UNITE

UNITE was a former ASUCD slate, active during the school year of 2001-02. The name (not an acronym) was probably inspired by Berkeley's student government party, Bears United. However, the name could not survive in a post-9/11 world, and thus was changed into Student Focus.

History

Fall 2001

UNITE was formed in Fall 2001 by Sara Henry and Lee Weissmann. The two had run against each other the prior Winter Quarter election, the controversial election in which the LEAD ticket had swept 6 ASUCD Senate seats along with the Executive Office. UNITE effectively united the campus moderates and greeks.

Under Sara and Lee's leadership they came up with the following ticket:

• Sara Henry - 3rd year - IAC commissioner, ISCAO
• Lee Weissman - 3rd year - AAC Chair, Chi Phi
• Jon Avidor - 2nd year - Theta Xi
• Binh Nguyen - 2nd year - GASC
• Shelly Runyon- 2nd year - Tri Delt
• Kalen Gallagher - 1st year

UNITE's competition included a derivative of LEAD called People's Collective, a DCR supported ticket called TEAM AGGIE, and a ticket of 2 students (one of which was future Senator Lindsay Crawford).

UNITE Fall 2001's platform included:

• Creating a student run television station called AggieTV (now AGTV)
• Creating a greek newspaper called the Greek Times (later started by Jon Avidor, Kalen Gallagher, and Sara Henry)
• Dollars and Sense (a witty pun that focused on protecting students from 'evil' credit card companies)
• Bands and Booths (a horrible way of saying that they would provide more entertainment on the quad)

UNITE's official motto was "Bringing Positive Energy to Campus." This was in response to the clear tensions between many groups on campus that had sparked after 9/11. Such tensions included a controversial statement by then LEAD ASUCD President Tiqula Bledsoe that he made while speaking at a demonstration in the quad in which he claimed those who supported the war were bigots and racists. UNITE's unofficial motto was "UNITE is tight!"

UNITE may have been the first slate at UCD to mass produce T-Shirts (although they only wore them on election day). Their T-shirt color was dark blue with white lettering.

UNITE went on to win 5 of 6 of the available seats, Shelly Runyon being the one left out (She later went on to become EAC Chair). The other seat was won by Lindsay Crawford.

Fall 2002

UNITE returned in November 2002 and was headed by Lee Weissmann in his bid to be reelected. Candidates included:

• Lee Weissman - 4th year - AAC Chair, Chi Phi, ASUCD Senator
• Victor Mezvinski - 3rd year - B&F Commissioner, Theta Xi
• Kelly Brewer- 3rd year - EAC Commissioner, Kappa Kappa Gamma
• Ashkun Zaker - 3rd year - B&F Commissioner, Sigma Phi Epsilon
• Gina Lee- 2nd year - LAMBDA little sis
• Faranak Kamangar - 1st year - ISCAO

Their platform issues included:

• Campus Expansion Initiative (allocating monies to move to Division 1 athletics, expand the ASUCD Coffee House, build a new Health Center, expand ASUCD Unitrans, expand intermural sports, and to create a Principals of Community Center)
• S.A.F.E. (increased campus lighting, free self defence classes)
• Aggie Exchange (Online UCD 'e-bay.' Now available at asucd.ucdavis.edu)
• Free Parking at the Rec Hall parking lot after 5pm (never happened cause TAPS is evil, we do after all pay for the ARC and Rec Hall..why shouldn't we park for free at night...bastards - Kalen Gallagher)

UNITE 2002 once again had the official logo of "Bringing Positive Energy to Campus." The ticket's shirts were bright yellow to fall inline with the shirts used by Student Focus in Winter 2002.

UNITE 2002's main competition came from the LEAD ticket, in particular the fact that they were running Caleb Hervey, quite possibly the most popular man in school.

UNITE 2002 was not as successful as UNITE 2001. They won 3 out of 6 seats. The election itself was historic for 2 reasons:

1 The turnout was 9,657 which was a record high. (do you know the percentage of this) - ArlenAbraham

2 The student body passed both sections of the Campus Expansion Initiative.

The Senators elected were:

• Caleb Hervey
• Go Funai
• Lydiana Alfaro
• Faranak Kamangar
• Gina Lee
• Kelly Brewer

Where did UNITE go?!

The name of UNITE effectively died when Sara Henry (President) and Kalen Gallagher (Vice President) decided to run under the name Student Focus in February 2003.

The more recent "Unite!" slate coincidently shares the same name but is unrelated.

This is very rough and I am sure there is much to add. I just wanted to get the frame out there. Kris, I am sure you remember some things from this 'era' Enjoy.