AS Senate Recap – 11/05/2025

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 November 5, 2025.

Eddie Barajas, UCSB student, presents various projects to the AS Senate, including a campus beautification project to place AS-affiliated banners on lamp posts.

Revamping the Eternal Flame: A proposal heard during public forum brought students Lily Mejia alongside her colleague to reimagine the Eternal Flame, a staple statue on campus honoring the 1968 North Hall Takeover by the Black Student Union. The duo provided a plan to create an eco-friendly sculpture using LEDs, saving $1,200 annually currently used to keep the flame lit via gas lines. Additionally, they proposed fixing up the area surrounding the flame, including the plaques, which are now oxidized and cracked due to age. The revamp project costs would require a one-time payment of $10,000 from AS, with $25,000 already acquired from separate funding sources.

The proposal was crafted in collaboration with the Black Studies Department for designing to the flame, and received approval from the Black Women’s Health Collective, the Political Science Department, and the Environmental Studies Department. Senators requested that the project provide an itemized list of finances for the project, and a more detailed blueprint of what the design would look like, offering advice and contact information to connect further off the Senate floor.

Students Josie Penix and Eddie Barajas from the RCO, Coastal Conversations, brought forth a proposal to the Senate requesting 50,000 dollars to host Andrew Yang atCampbell Hall for a Fireside Chat. The project ran into funding trouble due to AS ProgramBoard declining to fund the Speaker Fee for the event following controversial comments made by Yang during his 2020 run as a Democratic Presidential candidate. Barajas asserted the project would be beneficial to hearing from Yang’s Independent platform, and could offer a positive, educational opportunity for students to partake in. Senators offered pushback regarding the selection of speakers, as well as the possible funding sources, as the $50,000 is a large chunk of money from Senate Unallocated.

Senator Hepburn inquired about the possibility of having a Republican candidate, to which Barajas replied that Coastal Conversations is hoping to bring politicians and public figures of all backgrounds, so it’s a possibility for future events. Senators added the allocation of $50,000 to grant Coastal Conversations from the Finance Committee to the agenda, emphasizing the condition that if the organization is successful in getting approval from the Committee’s support, the $50,000 will be reduced proportionately. In a 5-4-7 vote, the allocation failed to meet the 2/3 vote requirement to pass.

Independently, student Eddie Barajas proposed two potential projects on the Senate floor, one of which would expand the meal plan reform efforts to include retail dining locations on campus. He emphasized collaboration with the Office of the President to offer meal swipes at these locations, and for GauchoBucks to be available for purchase through avenues covered under financial aid. Additionally, Barajas proposed a campus beautification project to install banners on lampposts across campus to promote school spirit for the Gauchos. He cited UCLA as an example for the initiative and how it would bring positive attention to the AS Senate to take on the initiative and brand the banners with their logo.

Caleb Hansen, Chair of the Elections Board, spoke on the Representative Parties Act that was passed in the Spring 2025 Election, and now the Associated Students will allow political parties within the student population during elections. This means that candidates are able to run on political parties started on campus, which wouldn’t have ties to the establishment Democratic and Republican parties. Rather, the parties would simply represent a group of UCSB students that would represent campus-centered beliefs, and allow candidates to run under a party that best reflects their policy stances. Political parties for UCSB AS elections were previously instituted before being revoked just a few years ago. Hansen cited the reason to reimplement the parties as a means to reinvigorate the student body to vote in AS elections, following weeks of voting extensions after failing to reach the minimum voting requirement by students during the Spring 2025 election.

A Proposed Soup-er Kitchen Plan: Vice Chair of the Outreach Committee, Neo Harter, gave a speech with a proposal to create an Associated Students Souper Kitchen. Harter’s initiative is a high-impact project. It aims to provide soup throughout Saturdays and Sundays for all students. The project is especially for those struggling with access to food and groceries. Here are more details on the proposed Souper Kitchen:

• The Associated Students will partner with Hillel UCSB to utilize their kitchen and supplies, and the David Medina Events (DME) Catering Company to prepare and serve the soup.
• Distribution days would be Saturdays and Sundays from 12pm-4pm, where students would line up outside of the Hillel parking lot, provide their perm numbers, and receive thirty-two ounces of soup in plastic containers.
• The Souper Kitchen pilot program is anticipated to last from mid-November to December 13th, where data will be collected and changes will be implemented further depending on the efficiency of the program.
• The plan would require an estimated $50,616 from the AS Senate for food produce, labor, and miscellaneous operations, though a comprehensive budget breakdown provided in the proposal totals these costs at $49,162.50.

The Souper Kitchen proposal received financial and logistical pushback from Senators regarding funding for a High-Impact Proposal (HIP). The fifty thousand dollars allocation would use about seventy percent of the funds for HIPs this fiscal year. Senator Sussman raised on the impacts on other projects throughout the rest of the academic year, and offered splitting the costs and contract over several weeks as a solution to prevent any potential losses in funds that won’t be utilized through the program.

Senator Malhis brought up additional concerns regarding the collaboration with and funding of Hillel UCSB on this project. She cited Hillel’s donations and support of Israel during the ongoing genocide in Palestine as her reasoning for discomfort, though she agreed that the project was a great initiative for students. Malhis offered working with another organization or kitchen space as a potential solution for the Souper Kitchen program. Senator Harter countered Senator Malhis’s point, claiming Hillel has never donated money to Israel. He furthered that the non-profit organization is working alongside AS to offer meals to students regardless of background, which is the goal of the program.

Following these conversations, Senators voted in favor of referring the proposal to the Advocacy Committee, where further conversations and edits will be made to the program.

 

Food Insecurity Initiatives: President Metzger introduced two plans to combat food insecurity on campus. Following meetings with Basic Needs, she proposed initiatives to add fifteen thousand dollars to Basic Needs’s Grocery Voucher Program, a one-time transaction to aid students impacted by EBT funds being withheld as a result of the government shutdown. For students to attain these benefits, they must satisfy the financial need and other requirements set by the Basic Needs office.

Additionally, President Metzger proposed a plan to offer two free burritos a week from Super Cucas throughout the month of November for students impacted by the lack of SNAP benefits. A total of nine hundred burritos would be passed out over the course of the month, where students would show their EBT card at the cash register alongside their student ID and complete a Google Form. The AS Senate voted on and passed both of these initiatives.

Closed session: Senators concluded the meeting by entering closed session to discuss the Finance Committee Meeting Minutes from November 3rd, 2025.