AAS Senate Meeting Minutes

Transcription

1 AAS Senate Meeting Minutes Date: 9/15/2014 Meeting begins: 8:34 p.m. I. Attendance II. Public Comment None. III. Budgetary Committee Recommendations Cricket Club wished to amend their previous request to include cricket helmets for $135 dollars, stumps for $160 dollars, and gloves for $29 dollars. Tierney Werner requested $220 dollars for ACEMS reimbursement. Johnathan Appel requested $500 dollars for condoms on behalf of the SHE s. Richard Park, representing ACES, requested $50 dollars for intro meeting food and $15 dollars for publicity. Tomi Williams requested $50 dollars for intro meeting food for the Amherst Consulting Group. PAW requested $110 dollars for polaroid films for their dog days event. Karen Blake, representing Women s Rugby, requested 5 hotel rooms on three different nights for a total of $2, dollars. Siraj Sindhu requested an additional $96.39 dollars from the Senate Fund arts committee. RJ Kermes moved to add to the discretionary funding requests to the BC recommendations. Vote to add the discretionary funding requests to the BC recommendations. Hao Liu presented the BC recommendations for the week. Richard Park moved to approve the BC recommendations. Johnathan seconded this motion. Vote to approve BC recommendations.

2 Richard moved to fund the Senate Fund spending request. Vote to fund the Senate Fund spending request. IV. JC Alternates Abigail Xu asked for senate approval of five JC alternates. The prioritised list she suggested is as follows: (1) Enkhnasan Enkhbol 15, (2) Bryson Kacha 15, (3) Thais Correia 16, (4) Erik Christianson 15E, and (5) Molly Jordan. They ve all been contacted and agreed to be alternates. Blaine Werner asked what the rationale was for how they were ordered. Abigail said that the first two on the list have the most experience with senate matters. Ali Rohde said that she thinks that the alternates should not be people who were also so tied up in the drama from senate last year. Both Bryson and Nasa were involved and suggested maybe moving them further down on the list. Blaine asked what alternates are responsible for. Abigail explained that constitutionally, they re only responsibility is to show up when they are called to duty. However, they picked alternates that stay up to date on school matters anyway. Chico Kosber said that he Joshua Ferrer would be a good choice because they shouldn t just select alternates with the same view of the senate. Siraj Sindhu said that he disagrees with the nomination of Joshua because he was so involved in controversy last year. It would also throw off the gender ratio of the list. He suggested replacing Molly with Joyce Wamala. Blaine said that he would like to see Bryson as the first alternate due to his constitutional knowledge. He asked about the urgency of this matter. Abigail stated that she wants to confirm this list tonight. Richard asked that if the JC is down one person, will the alternate be permanent. Abligail answered that no there will be an election to fill the empty spot on the JC. Abigail proposed a new list to be proposed. The prioritised list is as follows: (1) Thais, (2) Bryson, (3) Erik, (4) Enkhnasan, and (5) Joyce Wamala 17.

3 RJ suggested tabling this discussion until they heard back from Joyce on her interest in involvement. This idea was rejected. Sam Keaser asked why Bryson was prioritised ahead of Erik. Chico announced that Joyce accepted the nomination. RJ Kermes moved to approve the JC alternates list. Blaine objected to the motion. He stated that the first two alternates are the most important and he likes the idea of those with more senate experience being at the top of the list. Abigail switched Erik and Bryson agreeing with what Sam said. Richard approved of the list, he thought that the fact that some of them don t have experience with senate isn t a problem. For instance, Thais will do everything she can to stay up to date. Last year she stayed for the entire length of senate meetings and provided a lot of insightful comments. He also said that Erik is an interesting choice because he served on senate a couple years ago so he is removed from what has been happening lately. Blaine responded to Richard s statement, saying he disagreed and thinks that people with the most senate experience should be placed first. Roll call vote to approve the JC alternates list as follows: (1) Thais, (2) Erik, (3) Bryson, (4) Enkhnasan, and (5) Joyce. V. Constitutional Review I Johnathan Appel, Peter Crane, Sam Keaser, Olivia Pinney and Tomi Williams presented their suggestions for constitutional review from the summer. Each team met twice over the summer and was given specific topics to consider. This week Sam, Tomi and Peter will present their suggestions and next week another group of senators will do the same. Senate will hold a town hall where students and speak on what they think about the changes. Sam suggested changing the preamble to by virtue of matriculation to the College to replace the current language that discusses paying the student activities fee. He also suggested having E students split their senate votes between the class years they are between and they may be able to run for senate for either class. He couldn t vote for himself in the past election because he had to vote for the class of Olivia suggested eliminating class based voting entirely.

4 Ali thought that this amendment would not be feasible in our current voting system, she suggested having them vote twice. Sam stated that he doesn t want to add a second step for students to have to fulfill in order to vote for who they want to represent them. Sam also revisited the current absence policy for the senate. He suggested that the first two absences count regardless of the reason, and the third absence would be up to the discretion of the Vice President to determine what constitutes an emergency. Chico asked what the policy will be regarding exams. Sam said he hasn t thought of that yet. Juan Gabriel Delgado Montes asked if we could incorporate a tardiness into the constitution Siraj asked if a senator lets the Vice President know ahead of time, does it count as an absence. Sam answered yes, letting the Vice President know ahead of time is more of just a courtesy. KC Fussell asked that if the third absence is a fluke, but the other two were legitimate reasons to be absent, does the third instance count as ground for removal. Sam answered yes, he is working off of the thought process that if a senator already know that they ve missed that many meetings already, it is their responsibility to show up. Abigail suggested requiring JC members to attend senate because everyone on JC agrees that this is problematic. Kyra Ellis-Moore suggested changing the word emergency to legitimate reason because the previous does not seem to fit. Richard argued that senators are students first and that there should be half absences allowed for TA sessions, especially if it is right before an exam. Sam said he s still for counting absences for TA sessions because senate is a big commitment that should be respected. Kyra stressed the importance of keeping the constitution simple. Ali agreed with Richard, exams should come ahead of senate. They should also stress that academics come first.

5 RJ questioned how athletics fit in when people are discussing academics. Vice Presidents could have varying definitions for what constitutes a legitimate reason and whether athletics fit in that category. Tierney expressed that nothing should be codified for excuses. People need to communicate with the secretary directly and codified excuses would just be exploited. Tomi presented his suggestions for constitutional changes. He stated that the senate projects should not be reported to the JC chair, they should be reported to the Vice President. If there is an issue where a senator did not complete their senate project, the Vice President would then submit a complaint to the JC. Tobi Oni-Orisan aked what if the senate project is completed within the first semester, would senators have to submit a proposal. Tomi answered that in that case they re done and they don t have anything to worried about. Tomi suggested adding language to the constitution prohibiting candidates from providing students with the technology needed to vote. Blaine questioned the whether it is realistic to prohibit representatives of campaigns from doing this because candidates can not necessarily keep a friend from doing this without their knowledge. Olivia said that one of her suggestions includes setting up voting booths in Val to make access to the polls easier. Sam expressed support for this change. Tomi presented a proposal to clarify what happens in the case of a removal from office in order to avoid further confusion. He also stated that there needs to be clarification about what exactly referenda can do. They should not be able to overturn JC decisions or remove elected officials from office. Abigail said that there are a lot of times that JC decisions can be contentious. There should be a check on the JC because they are also capable of making a mistake. She thinks that referenda should be able to overturn a decision and considers this a problematic change. Savanna West stated that when two-thirds of senators are needed to overturn a decision and this action is prevented by one vote, that is problematic. She said she is worried that only giving senate this power is dangerous.

6 Sam said that students might have no knowledge of the constitution and thinks that this is a good amendment. Students should exercise their power by amending the constitution. Olivia said that in order to overturn a JC decision, you should have to make a substantive change to the constitution in addition. Siraj stated that if students wish to change the language of the constitution, they should attend a senate meeting and explain the changes they wish to make. This is much more preferential than a referendum. Peter submitted his assessment from his constitutional review. He suggested changing the constitutional language to enforce committee attendance and establish a mechanism for keeping track of attendance. Richard asked why two was selected for the number of absences allowed for committees. Peter said it was because committees meet less than senate does. KC said it should be noted that its two absences per committee. Sam asked how attendance would be kept in faculty committees. Virginia asked if a committee comes up with their own policy for attendance, does it has to be approved by senate. The answer was no. Peter suggested striking the language on the appointments board entirely because he has served on this committee and the procedure in the constitution has not been used for years. VI. CAB Survey Sheron Terho asked for approval of a survey that CAB wants to send to the student body. Sam praised the use of google forms. He also thinks the language (formerly known as luau) should be deleted. Abigail said that 2018s will not know what many of these are and asked if there could be a short description. Sam said having students select their class year at the beginning of the survey will qualify their answers and removes the concern about first years not knowing exactly what each event is. Savanna asked if theres a way to set events on a calendar because people have been asking when luau/island in the sun is and nobody has had any idea.

7 Richard moved to approve the CAB survey. Vote to approve the CAB survey. VII. Arts Committee (3 senators) Rama said that Arts Committee is a great committee and its a way to connect students all over campus through art. They brought art to Keefe and sponsored concerts on campus. It meets once a month, twice at most. Claire Jia, Rama Hagos, and Siraj Sindu were nominated and elected. VIII. College Council (1 per class) Sophie Delfeus said that she really enjoyed being on this committee because it allows for collaboration between Deans, Reslife, faculty, and students and reflects on how the entire campus feels. The committee meets in theory once a week, however last year this was not the case. Sam stressed the importance of this committee to be a voice for the students. For the class of 2015, Blaine Werner and Kyra Ellis-Moore were nominated. For the class of 2016, Johnathan Appel and Ali Rohde were nominated For the class of 2017, Sophie Delfeus, Olivia Pinney, Tobi Oni-Orisan, Karen Blake, and Katarina Padilla Cruz were nominated. Kyra Ellis-Moore, Johnathan Appel, and Sophie Delfeus were elected. IX. Reports a. Committee Reports Blaine, representing the Committee on Education Policy, reported that they discussed requiring faculty evaluations for senior faculty and plan to figure out the proper way to go about it. They are trying to encourage the faculty that this matters to students. Christina Won, representing the Discipline Committee, reported that the committee met with the new Dean Gendron and he was very nice.

8 Siraj, representing the Sexual Respect Task Force, they discussed climate surveys on the college environment concerning sexual respect and the college is still under federal investigation by the office of civil rights. They are also working on furthering bystander training on campus. b. General Announcements RJ said he will get information on a campus subscription to the Wall Street Journal for next week. Blaine looked over input from student survey on housing and asked for permission to present it to the senate, Office of Student Life, and Suzanne Coffey. Sam said Megan Lyster will be coming to senate for Social Innovation Training on October 6th. Kyra announced that the first DivOH is this weekend and to look out for the high school students. Blaine reported that Suzanne Coffey and Dean Vasquez want to help senate more c. Officer Reports X. New Business Christina said that at-large committee applications have typically gone out after first years have been elected. However, she would like to send this out before then and in the case that a first year is selected, they can bow out and a new student can be chosen. Abigail reported that people still think she s the treasurer. She also stated that the JC will be meeting this week. Hao reported that there is a new check request form. He stated that BC meets permanently on Thursday in Chapin Juan Gabriel met with Dean Lopez who is reenvisioning orientation. The orientation planning is a clean slate. He also said that him, him, and Alex Vasquez will be meeting to look at the Keeling document. Tobi asked for unanimous support to send a survey to the student body about switching to gmail. He will be drafting language this week. XI. Approving the Minutes

9 Sam amended the minutes to add Megan Lyster s last name. Richard moved to approve minutes from May 5, May 7, and September 8. Vote to approve minutes from May 5, May 7, and September 8. XII. Adjournment 11:18 PM