aggienaut | Entries tagged with sgao

   At Senate today the six senators elected a year ago made their farewell speeches and were replaced by six new senators. In their farewell speeches, Senator Spencer Higgens announced his intention to run next quarter as the Focus Presidential Candidate, Senator Kareem Salem announced his intention to run as the Lead Presidential Candidate, and Senator Jonathon "Independant" Sanders --who almost exactly a month ago left the Lead party with "no plans on running for office on another slate in the future" announced his intention to run as the Focus Vice Presidential Candidate. The ASUCD Advisor / SGAO then completely overstepped their authority and gave the six outgoing senators the certificates of election that the Elections Chairman had refused to issue last year (stating that he could not in good conscience certify the election after the qualifications for office had been retroactively changed). Technically this would finally make these outgoing senators real senators, at least for a few minutes until the new ones were sworn in -- but lacking the Elections Chairman's signature I guess they're not really certificates of election.

   As I'm still in office, this bring the total number of Senators I've served with as Chief Justice to 57.

Inaccurate Tasering
   I was also very amused today that our paper the Cal Aggie carried a "guest editorial" from the UCLA Daily Bruin titled "UCSA Taser Resolution Inaccurate, Uninformed." Coming from a school that not only is still a member of UCSA (the UC Student Assn), but was the location of the tasering incident itself, this chastisement is so much stronger than if it had come from us.
   In conclusion, the staff of UCSA should be tasered.

Current Music: Tiger Army - Santa Clara Twilight

The opinion on Nanakul v. SGAO (Case 32)- regarding the missing Student Bill of Rights - is officially out. As promised, the Student Bill of Rights is attached.

Among other things, we basically found that it is ridiculous to say that the Student Government Administrative Office (SGAO) cannot be compelled to do things by other parts of the government (in fact its very purpose seems to be to execute administrative tasks for other parts of the government), and noted that their position is actually so precarious as that as it currently stands, there is utterly nothing stopping the ASUCD President from dissolving the office or moving it into the basement on a whim. (As it is not mentioned anywhere in the codes (except where tasks are given to it), the office has no "institutional rights.")

BUT if the Senate gives them substantial new duties without increasing their resources, they can hardly be blamed for not keeping up. We find that the Senate's overtasking of them does not render them legally deficient.

From the campus Green Party listserver:
Just wanted to show everyone what a few of us have been up to lately. This is an article that was on the California Aggie website and the ASUCD website last night but was removed from both sites by Creative Media. The reporter for the article (who did a great job) also stated that it was going to be printed in today's paper but it was unfortunately not. Nonetheless, here's a copy of the article taken from the California Aggie website late last night. Enjoy.

( The Suppressed Aggie Article )

Whats Going On?
   For those of you who don't go to UC Davis or don't know what this is all about: I am the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of our student government (ASUCD), and as such both these cases will come before the court I preside over. We have not yet had a chance to formally consider whether or not we shall accept the cases.
   What does concern me though is that Creative Media, which maintains ASUCD and the Cal Aggie (our newspaper) websites, and is a defendant in both cases, may have removed the article from both websites. I hope someone is looking into it.

Related
   Green Party Press Release
   Cases #24 & #25 in Brief
   Jurisdiction over Career Employees
   Scrambling to Fulfill SB#48

Current Mood: judicious
Current Music: Cake - Opera Singer

Messege on my phone today:
   "Hi Kris, this is [NAME WITHHELD] from the SGAO, I was just calling because we are working with Senate Bill 48, the one the Complaint was about, and one of the required things is that the student court case rulings be available online and because you don't give them to us in electronic word document format we can't put them online so we need you to send your case rulings to us in word document format because you haven't been doing that so we can't do that..."

Email I sent to the above this afternoon:
ASUCD SGAO Office Coordinator;

   Incidentally, all the case opinions of my administration have already been sent to you via electronic form as word documents. Your office in fact printed out the opinion from Case # 22 and posted it in the infamous government glass-case before I could get there the next morning...

   Maybe I'm easily amused but receiving that messege made my day. But shortly thereafter I discovered Newsbeat no longer carries Jolt and was heartbroken again.

SCANDAL
   According to my source, a TA disclosed to them that contrary to the official story, one does not NEED a number two pencil to fill out teacher evaluations - that as long as it was dark enough a pen would suffice. Students have expressed confusion at this statement as pens are usually darker than number two pencils. Its unclear whether this applies to other machine-read multiple choice forms as well (such as scantrons).

Current Mood: busy like whoa

Compare & Contrast: Case # 24 & 25,
   So this morning I get a call around 10am informing me that another Court case was filed in SGAO. I go up to the third floor and get the case documents. Then around 1pm I get another call.. ANOTHER case was filed.

The Defendants (and Defendant offices) listed:
Case # 24: Vicki Swett, Alex Park (Creative Media, SGAO)
Case # 25: Vicki Swett, Mark Champagn, Ceative Media (Creative Media, SGAO)

Listed "brief description of the arguments Plaintiff will make":
Case # 24: "The Defendants are not acting in the letter or spirit of the amendment [Constitution Article II, Section 5 & Article III Section 3.2], specifically the clause that provides for an independant count. This makes it nearly impossible for any one to analyze the data, putting the data to print on 800+ pages, available only while in the SGAO office, when a computer program is required. This violation undermines the integrity of the system because it prevents public oversight and transparency.
Case # 25: "SGAO failed to make the documents [ASUCD Constitution, Judicial Codes, Standing Rules, Government Codes, etcitera] stated within the bill [2003 Senate Bill # 48] online as of the stated date of September 2003. Specifically, the Director of Creative Media, Alex Park, and the Student Government Advisor, Vicki Swett, failed to decide how to implement this bill as stated in Section 2 of SB48."

   The ASUCD Court has yet to decide whether or not it shall accept these cases, and shall likely not do that until next quarter (as only three academic days remain in this quarter). We here at Emosnail attest that the above information has been objectively transcribed from the filed documents and does not imply any opinion of anyone but the Plaintiffs. The Defendants are assumed innocent until proven guilty.

Swearing Kalen
   Today I replaced ASUCD President Sara Henry with ASUCD President Kalen Gallagher, by swearing him and Vice President, Paloma Perez into office. This of course is the second ASUCD President (& VP) that I've sworn into office.
   Sara Henry is no longer in office ...that means I can talk about her now. ...but I don't think I will. I maintain however that the campaign to unseat me was completely bogus and motivated by all the wrong reasons. Shame on all those involved.

The Kerryman
   After inexplicably disappearing for more than three months, Sean the crazy Irishman has returned to Davis. I saw him briefly today and I'll see him tomorrow hopefully.

Picture(s) of the Day

President Gallagher pretending to be Kristy

Related
A Year Ago Today: CORNISH PASTIES
Last December: Hanging Out With Sean

Current Mood: ravenous
Current Music: New Amsterdams - Drama Queen

ASUCD TO WASTE COLOSSAL AMOUNT OF PAPER FOR NO REASON
800+ page document will be printed, bound, and confined to 348 Memorial Union
NEWS ADVISORY EXCLUSIVE!
For immediate release: March 11, 2004

DAVIS - After closed deliberations, four ASUCD officials have decided to print 800+ pages of computer data for no clear reason. The 800+ pages will be available for public viewing in room 348 of the UC Davis Memorial Union during regular business hours. Admission will be free and open to the public beginning at a time still to be announced.

ASUCD staff members ordered the print job after students requested an electronic version of the data from a recent ASUCD election. The officials opted against using a contemporary digital format and chose instead the more primitive, more costly, and maximally inconvenient format known simply as "paper".

The unusual decision was made by a committee of veteran staff members including ASUCD Student Government Advisor Vicki Swett, ASUCD Business Manager Mark Champagne, ASUCD creative Media Director Alex Park, and ASUCD Elections Committee Chair Mary Ball. This is not the first time their preference for paper has shown.

According to Ball, the 800+ pages will be "bound and kept in SGAO." This is similar to the manner in which the ASUCD Constitution, Codes and Bylaws are stored. Apparently the document will have no say in the matter, for Ball has stated definitively that "it will not be allowed to leave SGAO." The public security risk of the pages, if any, could not be determined at press time.

Students had simply wanted to tally the data for evaluation purposes, a constitutional right guaranteed by the ASUCD Constitution. But by converting the data from digital into paper format, officials preempted that possibility. Any analysis would now require a Herculean grassroots effort on a scale never before achieved.

The data would first need to be converted painstakingly by hand from paper back into its original machine-readable format. At 30 words per minute on a laptop, students would need to type inside room 348 for approximately two and a half months straight -- provided they are present during all regular business hours.

Volunteer typists with good data-entry experience are actively being sought. It was not clear at press time whether the SGAO will allow typists to use chairs, ergonomic or otherwise.

Says one student, "I have to hand it to them. The committee's decision is a bureaucratic stroke of genius -- a classic stonewall. The waste of paper is equally impressive."

Says another, "It's brilliant. The data was electronic to begin with. So by printing it onto paper they effectively made it impossible to analyze. It's almost as if ASUCD has made things less convenient for students. The customer service is amazing, a tour de force -- a true model of efficient, responsive, and just plain old good government."

-END-

Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Jimmy Eat World - The Authority Song

Social Skills
   It has come to my attention that certain people lack basic social skills.
   Well I guess we all knew this, but I'm talking about roommates (/apartmentmates). Other people's rooommates and perhaps some I may currently or previously have had. I don't want to talk about anyone specific here, just the amalgamation of obviously antisocial things I've seen roommates do.
   (1) One should not needlessly criticize one's roommates activities. If ones roommate removes a pizza using a nearby dishtowel rather heaven forbid than the oven mitt (though not touching the pizza itself with the towel, just the clean pan), it is certainly not worth criticizing them over.
   (2) Do not announce for absolutely no reason "I am not going to empty the dishwasher / take out the trash / whatever." If you feel it absolutely necessary for some reason, at least give a reason and be apologetic about it.
   (3) Do not hold your roommate's possessions hostage over a behavior you percieve to be unpreferable. ESPECIALLY if you haven't even expressed that opinion to them yet.
   (4) When they say "hi" or "good morning" to you, respond.

   Thats all I can think of off the top of my head at the moment. These are all actual social deficiencies exhibited by roommates of mine or my close friends. Feel free to share your own recommendations of things all roommates ought to know as well.

Standard Operating Procedure
   It should also be kept in mind, that the duties habitually exercised by an organization are by no means necessarily exhaustive of those they may be able to do or even be responsible for doing.
   "Policy" will generally reflect the habitual actions of an organizational entity, but by no means are exhaustive of what the entity may be called on to do.
   The duties and/or responsibilities placed on an organization are likely to change for example, if a related organization that previously was unfunctional begins operating again, or if say previous policy has created an exta-ordinary circumstance which must be altered by intervention of a judicial authority calling upon said entity(/ies) to excercise abilities not usually required.

   This may seem quite random, but it has come to my attention recently that certain persons involved in organizational entities with responsibilities and duties have developed a certain worship of policy and habitual practice, damaging their ability to work at their full potential.

Picture of the Day

Bratislava, Slovakia
© Kris Fricke 1999

Current Mood: bleh-hurg
Current Music: Dropkick Murphys - Gonna Be A Blackout Tonight

Dear SGAO of ASUCD,
While I appreciate your helpful and enthusiastic intentions behind photocopying the page with Standing Rule Two Section 4.1.1 on it and putting it in my box with "duties of the the Chairpersons of Commissions" and "(4) informing each individual Commission member of the status of their term" highlighted, I must point out that I was already fully aware of this when I wrote "ASUCD Standing Rule Two, section 4.1.1, lists as the fourth of six duties enumerated upon Commission Chairpersons 'informing each individual Commission member of the status of their term" in the Court Order for Case # 23.
I apologize if I misinterpreted your motivation behind giving me a highlighted copy of the bylaw, but clearly I was already very aware of it, and am concerned by the SGAOs apparent ignorance of the Court Order which directly concerns them. Also, The highlighted portions were already highlighted in my own copy of the Standing Rules.

Love,
your Chief Justice

The following is not the Opinion from recent Case # 23. It is, however, a Binding Court Order

( Court Order )

Current Mood: judicious

   Despite the best intentions and efforts of the Student Services office today, the only result was the definitive conclusion that Student Services does not have the resources and authority to do the task. The only people that have either of those attributes is the SGAO. If Student Services cannot do it, I certainly cannot.

   The SGAO maintains that they are too busy with other things. It is mandated by the Judicial Codes that this task must be done and must be done ASAP. If any of their other tasks are mandated by a similarly binding code of laws in a similarly time sensitive manner, then that excuse will have some weight. I leave the readers to speculate on the odds of that on their own.

   The SGAO has said that they do not do tasks for unit directors and commission chairs except when they have time. I would like to remind them that the ASUCD Court is NOT a unit or commission, but a branch of government level with the legislative and executive, both of whom could not function except for work SGAO does for them which is similar in importance to the work they must do for the Court.

   I will see justice and due process through to completion. Among other things, the Court may formally find persons in Contempt of the Court for refusing to cooperate with the court. If this situation is not resolved by the next time the Court meets, I will motion for the contempt order, regardless of whether the notification is no longer relevant by then or not. It will be sent out.

( email from SGAO )

( What are you talking about emosnail? )

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The Agrinautica

Tales of a Beekeeper Errant

Entries tagged with sgao

Changing of the Guard

Nanakul v. SGAO

Aggie Article

Losing Documents

Swearing Kalen

Green Party Press Release

Social Skills

Dear SGAO

Due Process Shall Prevail

ASUCD Continued