AAS Senate Meeting Minutes. Tierney Werner said she can him the name of the lady that can help him set up the ListServ.

Transcription

1 AAS Senate Meeting Minutes Date: 10/20/2014 Meeting begins: 8:36 p.m. I. Attendance II. Public Comment Peter Crane brought the issue to the senate that students have to reapply to Amherst after medical leave or study abroad. He stated that this may be a problem we should address. III. Archery Club Mashi Zaman representing Archery Club explained the experience he has had in starting his club. In early september he applied for the club to be approved. He didn t even know the club had been approved until he received an from the senate to him coming to speak. Since then he has started to look into holding meetings. He has found someone who could instruct the group and has been talking to an archery range in Amherst town. Tierney Werner said she can him the name of the lady that can help him set up the ListServ. Blaine Werner hold him to Greg Dinardo if he would like to use the athletic fields and the AAS secretary for van reservations. RJ Kermes asked if he is interested in competing or if this is just a recreational club. Mashi said it was recreational. Chico asked if he s reached out to Smith or UMass clubs. Abigail said that he should go to the BC meeting to request money for the intro meeting to gage interest. Then they can go from there to get equipment. Mashi said that at the end of next semester he would like to have a club that meets regularly on campus or somewhere easily accessible to campus. He asked how he would use Powerhouse. Virginia said that he could the powerhouse committee. IV. Amherst College Republicans

2 Robert Lucido said that they were provided $13,000 dollars to bring in a big name speaker this semester. He hoped that they would add Mosab Hassan Yousef to the speaker list. His documentary, The Green Prince, just won Best Documentary at the Sundance Film Festival. Hao Liu explained that the College Republicans submitted a list of names when they originally asked for $13,000 dollars and this person does not fit into the same category. The money was to give them flexibility to secure a big name speaker. He did not think that they should fund $13,000 grand for this event when they funded $9,999 dollars for Newt Gingrich. Robert said that this was a mischaracterisation of their past event. While senate funded $9,999 dollars for Newt, they got $25,000 dollars outside of senate to get him here. He also argued that this speaker is of the same caliber. Siraj Sindu asked where we got the additional $25,000 dollars for the Newt Gingrich event. Robert explained that money came from Smith, Mount Holyoke, UMass, an outside non-profit, and other sources on campus. Yousef would cost $15,000 dollars. Siraj asked why they need senate funding at all. Robert explained that in order to get money from the nonprofit for the event, the school has to also invest. Chico said that we shouldn t be aligning our college with Mosab. Robert said that it is dangerously inappropriate to censor one side of the debate and when Ali Rohde said that we should take into account what Chico said but we shouldn t disallow someone from coming if they are controversial. She also addressed Siraj stating that they shouldn t penalize someone for getting money from outside sources. Sam said that this speaker is controversial and they should strongly consider this when spending the students money. Tierney moved to fund $7500 dollars for the Amherst College Republicans event and return $5500 dollars to the discretionary budget. Rama asked if this has to go to referendum. Hao said they don t have to because it was part of their budget. Senate could send this to referendum if they wanted to, however.

3 Alex Southmayd appreciates the technicalities, however, when they made the list this guy was not on the radar when they made the list. this guy fits caliber, would have included him Caroline Katba said that she does not feel safe with this person on campus. RJ said that they should reallocate the funds and approve it. Siraj moved to table discussion until after BC recommendations. Vote to table discussion until after BC recommendations. V. Budgetary Committee Recommendations Jake Vitale stated that his band is playing at the Powerhouse this weekend and they want to hire someone they worked with before to do sound for the event. He requested $600 dollars for this. Richard Park said that they can t fund requests for clubs that are exclusive. Virginia said that she is not familiar with BC rules. However, they have a problem that the Powerhouse committee does not have a big enough budget to support instances like this. She didn t understand how we could hire a band but can t have our own students entertain other students. Sam asked if he could reapportion another $600 dollars to the powerhouse committee budget to do with what they wish. Hao said that in the past if students want to host concerts, we tell them to talk to WAMH. WAMH should come to us for this event. It is dangerous to keep adding money to the powerhouse budget. Reynaldo Peno asked if the powerhouse could just fund this request through the committee. RJ moved to zero the request. Blaine moved to substitute the motion with a request for $600 dollars as the WAMH program director. Hao said WAMH can t have more money, they could maybe reallocate their money though. Virginia said that when WAMH submitted their budget they didn t know that they should hae to account for the powerhouse.

4 Addie Curran said that the senate was being extremely bureaucratic towards a situation that they don t have a precedent before. If senate would pay an outside band to perform at a powerhouse, it doesn t make sense that we should disallow our own students from entertaining other students at a much lower production cost. Sam stated that BC should talk about this at their meeting. Richard asked for a straw poll to determine whether they wanted to fund this or not. Claire Jia asked if AC After Dark was still a thing where students can plan an event and this would be a really cool use of that program. Karen Blake said that this is something we haven t had to deal with in the past and the BC should figure it out. Karen moved to table discussion to this week s BC meeting. Vote to table discussion to this week s BC meeting. Mashi requested funding for introductory meeting food and publicity, a total of $65 dollars. Tierney moved to fund the Archery Club s request. Vote to fund the Archery Club s request. Blaine requested $150 dollars for 3 rooms for 12 people for 2 nights so the Water Polo team can attend club national championships, a total of $900 dollars. Marie Lambert, on behalf of the First Generation Mentorship Programme, requested $65 dollars for introductory meeting and publicity. A motion was made to fund the Water Polo and First Generation Mentorship Programme requests. Vote to fund the Water Polo and First Generation Mentorship Programme requests. Richard moved to fund 15 tickets for the Dalai Lama talk in Boston at $103 dollars. Blaine objected to this motion.

5 Blaine explained that this is not what the student activities fee is supposed to support. Its supposed to support activities that improve the lives of students on campus. RJ said that the Budgetary Committee recommended funding this. Vote to fund 15 tickers for the Dalai Lama talk in Boston at $103 dollars. Roll call vote to fund Budgetary Committee recommendations. VI. Amherst College Republicans continued Obinna Ukogu asked what kinds of events we fund and was confused about why we would fund the Dalai Lama tickets and not Amherst College Republicans. Tierney moved to reallocate $7500 dollars to Amherst College Republicans for this event and reallocate $5500 dollars to open discretionary. Tierney also explained that she thinks this event should be funded and any arguments against funding the event are not logically sound. Blaine asked if this is how the reallocation of funds work. Tierney said that this didn t even need to come to senate. Hao could have decided that this was within the constitution, but he decided to ask senate for their opinion with the permission of BC. Sam said he would recommend voting no because the speaker they are trying to bring is not of the same caliber and he is not a contemporary moderate republican like the others on the list. Sheron Terho said that there have been controversy surrounding a lot of speakers that have been brought to campus. If we do fund this, students should have a say on whether they want this speaker on campus. Siraj said we should be careful with public interest event and be careful with what we are doing with other peoples money. He asked what this speaker has to do with the republican party/ Alex Southmayd said that there is no reason for anyone to feel unsafe with this speaker on campus because there is no substantial grounds for that concern. He has been given political asylum from the United States and it would not have done so if they perceived him to be a threat to anyone. He responded to Siraj saying that the event doesn t have anything to do with Republican Party, and they aren t limited to only bringing republicans to campus. The senate

6 does not make value judgements on events and added that Yousef has a very unique viewpoint and insight that no other speaker could bring to campus. Chico said that we should not hold an event that only discusses one side of an argument. The senate should see if there is opposition to this event and gage interest in a measurable way. Robert asked what other groups on campus discuss both sides of the story in their event. Tierney addressed Sam s comment that Yousef is not of the same caliber as Mitt Romney with that fact that she s suggesting funding almost 50% less. She said that this could not be tabled and brought forward in a different motion because the funds are not there. She clarified that the BC offers equal opportunity and equal funding without discrimination. If a pro-palestinian group came to request funding for an event, they should also fund them. She stated that the discussion in this room is disrespectful. As a liberal arts school so focused on representing minorities, the people in this room are being hypocritical. She responded to Caroline stating that if anyone is concerned about their safety because of this event, that should be brought to ACPD and left to their expertise. She responded to Chico, who expressed a need to see if their was interest in a measurable way, saying that if this event is zero d she will take the minutes of this meeting and if there is an event she will go around campus, see if there is opposition, and that will serve as a measurable way to see that certain people will not be in align with other peoples beliefs. This is in the interest of the public so people can be aware of other people s beliefs for when they get to the real world. In light of Patrick Moore s speech, she suggested that there should be a formalized letter sent out to all speakers being brought to the Amherst campus banning threatening speech. Katarina Cruz Padilla asked for a straw poll to see how people feel about this motion. Juan Gabriel said that straw polls shouldn t see if a motion is going to pass. Claire Jia said that the Amherst College Republicans can bring whoever they want to campus but if people feel unsafe that is a concern. RJ said that this absolutely should not go to referendum. Blaine reminded the senate of the performance of the last event of the Amherst College Republicans. Kyra Ellis-Moore told Robert and Alex that she felt uncomfortable with them saying that Caroline doesn t need to feel unsafe because of this speaker and undermining her experiences. She also thought that Alex insinuated that converting to christianity is a qualifier to becoming an American which made her uncomfortable.

7 Reynaldo asked if it would be better to bring this person to campus over another speaker with bigger name recognition. Robert responded saying that the only other person with the a comparable life experience would be Netanyahu. He also said that he could not get anyone else because he has spent all summer trying to organize this event. Caroline said that Netanyhu is a political figure, this man is not. She told Robert that she didn t know the last time he feared for his life. She then asked the senate how much they value students lives on campus and asked how she should go further with this. Tierney told her to go to the ACPD if she ever feels unsafe. Alex the walk out needs to be put into context. Those that walked out took up seats from others who wished to attend. He responded to Kyra, clarifying that he had no intention of trying to convince people that Yousef was American by stating that he was Christian. He was giving them more information about him to show that he is not one-sided. He also responded to Caroline by stating that he respects when people feel unsafe, but he could simply walk into any senate funding request and say that he is in danger whether it is reasonable or not. She may truly feel endangers but there is nothing dangerous about this speaker and there is no convincing evidence to that regard. Olivia argued that funding speakers based off their views is problematic. Siraj Sindhu moved to move to vote. Roll call vote to move to vote. Roll call vote to fund $7500 dollars for the ACR event, reallocating $5500 dollars to discretionary. Result: Failed. Sam Keaser moved to reallocate zero dollars for this event. RJ addressed the thought that this speaker is on the fringe. The BC looked into the speaker and he is in no way alarmingly radical. His documentary won the Sundance Film Festival in a category that has previously been won by John Stewart. Peter said that he had hoped to see one of the other speakers and hoped that the College Republicans would try to organize that for next semester. Zoe Kayton said that its not a value judgement if people are afraid for their safety

8 Roll call vote to reallocate zero dollars for this event. VII. Chief of Staff appointment Tomi Williams asked senate to confirm his appointment of Tommy Raskin as chief of staff.. Vote to confirm the presidential appointment of Tommy Raskin as chief of staff. VIII. Budgetary Committee (2 FY Senators) Budgetary Committee meets once a week to determine the senate budget and discretionary spending. Fawzi Itani, Scott Nelson, Tasha Kim, and Will Jackson were nominated. Fawzi and Will were elected. IX. Bylaw Amendments (RJ & Tierney) RJ presented the two suggestions for amendments to the BC bylaws he and Tierney made two weeks ago. Sam moved to approve the language. RJ explained that there will now be a half hour BC meeting before every senate meeting to eliminate the time spent on emergency requests during the meeting. Vote to approve the language. X. Spring Concert Survey Peter Crane explained that senate requires language for surveys to be approved before being sent. This gages interest for the spring concert. Vote to pass survey language. XI. Reports

9 a. Committee Reports Kyra, representing the Sexual Respect Task Force, reported that they are still working on the sexual respect climate survey. This will roll out at the begining of november and they need to get as many people to respond as possible and may need senate to help. Kyra, representing College Counsel, reported that they will be electing a freshman representative next monday. They are deciding on the college calendar for the next three years. Siraj, representing the Sexual Respect Task Force, stated that they are working with the Frost archives to create an exhibit about student sexual respect advocacy and asked if anyone is interested in helping to contact him. Tierney, representing the Committee on Discipline, reported that they had their first meeting and were trained. They have their first hearing coming up. Sam, representing the Trustee Advisory Committee on Honorary Degrees, reported that they selected the recipients for this graduating class. Peter, representing the Transportation Committee, said to make sure none of your friends book airport transportation for Thanksgiving break. Peter, representing the Traditions Committee, reported that they met and and discussed a variety of issues including the mascot. b. General Announcements Tierney and RJ would like to have a lunch with new senators who are interested in understanding how BC works. c. Officer Reports Juan Gabriel announced that the Amherst Mobile App is already up and we will be getting an tonight. He stated that he really enjoyed having archery here today and wants to look into buying cookies for senate guests. Tomi met with the directors of the resource centers. He is still looking for a Campus Inclusion Officer. The resource centers expressed that they want to know rules for applying for BC funding. He expressed the need to beef up IM sports and is planning research the current representation on the Board of Trustees. He is also working on ensuring that there is storage in new dorms. He stated something to keep in mind with the conversation with the Amherst College Republicans is that it shows true character of our body to treat even those we don t agree with with respect.

10 XII. Approve the minutes Obinna asked that the spelling of his last name be corrected. Blaine moved to approve minutes from the the October 6, 2014 meeting. Vote to approve minutes from the the October 6, 2014 meeting. XIII. New Business Sam clarified that abstentions should only be used when your interests conflict with the vote or if you are absent. They should be used very rarely and senator must make tough decisions. Olivia thanked Juan Gabriel for dealing with everyone today. Juan Gabriel stated that he liked how he saw senate working with Mashi to accomplish his goals at the beginning of the meeting. He wants to have more discussions with the student body. In the future he asked senators to speak only about themselves and not to speak about another person in order to avoid the disrespectful remarks that were made. As senators, we never should seem like we vehemently disagree with a guest in senate. XIV. Adjournment 11:32 PM