At the ASUC Senate’s twelfth meeting, senators allowed the contingency fund balance to become negative after approving about $2,050 from the fund even though it only has $1,070 left. Finance Officer Alan Ni said this would be okay as long as the fund had a positive balance by the end of the semester.

A bill to replenish the contingency with funds from the carry-forward reserve was introduced and passed to the finance committee for consideration. Ni said the bill was intended to transfer $8,000, even though the text of the bill says, “THEREFORE IT BE RESOLVED, that the ASUC Senate allocate $8,000 (five thousand dollars) from the Carry Forward Fund to the Senate Contingency Fund.” If it passes committee, the bill will be voted on by the full senate next week.

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At the ASUC Senate’s eleventh meeting, senators discussed their diminishing contingency fund, which has about $1,000 left. Senators are waiting to hear from the Auxiliary how much money they have in their reserve carry-forward fund before they use it to replenish the contingency and continue spending.

Computer science professor Brian Barsky addressed the senate to discuss loans the intercollegiate athletic program has taken from the UC Berkeley administration in the past. He said he is submitting a resolution to the Academic Senate calling for the cessation of administrative funding to athletics, and that he wants ASUC Senate to approve a bill supporting the cause. The senate approved such a bill later in the meeting.

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At this week’s ASUC Senate meeting, senators heard a warning from Finance Officer Alan Ni regarding their financial situation. He said there is less than 9 percent of funds left in the senate’s contingency fund, which is allocated in the spring for the senate to distribute throughout the semester.

Last week, Ni reported that 63 percent of the contingency fund remained. The senate spent about $9,000 at its meeting last week, which was almost 40 percent of the fund, according to Ni. Last week’s meeting was the first full meeting at which the senate could conduct official business since Sept. 23 due to a delay in confirming Ni to the finance officer position.

Ni said he would be writing a bill in the next few days to replenish the contingency fund with money from the carryforward fund, which serves as the senate’s reserve. He added that he thinks the senate needs better guidelines for approving bills.

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This week’s meeting lasted for two minutes before a fire alarm evacuated Eshleman Hall, including all those at the meeting. UCPD and Berkeley Fire Department officials cleared the building and the meeting resumed at 7:26 p.m. after 17 minutes of delay.

Among the bills passed at the meeting was one that reinstated business the senate had completed at its sixth meeting, which was invalidated due to a delay in confirming a finance officer. The invalidated business included $1,500 allocated to the Berkeley Project Day 2009 event. The bill also stipulated that Smelko violated of the ASUC bylaws by appointing a finance officer late, a charge Smelko has previously contested. The bill nonetheless passed without discussion or challenge.

ASUC President Will Smelko was absent because he had the swine flu, according to Executive Vice President Tu Tran.

CalSERVE Senator Cynthia Nava successfully moved to tentatively set the spring general election dates to April 6 to 8. The senate must approve elections dates by its meeting next week in order to continue considering official business.

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The ASUC Senate worked to complete early-year business at its third meeting Wednesday and had its first instances of partisan voting.

Senators sat in a slightly less partisan arrangement, with CalSERVE Senator Ariel Boone and Student Action senators J.P. Shami and Noah Stern sitting amongst their opposing party colleagues.

The most contentious issue the senators faced was in regard to the confirmation of nominees for director positions, which eventually led to several partisan votes. Only a few of the nominees were present to address the senate at the beginning of the meeting, but the senate mostly smoothly confirmed them. After several confirmations, Student Action Senator Minji Kim mentioned that she would like to know more about what the positions mean and how nominees were chosen, and Cooperative Movement Senator Christina Oatfield added that nominees should address the senate. CalSERVE Senator Viola Tang then successfully motioned to table the nominations.

Nominees showed up at the Senate Chambers throughout the meeting and the senate motioned to move back into nominations. Unlike previous nominations this year, the senators probed the nominees’ experiences and preparedness. The nomination of Donovan Yu to the position of director of the ASUC Multicultural Fund was especially contentious. Motions to extend Yu’s time or move to vote on the nomination were repeatedly voted on along party lines, with CalSERVE senators voting against extending time and in favor of considering the nomination and Student Action doing the opposite. After moving into discussion, CalSERVE Senator Cynthia Nava said, “We’re not looking at experience in general, but we’re considering multicultural experience.” The vote that followed in consideration of the nomination was overwhelming, with no senators voting to confirm Yu, 13 voting against and 7 abstaining.

The senators also finalized and passed the ASUC Advocacy Agenda after restructuring from four committees to three.

ASUC Auxiliary Director Nadesan Permaul reported that the Tully’s Coffee kiosk will open in the Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union building this Friday. The lounge that was also scheduled to be available in the lobby will open later pending confirmation by a fire marshall, Permaul said. The auxiliary is also hiring a consultant to prepare for the Lower Sproul Plaza revitalization referendum.

The senators also listened to a presentation by representatives from the Student Group Insurance Pilot Program who said they are seeking to institute a system to insure students participating in campus activities. The senate also went through a 30-minute training session on how to use CalLink, a new program that allows student groups to manage financial transactions online.

As the senate considers more items of business, its meetings are lasting longer. Wednesday’s meeting lasted 3 hours and 50 minutes. The average meeting length of this year’s senate is now 3 hours and 19 minutes, which still remains starkly in contrast from last year’s senate, which had an average meeting length of almost 8 hours after its first three meetings.

The first two meetings of the ASUC Senate this year have adjourned in record time compared to recent years.

The senate’s first meeting on Aug. 26 lasted about 3 and a half hours, while Wednesday’s meeting lasted about 2 and a half hours. Last year’s meetings lasted about 6 hours long on average, according to meeting minutes.

ASUC Director of Student Affairs Jan Crowder said the first meeting this year was historically short.

“I think that’s the shortest first meeting that the senate has had that I can recall,” she said. “And I’ve been here since 1982.” (Click here to read more…)

The UC Berkeley Office of Student Conduct officially dropped charges against ASUC Senator John Moghtader Wednesday.

In a letter provided to the Daily Californian by Moghtader, the office said the investigation of his participation concerning the Nov. 13 altercation on an Eshleman Hall balcony would not be further pursued. (Click here to read more…)

ASUC Attorney General Michael Sinanian requested in a charge sheet that the recall election of ASUC Senator John Moghtader be invalidated because of false statements relating to Moghtader’s alleged involvement on a Eshleman Hall balcony last November.

“Senator Moghtader is now making available to select individuals—after long withholding it for legal reasons—a piece of videotaped evidence that clearly exculpates him from any accusations made since the November 13, 2008 events took place. In the video, which I have personally viewed firsthand, he is seen calmly walking onto the Eshleman balcony and standing several feet away from the scuffle that took place. Towards the end, he cautiously approaches the scuffle to extract his friend, Gabriel Weiner, all the while without actually getting physically involved in the altercation on the Eshleman balcony. Furthermore, he is shown to linger for a moment and slowly walk away after the altercating group flees the balcony, all of which sharply contrast testimony provided to the UCPD by the victims of the event which said that he punched, shoved, attacked, yelled, ran way, etc,” Sinanian wrote in the charge sheet.

The charge sheet names who made the alleged false statements about Moghtader’s involvement. (Click here to read more…)

Partisan tensions within the ASUC Senate manifested themselves in a heated discussion centering on the wisdom and duty of allocating $2,000 to provide t-shirts advertising Tang Center Awareness Week.

The debate followed reports from ASUC Auxiliary Director Nadisan Permaul and Finance Chair Madelaine Batac which outlined the dire state of ASUC and auxiliary finances.

Batac detailed that in the past two weeks the senate had spent $14,000, a rate which–if continued–would drive the ASUC budget into the red.

But many members on the CalSERVE side of the senate had helped organize the weeklong event promoting student health resources. They insisted on providing the funds, despite a senate agreement not to buy t-shirts for student events.

One CalSERVE pointed out that Senator Meghana Dhar had supported the allocation of t-shirt money for a bill she sponsored several months ago.

Dhar said that it had been a mistake and since then the senate had not spent any funds on t-shirts.

The meeting recessed several times so that Robert’s Rules of Order would not impede the discussion. Eventually an agreement to allocating $290 to cover advertising costs already incurred seemed to be reached until a vote failed.

The bill was eventually sent back to committee.

“We punted it,” said Senator Tommy Owens.