Senate
 

Agenda

 

 

Download WORD document minutes: 03-20-07

Minutes from March 20, 2007

Associated Students of Occidental College

Senate Meeting

March 20, 2007

Minutes by Sadia Afolabi

 

Attendance:

 

Matt Kuzio, ASOC President                 Alison Dempsey, Campus Wide Senator      Rozell Hodges, Campus Wide Senator  Amy Laslett, Campus Wide Senator
Teddy Zou, Campus Wide Senator       Konstantin Chaykovskiy, 1st year
Andrew DeBlock, 1st year                     Patrick McCredie, sophomore
Mike Myers, Sophomore                      Jimmy Gillian, Junior
Max Thoman-Tedford, Junior               John Wilson, Senior
Caroline Kim, Senior*

* Excused absence 

                       

Ex Oficio: Kenna Cottrill, Advisor;  Katie Orme, GA Co-Chair, Spencer Jemelka; GA Co-Chair

 

Guests: Jasmine Wade, Ali Raymond

I.  Matt Kuzio called the meeting to order at 7:16 pm.

 

II.  Passage of the previous meeting

 

             a. Minutes of the 02/27/07

 

          i.  Mike Myers moved to pass the minutes 

         ii.  Seconded by Patrick McCredie

        iii.  Vote: 10-0-0

 

      b. Minutes of the 03/06/07

   i. Mike Myers moved to pass the minutes

ii. Seconded by Patrick McCredie

       iii. Vote: 10-0-0

 

III. New Business

 

A. GA Update

 

Spencer Jemelka said that the GA is currently  getting feedback from students. Katie will be having a meeting with Kenna Cottrill  regarding the Sex on the beach issue. She also encourages senators to be on time at meeting for their committee updates.

 

B. Funding Request

 

Matt said that over spring break he went over the budget and realized that $1500 can be transferred from ASOC training account to senate discretionary.

 

 i.   Max moved to make the transfer

ii.   Seconded by Patrick

iii.  Vote: 10-0-0

 

 

  1. BSA-Mecha Pool Party  $ 169.47

Vote: 9-0-1 Rozell

 

  1. Art Inspiration Oxy Film festival: $86.

Vote: 10-0-0

 

  1. KASA Korean BBQ on campus $ 150.83

Vote: GC

 

  1. Rotaract Heal the bay $33.86

Vote: GC

 

  1. APIA :APIA Heritage $1,500:

 

Teddy said that he forgot to invite them to the senate meeting. John asked if they are fundraising for a community service. Teddy said yes. Kenna replied that they are not. She also said that there is no money left in Remsen Bird to fund them. With the current scenario of funding them at $ 1,500 and Black grad at $2,500, there will be about $800 left for weekly expenses.

 

i.    Rozell moved to tabled this proposal till next week ;Max added to invite the club representatives to next week’s meeting.

ii.   Seconded by Allison

iii.  Vote: GC

 

  1. BSA Black Graduation $2500

Rozell is the chair of Black grad and broke down the expenses. Teddy was concerned about the $305 for Book gifts considering the fact that ASOC doesn’t fund gifts. Rozell moved the expense into other but will bring a line item. Allison asked how much is in their account. Rozell said about 300.

Vote. 9-0-1 Rozell

 

C. Finance and Public Relations Update

 

Patrick and Konstantin are working on the proposal of the yearbook. They are scheduling a meeting with the director of the La Encina to work on a cost effective book. John Beck completed the interface for funding the algorithm which is very user friendly and he is sure it will be very good. Matt said that Patrick has done really well and deserve a pat in the back.

 

Rozell said that regarding the SAFE environment project , he thinks this is one of the hot topics currently on campus and wants to work on this with other entities such as PB, ResLife, Greek life etc... Amy asked if Honor Board can be included. He said yes. Matt said that at the Dean of students’ meeting, they discussed the sex on the beach issue and for now and specifically for this year’s dance the name will remain the same.

 

D. Campus Culture Update

 

Amy said that the cooler opening was a success and there were about 400 students who attended. Allison added that they are working to get a coffee cart through the capital improvement and President Pragers’ funds.

 

John is  working on the newspaper article to publicize the accomplishment of ASOC this year.

 

Max is in the process of talking to professor Whitney and the registrar Mr. Victor Egito for reading days.

 

Rozell is happy to have the library open 24 hours.

 

E. Constitutional Amendment Honor Board

 

Mike Myers asked who wrote the new amendment. Matt replied the honor board.

Amendments made to the section 3.

 

Regarding the quorum, there is a change from 7 to 3 people because the smaller number will create better confidentiality, efficiency and eliminate conflict of interest among jurors.

There is an ideal to reach consensus  and the 2/3 majority was replaced by a simple majority.

 

Mike was concerned about the fact that the constitution is forcing a consensus and thinks that the wording is too strict. Patrick said that instead of  adding the consensus issue in the constitution, it will be better to put it in the by laws. Kenna said that it will be better in the bylaw than the constitution because it’s easier to amend the bylaw. Kenna asked Matt whether the board will be able to vote on this if some sentences are being deleted. Matt said that he will take it back to the Honor Board.

Section 4. Changed the word accusations by “petitions”

 

Section 5: Advisors

 

The advisor shall be the associate Dean of Students or designee.

 

In case of resignation, there will be an election instead of the Dean of Students appointing a student. Matt said that it is important because they don’t want a top down management system.

 

Article XI History

Record

Kenna said that she made all the changes in the constitution last year because there was no Honor Board chair. Andrew asked why not the President of ASOC. Senators preferred that changes be made by the Honor Board chair.

 

F. Public Relations and Finance Update and Funding Process

 

Matt showed how the ASOC funding is being disbursed. For this academic year, 29.89% of the budget went to Cultural and educational events, 29.12% to club sports.

 

Matt asked series of questions that were answered by senators to evaluate senate processes. 

 

* What was the most important part of funding this year?

 

Amy said that she liked the algorithm system instead of the percentage because of all the qualifications. Teddy said that Friday meetings were very productive.

 

Matt said that the organization at the senate meeting was very productive and help go through the meetings very quickly. Allison said that the algorithm was very positive. Jimmy explained the algorithm system in a more mathematical way. He believes that this will eliminate arbitrary event attendances. He said that these are just ideas and he will take any feedback. Amy asked for a few clarification. Jimmy doesn’t have a clear answer on how the slope will be but this can be decided by this year’s allocation. He said he is only working with ideas.

 

* What was most effective about the funding algorithm?

 

Teddy said that smaller event were well covered. Amy said that it helped clubs to work together for co-sponsorships. John said this helped with the budget. Amy said that people weren’t able to cheat the system.

 

* How could senate better support clubs next year?

 

Andrew said educate students. Amy said that the fact that Teddy was showing the upcoming events was very good because this will cut out little events of the same nature and group them together. Allison asked about the algorithm system being on line and students can try their funding. Jimmy said he disagreed with this because of people trying to cheat the system. Patrick said that as Caroline mentioned, it will be a good idea  to allocate some reserve funding for big events such as Black Grad etc…

 

* Other ways to better support clubs?

 

Kenna suggested to prepare students for Friday afternoon meeting such as what students need to be ready to discuss while at the meeting. Matt suggested to collaborate with Honor Board.

 

* How could the funding process be improved next year?

 

Kenna said turning in proposals on time etc… John said that online proposal submission in addition to the paper ones. Rozell is concerned about supplemental documents. Matt suggest to turn them in the office. Matt said that senate should also decide on specific proposal dates. Kenna added to have a date for retro-active funding. Amy asked if there is a list of all clubs. Kenna said yes but it is not often used. Amy said that it will be a good idea to send them info regarding retro active etc… Rozell added to ask clubs to make a copy for all proposals and keep one for themselves. Jimmy said to required club reps to check their emails.

 

*How can the funding algorithm be improved for next year?

 

Kenna asked what are the priorities. Allison said that community service was very small.

 

IV Senate/GA Forum

 

  a. General Comments

 

John asked if Kenna can talk about the issue surrounding sex and the beach. Kenna said that at Dean Avery’s meeting, it was decided that the name will not be changed but there will be one more security person who will be professionally trained. Matt said that as he talked to Patrick, he suggested to create a Vice President position. Patrick said that because the presidency is such an overwhelming position,  it will be  good to have a new position created. Jimmy said that adding a position is adding bureaucracy and people that will be on the board and will do nothing.

 

Matt said that senate should start thinking about what is being missed out and if creating other positions is the best option. Kenna  said that the senate should be aware of the budget and the constitution amendment because there are a lot of grammatical errors.

 

V Adjournment

 

i.   Patrick moved to adjourn at 8:34pm

ii.  Seconded by Max

iii. Vote: GC