1. March 12, 2016
Gwendolyn Wu
Campus Beat Reporter
BCUs Challenge Honoraria Bill Process
Associated Students representatives packed the Flying A Room
Wednesday night for an emergency A.S. Senate meeting in response to A
Bill to Reform Honoraria. Members of various A.S. boards, commissions
and units (BCUs) came on Wed., March 9 to express their thoughts on the
bill’s passage.
Representatives from BCUs including, but not limited to, Humyn Rights
Board, Queer Commission, Coastal Fund, Student Commission for Racial
Equality (SCORE) and Committee on Committees voiced concerns about

2. the bill. Most senators — 17 at the start — were in attendance, though not
required to attend due to the meeting’s last-minute scheduling.
There was initial confusion over how much speaking time was allotted to
representatives from each BCU. Internal Vice President and fourth-year
sociology major Kimia Hashemian sent an email to the A.S. Entities prior to
the meeting with a list of emergency Senate meeting rules, all of which
apply to regularly scheduled meetings with the exception of Hashemian’s
request that the audience not snap, clap or cheer. However, while the rules
previously stated that each representative would get three minutes to
speak, Hashemian’s email limited it to two in the interest of time, with no
extensions.
“‘I would just like to convey while I believe there needs to be a change in
honoraria policies, I do not agree with an umbrella cap that all entities have
to follow,’” second-year history of public policy major Nawar Nemeh said on
behalf of the Office of the Controller. A.S. Controller Winnie Ouyang, a
second-year financial mathematics and statistics double major, was unable
to attend.
Nemeh’s own statement as a concerned student addressed that, though
Senate emails its meeting agendas and minutes out to BCUs every week,
A.S. Legal Code stipulates that the honoraria committee vice chair must
directly contact all BCU chairs to discuss substantial reforms before they
are voted on. Honoraria can only be reviewed in the winter quarter of every
even year, according to Legal Code, but votes pertaining to that review can
take place later in the Senate term.
Many BCU representatives present stated that they support caps on
honoraria but expressed concern that they had not been consulted in the
process. Some senate liaisons claimed they had emailed their respective
BCUs but did not receive a response. College of Letters and Sciences
Senator and third-year history of public policy major Ashcon Minoiefar
proposed a senator and chair rating system within A.S. in order to ease
communication between members of the Association, especially during
times like these.
Mathew Burciaga/ Executive Managing Editor
After the bill was passed the previous week, Off-Campus Senator and
second-year political science and Asian American studies double major
Akshaya Natarajan demanded the special meeting, drawing support from
fellow senators and BCU chairs. During the meeting, she addressed

3. Senators’ concerns that honoraria had become a reliable income for
students used to pay for necessities, rather than a reward.
“How dare you pretend to represent student interests and tell them that no
one uses their honoraria for rent, or that they work for us?” Natarajan said.
“Do not be confused, fellow senators. We work for them.”
Off-Campus Senator and third-year history of public policy major Jerel
Constantino voiced his concerns about the timing of honoraria discussion
and the feasibility of holding a forum with BCUs every time a fiscal policy
changes, noting that honoraria discussion is not new to the Senate.
Constantino questioned why no one had objected to honoraria when the
IVP was campaigning for it during elections, during its proposal at Senate’s
Feb. 24 meeting or in the Senate Internal Committee.
“Why [were these concerns] not raised up when the bill was about to pass
by consent, until I objected because I was not comfortable because there
was no discussion on this?” Constantino read from a prepared statement.
“The Senate is acting within their power by enacting this broad fiscal policy,
and it makes sense. It’s what the students want. We have to make hard
choices for the work and Association we all love.”
Mathew Burciaga/ Executive Managing Editor
Off-Campus Senator and third-year biopsychology major Niki Elyasi
motioned to end the discussion on the grounds that the full Senate was not
there to decide how to proceed. Following public forum, several senators
left voluntarily or were dismissed from the table for speaking out of turn.
Per Legal Code, Senate had to meet quorum (50 percent plus one senator)
by 7:30 p.m. in order to vote on any action but lost five senators who left or
were dismissed for disruption after that time. As a result, the Senate
adjourned.
As the meeting drew to an end, senators shared multiple ideas about how
to proceed from this point onward. While a few argued that Senate should
open up the minutes from the previous meeting to retroactively table the
bill, Minoiefar argued the body could do more by creating future bills to
amend Legal Code or A Bill to Reform Honoraria. In doing so, Senate could
review honoraria more frequently during the academic year or spend time
talking to BCUs about what changes need to be made.