Office Location |
354 Memorial Union |
Meeting Schedule |
Wednesdays beginning 7:30 PM in the AMC Room, Memorial Union |
Website |
N/A |
Organization |
Associated Students, University of California, Davis |
The Internal Affairs Commission (IAC) is a subordinate body of the ASUCD Senate. IAC reviews and recommends improvements to areas and services that affect the quality of student life. More specifically, IAC reviews and recommends changed to ASUCD Governing Docs such as the ASUCD Constitution and ASUCD Bylaws. As such, many of ASUCD's policy wonks get their start in IAC. Meetings are largely spent reviewing exciting stuff such as Bylaws, Long-Range Plans, and other "internal" matters. The Commission consists of nine voting members and up to four alternate members.
IAC has open meetings on Mondays at 7:30 PM in the AMC Room. The meetings are typically longer than that of any other ASUCD Commission, as they have so many bills to review. IAC is also mostly responsible for writing the Long-Range Plans for all ASUCD Units.
The Commission is comprised of hard-working people who work in the background, reviewing complicated legislation, but receive little credit for their labors. In the past IAC has held ASUCD legislation-writing clinics.
Members
Commission Chair: ThuyAnh Truong
Commission Vice Chair of Regulation & Finance: Zach Boggeln
History
Past Chairs
- ThuyAnh Truong (Spring 2023-Spring 2024)
- JT Eden (Spring 2022)
- Kabir Sahni (Winter 2022- Spring 2022)
- Radhika Gawde (Spring 2021- Fall 2021)
- Julian Garcia (Summer 2020- Spring 2021)
- Emily Barneond (Spring 2020- Summer 2020)
- Ashley Lo (Fall 2019- Winter 2020)
- Henry Nibbelin (Winter 2019- Spring 2019)
- Jacob Ganz (Spring 2017- Fall 2018)
- Nick Flores (Spring 2016- Spring 2017)
- Abhay Sandhu (Spring 2015-Winter 2016)
- Nate Bentham (Fall 2014 - Winter 2015)
- Spencer McManus (Fall 2013-Spring 2014)
- Amy Martin (Winter 2011)
- Sergio Cano (Winter 2010-Fall 2010) and (Winter 2011-Spring 2013)
- Matt Shannon (Spring 2009)
- Amy Hartstein (Fall 2008-Winter 2009) and (Fall 2009-Winter 2010)
- Jill Weinstein (Spring 2007)
- Mike Rivera (Fall 2006-Winter 2007) and (Fall 2007-Spring 2008)
- Paul Harms (Spring 2006)
- Kai Savaree-Ruess (Spring 2005-Winter 2006)
- Marvin Zamora (Spring 2005)
- Kahliah Laney (Spring 2004-Winter 2005)
- Bob Gill (Fall 2003-Spring 2004)
- Jakob Suski (Winter 2003-Spring 2003)
- Pelin Erdal (Fall 2002)
- Erik Canales (Fall 2001-Spring 2002)
- Allen Shiu (Fall 2000-Spring 2001)
- Anthony Volkar (Fall 1999-Spring 2000)
- Melanie Sengupta (Winter 1998-Spring 1999)
- Scott Reed (Winter 1997-Winter 1998)
- Matt Malone (Fall 1996-Fall 1997)
- Maya Kwiat (Winter 1995-Fall 1995)
- Peter Nguyen (Fall 1993-Winter 1995)
- Larissa Adams (Fall 1992-Spring 1993)
- Donny Anderson (Fall 1991-Spring 1992)
IAC: Birthplace of Power
There is a high incidence of powerful people coming from the ASUCD Internal Affairs Commission.
A few examples:
President
- Peter Nguyen, former ASUCD President 1995-96 and co-author of the Democracy at Davis Constitutional Amendment
- Scott Reed, former ASUCD President 1998-99
- Sara Henry, former ASUCD President 2003-2004
- Darnell Holloway, former ASUCD President 2006-2007
- Radhika Gawde, current ASUCD President 2022-2023
Vice President
- Aaron Bloom, former ASUCD Vice President 1995-96 and co-author of the Democracy at Davis Constitutional Amendment
- Theron Spurgeon, former ASUCD Vice President 1999-2000
- Darnell Holloway, former ASUCD Vice President 2005-2006
- Molly Fluet, former ASUCD Vice President 2008-2009
- Previn Witana, former ASUCD Vice President 2010-2011
- Maxwell Kappes, former ASUCD Vice President 2014-2015
- Gareth Smythe, former ASUCD Vice President 2015-2016
- Abhay Sandhu, ASUCD Vice President 2016-2017
- Emily Barneond, ASUCD Vice President 2020-2021
- Juliana Martinez Hernandez, ASUCD Vice President 2021-2022
- JT Eden, ASUCD Vice President 2022-2023
Senator
- Brett Leggett, former ASUCD Senator 1995-96
- Maya Kwiat, former ASUCD Senator 1995-96
- Erica Rios, former ASUCD Senator 1995-96
- Amos Tubb, former ASUCD Senator 1995-96
- Jason Capitan, former ASUCD Senator 1995-96
- Robert Gill, former ASUCD Senator
- Janine Fiel, former ASUCD Senator 2004-2005
- Darnell Holloway, former ASUCD Senator 2004-2005
- Marvin Zamora, former ASUCD Senator 2005-2006
- Michael Lay, former ASUCD Senator 2006-2007
- Molly Fluet, former ASUCD Senator 2006-2007
- Justin Patrizio, former ASUCD Senator 2008-2009
- Erin Lebe, former ASUCD Senator 2008-2009
- Kevin Massoudi, former ASUCD Senator 2008-2009
- Previn Witana, former ASUCD Senator 2008-2009
- Don Ho, former ASUCD Senator 2009-2010
- Amy Martin, former ASUCD Senator 2010-2011
- Kabir Kapur, former ASUCD Senator 2011-2012
- Maxwell Kappes, former ASUCD Senator 2012-2013
- Gareth Smythe, former ASUCD Senator 2013-2014
- Roman Rivilis, former ASUCD Senator 2014-2015
- Sam Park, former ASUCD Senator 2016-2017
- Simran Grewal, former ASUCD Senator 2016-2017
- Jose Meneses, former ASUCD Senator 2016-2017
- Michael Navarro, former ASUCD Senator 2020-21
- Ambar Mishra, former ASUCD Senator 2020-21
- Radhika Gawde former ASUCD Senator 2022-2023
- Arushi Ragunathan former ASUCD Senator 2022-2023
- Juliana Martinez Hernandez former ASUCD Senator 2022-2023
Controller
- Kai Savaree-Ruess, former ASUCD Controller 2006-2007
- Paul Harms, former ASUCD Controller 2007-2008 and 2008-2009
- Joey Chen, former ASUCD Controller 2010-2011
- Don Ho, former ASUCD Controller 2011-2012
- Melanie Maemura, former ASUCD Controller 2012-2013
-
Francisco Lara, ASUCD Controller 2015-2016
Unit Directors
- Brett Leggett, Director of the ASUCD Academic Affairs Office 1996-97
- Dorothy Yee, former Director of the ASUCD City/County Affairs Office 1995-96 and former Assistant Director of the ASUCD Academic Affairs Office 1996-97
- Scott Reed, former Director of the Book Exchange 1997-1998
- Derick Lennox, former Director of ASUCD Lobby Corps 2006-2008
- Matt Shannon, former Director of ASUCD University Affairs 2007-2009
Elections Committee Chairs
- Sergio Cano, former ASUCD Elections Committee Chairperson Winter 2011
- Aaron Hsu, former ASUCD Elections Committee Chairperson 2012-2013
- Eric Renslo, ASUCD Elections Committee Chairperson 2013-2014
Chief of Staff
- Kevin Powers, ASUCD Chief of Staff 2007-2008
- Amy Hartstein, ASUCD Chief of Staff 2008-2009
- Francisco Lara, ASUCD Chief of Staff 2014-2015
Other
- Tom Aguilar, GSA Vice Chair 2007-2008, GSA Chair 2006-2007, GSA External Chair 2005-2006 (was actually the Internal Affairs Representative to the Legislative Assembly, back in the long, long ago)
- ASUCD Business and Finance Commission, Gregory D. Webb
- Missy Lyla Whitney, ASUCD Court Chief Justice 2008-2010
IAC was very influential under the leadership of one of its longest-serving chairs, Peter Nguyen. Serving first as member and Vice Chair of the IAC from 1992-93, Nguyen went on to chair the commission from Fall 1993 through Winter of 1995 when he was elected ASUCD President. During this era, a large number of ASUCD leaders emerged from IAC (see above), and IAC was the primary progressive resistance to the Davis College Republicans-dominated Executive Council. In fact, so many Council bills died in IAC that, for purely political reasons, the Executive Council called a closed session to discuss the job performance of Nguyen as chair in Fall 1994. Nguyen opened up the closed session to the public, exposed the political gambit to the press, forced the Council majority to back down from removing him as Chair, and caused a backlash against the Davis College Republicans which led to their fall from power in the Winter 1995 election.
Dramatic incidents
- Rather dramatically, RevChad was forced to resign from IAC when he joined the 2005/2006 Elections Committee as you can only hold one Senate-confirmed position at any given time.
- Pledge of Allegiance Controversies (2006-2007): Steve Ostrowski introduced a bill to add the U.S. pledge of allegiance to the Senate agenda three times, it failed three times. Due to the surprise of various ASUCD officials at being videotaped, the meeting was shortly adjourned. The tape was turned into a seven minute Youtube video with music, stock images, and written commentary in the form of title cards. The cameraman was funded by the conservative Leadership Institute. Former ASUCD Controller Cameron Menezes wrote a letter to IAC commissioners that criticized the anti-Pledge position.