AAS Senate Meeting Minutes Date: 2/17/2014 Meeting begins: 8:41 p.m. I. Attendance II. Public Comment None. III.Emergency Budgetary Requests The ACES President requested $3500 dollars in honorarium to bring Robert Herjavec to campus on April 22nd. A motion was made to separate the ACES request to be discussed later in the meeting. Vote to separate the ACES request. Anime Club requested $27 dollars for four tickets to see a movie at Amherst Cinema on Sunday February 23rd. A motion was made to add the request of the Anime Club to the Budgetary Recommendations. Vote to add the Anime Club request to the Budgetary Recommendations. IV. Budgetary Committee Recommendations Abigail Xu presented the recommendations for club funding which were discussed at the Budgetary Committee meeting. Chris Friend expressed concern that a request made by the Public Health Collaborative for cookie decorations might not be eligible to receive funding from the Senate. Chris Friend moved to separate the request of the Public Health Collaborative from the Budgetary Recommendations. Bryson Kacha seconded the motion. Vote to separate the request of the Public Health Collaborative.
There was a request in the Budgetary Recommendations from the Amherst College Republicans for an honorarium to bring Robert Herjavec to campus in the spring. This event will be co-sponsored by ACES, who requested funding earlier in the meeting. Both requests were considered later in the meeting. Amani Ahmed moved to separate the request of the Amherst College Republicans from the Budgetary Recommendations. Vote to separate the request of the Amherst College Republicans. Andre Wang moved to pass the recommendations made by the Budgetary Committee. Roll call vote to pass the the Budgetary Recommendations. The request for honorariums by ACES and Amherst College Republicans was revisited by the Senate. The Amherst College Republicans requested $6,499 dollars in honorarium and ACES requested $3,500 dollars in honorarium. An outside non-profit, the Young Americans Foundation, wants to help fund the event. They helped fund the Newt Gingrich event which was very successful so now they wish to help Amherst hold another event. Rob Lucido will be meeting with President Martin to request funding from her as well. ACES also hopes to give the winner of their annual pitch competition a consultation with Herjavec when he visits campus. A motion was made to fund the honorariums in full. Chris did not think that the Senate should agree to fund the event when a fee has not been concretely determined. Rob is still waiting for Robert Herjavec s people to officially accept the offer. He thought the Senate should wait until the cost is confirmed. Amani agreed with Chris s concerns. She also asked for clarification about the constitutional requirement of a referendum for requests exceeding $10,000 dollars. She thought that the request for $9,999 seemed like intentionally avoiding the referendum. Rob argued that he is approaching this event in a fiscally responsible way. He has organized two events in the past with requesting this exact amount. He explained that they can only hold the April 22nd date for a week before it will be taken off of reserve. He could have came in and asked for money and sent the event to the referendum, but he did not want to request this large of a sum of money.
Noah Gordon explained that he believes that the $10,000 dollars rule was made because the creators of the AAS constitution were comfortable with funding $10,000. They were not comfortable with higher amounts. The $10,000 dollar limit was intentional. Noah did a straw poll which determined that the debate should continue. Richard Park argued that the $9,999 dollars is not an uncomfortable sum of money to ask for. He thought that this event will have a large attendance and stressed that Robert has been very successful with organizing events in the past. Chico Kosber was concerned that Rob will have to come back and ask for more money. Rob said he will not come back to get money from AAS and will get money from other sources if more resources are needed. Abigail expressed her support for this event and supported funding it in full. Andre had the same concerns as Chris. He understood the time constraints and argued that it is the responsibility of the club to plan ahead better so time is less of a concern. Chris did not trust that Rob will not come back and request more money even though at this time he says he won t. He does not want to trap the Senate by committing to an event without a set cost. Ali Rohde did not believe that there was any danger in funding the honorariums and believed the Senate should pass the requests. Noah did a straw poll which determined that the debate should continue. Nica Siegel argued that since there is not an exact cost determined yet, the Seante would be breaking precedent. Kasope Aleshinloye supported the motion to fund in full because the Senate consists of representatives of the student body. If the event ended up having to go to referendum in the future, its not that big of a deal. Vote to fund the requests of ACES and Amherst College Republicans. Result: Passes. The Senate revisited the request made by the Public Health Collaborative for supplies to decorate cookies. Karen Blake explained that the club is divided into subcommittees and this meeting will help make the group more cohesive. They will discuss stress management at the meeting.
Abigail questioned whether the event is a regular club meeting or a special event. Chris Friend moved to fund zero dollars for the cookie decorations requested by the Public Health Collaborative. Vote to fund zero dollars for the cookie decorations. Result: Passes. V. Internationalization Committee Report and Feedback Andrew Mowry and Juan Gabriel Delgado Montes presented to the Senate what the Internationalization committee has been working on. One of the goals of the committee is that they are looking to increase participation in study abroad. They have been looking at participation trends in study abroad programs and how advising and peer influence affects study abroad rates. They have also been looking at which student groups have the highest rates and lowest rates of students who choose to study abroad. Juan presented on his curriculum subcommittee which looks at how other universities have worked to internationalize the education they offer. Connecticut College has a center that works specifically to help you internationalize your major. He mentioned that all the minutes from their meetings are online. Many meeting with faculty and administration will be happening in the upcoming week. George Tepe asked about the application process for international students and the college s commitment to need-blind admissions for international students. He asked if the college should be seeking out international students and bringing them to campus instead of sending Amherst students away to internationalize the education here. Noah asked if they have investigated if language classes and theme houses that foster an international environment are effective. He thinks that language houses and culture houses have a lot of potential and should have more institutional support. Andrew stated that his study abroad subcommittee is working on making the study abroad program more user friendly. The leader of the program is working on reducing the number of approved programs to increase faculty participation, institute quality control, and potentially develop a relationship between Amherst and these programs. VI. Diversity and Community Committee Report and Feedback Adrianna Turner and Shruthi Badri presented to the Senate what the Diversity and Community committee has been working on. Adrianna stated that her subcommittee has been looking at how to make Amherst College a stronger community. They have been looking at groups on campus which have good communities for an example to emulate.
Geology majors and RC have been very good examples. They also have looked at deficits of diversity in the school. She addressed that Amherst is good at getting diversity through the door but the committee is looking at how this diversity could be integrated more into the community. They hope to help people from every background to thrive at amherst. It is an eighteen member committee consisting staff, faculty, and four students who are split up into subcommittees. Shruthi s subcommittee has worked a lot on the mission statement. They have also considered transforming the roll of the Dean of First Years. They are looking at making the Dean of Admissions alternate with another administrator so that they switch off being the Dean of First Years and the Dean of Admissions, since the Dean of Admissions knows the new class better than anyone else. Adrianna s subcommittee has been working on examining hiring and retention within the college. Diverse faculty are much more likely to decide to leave Amherst. The subcommittee is trying to find why this is the case and hopes to keep faculty of color at campus. She said that the greatest challenge is getting departments invested in fostering community and diversity. They hope to create different avenues for faculty to continue learning and become better at teaching. Noah thought that the committee should consider reimagining the role of the RC especially in first year housing. Adrianna said that reimagining the residence halls has been discussed. She pointed out that the socials are glaringly not diverse. Her subcommittee has discussed how make residence halls diverse after the first year. Nica asked if the committee has been giving any consideration to the diversity of ability. Adrianna stated that she did not think that ability has been discussed in their meetings. VII. Budgetary Requests Continued VI. Reports The pre-business group applied for funding for food under the $200 dollar food rule for their networking event. The food is not for the speakers exclusively. Tinsae Zerihun moved to fund $200 dollars for food for the pre-business group. Vote to fund food for the pre-business group.
1. Committee Reports Matt DeButts is working on his Senate project to get his syllabi database compiled. The Library Committee, represented by KC, met on Friday. They discussed the offices on South side of Frost. They hope to give priority to professors working for tenure who need a place to work during their busy 4th-8th years. The committee also wants the Dean of Faculty to be in charge of faculty carrels so guy running the library does not have the responsibility. KC is working on senate project to get water fountains on A and B level. The IT Policy Committee, represented by Chico, discussed what technology they would prioritize in the event of a changing budget. The housing subcommittee of the Committee on the Integration of Curricular and Co- Curricular Learning, represented by George, met to discuss fostering community neighborhoods in upperclassmen housing. They are planning to have leadership councils and encourage community in fun ways. They are hoping to make community more widespread across campus. They are also looking at other colleges for resident life models. The Sexual Respect Task Force, represented by Siraj Sindhu, is working to put warnings on class materials that have potentially triggering material. They have been talking about restructuring orientation and are concerned about the relatively short amount of content regarding sexual respect. 2. General Announcements Peter Crane stated that some Senators met with the consultants at a lunch last Friday. They asked about resident life and the Senate s relationship with administration. They were very attentive and will be returning to campus two more times this semester. At the end of the semester they will be presenting a report of their findings. Siraj said that the Ask Big Questions campaign is going really well. He facilitated a conversation that went over the allotted time because the discussion was so engaging. Richard expressed interest in having a Val Appreciation Day and the Senate supported the idea. George announced that Biddy will be attending Pub Night on Thursday and planned to have her talk about her academic career. 3. Officer Reports
Tierney Werner is meeting with Chief Carter about new purchasing new vans. Abigail is working to see if there is money in the reserves to buy the vans. Noah stressed the importance of voting promptly in emergency votes conducted over email. George thought that there should be another Dean of Students position to help with the organization of the office and the enormous workload. The consultants are woking with Suzanne Coffey to deal with the problem. There was a meeting with the residents of the socials to prevent overcrowding. They discussed only allowing residents of the socials to swipe in after 10 PM. He also reported that there have been less transports to the hospital for alcohol poisoning since the new party policy has been implemented. VII. Committee Election: IT Policy Nasaa Enkhbold was unopposed and elected to serve on the IT Policy committee. VIII. Approve the Minutes KC Fussell moved to approve the minutes from the Senate meeting on February 10, 2014. Vote to approve Senate minutes. IX. New Business Ali was talking to a SHE who was concerned that the dryer cycle being set on 45 minutes is not a sufficient amount of time. Noah told her to talk to the Service Desk about what can be done. X. Adjournment 10:36 P.M.