AS Senate Recap – 10/15/2025

The AS Senate is a group of elected student representatives which serves as the policy-making body of Associated Students. Every Wednesday at 6:30 PM, the AS Senate convenes to pass bills and resolutions, hear reports from Boards, Committees, and Units (BCUs), and hold public forum.

KCSB’s Tatiana Jacquez brings you a recap of their latest meeting on October 15, 2025.

Interim Chief of Police, Matthew Bly, discusses new plans for ILP/Davidson Library walkway barricades.

Barricades and Bikes-More on the ILP Walkway! Last week, we told you all about the University’s plan to enact the “Three E’s” of the ILP bike path project: Engineering, Educating, and Enforcement. The plan was to provide short-term solutions to bike usage in the bike path, which resulted in UCPD presence on-site in between the two buildings.

However, this week Interim Chief of Police, Matthew Bly, gave further information on possible solutions for the issue.

Chief Bly announced at the meeting an initiative to set up barricades between the ILP and Davidson Library to limit the amount of bike traffic in that area. Below are the barricade design patterns approved by the Fire Marshall. To be clear, the plan is still awaiting approval from other departments on campus before implementation. However, according to Bly, should the departments approve the barricade designs, they could be in place within the next week or so.

When prompted by both Senator Ono and Senator Wahidullah regarding continued police presence, Chief Bly mentioned that police may still need to be present to ensure compliance with the barricade implementation early on. Additionally, Chief Bly gave an update on the total warning and citation count given out to students since the start of the enforcement campaign. A total 1,323 verbal warnings have been issued, as well as four written citations to students riding their bikes in the area.

Senator Ly emphasized the importance of communicating with students regarding the addition of a barricade in this area. She questioned what UCPD would do to inform students, in which Chief Bly discussed community outreach initiatives on altering signage in the area to be more eye-catching and increasing visibility. He also noted the signs can inform students of the potential barricade plan in the weeks to come.

External Vice President of Statewide Affairs, Leiya Kadah, gave a report on their ongoing projects and updates from her department.

According to her report, the University and UCPD are continuing investigations on the individual who entered the Santa Catalina residence hall, who’s suspected of being a federal immigration enforcement officer. The Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs mentioned the individual was not an ICE agent. Rather, it was an immigration official that works with the administration to complete visas, and check-in on international students with visas. Kadah said that this is a regular occurrence, and shouldn’t be much cause for concern.

When questioned by Senator Ono about conflicting reports of the issue, Kadah clarified that the Vice Chancellor of Student Affairs mentioned it was an individual impersonating, and harassing people with full legal status. UCPD, however, believed it was someone involved in immigrant services, not ICE, according to Kadah. The individual was believed to be just checking in on an international student.

Additional reports made addressed the upcoming regents’ meeting, in which repatriation for Indigenous communities in SB would be on the docket. As of now, the administration is working to draft legislation to give the remains of Indigenous individuals on UCSB soil back to their respective Indigenous communities.

 

The Senate passed the following pieces of legislation:

A Bill to Create Quarterly States of the Association (Jones-Sussman):

This bill would establish a quarterly “States of the Association”, an event for BCUs and Association representatives to discuss and listen in on projects and reports from each entity. The bill is endorsed by AS President Le Anh Metzger, as well as Internal Vice President, Enri Lala, and Internal Co-Chair of the Committee on Committees, Lily Strange.

A Bill to Amend Finance Committee Membership Positions (Malhis-Jiang):

This bill would increase the number of Financial Officers in Special Projects and SEAL division of the Finance Committee, which would impact funding due to the lack of adequate funding for increasing their staffing size. The motion passed after Senator Jiang emphasized the necessity for additional positions due to the amount of work taken on by herself and Senator Malhis.

A Bill to Reinvigorate the ASUCSB Senate Advocacy Committee (Sherkin –Sunderrajan):

This resolution would restructure the AS Senate Advocacy Committee, and would add two Diversity and Equity Coordinators to “ensure the inclusion of all marginalized and underrepresented groups on campus” in projects by the

Advocacy Committee. It would also create an additional staffing position for Campus Project Liaison, as well as two staffers for the liaison position to aid in carrying out responsibilities.The bill further clarify the responsibilities of other positions within the Advocacy Committee, such as PR Manager, Treasurer, and Campus Project Liaison, within the legal code.