ASUC Senate Commemorates Grace Asuncion

On Wednesday night, the ASUC Senate passed Senate Bill 36, CalSERVE Senator DeeJay Pepito’s and the Pilipino American Alliance’s bill to commemorate Grace Asuncion and refurbish a frame holding the 2007 Grace Asuncion Senate bill. To read the full text of the final, enrolled bill, visit CalSERVE’s Scribd document repository here. Below is the text of an announcement Senate Pepito distributed to her communities on Thursday, following the passing vote.

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September 20th 2012

Dearest Beautiful Community,

For those of you who didn’t know, Pilipino American Alliance’s Academics Affairs Chair, Julia Dendle, co-authored ASUC Senate Bill (SB) 36 – A Bill in Memory of the 20th Anniversary of the Passing of Grace Asuncion this past week. For those of you unfamiliar with the Grace Asuncion story, please see the attached bill to read a little about her tragic story and the impact she made on this campus. In summary, the bill did three things: 1.) stipulated that the ASUC pay to replace the curent display frame of Grace Asuncion’s 2007 ASUC Senate Bill and picture in the Eshleman Senate Chambers, 2.) transferred ownership of this frame from the ASUC to the Pilipino American Alliance and 3.) ensured that Grace’s story is not lost in the midst of Lower Sproul Redevelopment by stipulating that a new framed display of Grace’s story and bills be placed in the new Eshleman Hall of 2015.

As your Pilipin@-Community Endorsed ASUC CalSERVE Senator, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart for all of your support through this process and for showing up tonight for SB 36′s presentation. Congratulations on its successful passing!–truly, the Pilipin@ community once again conveyed a message of solidarity to the ASUC Senate through the visible support that was present in the Chambers tonight for SB 36, for Grace Asuncion.

For those of you who were present at Senate tonight, I want to deeply apologize for the slight awkward tension that was in the room after SB 36′s passage. Usually, Senators comment and commend the authors of the bill on the Senate floor when symbolic measures are taken and community members are present to support a bill. Tonight was little different as there was a contentious bill that was also pulled on to the floor for debate right before the Grace Asuncion presentation. Because the Senators who authored the contentious bill were a little blindsided by this, there was a motion to quickly move on to the next item of business after SB 36 was passed and thus, closed the opportunity for more attention to be given to SB 36 and the community that was present. Because of this, I also had to quickly return to the Chambers after our unity circle and Isang Bagsak as a heated debate had begun and voting measures were taking place that I needed to be present for. I apologize for SB 36′s rushed end and it is truly unfortunate that contention in the Senate (not regarding SB 36) ended up taking away from the spirit and climate in the room. These actions were taken by my colleagues and I had no chance to recess momentarily so that the community could do Isang Bagsak with the other ASUC elected officials.

At the end of the day, our community is still triumphant with the passage of SB 36. Again, I apologize for the tension that was exposed in the room due to other matters of business within the ASUC but it is my hope that we focus on the positive and highlight the victory that was had for our community tonight. I thank you all once again for your support and dedication to this community and to keeping Grace’s story alive; may we always remember that.

Much love & Isang Bagsak,

DeeJay Pepito, Senator