General Assembly

Minutes from April 10, 2008

Topics: Vic Egitto, Registrar

Associated Students of Occidental College

General Assembly Minutes

April 10th, 2008

12:30-1:30 pm, Johnson 200

Minutes by Chelsey Brack

Senate Members Present: Tilak Gupta, Andrew DeBlock, Dominique Kirkwood, Ryan Bowen (ASOC President), Rob Calderon, Santiago Mendez, Xochiltl Ramos

Guests Present: Ellis Raskin, Adele Sillyman, Ariel Krasik-Geiger, Zak Stoltz, Spencer Jemelka, Kristin Beck, Justin Young, Sara Fulton-Koerbling, Erika Johnson, Chelsey Brack (10).

Noel Hollowell opened the meeting at 12:07 PM. She and 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. Victor Egitto, Registrar

Victor gave an overview of Reggie; he said it’s not that "mystical;" it’s just the first step in the registration process at Oxy. Now students are in the waitlist period where students are moving off of the waitlists, and it’s an on-going process. It’s the way Oxy has always been, a 1 on 1 with faculty. He opened it up for questions.

Ari Krasik-Geiger talked about a possible transition period, one semester of rising juniors registering first, other semester of rising seniors registering first, etc. so no one grade gets screwed over. Vic said that the college just decided to go ahead and do this, and added another level for rising juniors and seniors to be able to get the classes they wanted. The Dean and higher administrators like them get to waive them into classes and have been helping students get into the classes they want to get into. Vic said they did discuss alternate issues here and just go with this for a few years and just see how it plays out. The juniors and seniors have some priority in picking classes; sophomores should be taking intro level courses, beginning their major. Juniors and Seniors should be taking courses that have prerequisites that sophomores shouldn’t be able to get into. There should be a division here, but there are seniors who have waited to fulfill requirements and now they want to take those 100 level courses. It’s become a hard situation.

Ryan Bowen said it was interesting this year in registration because he still had to take care of core requirements, but some of the lab science classes for example were barred from seniors taking them. He asked if that is going to go away, or how it will be handled. Vic said that it’s up to the professors, some want just frosh and sophomores in their classes. Lots of juniors and seniors who went to those classes were able to get into the classes if they went to the professor. There are many restrictions, but you are able to get permission from your instructor. Vic said he is against faculty members turning students away, but it’s up to the faculty. Some faculty pull lots of students off the waitlist because it’s their major first or they are seniors or what have you, but it’s up to them. Vic said that some seats were held in intro classes to juniors and seniors

Andrew DeBlock asked if there is any help being given to the registration of rising juniors. Vic said he right now has 38 students who have not registered for classes, but only about 25 haven’t registered who need to register (the rest are abroad or not coming back). They set up a system - the associate deans and deans of the college were open for a few days 8-5pm to help out students in getting into their classes. He added though that many classes close quickly, and they always do. Art classes with only 12 seats, etc. Art department is trying to figure out if they need to open more sections of their classes, etc. More language courses possibly, but they don’t want to hire just any adjunct - we want to hire qualified professors. Beth Braker has been working non-stop to get students into Bio classes and labs. Andrew said he has been asked by students who they should go to at this point. Vic said that they have asked faculty to try and help students now, get their schedules set now rather than at the beginning of the fall semester. The chairs of the departments are available, email, but the best thing to do is go directly to them and talk to them. Go to the associate dean, call the registrar's office and they can help you get in touch with the associate deans if you don't know who they are.

Erika Johnson asked if they are going to change the new process as now they are seeing that it is not really working out well. She asked if there is a way of tweaking the system so everyone is treated more fairly. Vic said he feels that the system is actually working fairly well; sophomores are getting the courses they are supposed to be getting, etc. The process actually is working. The juniors and seniors are the only ones having problems, and it’s mainly with getting their core requirements done, which we will help them fulfill. It will workout, and it will smooth out in the next couple of years.

Rob Calderon asked about classes that are senior electives, almost 300 level courses that sophomores are getting into before seniors. Not core requirements, but not intro classes, competition happening between seniors and sophomores and juniors. Vic said that he thinks the departments need to talk about the requirements for the classes, 100 and 200 level courses, 300 level courses with prerequisites, etc. Its new for departments too, they haven't had to deal with it before, so next time around they will be more experienced in working with students to get their classes. He said he knows that Econ is really looking at this semester to determine how they're going to offer classes in the fall.

Rob also asked if this system is something our peer institutions are doing, and Vic said that no one is currently doing it like us, but we do compare to other institutions. We compare with how many adjuncts they bring in, class size, amount of classes, etc. Oxy looks at all of that. Some colleges have all kinds of different processes. The Claremont colleges, for example, does a pre-registration with no conflicts, no times, and based on that they assign times and sections of classes. Each college has a different process.

Spencer Jemelka asked about the rationale behind credits applying towards Oxy from study abroad. Vic said that what they need in the registrar's office is to know exactly what classes are being taken - what’s being taken for your major, how you’re using it, if it’s ok with the department. 10 years from now, we need to be able to say how you met your requirements for study abroad. It’s the only way that they determine if you've met the requirements though. If the chair of the department approves it, registrar doesn’t analyze it, they accept it. They are getting your grades from all over the world, so it takes some time to process.

Erika Johnson asked why if students are double majoring, students can’t combine the requirements for both of the majors and combine for credit. Vic said that the requirement is that you have 10 courses for each major, if you take 2 majors and you do 3 or 4 courses that meet both of those, you’re not doing 10 and 10. What they want is not that this course meets this requirement for both majors; they want to see you take additional courses if you really are doing a double major within both departments. As long as the student takes 10 courses for a major, they are majoring in that subject.

Andrew DeBlock asked if they're doing anything to stabilize the course catalogue, there is not a lot of continuity in the program catalogue, etc. Vic said that there are lots of changes happening, it’s tough to track, and for students it must be really hard. Vic said that they try to determine the catalogue, there is a lot of new faculty coming with new courses, and there are about 15 pages of new and revised courses out there right now that they are working on. The only thing that the registrar requires for your degree is if you make all the requirements for your major when you come in as a sophomore or frosh, and if it changes when you’re a junior or senior, you don’t need to change the requirements you were already following. The catalogues are all out there, catalogues back to the 90s. They are available in the registrar's office. Andrew asked lastly if there is anything to stabilize it, and Vic said that that is how it is. Departments have complete control over the classes; it’s a departmental decision, and the registrar has to function within what the department deems for their majors.

Rob Calderon said that people are complaining because they look at the course catalogue and plan out their courses, but then it seems to change really quickly. Vic said that its about a 2-year permanent catalogue that they're going for where changes aren’t made, more stable, easier on students and easier for students figuring out their majors.

Paolo thanked Vic for speaking at the GA and Vic encouraged everyone to email him or stop by whenever they need to talk.

2. General Assembly Constitutional Amendment – Presented by Paolo Cosulich-Schwartz

****************

Amendment to the Constitution

This Amendment is changing the specifics of the GA meeting times and time lines for resolutions. The purpose of these changes is to help GA to run efficiently and gain student support. These changes were deemed necessary to the vitality of the GA after input from past GA co-chairs and Administrators. The decrease in meetings for the GA is to help give the GA co-chairs much more flexibility with GA meetings. All changes are noted in bold.

Article V

Section 1. The General Assembly

D) The General Assembly shall meet at least five times per semester or more as needed.

iii)

c) The vote on a Resolution must occur within two GA meetings being presented to the General Assembly.

d) All Resolutions which are brought to meetings will remain open for debate for at least one meeting before being voted on.

Proposal:

To change the GA bylaws to stipulate that those seeking to present a resolution must meet with GA Co-Chairs at least 24 hours in advance of the GA meeting in which they wish to present the resolution and to modify one grammatical error changes are placed in bold.

General Assembly Bylaws

Article VI. – Resolutions

Section 3. Meeting with Co-Chairs.

Students are required to meet with at least one of the Co-Chairs at least twenty-four hours prior to the meeting in which they will present their resolution. Should the student fail to meet with a Co-Chair, the Co-Chairs have the right to postpone the resolution until that individual meeting has occurred.

****************

Spencer Jemelka said that in the past the voting would occur a week after the resolution has been proposed.

Kenna Cottrill said that it does not specifically say that in the Bylaws, it’s an interesting question of what is actually written and what is set at precedence.

They checked the Bylaws which stated that they must wait one week to vote on the amendment, so no voting occurred.

3. ASOC Capital Improvement Request - Fax Machine

Erika Johnson summarized what the problem is with their current fax machine, and why they are asking for a new fax machine

****************

ASOC Capital Improvement Request Form

Name: Erika Johnson	Department: Student Activities Center
Date: March 29, 2008	Total Amount: $326.23

Capital Improvements allow departments to grow and develop. The Capital Improvement Fund is no more than 10% of the total Savings each year. The fund provides for purchases outside of the range of the yearly operating budget. Capital Improvement requests are to be submitted via email to the ASOC Advisor and the ASOC President.

Capital Improvement Guidelines:

§ Item must last at least 3 years without needing updates.

§ A capital improvement expense must be significant enough that it would not ordinarily be purchased within a department’s operating budget, usually at least $300.

§ Capital improvements can be individual items or systems. Systems are defined as items that do not work alone such as walkie-talkes. Additionally, items that will protect the purchase from damage, such as bags for cameras or warranties, can be included in the request.

§ Computer software is not eligible for capital improvement because it changes rapidly. Departments should purchase software using their operating budgets.

§ All requests must be reviewed by the ASOC Advisor, the ASOC Finance Manager, and the Associate Dean of Students prior to being presented to the Senate to study whether the items meet the guidelines and that the plans for protecting the investment are adequate. The ASOC advisor will offer a report to Senate on the adequacy of the request.

§ The ASOC President will forward the request to the General Assembly. An open forum in the GA for student questions and suggestions must occur prior to a vote in Senate.

§ The ASOC Senate votes on the request at the Senate meeting following the GA Meeting. The ASOC Advisor and ASOC Finance Manager are not responsible for completing purchases while school is out of session, unless previously arranged.

§ The deadline for submissions is April 18, 2008, before the second to last General Assembly meeting of the academic year.

§ Should you have any questions, please contact the ASOC Advisor.

Itemized list of purchases:

Item	Purchase From	Cost (be specific)
Brother IntellifFAX	Staples	299.98
California Sales Tax (estimate 8.75%)	“”	26.25









TOTAL		$326.23

Please explain why your department needs these items, including how they serve your department’s mission, and how they will benefit students.

Currently the SAC uses an HP model 1020 to process faxes for students. This fax machine processes at a rate 10x slower than the other fax machines used not only in this office, but in other offices around campus. I think upgrading to a fax machine with better and faster capabilities will benefit students because they will no longer have to wait for extended periods of time to fax documents. It will also reduce the number of refunds we give for faxes not sending because this fax machine is able to immediately read off status reports. The SAC strives to provide efficient and useful services to students and having a new fax machine will help us to better at it.

Please explain how you will protect these investments from damage.

Currently the fax machine sits behind the counter, relatively hidden and is only accessible to staff. This is our primary way of protecting it from damage. Also we will make sure to replace toners and cartridges regularly to ensure against avoidable malfunctions. We intend to use it for years to come. Our current fax machine we’ve had for 5+ years so we intend to use this one to its fullest potential.

****************

Ryan Bowen asked if they looked into multiple models, look at the $300 minimum, and Erika said yes, she did look into the price as well as changing models. She said that there are cheaper models, and she isn’t asking $1000 fax machine. The main thing they want is to be able to send fax faster and to be able to generate reports about if they have been received; currently people have been saying that they have not been receiving faxes.

Spencer asked if the fax machine they are getting will be sufficient enough, Erika said it is very sufficient. The other departments at ASOC use their fax machine as well, so it will benefit many people (The Weekly, etc.)

Noel said that the GA is coming to a close, but coming up soon the Board of Trustees and the President will be back on April 29th in which they will be discussing the presidential search, and the week before that they will have the student committee for the presidential search. If anyone has any questions, they encouraged everyone to email them at asocga@oxy.edu.

Meeting adjourned at 12:41 PM.