General Assembly

Minutes from March 17, 2008

Topics: President Skotheim, Cultural Graduations, Retention Groups

Associated Students of Occidental College

General Assembly Minutes

March 17th, 2008

12:30-1:30 pm, Johnson 200

Minutes by Chelsey Brack

Senate Members Present: Tilak Gupta, Pat McCredie, Andrew DeBlock, Monikah Baltimore, Dominique Kirkwood, Mike Myers, Xochiltl Ramos, Ken Smutny, Ryan Bowen (ASOC President)

Guests Present: David Martinez, Cameron Yuen-Shore, Tessa D'Arcangelew, Anne Beckett, John Eaton, Ali Raymond, Kether Haden, Karina Viaud, Rachel Kay, Tiffanee Hopf, Maureen Regan, Bobby Rodgers, Barbara Avery, Mike Groener, Robert Skotheim, Nick Lee, Jake Stevens, Jesus Maldonado, Chelsey Brack (19)

Paolo opened the meeting at 12:34 PM. ASOC President Ryan Bowen filled in for Noel Hollowell as she was absent from the meeting. Paolo said that the General Assembly is the official student forum of ASOC and is a place where all students are welcome to address campus policies, raise student issues, and begin the process of developing comprehensive solutions to student concerns. It is also a place that recognizes that the student body is one of many groups that help to form the community of Occidental College. In this respect the General Assembly is a tool of the entire community to begin dialogue and the collective process of working together to solve problems. In other words, it is a forum for students to communicate and work with students; it is a forum for students to communicate and work with the administration; and it is a forum for the administration to communicate and work with the student body. Finally, the General Assembly is a place that recognizes that the people who make up the Occidental community vary greatly in perspectives and ideals. For this reason the General Assembly will operate as a forum that encourages dialogue and debate, but will under no circumstances become a forum for personal attacks, hate speech or disrespectful conduct.

1. President Skotheim, Q & A Session

Paolo introduced President Robert A. Skotheim, who came to us from Whitman College. He said that he has been locked in his office mainly since taking up President Prager's position, and hasn't had much of a chance to interact with students. He said that his office will be open tomorrow from 3-4 pm for students to drop in and ask questions. He feels that his position entails that he is being helpful to the people who are here, already working as administrators, faculty members, etc. Everyone is supporting one another to support the students. The president plays a sort of facilitating role. The more important long term responsibility he feels he has over the next 15 minutes is to help select a long term, or permanent president, of Occidental. The school has been handicapped since Ted Mitchell resigned in 2005, without a steady presidential figure. He acknowledged that the president does not have an enormous impact on your education, but he feels like having one steady president during your college education is important to students. He said they are going to make the campus the most attractive it can be to attract people for the position. The student body is well-selected, the faculty is healthy, and the applicant pool for next year is the biggest in the college's history. The difficulty is with the presidential transitions and the concern is that we appear to be a good place, and a stable place. All the things that the college strives to appear as when attracting students, needs to be represented when we are attracting a president. Oxy is a happy and lively place, its student body and faculty make it this way. It is also a harmonious place, where the faculty and the administrators are stable, and we have show that we offer promise to a new president. He said that students can understand the problem in that we may seem unstable without a long term president lately to help build Occidental.

Jake Stevens asked what the president thought would be the most important points to engage alumni on, President Skotheim said that the best answer to that question is what the alumni expect, what they want to know is - what did the faculty think of itself? Are they self-confident about their role at the college? The alums want to know the relationship of the faculty from when they were there, to today's faculty. Robert said that Occidental has an unusual faculty for its commitment to students and expresses it in supporting the students in reserach, graduate and fellowship applications and searches, etc. The faculty is very concerned with its role as citizens, and was worried that the adversarial nature of the campus needed to be manifested in a way that was not discouraging. The faculty had to properly represent themselves, as a proper governance. The faculty work very hard as teachers as well as scholars, and on governance matters - committees, etc. They want to have a collaborative process. They were very concerned about the endowment, in relation to other colleges and universities, like in Ivy League schools. Oxy's endowment is 1/5 of Pomona's endowment. That gives Pomona the ability not to give out as many student loans. There is a big push towards a fundraising campaign so that Oxy would be on equal footing and could start creating a bigger endowment. Alums had many questions about why President Prager left, but even more questions about where the college is going next in terms of searching for a new president. The financial crisis in the 90s at Occidental is no longer a problem, and they are trying to communicate that to the alums. The percentages of alumni who make contributions are the percentages that are supportive of the school.

Patrick McCredie asked about attrition rates of administrators, plans to stem that flow. Robert said that Barbara and Mike Groener would be better to respond to this. He said that the people who are doing the work, supervised by the president, are not able to speak about the reasons for the turn-over. He said that usually there are two categories of reasons - people at the vice president level are intentionally changing the way their staffs work, not an accident, but an intentional effort to restructure an area or department, which causes people to leave. The other source is that if the institution is not competitive enough, or there are conflicts with the faculty member who leaves. Barbara Avery agreed with what Robert said. She added that also their salaries are not very competitive; so if professors want to leave for a better salary, then they do. She said she is working to increase salaries across departments, and are trying to be competitive. Mike Groener said he had nothing to add to what's already been said. Robert said that financial development is the most competitive office, and every institution has one of these offices. At other institutions, they pay more for the work done in the same financial development office.

Andrew DeBlock asked Robert was he thinks about changing policy of the school, and Robert said that he wasn't trying to do that because he wasn't going to be living here to see the consequences of the changes; it’s not realistic to make those drastic changes.

John Eaton said that the president had stated earlier that the president doesn’t have much influence on the college, doesn’t that make the position less appealing for candidates. Robert said that the president has influence in his vision for the future, to implement that vision, and to appoint people who are supportive of that. When a student shows up on campus, he/she is the beneficiary of all the things that have gone on before you were there - all that stuff you don’t know anything about. The most important influence on students will be other students, second will be the faculty, and third will be the staff. The least important people to you are going to be the trustees, the elaborate governance systems, and unless you happen o have relations directly with the president, then you will not be influenced much by the president. Its not the same as in movies when the president is Mr. Chips, hangs out with the students, the older, gentler soul. When he was appointed president at Whitman, he was the average age at the time - 41. Colleges were very concerned about presidents being young enough to relate to faculty, as well as relate to the students as the presidents were the same age as the parents of the students. There was gravitation to an older group who are more concerned about financial issues and change. The natural relationship is in the classroom, the laboratory, etc. It’s harder and harder for a president to relate to the students if he's not teaching them. The indirect influence that the president has and a short-term president has even less of that influence. Robert said that he is trying to figure out what kind of person will be perfect for the Occidental culture and will fit with the community to help it operate healthily and effectively. In a college it’s all messier and more collegial.

Ali Raymond asked what steps he's taking to make sure that the issue is taken care of. Robert said that concerns need to be expressed, so that they can be put into action, so they can figure out what is of interest. It’s a high-priority concern. The incoming president wants to know what the students are like, etc.

Kether Hayden said she will be an alum soon, and wanted to express her concern for Oxy's commitment to economic diversity and other types of diversity. She is concerned about not losing the commitment to diversity. Robert said that it is a part of what Oxy now is, and when possible presidential candidates view the school, he encouraged her to express her opinion with others to make sure that it is presented to the candidates.

President Skotheim then ended the dialogue because he had other business to attend to.

2. Resolutions

A. Paolo introduced the Patrick McCredie and the Cultural Graduation Proposal

Cultural Graduation Proposal

Patrick McCredie, Junior Class Senator

Introduction:

Cultural Graduation has been a longstanding tradition at Occidental. The event allows graduates to celebrate their cultural heritage and traditions in an intimate atmosphere with family and friends. Furthermore, Latino Grad, API Grad, and Black Grad typify the tenets Occidental proudly embraces. Namely, these graduation ceremonies mirror Occidental’s Mission Statement clauses of Equity and Community. Therefore, the ASOC Senate is asking pertinent administrative departments to permanently institutionalize these time honored graduations by allotting a minimum of $2,500.00 to each ceremony.

Proposal:

Currently, ASOC is responsible for subsidizing a total of $7,500.00 (approximately $2,500.00 per graduation) to Latino Grad, API Grad and Black Grad. For years, ASOC has been an advocate and financier for these graduations via annual consultation with Grad representatives and guaranteed financial support. However, an influx in funding requests from clubs/organization across campus has rendered this situation untenable. Next year, is it unlikely ASOC will commit $7,500.00 (which represents 12.5% of our total budget) to these respective graduation programs. Thus, in accordance with Occidental’s Mission Statement and the financial limitations of ASOC, Senate is proposing the Dean of Students Office guarantee an annual appropriation of at least $7,500.00 to cultural graduations. This institutional assistance will enable ASOC to actively fund more club/organization events and allow administrators to promote the central mission of the college.

ASOC Cultural Graduation Funding 2007-2008:

Cultural Graduation Name:	Total Event Cost:	2007-2008 ASOC Senate Grad Allocation:
Latino Grad	$9,052.00	$2,668.27
API Grad	$7,842.14	$2,451.92
Black Grad	$10,109.00	$2,379.81
TOTAL:	$27,003.14	$7,500.00

Jake Stevens asked if there were some criteria for different groups and graduations, and Patrick said no not really, he is talking to a variety of groups who are looking into have their own graduations. Ali Raymond asked if given the money, are the groups barred from going to the ASOC again or to other fund allocation organizations for more money, and Patrick said yes, ASOC would not allocate any more funds. Naddia Palacios asked if the three chairs of the other graduation committees will be notified of the money they are being allocated, and Patrick and Ryan said yes. Kenna asked what if the Dean of Students can't offer money every year to this group of students, Patrick said that’s why he stipulated that the department must be pertinent and the money must be allocated properly. It’s all subject to change. Kether Hayden clarified that none of the money is actually coming from ASOC, and Patrick said yes, it’s coming from different departments. Ali said she thought it was ridiculous that ASOC does not actually give the money; the resolution doesn't have to be taken seriously. It’s difficult because if students support this proposal, they're not supporting their own graduations. Patrick said that the funding for ASOC should be going to smaller clubs and events; it would be nice if this money were to be coming from the administration, not just the student government. Patrick agrees that the funds allocated are not entirely equitable. The money could be more wisely spent considering the budget constraints. Kether asked if the other departments don’t fund it, will ASOC fund it, and Patrick said that they would be working on negotiations for next year to make it happen. It’s an initiation for future discussions at least. Kenna said that from the Student Life prospective, if these 3 clubs were not able to get their funding from ASOC, as being part of a club or organization. Latino Grad and API Grad are clubs. Patrick added that those clubs are getting extreme preferential treatment, compared to other clubs and organizations.

B. Ryan Bowen and Ken Smutny, the General Assembly Proposal Retention/Support Group

Ryan talked about how many groups have registered as clubs to be able to get funding, otherwise it is extremely difficult. Once again, talking about who is eligible for funds. As a leader of one of the mentioned support groups, taking away funds would be handicapping the students.

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General Assembly Proposal Retention/Support Group

Introduction:

Some students at Oxy struggle to handle the rigors of college, though because of no fault of their own. In some circumstances, these students are students of color, who struggle particularly because of their lack of representation in the campus community. The mission statement of Occidental College recognizes the value of equity in education, saying that “no attribute such as race, ethnicity, gender, religion, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation, age or physical ability should impair anyone’s access to or enjoyment of any feature of Occidental College. Thus equity necessarily entails welcoming the presence of all forms of diversity into the pursuit of excellence.” While equity is mentioned in the mission statement, the college can do more to welcome as well as support underrepresented students throughout their college careers. Currently there are three (4?) groups of said nature: Harambee, Compadres, and Sister Talk.

Proposal:

ASOC believes in the efficacy of support groups for underrepresented students; but, with limited knowledge, short terms, and lack of education, student government leaders are not equipped to support these groups themselves.

Currently, the status of these groups as clubs takes valuable economic resources from other clubs and organizations. As these groups have been supported financially by Oxy’s administration in the past, we propose that administrators and leaders of these groups convene to concretize the financial structure and future status of said support groups. ]

Jake Stevens asked if they are looking for an institutional guarantee. Jesus Maldonado said he was the advisor of Compadres and asked if they had any strategies in terms of the funding. Ryan Bowen said that in terms of Harambee, he wasn't sure. Jesus asked how $125 is really going to affect ASOC if they allocate it. Ryan said he agrees; students and administrators are putting in a lot of grunt work, so it would be a token of support if allocated the funds. Jesus said that Cesar and other group leaders should be here to talk about the support they have been receiving so that we have factual information. Kenna said that she wanted on the record that OSL has been supporting Harambee; it’s not as if the groups are going without support.

Paolo thanked everyone for coming to the GA meeting and encouraged everyone to email the GA at asocga@oxy.edu

Meeting adjourned at 1:29 PM.