The Vanguard has received two joint statements from ASUCD regarding challenges to the UC Davis LRDP.
From Michael Gofman, ASUCD President, Edgar Masias-Malagon, ASUCD External Vice President and Director of OASR (Office of Advocacy and Student Representation), Jacob Sedgley, ASUCD Senate Pro Tem, and Alisha Hacker, ASUCD Senator:
Over the past weeks and months, there have been many successful housing initiatives in the City of Davis, including the Nishi Project, Lincoln40, and the recently passed Davis Live project. As leaders of ASUCD, one of our main priorities is eliminating student homelessness and student housing insecurities. We believe that construction of more housing is the primary way of ensuring this, and we believe that by building close to and on campus, we can reduce our environmental footprint by lessening our dependence on cars.
In every discussion with city council, or with voters, one theme is pervasive: The need for the city and the University work together. With every discussion on more infill housing, residents discuss the need for the University to “keep their side of the bargain” or, in other words, building housing for students on 
campus, lessening our impact on the city.
The time has finally come where UC Davis has laid out and explicitly stated how, where, and how much housing they plan on building in the coming years. The University announced plans to build almost 10,000 new beds primarily for student housing on campus, taking strain off of the housing market, increasing students’ quality of life, and increasing the vacancy rate closer to stability.
We, the Associated Students of the University of California, Davis, discourage the County of Yolo, the City of Davis, and any other parties from pursuing any efforts that would delay progress on the University’s housing plan, and consider the impact that this would have on students and residents.
Students are homeless, students are sleeping in their cars, students are struggling to find their next meal, students are being taken advantage of by landlords, and students understand that the University has a large role to play in fixing this. So we again urge all parties to understand the real and acute consequences we the students would feel in any delay, and the relief to student homelessness and skyrocketing rental prices in the city that this project will provide.
Statement on the LRDP Lawsuit by AFSCME by From Michael Goftman, ASUCD President, Edgar Masias-Malagon, ASUCD External Vice President and Director of OASR, and Sean Raycraft, CA AD4 Democrat Delegate and Union Steward:
ASUCD and the students on this campus have played a critical role in many of AFSCME’s efforts over the past few years. We the students have marched with you during your strikes, lobbied to increase your wages and benefits, even at the expense of our own tuition, and paid in time and money to go to your conferences to learn more about labor organizing. We state this to reiterate the commitment students have made to you time and time again.
Students are facing the worst housing crisis in Davis’s history. Davis’s vacancy rate of 0.2% will likely further shrink. It is appalling and disheartening that a dire time like this, one of ASUCD’s coalition partners would take an active stance against more housing for students, and we urge AFSCME to drop this lawsuit and support the students that have supported them.
We, the Associated Students of the University of California, Davis, discourage AFSCME from pursuing any efforts that would delay progress on the University’s housing plan, condemn the use of students’ welfare as a bargaining chip, and urge AFSCME to consider the effect on students their actions will take.
Students are homeless, students are sleeping in their cars, students are struggling to find their next meal, students are being taken advantage of by landlords, and students understand that on campus housing will play a role in fixing this. So we again urge AFSCME and all other parties to understand the real and acute consequences we the students would feel in any delay, and the relief to student homelessness and skyrocketing rental prices in the city that this project will provide.
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