UCSD Guardian

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Back on the mic. PAGE 7.

VOLUME XLIII, ISSUE XLX

WWW.UCSDGUARDIAN.ORG

THURSDAY, APRIL 28, 2011

divestment resolution Scrapped By laira martin • associate news editor Photo Illustration by Andrew Oh

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fforts stalled Wednesday to pass an A.S. Council resolution that called for the UC system to divest funds from non-neutral corporations currently providing technology to the Israeli Defense Forces. This is the second year the resolution, proposed by Students for Justice in Palestine, has been brought before council. Last year’s version called for divestment from all companies that profit from human rights violations,, and did not explicitly mention Israel. TFI members claimed they were excluded from the drafting of last year’s resolution and felt alienated on campus, which led to contention with SJP. A.S. Council voted 13-10-4 to create a committee on the topic before moving forward, but the issue dropped after the committee failed to reach a consensus. At the same time, the UC Berkeley A.S. Council passed a resolution 16-4 to divest funds from Israel, but the resolution was later vetoed by then-ASUC President Will Smelko. Conflicts originally ensued after SJP announced its plan to present a resolution at the April 13 council meeting, but the respective organizations then planned to pursue a joint resolution for the 2011-12 academic year that reflected the beliefs of

both sides. The orgs planned to announce this effort on April 27, but TFI withdrew support hours before the Wednesday council meeting. Both Social Sciences Senator Rena Zuabi, a supporter of the resolution, and TFI Executive Board member Michael Yadegaran described the collaboration as “risky.” “It’s been an emotional roller coaster,” Yadegaran said. “Something like this [collaboration] on campus is unprecedented. Any cooperation between SJP and TFI [in the past] has been forced by A.S. and it’s only happened once and it was a complete failure.” A.S. Council had planned to vote on the resolution at last night’s council meeting, but in light of the failed joint resolution, the issue has been tabled, with SJP stating its intention to move forward with the divestment efforts. “Some TFI members said they have big big problems with the wording and the basic ideas that were put forth and agreed upon before,” Zuabi said. “We were told we can’t release this statement. TFI didn’t want to include ideas of neutrality in investments. SJP wanted to keep this basic [tenet] of the original resolution.” TFI Vice President Daniel Friedman expressed disagreement with specific clauses of the joint resolution.

“TFI is firm in its stance that A.S. is not the place for a specific groups of different political views to [have dialogue],” TFI Vice President Daniel Friedman said. “Especially with divestment, which is bigger than just an Israel issue. The resolution had multiple identical clauses from last OPINION year’s [resolution]. Ultimately, we can’t support something One step forward that damages our university’s and two image and effectively punishes steps back. the Israeli defense forces for PAGE 4 defending its citizens.” The original draft of the resolution stated that UCSD is currently invested in the stocks of both General Electric and Northrop Grumman through the endowment and retirement funds. According to SJP, both companies are connected to the Israeli and Palestinian conflict because they supply the Israeli army with helicopter parts and weapons to use against the Palestinian army. “The [original] resolution was only targeting Israel,” Friedman said. “It was an attempt to demonize the state and effectively collect punishment.” Both Zuabi and TFI President Lior See divestment, page 3

UCSD Joins UC-Wide Student PARKING CITATION AMOUNTS ROSE Health Insurance Plan to Save Money A CLOSER LOOK

BY $15 AT BEGINNING OF 2011 By Regina Ip News Editor

Parking citation amounts have increased by $15 since Jan. 3, after the Transportation Policy Committee approved the increase on Dec. 6. The citation amounts increased in response to increased state surcharges, which went from $9.50 to $12.50 on Dec. 7. As a result, the transportation service department must offset the additional surcharges. According to the committee meeting minutes, Transportation Services Associate Director Todd Berven presented scenarios that increased parking citations by $3, $5, $10 or $15. Management and Planning Communications Director Rex Graham said in an email that the committee was considering other possible increases that ranged from $0 to $100. “Some wanted to increase the fees by considerably more than [$15],” he wrote. “$15 was the middle ground for the proposed fee increases. I cannot speak to why the committee chose $15.” The committee — an advisory board of six faculty and staff members, two undergraduates and one graduate student — voted 5-2 for approving the citation increase, which passed. A.S. representative Adam Powers and UCSD Healthcare representative Ray Osborne were absent from the Dec. 6 meeting. The individuals who voted against the fee increase were Student College Council Representative Karleen Ronsairo and staff representative Paul DeWine. Vice Chancellor of Resource Management and Planning Russell Thackston, who was present at the meeting, then approved the increase.

SPOKEN WEB POLL

FORECAST

See parking, page 3

SUNRISE

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√ Yes √ No √ I don’t know

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Staff Writer

Citation amounts for 20 of 25 types of violations went up by $15; these citations include not having a parking permit — which now costs $65 to pay off, as opposed to $50. If the fees are not paid within 21 days, the fee is doubled, so the possible total is $150, compared to last year’s $120. The citation amounts that remained the same include $450 for having no placard, $450 for parking in a disabled zone, $450 for misusing a disabled person parking placard, $150 for a boot fee and $20 for a non-sufficient funds fee. Graham said the increases are a way to address the department’s financial situation, since A.S. Council rejected a $25 student fee referendum last year. Faculty Welfare committee representative and psychology professor Timothy Rickard agreed that the increase was for revenue reasons. “The reason it’s at the level that it is our parking citation fees having been previously below what the case is at, for example, UCLA and, some other UC schools that we use for comparison,” Rickard said. “[It is one] of many decisions that will need to be made to make revenue for the parking services overall that just brings us in line with what is the case at other universities that we use for examples.” UCLA’s website states that the fine for not displaying a ticket is $58. Their highest fine is $508 for an invalid or misused disabled placard. “The citation fee increase was not implemented to help TS’ financial situation,” Graham wrote. The UC Berkeley’s website states that revenue from citations on UC campuses cannot be used to build parking, but they can cover enforcement costs.

Do you support The divestment resolution?

WWW.UCSDGUARDIAN.ORG

By Anqi Chen

FRIDAY

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6:05

A.M.

SUNSET

7:29

NIGHT WATCH WATCH NIGHT

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thursday THURSDAY

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friday FRIDAY

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UCSD decided to opt into UC-SHIP the weekend of April 4, after hesitating to join the UC-wide student health insurance plan due to concerns that the university’s competitive mental healthcare rates, co-insurance discounts and dental and vision benefits might be lost under the systemwide plan. The systemwide health insurance plan will combine the insurance plans of over 130,000 students across 10 UC campuses, in addition to UC Hastings College of Law. The

plan — which will go into effect Aug. 15 — aims to give students more pharmaceutical and treatment benefits and provide a dependent-plan option for families. It aims to reduce student coverage fees, but they were not lowered at UCSD. With a campuswide plan, the UC system negotiated a better rate with Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield. “It is clear that savings have been achieved, but there is no hard number yet,” UC Office of the President spokesperson See health, page 3

TAKE BACK THE NIGHT

Andrew Oh/Guardian

T-shirts with personal stories of sexual assault were hung along Library Walk this week as part of Sexual Assault Resource Center’s Sexual Assault Awareness Month this month.

SURFREPORT REPORT SURF THURSDAY Height: 5 ft. Wind: 6-10 mph Water Temp: 61 F

FRIDAY Height: 5-7 ft. Wind: 6-10 mph Water Temp: 61 F

SATURDAY Height: 5-8 ft. Wind: 2-10 mph Water Temp: 61 F

SUNDAY Height: 3-5 ft. Wind: 4-11 mph Water Temp: 61 F

GAS PER GALLON LOw

$4.05

Arco, Poway 12805 Poway Rd. & Carriage Rd. HIGH

$4.59

Chevron, Pacific Beach 1575 Garnet Ave. & Ingraham St.

INSIDE Comics...................................2 New Business.........................3 Free for All..............................4 Guest Commentaries.............5 Druthers..................................7 Classifieds............................10 Sudoku.................................10


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