Asia Fields
At the Associated Students Board of Directors meeting on Friday, April 27, the Board heard a proposal for the establishment of a council made up of AS transgender- and queer-focused clubs, acknowledged the return of Vice President for Governmental Relations Ana Ramirez and considered making AS elections begin earlier in the school year.
Queer Resource Center Queer Guild Summit
The Board heard a proposal for the Queer Guild Summit, a group made up of representatives from each AS club focused on queer and transgender people.
Alberto Rodriguez-Escobedo, AS Queer Resource Center assistant coordinator for community programing, said the purpose of the summit is to increase communication, and address issues faced by the clubs and between the clubs and the Queer Resource Center (QRC).
“My goal was to open communication and hear the mistakes the QRC has made in the past in order to avoid perpetuating oppressive behavior as I continued my role in the QRC,” they said in an email.
Rodriguez said the clubs involved are Queer Club, T.A.G. Team, Western Aces, QTPOC and the Queer Resource Center. They said Out in Science and Gaymers are also involved, which are unofficial AS Clubs. The AS Queer Writers Club is inactive but included, they said.
Funding is still being worked out, AS Vice President for Activities Julia Rutledge said. She said she’s not sure where the money will come from yet.
The summit has occurred twice in the past but fell through “due to a lack of communication and initiative on behalf of the QRC,” Rodriguez said.
Many representatives on the Guild Summit are gaymers or play Dungeons and Dragons or role-playing games, Rodriguez said. They said in most role-playing games, a guild is made up of multiple players who specialize in different fields. The name was chosen to show that while all the representatives come from different places, they are working together as a collective, they said.
Rodriguez said they hope the guild mirrors how the Ethnic Student Center Presidents Council and Steering Committee work. Rodriguez wants an allocated budget for queer and trans focused clubs to use, and for the Queer Resource Center to fulfill the role of facilitating and supporting clubs through distributing funds and supporting events.
“The Queer Guild Summit becomes a space where we intentionally center queer and trans club leaders and help them develop skills to further their clubs and collectively mobilize to face issues we as marginalized beings face on campus,” they said.
The Board will discuss the proposal further at its next meeting.
Washington Student Association Update
Hunter Eider, AS vice president for academic affairs, and AS President Simrun Chhabra provided an update on the Washington Student Association.
Eider said the association was working to establish legislative priorities for the winter legislative session, but that it only got through half of the items. The rest of the proposals will wait until the fall session, he said.
The association voted to lobby on State Need Grant entitlement and expansion, undocumented people support and child care. Student unionization did not pass.
Chhabra said Western will bring back student unionization to the next WSA meeting. She said they didn’t get to propose support for ethnic studies in higher education and K-12 or free menstrual products at the last meeting.
Eider said Western is one of the only schools who brought proposals.
Making AS elections earlier?
Chhabra made the suggestion that AS Board elections should be held earlier in the year, as it would be helpful in ensuring representation on the Washington Student Association.
Sabrina Houck, the AS Board program coordinator, said in the past five years elections went from being in midwinter and finishing right after spring break to being pushed further and further back. She said this year’s election is the latest she’s seen.
Eider said Western usually has someone on the Washington Student Association Board of Directors, but that this year, AS Legislative Liaison Rosa Rice-Pelepko was also on the executive board, which was helpful.
He said Western will not have anyone on that board next year, which Chhabra said was partially due to Western’s next AS Board not yet being elected. She said other schools with semester systems already finished this, which gave them an upper hand when representatives were chosen for the executive board.
AS Vice President for Student Life Annie Gordon asked why the Washington Student Association doesn’t accommodate schools who are on the quarter system. She questioned what new AS Board members would do for the months between the election and the end of the school year.
Rutledge agreed and said this would also mean the Board would have to approve the election code earlier, which would be a time crunch.
Alex LaVallee, AS vice president for business and operations, said it would be better to have elections earlier in the year, as it would allow incoming Board members to attend meetings for spring quarter, instead of training just occuring in the summer.
He said this would help with the continuity of projects and would allow for training based on projects, rather than logistics, which he said is what the trainings mostly consist of now. He said instead of having AS Board members each tell their successor how to do things like fill out paperwork, Houck should do that and the Board should focus on the heart of their work.
AS Vice President for Diversity Erick Yanzon said there is value in holding elections earlier, but that low participation needs to be addressed.
“There needs to be that cultural shift,” they said. “Because the fact it was already this late and one of those positions was uncontested and three are unopposed, people already have the mindset that running for the board is sometimes not the best decision.”
Chhabra and Gordon discussed how winter quarter would be a rough time for people to run.
“Rain is just going to destroy those posters in winter,” LaVallee said.
Houck said another downside to having elections start in late winter is that engagement is affected by spring break, and that candidates are then forced to campaign in the rain and during finals week.
Chhabra said she will bring the item as an information item to the next meeting.
Statement about Ana Ramirez’s return
While Ana Ramirez, who recently resumed her role as AS vice president for governmental affairs after being approved for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, was not present, Chhabra still read a statement recognizing her return.
Chhabra said she wrote the statement to recognize the first time all members of the AS Board of Directors would be together being fully paid for their work.
She brought a bottle of Pepsi, which she would have presented to Ramirez, in reference to one of her favorite Bollywood movies, where the main character pretends a bottle is an award he is receiving.
In the movie, the character says life is like a movie, as when something is wrong, there is still more left in the movie.
“Similarly, there is more to all of our stories and the stories of marginalized communities to come,” she said, then symbolically drinking from the Pepsi.
The rest of the board members took sips from the Pepsi bottle throughout the meeting.
Funding Request from UHRAC
Gordon discussed requesting funding for an upcoming University Housing Representation and Advocacy Committee meeting discussing the 10-year capital plan.
Gordon said she thought food would encourage attendance.
The Board amended the amount being requested from $300 to $500 after discussing the price of catering and all voted in favor.
Board reports
Rutledge said the Viking Funder for the food pantry is moving forward. She said she met with the AS Review editor to discuss its relationship with the Board for next year. Rutledge also reached out to a free menstrual program pilot project at the University of Washington and will receive more information with the hopes of starting such a project in the Viking Union, she said.
Gordon gave a shout out to Environmental and Sustainability Programs for its work on Earth Day events. She said a meeting with the new assistant chief for University Police went well, and that he has good ideas about improving relations between police and students of color. Gordon also said she will have an updated list of demands and results from a safety survey next week.
Chhabra agreed that the conversation with the assistant chief went well.
Eider said the Academic Affairs Council will be meeting with the head of the geology department to discuss how geology field studies are inaccessible. He said students with disabilities have not been accomodated. He also said a resolution about antisemitism is in the works.
LaVallee said he wants to discuss different ways committees can meet, such as online or over time, as attendance has been an issue. He said budgets will be ready to look over in the next three weeks.
The Board went into executive session to discuss matters related to employment before ending its meeting.