AS Senate Recap – 5/28/25
This recap first appeared in the June 2 edition of the KCSB News Weekly Newsletter.
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/Commissions, and Units (BCUs), and hold public forum.
KCSB’s Joyce Chi summarizes their most recent meeting on May 28, 2025.
Former AS President Nayali Broadway swears in her successor, Le Anh Metzger.
The indefinite tabling of a BCU appointment was improper, the Judicial Council has ruled. Back in Winter Quarter, former AS President Nayali Broadway nominated Kamaya Jackson to be the co-Chair of the Student Commission on Racial Equity (SCORE). However, the Senate – which must confirm presidential appointees – ended up indefinitely tabling Jackson’s appointment after entering closed session discussions about her nomination.
Jackson is also currently the co-Chair of the Black Women’s Health Collaborative (BWHC).
The Council found that former Internal Vice President (IVP) Açúcar Pinto “used their position of authority…to interfere in the process.” According to the decision, Pinto sent an email in February where they cited “‘interpersonal conflicts’” among and conduct violations by BWHC leadership in their decision to “functionally suspen[d]” the group’s chairs and “take over” their responsibilities; former Student Advocate General (SAG) Alvin Wang later said the IVP does not have that suspension authority.
Reports of interpersonal conflict among BWHC leadership and eventually members first came to Pinto in January, they told us by text. That conflict, Pinto believed, “should’ve been resolved by the appropriate parties” including the SAG’s office. Also, they pointed out that BWHC’s advisor (AS Executive Director Marisela Marquez) was on medical leave and thus unable to “hold space for conflict resolution.” According to Pinto, the interpersonal conflicts got so severe that multiple BWHC members eventually resigned.
At the March 5 Senate meeting (which had stretched into the next day), the Senate indefinitely tabled Jackson’s appointment after entering a closed session. (Pinto previously told the Daily Nexus the closed sessions were to avoid “publicly slandering” Jackson.) The Council noted that because this motion was not noted in the minutes or streamed online, “it failed to meet the minimum standard for a Senate Meeting and is invalid.”
The confirmation process for Jackson’s SCORE appointment was uniquely “tailored” to her, which the Judicial Council ruled was a membership rights violation.
Financial disputes: As BWHC co-Chair, Jackson had commissioned a painting from Pinto and their artist collective memorializing for Office of Black Student Development Executive Director Elroy Pinks . But, disputes emerged over how much the artists would be paid. Jackson told the Judicial Council that she believed her appointment “was impacted by this disagreement with the IVP.”
Pinto clarified that the payment disagreement occurred after they first received reports of interpersonal conflict within BWHC. “The way the case was framed was irrelevant and derailed from the original intention,” Pinto wrote.
Now what? The Judicial Council instructed the Senate to amend the minutes and agenda from the March 5 meeting to add a motion to accept Jackson’s appointment. (And at last week’s meeting, the Senate began to do so, under the direction of former Senator and now-Attorney General Taylor Iden…though the meeting was adjourned a little after 1 AM after the minutetakers left.) Also, Pinto must issue “a publicly accessible apology” to “acknowledge the consequences of their actions.”
Chair’s note: In a statement separate from the decision, Judicial Council Chair Krishna Thaker stated that Pinto was not present at the hearing. Pinto said they did not attend “in order to protect my energy” and because they believed the case “would only be escalatory.”
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Elected officers had to be sworn in again, since now-President Metzger was sworn in by former External Vice President for Local Affairs Owen Meyers, and not her direct predecessor Nayali Broadway, who had not been present at the meeting.
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The Senate received reports from the following groups: Commission on Disability Equity, Take Back the Night, Trans and Queer Commission, Global Gaucho Commission, BWHC, SCORE, Pardall Center Governance Board, AS Food Bank, Food Bank Committee, Public and Mental Health Commission, Strategic Operations Office, and Lobby Corps.
They passed resolutions commending Marisela Marquez and former Senator (and current Parliamentarian) MingJun Zha.
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The actual final Senate meeting of the year will be held this Wednesday. According to an email sent by IVP Enri Lala, this special Week 10 meeting was approved as long as it doesn’t run “excessively late.”
Some pending agenda items:
- Funding for the Black Heritage Cultural Experience, a ten-day trip for Black students to visit historical sites related to slavery and civil rights in the South (proposal and report)
- Former Senator Alexa Butler led this proposal: “We cried, and we laughed, and we learned…BHCE is a proven success. I am here proving that.”
- Outstanding BCU Awards, which reward winning BCU members with an increase in honoraria
- A new proposed standing policy, which overhauls and clarifies the appointment process for BCU chairs
Since this is our last newsletter of the year (💔), you can find our recap of this week’s meeting on our website (kcsb.org).
You can see last week’s agenda here. Meetings are typically held each week at the Flying A Room of the University Center (Main Floor) throughout the quarter, aside from Week 10. You can also watch live and past meetings on the ASUCSB YouTube here.
Find all our previous KCSB News Senate Recaps here.