enterprise THE DAVIS
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 20, 2022
UCD fee question goes to student vote Both sides
seek lawyer fees in DiSC dispute
By Caleb Hampton Enterprise staff writer The ASUCD Senate, which serves as the legislative branch of UC Davis’ student government, voted Thursday night to include a high-profile ballot measure on student funding for campus athletics programs in its spring elections, set to begin May 9. Undergraduate students will be asked whether they want to rescind roughly $570 in annual fees each student pays to support UC Davis athletics programs. After a monthslong stalemate with campus administrators over election rules, ASUCD leaders sent the item to the ballot as a non-binding ballot measure, not an official fee initiative or referendum, as was originally proposed. While a fee initiative is advisory to the chancellor, it puts student-led legislation on a track to be potentially implemented. The non-binding measure, if passed, would not activate any administrative process to change student fees. In recent months, the proposal attracted statewide media coverage. Amid rising tuition and living costs, scrapping the fees would lighten the financial burden of college for thousands of UC Davis students. It would also deal a heavy blow to the campus’ sports teams. UC Davis’ NCAA programs “would likely be eliminated or reduced to only a few sports,” a report published by the campus budget office stated.
By Anne Ternus-Bellamy Enterprise staff writer
coach salaries. The other is the Campus Expansion Initiative (CEI), which was approved in 2002 and pays for athletic scholarships. The fees also fund other campus units, but the largest share goes to athletics. Wong’s proposal would eliminate only the athletics portion of the fees, which totaled $344 for SASI and $227 for CEI this year. Wong maintains that his proposal is not meant to defund athletics but only to remove the burden of funding it from the student body.
In the legal dispute over ballot arguments related to Measure H (the Davis Innovation and Sustainability Campus) on the June ballot, each side has claimed victory in court and now each is seeking attorney fees from the other. The six Davis residents who were taken to court by Davis City Councilman Dan Carson over the No on H ballot arguments they had signed filed a motion last week seeking more than $71,000 in attorney fees from Carson. In his response to that motion, filed this week, Carson’s attorneys indicated that he will seek attorney fees from the No on H side. While Carson filed the lawsuit as an individual and honorary chair of the Yes on H campaign, DiSC project manager Dan Ramos told the City Council earlier this month that his team had funded the effort. The No on H team, meanwhile, said the legal fees they had to pay wiped out their campaign fund, and as the election draws closer — with ballots going out to voters May 9 —
See FEE, Back page
See DISC, Back page
Caleb Hampton/Enterprise photo
Members of the ASUCD Senate vote Thursday night on placing a non-binding resolution to cut student fees for the university’s athletics programs. Students who back the proposal see it as an effort to democratize decisions around student fees, some of which have renewed automatically for decades, and to make campus administration accountable to the student body. Calvin Wong, a fourth-year history major, drafted the referendum last summer in response to the termination of UC Davis’ physicaleducation program, the continuation of which was promised to students in the 1990s in exchange for funding athletics. Wong also has questioned the
equity of so much money in student fees being spent in support of a relatively small number of athletes. UC Davis undergraduates were projected to contribute roughly $25 million to athletics this year, the most of any UC campus and more than 10 times the amount students at most campuses in the system pay. The ballot measure — technically two separate items — concerns two fees. One is the Student Activities and Services Initiative (SASI), which was approved in 1994 and pays for things like team travel, equipment and
Prizewinning writer in town Tuesday By Jeff Hudson Enterprise correspondent Bestselling novelist Richard Powers — winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the National Book Award — will speak in Davis at 7 p.m. Tuesday, April 26, at the Brunelle Performance Hall at Davis High School, 315 W. 14th St. Sponsoring the event is the Avid Reader Bookstore. The April 26 event was moved to the the Davis High theater because Powers will likely draw a bigger crowd than could be accommodated inside the bookstore at 617 Second St. Powers is an American novelist whose books often deal with the impacts of
VOL. 124 NO. 47
INDEX
Classifieds ������B3 Green Page ������B1 Obituary ���������� A3 Comics ������������B4 The Hub ������������ A5 Sports ��������������B5 Forum ��������������B2 Living ���������������� A4 The Wary I �������� A2
modern science Powers received the Pulitzer Prize and technology on for Fiction for his contemporary life. 2018 novel “The His novel “The Overstory,” which Echo Maker” won was also shortlisted the 2006 National for the UK’s Booker Book Award and Prize, awarded was a finalist for POWERS annually to the best the Pulitzer Prize Will discuss novel of the year for Fiction. The plot involves a “Bewilderment,” written in English. his latest book “The Overstory” near-fatal accident was praised by Ron on a rural Nebraska Charles of The Washington road, resulting in a trauPost as an “ambitious novel matic brain injury that leads to a variety of delu- (that) soars up through the canopy of American literasions, and also involves an ture and remakes the landresearch who writes popuscape of environmental lar books on neurology (a fiction.” fictional character many The most recent novel by readers regard as loosely based on the neurologist Powers — which he is and bestselling author Dr. See WRITER, Page A3 Oliver Sacks.
WEATHER
Superintendent’s contract on dock for school board By Aaron Geerts Enterprise staff writer The much-anticipated contract approval for the Davis Joint Unified School District’s next superintendent, Matt Best, will highlight Thursday’s meeting of the Davis school board. After a nationwide search, interviews and due diligence, the DJUSD finally selected Best as the new superintendent. The decision will be finalized with the approval of Best’s employment contract, which will be available after the closed session meeting on April 21. There will also be an
update on the district’s Special Education Program. WestEd has been hired by the district and will be presenting the review, which will include a review of district special education compliance data, professional development opportunities, student achievement data, and also include a conduct analysis of staffing, caseloads, programing, services, schedules and processes. The meeting is scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Thursday, at the Community Chambers at 23 Russell Blvd. Watch it on cable Channel 17, or online at djusd.davismedia.org.
HOW TO REACH US
Thursday: www.davisenterprise.com Ongoing showers. Main line: 530-756-0800 High 64. Low 46. Circulation: 530-756-0826
http://facebook.com/ TheDavisEnterpriseNewspaper http://twitter.com/D_Enterprise
WED • FRI • $1