ASUC executives reflected on their work this past year, citing successes in student representation and challenges in addressing larger systemic issues such as the add\/drop deadline and affordable public transit.<\/p>\n
Academic Affairs Vice President Jennifer Tran ran on a platform of student representation, emphasizing control of academics in the hands of students and \u201ccommunities that find you.\u201d<\/p>\n
Tran said she initially campaigned on extending the add\/drop deadline but was unable to fulfill that promise.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, with the administration and the Council of Undergraduate Deans pushing an earlier add\/drop deadline, we weren\u2019t able to make as much leeway as I would have liked,\u201d Tran said.<\/p>\n
The Council of Undergraduate Deans has approved an earlier add\/drop deadline for the third week of instruction instead of the fourth. Tran said she was able to delay implementation of the policy until fall 2027, giving the AAVP office more time to help students adjust.<\/p>\n
External Affairs Vice President Calvin Yang ran on platforms of increasing BayPass\u2019s affordability, expanding professional development and protecting research funding.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is my opinion that public transit is a right,\u201d Yang said. \u201cPeople should have access to public transportation, and it should not cost students any additional funding in order to access that \u2014 that funding should be coming from elsewhere.\u201d<\/p>\n
Yang ran with the goal of reducing the $124 fee added to students\u2019 tuition to fund BayPass. However, Yang said he learned that public transit systems in the Bay Area are facing significant deficits once he started his term. The fee remains $124 per semester.<\/p>\n
As a result, Yang said he shifted his focus to advocating for adequate funding of public transport.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe advocated to Governor Newsom\u2019s office to emphasize how important public transportation was for the students of UC Berkeley,\u201d Yang said. \u201cNow there is work for a ballot measure on the November midterm elections to increase sales tax in order to ensure that our public transit continues to be funded.\u201d<\/p>\n
ASUC Executive Vice President Isha Chander ran on increasing student-resource accessibility, supporting nontraditional students, advancing environmental justice and protecting student rights.<\/p>\n
Chander highlighted her accomplishments in encouraging environmental justice on campus, including a proposal to secure funding and a feasibility study to build dishwashers in the student union, \u201chopefully (in) the next three years.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve also had a lot of conversations with campus admin about making the Hearst Cages more sustainable this year,\u201d Chander said. \u201cWe have signage that helps direct folks to how they can recycle their electronic materials.\u201d<\/p>\n
Chander also said she fulfilled her campaign promise to host the Registered Student Organization support office hours multiple times a week. She added that she institutionalized an impact tracker on the ASUC website and helped pass a resolution establishing a campus mutual aid fund.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe work is ongoing,\u201d Chander said. \u201cMy hope is that people continue to be critical of these systems that we exist in and try to push them to be better.\u201d<\/p>\n
ASUC President Abigail Verino did not comment as of press time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ASUC executives reflected on their work this past year, citing successes in student representation and challenges in addressing…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":300914,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[76655,118589,102622,84162,37298,99983,48550,127249,457,26928,114730,143,145,144],"class_list":["post-300913","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-abigail-verino","tag-academic-affairs-vice-president","tag-asuc-president","tag-baypass","tag-calvin-yang","tag-council-of-undergraduate-deans","tag-executive-vice-president","tag-external-affairs-vice-president","tag-gavin-newsom","tag-isha-chander","tag-jennifer-tran","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300913","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=300913"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/300913\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/300914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=300913"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=300913"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=300913"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}