith Ellis, the treasurer felt, if the money were allocated then that would be considered double dipping. The Business Society already receives money from ASUCM for conferences through a line item in the ASUCM budget. This would be asking for ICC funding on top of ASUCM funding.

“This has been done in the past, other organizations have done this,” said Senator Garrett Patton, who is also President of the Business Society.

Ellis explained there were other ways the Business Society could have received those funds through ASUCM, but they decided not to pursue those options. 

After some back and forth discussion the Presidential Veto was overturned with 11 in favor and one abstention.

Bill #53 and Bill #54 were introduced and discussed in committee as a whole because both bills were time sensitive. Bill #53: Korean Cultural Night and Bill #54: Society of Economists ‘R’ Workshop both passed unanimously on February 29, 2012.

Bill #53 asked for funding for Korean Culture Night (KCN), which is being hosted by Korean American Coalition (KAC). KAC asked for over $4,000 to pay for a headliner, advertising, decorations and supplies for a Taekwondo performance.

This bill had to be discussed in committee as a whole because the event is about a week away and KAC needed to secure funds to book travel for their headliner, J. Reyez, and his travel associate.

In addition to the funds allocated by ASUCM, KAC will also be using their own club funds to pay for the headliner’s room/board and fees.

Bill #54 asked for $1,200 to fund the registration fees of an ‘R’ statistical programming language course. This course will be held at the Association of Computational Machinery Statistical Methods Conference.

The Society of Economists wants to send 10 members to this workshop in order to learn more about statistical education and to build recognition for UC Merced.

ICC did not approve this proposal, which was why the Society of Economists came to ASUCM for funding. The conference they want to attend is on March 10, 2012 in San Jose, CA.

Bill #48: Code of Ethics, continues to be discussed at ASUCM Senate meetings. Sections I, II and III have been approved by Senate and the bill has been sent back to all committees. Senate will continue to review this bill until the Senate as a whole has approved all sections.

Bill #51: UCMPD Alcohol Awareness Bill is asking for funding for Fatal Vision Goggles. These goggles would be used during the UCMPD Alcohol Awareness week class for the campus and the Merced community. This bill was sent to the Budget &Finance committee and Student Activities committee and will be voted on this Wednesday.

Bill #52: Western Psychological Association 92nd Annual Conference is a bill that would support Psi Chi and the Psychological club sending a delegation of students to this conference. At this conference students would learn more about upcoming research, develop skills for graduate school and networking with other undergraduates.

This bill was sent to Budget& Finance, Academic Affair and Student Affairs. This bill will be voted on this Wednesday at the ASUCM meeting.

In addition to the legislative business, President Lopez made two appointments that were both ratified by Senate. Arash Abri was appointed as the Director of Communications and Shatyra Williams was appointed as the Director of Civic Engagement.