Melissa Ewart, the A.S. Graphic Studio manager, introduced her student team and held an impromptu photo shoot for use in future marketing campaigns.

Former AVP of Concerts and Events Alex Bramwell suggested that some A.S. positions should be paid, bitterly informing the council that he worked 79 unpaid hours during Week Seven in his quest for the perfect Sun God Festival. He added that the council was losing people to places like the Loft, which pays its staff.

Students from the Native American Student Alliance complained that students dressed in stereotypical Native American clothing on the day of Sun God Festival, and that they found it both “disrespectful and offensive.”

Former campuswide senator Tobias Haglund came to tie up loose ends about the A.S. store, which had been his pet project while he was still in office. Listeners were allowed to put in their two cents about the name of the future store — Triton Outfitters ultimately beat The Lighthouse as the top choice.

Even with the dreaded and inescapable Week Nine budget discussion for Fall Quarter 2010 looming in the near future, councilmembers still spent over two hours arguing over the minutia of the Student Sustainability Collective charter language.

The debate began when workers from the Sustainability Resource Center presented their objectives for the newly opened environmentally-geared space, and then asked to change four lines of their charter. However, AVP of Enterprise Operations Rishi Ghosh sent out the e-mail with the amendments to the council listserv a mere hour before he wanted the ten-page document to be passed.

Most councilmembers were confused by what, exactly, the proposed changes were. After a motion to table failed, Ghosh begged the council to debate the issue tonight.

“A.S.’s culture that I’ve seen in the last few weeks is to table things, but it’s not efficient and is disrespectful for those that work on it,” Ghosh said.

Most of the amendments revolved around the TGIF (The Green Initiative Fund), and what will happen to the initiative’s money if it is not spent during the year.

After councilmembers unraveled their confusion for two hours, the amendments passed.

AVP of Athletic Relations Donald Zelaya reminded council how athletic our sports teams really are, despite UCSD’s bookish reputation and apparent lack of school spirit. He wished congratulations on the baseball and track teams for reaching national competition.

In the campus affairs committee meeting prior to the council meeting, voting on the associate vice president positions was tabled until next week.

Benesch treated returning councilmembers with Moleskine notebooks and words of wisdom from his four years on council and two years on cabinet. He described President Wafa Ben Hassine as “inspiration in a bottle,” and insisted that next year’s students will be well off with her as leader of the university’s student council.

He also swore for possibly his first time on council floor. “Welcome to A.S. – it’s a big fucking deal,” Benesch said. “It’s your council so own it and appreciate the time you’re here even if you hate it.”

Brian McEuen and Erik Van Esselstyn, student representatives on the Registration Fee advisory committee, urged council to write Chancellor Marye Anne Fox a letter by next week’s UC Board of Regents meeting at UCSF. They urged the council to express concern over the use of registration fees for student life activities.

Former Campuswide Senator Tobias Haglund updated council on the status of his project, the A.S. store. He said the still-unnamed store will open Fall Quarter 2010 in Price Center West, where the current Sun God store is now. The store will sell A.S. merchandise, including items with the Sun God and Bear Gardens logos, as well as Greek apparel.

Council moved to appoint new Revelle Senator Erika Morgan in New Business, then moved to close the meeting in order to appoint a new successor for Speaker James Lintern.

For 45 minutes, the council kept all members of the public waiting anxiously outside the closed doors of the forum as they debated between Sixth College sophomore Cody Marshall and current Associate Vice President of Student Services Meredith Madnick. With a 19-6 vote, Madnick was elected to what may be one of the most difficult positions on council.

Warren Senator Kevin Hoang announced the Freshman Council dance on May 21 poetically titled “Highlight the Night.”

Jordan Taylor, UCAB chair, emphasized the importance of the changes that the University Centers Advisory Board can make. He hinted at council that UCAB is in dire need of “good leadership” for the positions of chair and vice-chair next year.

The only real discussion of the night centered around a change to the standing rules regarding whether to allocate a percentage of unused funds from the 2008-09 year to the General Initiative and Student Initiative funds.

Councilmembers expressed concern that the Student Initiative fund could be accessed by any undergraduate with an intent to hold an event.

Ben Hassine shushed the worriers quickly, saying that “SOFAB grills everyone before we give any [money] out. This provides that funding for any average Joe.”

Council agreed to split the General Initiative amendment from the Student Initiative amendment and tabled the motion, since the budget for the coming year will not be discussed until Week Nine.

During open forum, Muir Senator Lynne Swerhone expressed her desire to change the seating up every week in council and to be more social with everyone on a one-on-one basis.

Numerous councilmembers thanked the new council for a smooth and productive meeting and there was general good cheer all around as everyone left thinking of ways to spend the hours still left in their Wednesday night.

For the second time in two weeks, a large public audience showed up at the meeting. To avoid crowding, the discussion was relocated to the Price Center East Ballroom.

For its first order of business, the council argued over whether it should allow constituents — who came to address council over the controversial divestment resolution — to speak during a public-input period. The line for the podium was long, and councilmembers who agreed that last week’s discussion was unproductive — namely, AVP Academic Affairs Jordan Taylor — argued that an unmoderated conversation wouldn’t go anywhere.

The council passed a motion to listen to every person in line, but after an hour and a half, it seemed that both Israel supporters and Students for Justice in Palestine representatives remained divided over the issue.

Senior Adam Teitelbaum pleaded for more cooperation between the two groups.

“I want to talk about improving the lives of all global citizens,” he said. “I am pro-Israel, I am also pro-Palestine, and I am pro-peace. Let’s open up the lines of communication — there is suffering on both sides.”

During her member report, President-elect Wafa Ben Hassine expressed discontent with the council’s deliberation over whether to accommodate all members of the public wishing to comment on the divestment resolution.

“If the public makes an effort to come out to meetings, then I’m willing to stay here all night to listen to them,” Ben Hassine said.

She might be the only one.

Members of the Da Real Punjabiz dance group asked council to give them $6,000 for traveling expenses to a May 8 competition.

Sound familiar? A few weeks back, the UCSD ZOR dance team asked for a similar amount for travel, and was acquiesced.

Vice President of Finance and Resources Peter Benesch scolded the council for setting an irresponsible fiscal precedent.

“Bad financial decisions costs you tens of thousands of dollars, but does get you reelected,” Benesch said.

The vote to fund the dance team’s latest travels passed 16-7-5.

Vice President of External Affairs Gracelynne West gave a number-heavy presentation on the 2010-11 UC Student Association budget. The proposal included adding a full-time media and communications director to staff and opening an office in Southern California..

In a rather lighthearted presentation, Advocate General Parminder Sandhu described the attendance of associate vice presidents in one word: atrocious. He submitted 11 impeachments this year, two of which were passed by the council.

Councilmembers also voted to establish a stipend for senators. Those in the position next year will receive $10 per week.

Campuswide senator Tobias Haglund presented his A.S. Store budget to council, and — after much debate — the council passed it.

The source of my despair this time around was a 2 1/2 –hour public comment session about the “Resolution in Support of Peace and Neutrality Through UC Divestment From U.S. Corporations Profiting from Occupation,” which would have condemned human rights’ violations and advocated the university pulling its funds from companies that make money off selling weapons.

A.S. councilmembers patiently listened to over 70 members of the public that pleaded one way or the other, with some arguing that the resolution targeted Israel and others claiming that it was completely neutral.

Tritons for Israel, in particular, were outraged over the perceived attack on their home country. Though the legislation carefully avoided the word “Israel,” they said that it was clearly aimed at the Palestinian-Israel conflict and only increased campus division on the issue.

Palestinian students — with some supporters from the Jewish community — urged council to pass the resolution because it’s a “matter of human rights,” not nationality.

Mac Zilber, the A.S. Director of Policy Initiatives, brought the whole issue into perspective by throwing out some facts that hadn’t been previously mentioned.

According to Zilber, not a single penny of student fees goes towards General Electric capital – contrary to the beliefs of those present, UC money does not go to fund “weapons and war.”

“G.E. puts out movies like Twilight: New Moon, I kid you not. This issue has been blown way out of proportion,” Zilber said.

While giving his own special presentation on the council’s potential contribution to “this generation’s Vietnam War,” Campuswide Senator Adam Kenworthy found himself getting a little emotional.

“If you pass or fail this tonight, then where will you be tomorrow? Are you going to put words to actions?” Kenworthy said. “If you’re going to serve baloney then you need to be prepared to eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.”

Furthermore, AVP Enterprise Operations Rishi Ghosh gathered personal video responses to the UCSD discussion on the conflict from Anna Balthazar and Hedy Epstein, two well-known Jewish women who support the resolution for divestment.

After the presentations, Campuswide Senator Katie Hall motioned to table the resolution indefinitely.

This motion in itself spurred another hour or so — it’s hard to keep track of time when the subject’s going in circles — of debate. This time, however, the argument centered on whether or not the issue is even worthy of discussion at the council meeting.

Given the massive amount of people who turned up for public input — some even forced to stand outside in the cold, with their noses pressed hopefully against the sliding-glass doors — many councilmembers disapproved of dismissing the resolution until the next council meeting.

“Last time I checked, ASUCSD was not the United Nations. Everyone can come back next week,” Campuswide Senator Carli Thomas retorted.

The unusually quiet A.S. President Utsav Gupta finally chimed in at this point, advocating for tabling the motion. His logic, as he explained it, was that whether or not A.S. passes the resolution tonight, only some people are going to leave the room happy.

Despite the president’s two cents, the council failed the motion to table indefinitely, 13-16-2.

Having decided to vote on the resolution tonight, councilmembers began discussing amendments to the legislation — after a much-needed ten-minute recess, the discussion continued into the night.

Audible gasps filled the A.S. Forum as the Week Three meeting ended at 7:30 p.m.

2007-08 A.S. President Marco Murillo made an appearance, congratulating both the council and current president Utsav Gupta for “taking a lot of heat from the Koala,” and dealing effectively under pressure in front of the student body.

In member reports, Associate Vice President of Student Services Meredith Madnick showed a cute little advertisement, shot in the CLICS library, for the Amp energy drink, a product of Triton Television.

Vice President of External Affairs Gracelynne West announced that there would be a state voter registration drive. She said she hopes to gather at least 1,500 signatures.

Marshall Chair Tanvir Dhillon shared plans to provide an all-college free hot dog on a stick to all near the day of Sun God.

The February demands of the Black Student Union asked for a formation of committees with both administrative and student representation. Campuswide Senator Bryant Pena announced his position on one of these committees, which focuses on creating a mandatory diversity course requirement for all the colleges.

Transfer Senator Adam Powers presented a PowerPoint slide regarding the Villagers — his affectionate name for the residents of the new transfer-student on-campus housing.

His presentation highlighted the various Village events and their success rate, gauged by surveys he handed out at last week’s barbeque event.

The A.S. meeting was virtually empty, and a call for quorum revealed that, for the second week in a row, only 18 voting members were present — one more than needed for quorum.

Advocate general Parminder Sandhu gave a warning about absences, and promised to bring them to the table at next week’s meeting.

In a report from the finance committee, Gupta justified the hiring of an athletics consultant for $28,000 to investigate both Division-I sports teams and a football team at UCSD. The council will fund $7,000 of the consultant’s salary from Enterprise Income, while the rest will be split between the athletics department, the chancellor’s fund and the vice chancellor’s fund.

“[The consultant] was the most experienced and most affordable option… and in tune with the NCAA, and the knowledge of requirements to play,” Gupta said.

VP of Finance and Resources Peter Benesch had good news for the Sun God Festival: He pointed to an unused $1,000 line item on the executive budget. It was meant for the student-government bridge program, which would have been used to transport A.S. council out of San Diego to bond with other communities.

“Well, there’s a need for a Sun God water slide, so we’re going to put those funds to good use on May 13,” Benesch said.

At least two hours were spent in a state of confusion: first, over a Students for Justice in Palestine event, and second, over judicial board members’ availability for the A.S. elections.

Three students in costume — two in suits and shades, and one in an orange jumpsuit with a black bag over his head — addressed councilmembers during public input on their recruitments for C.I.A. (Criminally Insane Assholes).

Leaders from the UCSD ZOR dance team pleaded the council to help fund their trip to Boston, so they could attend nationals for the first time.

After much debate over the ethics of allocating funds for travel — something the council typically doesn’t do for student organizations — councilmembers voted to fund the full $7,600 it would take for 18 ZOR team members to attend the competition.

During member reports, talkative presidential candidate Tanvir Dhillon announced his appearance in next Tuesday’s Mr. Alpha Chi beauty pageant, where he would represent the A.S. Council.

AVP Concerts & Events Alex Bramwell said Friday’s Bear Garden will be moved to RIMAC Field in an attempt to boost attendance at the men’s volleyball game afterward.

During the question period, Campuswide Senator Carli Thomas asked a pertinent question: “Where is Utsav Gupta?”

[Editor’s note: He was at Foodworx, campaigning.]

In fact, only 17 voting members attended the meeting — just one more than needed for quorum.

After a funding request from Students for Justice in Palestine for a hip-hop activism event and a “Writings on the Wall” event, an hour of debate ensued over the criteria for content-neutral student-org funding.

“You all are picking and choosing with your freedom-of-speech battles,” VP Finance and Resources Peter Benesch said. “It’s really weird.”

About 50 students, presumably contacted via text message from friends at the meeting, arrived to pressure the council to fund potentially controversial event speakers.

As it turns out, many councilmembers were instead debating SJP’s spoken-word event, which was not the event in question.

In new business, a motion to appoint four new members to the A.S. Judicial Board temporarily became another contentious debate.

Three of the four applicants were from the Sixth College Judicial Board — trained the same way as members of the A.S. Judicial Board.

The council debated the partiality of these members, and every other move was described as “shady.”

A.S. Executive Assistant Heather Lucas said that the judicial-board chaos was her fault. “These people didn’t specify that they were graduating in spring, and were not going to be here in the fall… I should have followed up on it,” she said.

Councilmembers argued about the judicial board with no motion on the table, and the general ridiculousness continued until someone wrote on the projected computer screen, “Resolution to impeach Utsav Gupta, WHEREAS it would solve everything.”

Warren Senator Alyssa Wing announced the lineup for next Friday’s Warren Live concert – Delta Spirit, Junior Boys and Pop Noir.

Chancellor Marye Anne Fox arrived to present key points from last week’s UC Board of Regents meeting at UC San Francisco.

Fox updated councilmembers on the administration’s intent to define common goals and actions to improve the campus climate by enhancing diversity with admissions and retention.

Future plans include expanding opportunities for students to participate in cross-cultural events, identifying appropriate areas of campus for art displays representative of minority communities and creating resource centers for African American students.

Associate Vice President of Concerts & Events Alex Bramwell discussed how his department books artists for the Sun God Festival each year.

This year, the coveted festival wristbands will be distributed on both the Thursday before and the Friday of the festival. More details and the official line-up in its full glory will be revealed Monday, April 5 on the festival Web site.

Revelle Senator Arvind Satyanarayan brought his senator project – a glossy banner with facts about Revelle – to the council meeting.

The biggest talk of the night came when VP of Finance and Resources Peter Benesch gave an update on the state of the A.S. budget.

Recently, the funding originally allocated for media organizations was spent. With new student media outlet — such as No. 15 Magazine — councilmembers debated over whether the money would come from Mandate Reserves, which is money typically saved for traditional or long-term larger events or from money set aside for regular student organization programming.

“It isn’t about punishing new or old orgs, we’ve already overallocated our whole budget by $100,000, which is OK, but we established our priorities in the beginning of the year and we should stick to that,” Benesch said.

After a good hour of debate, $8,693.48 was allocated for No. 15 magazine from media orgs unallocated.

Members from the freshman council came to present their accomplishments from the last two quarters, and said an emotional goodbye.

Items from the finance committee and the campus affairs committee passed through council quickly and painlessly.

AVP Enterprise Operations Rishi Ghosh proposed a resolution urging the listing of non-bookstore class materials on Tritonlink and other campus systems as a way to improve the academic experience for students.

Talk later returned to the Mandate Reserve money during new business. Campuswide Senator Carli Thomas, said, “We’ve had a strong precedent of not passing mandate reserves. We relocate all this money — this happens every year.”

Yesterday’s public input session started promptly at 6 p.m., and ended 90 minutes later — a much longer timeslot than the typical 20-minute time slot.

Various members from A.S.-funded media organizations and the Student Affirmative Action Committee (SAAC) community spent that hour and a half heatedly voicing their opinions for or against funding the Koala.

“If you guys want to pass an amendment where you can censor speech, I urge you that it will end in an ugly legal battle,” Koala associate editor Wes Field said. “We just want to sip our beers and make fun of whoever the hell we want.”

Jesse Cheng, the UC Student Regent delegate from UC Irvine, stood his ground to public dissent.

“Students will one day hear about this and decide never to come to this campus,” Cheng said. “The goal here is for students to leave educated and with understanding for fellow citizens. Student publications are only an example of the issue, not the real issue itself.”

Chris Cruz, AVP of Student Advocacy and chair of the Media Review funding board, presented the committee’s three potential models with which to fund media orgs.

While explaining the first option — which allowed A.S. to choose which media organizations to fund based on UCSD Principles of Community — VP of Finance and Resources Peter Benesch said the heart of democracy is the ability to choose whose voice is heard over others.

Because the committee drafted no official legislation, there wasn’t must to discuss, but the debate continued.

After a long, noisy discourse, Speaker James Lintern made the final decision to move the issue to New Business.

Councilmembers voted 14-9-1 to reinstate media funding. This was irrelevant, as the media funding freeze would have been unfrozen at the end of the council meeting anyway. Still, the council wanted to make its point.

Then, the council shot down Benesch’s “Option 1: Government Speech” legislation, which would put media funding entirely under the control of the VP of Finance. Many councilmembers objected strongly to his idea of putting the power in, essentially, one person’s hands. The motion failed.

On a completely different note, Campuswide Senator Wafa Ben Hassine urged others to attend the Housing, Dining and Hospitality public forum today, to oppose the $100 increase in student dining dollars for the next academic year.

Gupta ended the meeting by congratulating everyone on working hard and “not tearing apart.”

Councilmembers sped through various issues, including the media-org funding freeze and the rewritten Student-Run Television charter.

During public input, A.S. Elections Manager Vishal Kotcherlakota announced to council that spring election preparations have been running smoothly, and a mandatory candidate’s meeting will be held Thursday in the Forum from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m.

MQ Editor in Chief Nicole Teixeira announced that despite President Utsav Gupta’s Feb. 19 decision to freeze media-org funding, the publication will distribute a paper next week using its own funds.

SRTV manager Thomas Dadourian screened short film “Welcome to the New Us,” demonstrating SRTV’s artistic versatility and new direction in hopes of persuading the council to vote SRTV back onto the air.

In member reports, Muir College Senator Lynne Swerhone announced that she and Marshall Senator Brian McEuen were joining Campuswide Senator Adam Kenworthy in not wearing shoes for however long it takes them to raise $1,000 each.

As councilmembers tackled the issue of the funding freeze, they proposed amending the original freeze language to read, “Be it resolved that the A.S. recognizes the temporary discontinuation of its current print media funding bylaws.” The motion failed, 10-11.

Councilmembers moved on to discuss the possible re-naming of SRTV to TTV, or Triton Television. Dadourian said he was torn. “SRTV has a horrible stigma and to say that we haven’t changed is a bad thing, but at the same time, we’ve had a beautiful past,” he said. “I want to reflect changes in the charter with what changes we’re making in the studio.”

After a vote, SRTV went out the window, and the newly renamed TTV was declared up-and-running.

As the finance committee went over its bills to charge through council, VP of Student Life Riscie Hernandez advocated against funding $3,000 to Kaibigang Pilipino for its annual three-night culture celebration. This extra $3,000 would bring KP’s total allocation to about $18,000.

“KP gets too much money — all the other student organizations get half that amount,” Hernandez said.

Marshall College Senator Junn Paulino chimed in, adding that since KP’s event will be held on campus, it will see increased attendance and promote a sense of community.

Councilmembers overwhelmingly voted to allocate an additional $3,000 to KP.

Campuswide Senator Katie Hall said that the philanthropic Student Foundation will be “back with a vengeance” after the postponed Dance Marathon ’10.

In a e-mail sent to the counci’s listserv, Sixth College Senator Kevin Nguyen — who was impeached last week — declared his resignation from the student government.

“Again, I will really miss you all and I look forward to see all the amazing things this council will accomplish by the end of the 2009-2010 term!” Nguyen wrote. “I’m a free bitch, baby!”

During public input, individuals from both the Black Student Union and media organizations addressed the council in hopes of influencing a future decision on the freeze.

Assistant Vice Chancellor of Students Affairs Gary Ratcliff displayed his contempt for the Koala.

“I’ve seen this for 10 years, where you allow student publications to fund hate,” he said. “Meanwhile, you are watering that weed with $7,000 — let [the Koala] use their own beer money to fund themselves.”

Koala Editor in Chief Kris Gregorian arrived at the meeting wielding $20 in pennies to demonstrate that students are free to ask for reimbursement of their fees that go toward the Koala.

As the council motioned to move to New Business, it voted to maintain the temporary freeze and discuss the topic at the campus media review committee meeting 8 p.m. Thursday.

Next, Student-Run Television co-manager Thomas Dadourian begged the council to reopen the station.

Campuswide Senator Desiree Prevo said the SRTV shutdown paled in comparison to larger issues.

“Your voice may be silenced temporarily, but as a student of color on this campus, my voice is silenced permanently,” she said.

The motion to reinstate SRTV’s charter, with an amendment banning live shows, failed.

AVP of Diversity Affairs Jasmine Phillips spoke to AVP of Academic Affairs and Pi Kappa Alpha member Jordan Taylor regarding the racial incident at their meeting Sunday.

“PIKE is not taking accountability, they just attempt to cover their own asses,” Phillips said. “But they have had a lack of action and a nonchalant attitude.”

Taylor was visibly shaking and upset as he listened to Phillips’ speech.

Last week, councilmembers moved to create a committee to bridge the gap between the Greek community and the Student Affirmative Action Committee, but did not determine how the council would oversee the committee.

This week, council voted to institute Briana Boyd from Counseling and Psychological Services as the committee’s chair.

During member reports, Campuswide Senator Adam Kenworthy announced he would not wear shoes for two weeks to raise money for Partners in Health and Haiti relief.

President Utsav Gupta informed the council that the Graduate Student Association failed the University Centers CPI referendum that the council passed last week.

VP of Finance and Resources Peter Benesch excitedly announced that the Grove Cafe will take dining dollars starting in spring.

And, as always, what would an A.S. meeting be without the repeated issue of council accountability?

After a relatively brief debate, councilmembers voted to impeach Sixth College Senator Kevin Nguyen, who was notably absent.