Senate Standing Committees

Senate Committees are specialized groups within the regular Senate that allow Senators to focus on key subjects related to governance and other essential functions within this branch of ASUCI.  A Senator shall always be part of one committee and is expected to carry out the functions detailed within that committee.

The four main, permanent committees that are a part of all sessions of the Senate are:

  • Rules and Oversight Committee
  • Finance Committee
  • Public Info Committee
  • Advocacy Committee

Please read “Senate Standing Committee Duties” to learn more about their specific roles in Senate.

Senate Standing Committees Duties

The Rules Committee shall be concerned with the regulations and policies of ASUCI operation and services, being responsible for:

  • Reviewing and revising the Senate Bylaws, Elections Code, and Judicial Board Procedures as members of the Joint Committee on Governance and Internal Policy as per Article XII, Section 3 of the ASUCI Constitution.
  • Handling internal Senate discipline in conjunction with the President of the Senate.
  • Nominating students to fill vacant Senate seats.
  • Handling business related to the operations and services of ASUCI.
  • Reviewing the structure and working of resolutions and bills for their justifications and reasons, in order to recommend reasonable changes referred to it by the Senate.
  • Reviewing nominees for appointed student representative positions.
  • Reviewing weekly all recommendations from the Judicial Board regarding legislation and considering appropriate revisions to legislation.
  • Maintaining the official file of standing policies for ASUCI Senate.
  • Updating all governing documents subsequent to the passage of any amendment and ensuring that the most current version is publicly available on the ASUCI website.
  • Evaluating UCI’s enrollment data at least once annually and adjusting the distribution of seats on Senate as necessary.

The ASUCI External Vice President, ASUCI Internal Vice President, Student Advocate General, Senate Secretary, and Senate Parliamentarian shall be non-voting members of the Rules Committee.

The Finance Committee shall be concerned with all financial affairs of Senate, being responsible for:

  • Handling business involving financial allocation and other budgetary matters.
  • Monitoring the accounts of the ASUCI and making reports to the Senate in conjunction with ASUCI Business Manager.
  • Reviewing all Bills for its justifications and reasons in order to recommend reasonable expenditures referred by the Senate.
  • Requesting financial audits and financial documentation from the ASUCI Executive Officers.
  • Meeting with the ASUCI Executive Director and/or Business Manager at the beginning of every Quarter in order to learn about the budget in detail.
  • Making a copy of the ASUCI budget and monthly updates available at the ASUCI website.

The ASUCI President, ASUCI Student Services Vice President, and the ASUCI Internal Student Advocate General shall be non-voting members of the Finance Committee.

The Public Information Committee shall be concerned with the Senate’s public relations, being responsible for:

  • Creating a monthly newsletter of Senate and Senator initiatives and projects for campuswide email distribution.
  • Serving as a catalyst for the generation of ideas and producing ASUCI Senate publicity.
  • Publicizing Senate meetings and topics of discussion weekly, including coordination of Senate meeting highlights social media posts with ASUCI Media & Technology.
  • Shall maintain a written and computer data file history of all Senate standing documents and legislative actions, as well as keep records of the actions of ASUCI.
  • Conducting student organization outreach on behalf of the ASUCI Senate and connecting student organizations to relevant Senators for the purpose of collaboration or advocacy.

The ASUCI Vice President Academic Affairs, Vice President of Student Services, and the Chief Accountability Officer shall be non-voting members of the Public Information Committee.

The Advocacy Committee (also known as or referred to as the Committee-on-Committees) shall be concerned with the activities and projects of all Senate ad-hoc committees and the academic year’s advocacy agenda, being responsible for:

  • Thoroughly reviewing the creation of each ad-hoc committee. Each ad- hoc committee will present a proposal to the Advocacy committee, which will include the following:

i. The name and general purpose of the ad-hoc committee.

ii. The names of two (2) or more fellow Senators who wish to participate in the ad-hoc committee (the number of names will be determined by the scope of the ad-hoc committee’s project as approved by the advocacy committee).

iii. The names of possible non-Senate partners in the fulfillment of the ad-hoc committee’s projects (faculty, departmental heads, student-interest organizations).

iv. Proposal for individual projects (if applicable), for the fulfillment of each ad-hoc committee’s mission statement.

  • Checking the progress of each ad-hoc committee throughout the academic year, which will include the following:

i. Collecting written reports from each ad-hoc committee chairperson regarding the activities of the committee for the respective week.

ii. Presenting a report on the state of all the aforementioned committees at the first Senate meeting of each Quarter.

The ASUCI President, ASUCI External Vice President, ASUCI Internal Vice President, ASUCI Academic Affairs Vice President, and ASUCI External Student Advocate General shall be non-voting members of the Advocacy Committee.

Senate Standing Committee Members

  • Naja Christmas – Transfer – Chair
  • Elianna Stivi – Social Ecology – Vice Chair
  • William Fixa – Social Ecology
  • Frank Granda – At-Large
  • Hunter Mackenzie – Social Sciences
  • Carmen Ramirez-Alonso – Biological Science

  • Cyrus Ghias – At-Large – Chair
  • Reece Malone – ICS – Vice Chair
  • Abdulkareem Benothman – Business
  • Najwa Ellahib – Biological Science
  • Jodi Lacangan – Arts
  • Shiv Malik – Engineering
  • Amin Mansouri – Engineering
  • Reilly McLoy – Nursing
  • Jaira Pamintuan – At-Large

  • Vinny Carluccio – ICS – Chair
  • Jade Bixler-Boyer – Education – Vice Chair
  • Joel Garcia – Pharmaceutical Sciences
  • Anusha Ghildyal – Public Health
  • Thuan Tran – International
  • Michelle Truong – Social Sciences
  • Catherine Valle Meraz – At-Large

  • Mariam Shenouda – At-Large – Chair
  • Dilruba Asici – Humanities – Vice Chair
  • Zeinab Arafa – Physical Science
  • Zeynep Karatas – First Year
  • Lauren Melvin – Social Sciences
  • Briana Solis – Social Sciences