Rebecca Soo

During the ASUC's meeting on Wednesday, Senator Will Liu was sworn into office and Chancellor Carol Christ provided campus updates.

According to a study published Tuesday that was co-led by the UC Berkeley Center for Studies in Higher Education, the COVID-19 pandemic has had “looming negative impacts” on the mental health of university students.

As UC Berkeley students leave campus, campus streets remain virtually deserted, resulting in a 30% drop in calls for support to the Berkeley police station.

Independent candidates will dominate the ASUC Senate in the next academic year, as announced during the tabulation ceremony Friday. 38 candidates ran for ASUC Senate, including 10 candidates from Student Action, which won a majority of seats last year. Four candidates ran for transfer student representative, a new office in the ASUC.

Campus sophomore Rebecca Soo hopes to pick up where she left off after announcing her intention for reelection as an ASUC Senate candidate March 10.

The ASUC Senate met Wednesday to discuss possibilities of revising a contract with Dignity Health and making the fourth-floor bathrooms in the Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union gender-neutral.

The ASUC University and External Affairs Committee voted against SR 19/20-032, Senator Milton Zerman’s bill that would condemn Bears for Palestine for its cubicle display in Eshleman Hall. Many members of the public attended to comment on the bill, most of whom stood in solidarity with BFP.

More than 200 people attended the ASUC Senate’s University and External Affairs Committee meeting Monday on ASUC Senator Milton Zerman’s contentious bill titled “Condemning Bears for Palestine for Their Display in Eshleman Hall Glorifying Violent Terrorists.”

Two bills regarding the implementation of town hall meetings, which could help ASUC senators increase accountability for their communities, are on the next ASUC Senate meeting agenda for later this month.