These are the core issues of the Friends Urging Campus Kindness Slate, whose members are running for ASUCD Senate in Fall 2015.
Operation C.A.T.S. - Community, Accessibility, Transparency, and Sustainability
Community
Project A.C.E.R. - An ASUCD Central Equipment Reserve
There's a lot of equipment within ASUCD. The problem is that they belong to different ASUCD units and there's no official process by which other ASUCD units and registered student organizations can see a list of equipment that each unit has available for the public and how to rent them at a low-cost or for free. We want to create the ASUCD Central Equipment Reserve, a website that would facilitate this process. As a result, the student body can avoid unnecessary purchases and be more connected.
Project M.E.L.Q. (Pronounced "meh-elk" or milk) - More Events on the Lovely Quad
We believe that the Quad is an integral part of campus where people from a diversity of communities can come together to chill. However, at night it turns into a literal graveyard with indigenous people buried underneath. We think their souls could use a little company under the moonlight so we will use ACER to promote more events on the quad. ACER will make it possible for programmatic units like the Whole Earth Festival, Entertainment Council, and KDVS to save money on equipment purchases and instead put that towards booking more acts and relocating events like house shows, open-mic nights, and Sunday Sols to the Quad in the evening. Let's bring the night-life from downtown to campus!
Project A.L.C.H.Y. - A Little Cider Helps You
We've made great strides in showing that students can drink responsibly. We now have tailgates at football games. Let's take it a step further and introduce a pilot program for a beer garden at some student-run events. This is possible, UCSD has this at their Sun God Festival and the rationale is that providing a beer garden reduces the need by students to consume alcohol outside of events, possibly leading to binge drinking and unsafe behavior.
Accessibility
Project A.C.D.C. - Advocacy by Creating Disabilities Committee
Where should students with disabilities go when the University's Student Disability Center (SDC) provides subpar accommodations that do not meet their needs? ASUCD has committees on to tackle issues in the domain of everything from gender and sexuality to cultures and ethnicities. Those with physical disabilities often find themselves standing alone. We will create a committee to tackle the stigma of asking for help by advocating for accommodations and equipment that go beyond the currently accepted sub-standards.
Project M.U.S.I.C. - Make Unitrans Serve Internet to Commuters
Have some last minute edits to make on your paper? Maybe you want to watch Netflix with your bus buddy? We feel you, that's why we want to introduce a pilot program for internet services on certain Unitrans buses to determine its feasibility and necessity. There are other universities doing the same thing already and we need to follow their lead. Internet access should be a human right and we should aid those who can't afford data plans or tether their phones to their laptop.
Transparency
Project R.O.M.P. - Relocate Our Meeting Place
Who knows where ASUCD Senate holds their meetings? The third floor of the MU? How do I get up there? Where exactly on the third floor? Here's the problem, nobody knows where to go to participate in senate meetings because nobody knows where it is. We want to relocate the meetings to somewhere more visible such as the Student Community Center or Coffee House. Both locations would have more sitting and standing room and would discourage closed meetings. We have a right to know what decisions our elected officials are making on our behalf.
Project B.D.S.M. - Broadcast and Deliver Senate Meetings
Did you know that it can take up to 2 weeks or more for senate meeting minutes to be posted online? Up to one week for senators to "approve" the minutes and another or so for them to put it up on their website. This long delay is not the definition of transparency. There are also no minutes from this year posted online so far, despite being halfway through the quarter. Therefore, we are going to take a page from the student government at Berkeley by live-streaming and uploading meetings on YouTube with the help of the Aggie Studios unit.
Sustainability
Project G.R.E.E.N. - Get Ready for the Earth to Eat Nobody
"The scientific community is telling us that if we do not address the global crisis of climate change, transform our energy system away from fossil fuel to sustainable energy, the planet that we’re going to be leaving our kids and our grandchildren may well not be habitable. That is a major crisis." - U.S. Senator Bernard "Bernie" Sanders
Over the last few years, we've seen ASUCD's attention drift away from sustainability. We are no longer the proud holder of the title of #1 Cool School, that is now UC Irvine. It is time to lead the way again and that is by putting our environmental units back on the map - Aggie Reuse Store, Campus Center for the Environment, Project Compost, and Whole Earth Festival. With this green coalition working together with the university, we can educate and transform UC Davis into a zero-waste and 100% renewable energy campus.
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The following is kept for historical reasons:
Winter 2005 Platform.
A more in-depth discussion of the issues below is at Friends Urging Campus Kindness Platform.
Openness in Student Government
Bringing Student Government Downstairs
By moving Senate meetings into the Coffee House and holding Office Hours on the Quad, we move student government from the Ivory Tower of the third floor down to the people it serves.
Student Government Documents Available Online
ASUCD should save paper and promote open government by putting all of its documents online, making student government both environmentally and socially conscious.
Improve the ASUCD Commissions
We want to streamline ineffective commissions and committees, and give them the power they need to get their work done. We will also support the Gender and Sexuality Commission, and give them a new focus on student health.
More Electoral Power for Students
We will support a Countback Amendment in Senate elections, so that vacant seats will be filled by those who elected the original candidate. We want to expand the Senate to 18 seats, so that Choice Voting can select candidates from more underrepresented groups.
Emphasize Good Business Practices
Stop Wasteful Spending
We will speak for fiscal responsibility in the Senate, as they repeatedly spend your money on special interests and themselves. They have bought a fire truck that doesn't put out fires, a superfluous vinyl sign for self-promotion, and take ASUCD retreats in cabins at Lake Tahoe. These cost $7,080 in student money — money that should be used for students or returned to students.
Two-thirds Vote to Increase Student Fees
If elected, we will support a constitutional amendment requiring that two-thirds of voters in a campus election must approve fee increases, as special interest voting blocks have dominated elections which increased your student government fees to the highest in the U.C. system.
Audits of ASUCD Units
We will look at all ASUCD units to see if they are working efficiently and serving the whole community. Units that serve too few people take funds that could be used in more effective units which serve everyone.
Support Worker Benefits
Since ASUCD didn't budget enough money to units, some units are cutting positions back to 19 hours a week. Not only does this deprive people of benefits and inefficiencies in hiring, it forces students to look for more jobs to support themselves. We seek to restore these benefits.
Services for All Students
More Unitrans or Tipsy Taxi Service in Late Night
Having late night lines could prevent drunk driving and serve our student population better, so we will investigate which service could better provide this.
Staplers in the Computer Labs
It makes sense that staplers should be where students will use them, so we have already written a bill to buy staplers for the Computer Labs on campus.
Making Campus Computing Better
This slate will seek to put in a remote printing station, so that you can print your documents from a home computer for from the wireless network. We also want a new server for Geckomail, as the email slowdown is annoying to a great number of students.
Sanitary Seat Covers in the Library Restrooms
We believe that all restrooms on campus need these simple sanitary devices, and we will urge the campus and/or ASUCD to provide them.
Campus Entertainment
Entertainment events need to be expanded, from movie premieres to Davis Music Scene concerts. We want to provide the Old Firehouse as a venue for music events, now that the Band-Uh! has moved out.
Promoting Campus Safety
We will promote pre-existing programs to increase campus safety, including self-defense classes at the Women's Center and the Campus Safety Escort Service.
Textbook Website
Since book prices are so high, we plan to create a website listing textbooks needed in every class with ISBN numbers. This will allow students to shop around for better textbook prices before the quarter starts.
