Senate
 

Agenda

 

 

Download WORD document minutes: 04-03-07

Minutes from April 3, 2007

Associated Students of Occidental College

Senate Meeting

April 3, 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:

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

 

II.  Passage of the previous meeting

 

             a. Minutes of the 03/27/07

 

Matt made a change to the first line of the second page of the minutes.

i. Patrick moved to approve with the new change.

ii. Seconded by Max

iii. Vote: 11-0-1 (Jimmy)

 

III. Old Business

 

a. Renewable Energy Fund

 

Matt said that they were supposed to be at today’s meeting with he didn’t hear from them however their proposal will still be going on the ballot. He also updated  the senate regarding the fee increase that will result from the passage of this proposal.

 

IV. New Business

 

A. GA Update

 

Katie Orme said that last week’s meeting had a very interesting dynamics due to the topic and a lot of students were present. She confirmed that next week,  Emmons Health Center will be present to discuss the stressful life of college students and she wanted to thank  Amy Laslett for helping in bringing them to the GA.  Spencer Jemelka urged senators to run for GA chairs or tell their friends to do so.

 

Patrick wanted an update on the elections but Kenna Cottrill said she will later during the Senate/GA forum and comments.

 

B. Funding Request:

 

a. Phi Kappa Psi: 1st Annual RPS Tournament $802.80  

Vote: 9-3-0(Jimmy Mike and Andrew)

 

b. Student Event Services: Not unhappy hour $440.08

 

Matt asked why they are not at the meeting. Amy said that they will be coming later.

 

i.    Amy moved to table this proposal until a representative show up.

ii.   Seconded by Patrick

iii.  Vote10-0-2 (Amy and Jimmy)

 

c. Fantastiprov $275.71

Vote: GC

 

d. QSA: Gender F#@$ Dance $252.34

Vote: 11-0-1 Jimmy

 

e. ISO General meeting $44.71

 

They proposal does not follow the funding policy regarding food for club meeting. Senate agreed at the beginning  of the year that every club is entitled to one funding for food per semester. This is the third request from the ISO.

 

i.     Patrick moved not to fund on this basis.

ii.    Seconded by Rozell

iii.   Vote: 11-0-1 Caroline

 

f. API Grad: $2000

 

Amy asked about  the cost of the other graduation compared to this one. Rozell said that they were about $5,000 each and Latino grad is bit more than Black grad because they have a bigger attendance. Teddy added that there is another cultural event organized by the ISO which is the international student week. Jimmy said that he doesn’t feel comfortable making any recommendation to the board on this proposal. Caroline asked if Teddy met with Earic Peters because he is working on this. She also asked what will happen if they don’t get the rest of the funding.

 

Teddy said that the event will happen but certainly poorly may be have cuts in food or tables etc… Amy asked if Teddy is feeling comfortable with this budget. Teddy said that he is very comfortable with the current budget because there will money transferred into senate discretionary account.

 

i.    Amy moved to approve at $2500

ii.   Seconded by Rozell

iii.  Vote: 903 Teddy, Patrick and Jimmy.

 

b. Student Event Services: Not unhappy hour $440.08

 

i.    Amy moved to bring back this proposal.

ii.   Seconded by Patrick

iii.  Vote: GC

 

The representative said that in their proposal,  they didn’t budget the cost of alcohol and Bartender which is approximately $500. He also said that last year, they quickly ran out of drinks and food in the first hour reason why they are requesting more money this semester.  Teddy said that regarding food, they are planning to have steaks and it is very expensive. Kenna replied that this event is very special and that what students say about it and what makes it special is the fact that they get to eat good food(steaks), drinks and enjoy a different atmosphere. Matt added that last year they received about $1,000 from senate. Max said that he is not very comfortable by just throwing in numbers to fund them more money and will appreciate if this can go through the algorithm system.

 

According to the algorithm, the new figure is $807.62

 

The representative said that about $1000 is the minimum they need to organize this even because there is some much restrictions on funding for alcohol, they are trying to get as much from senate to make this event a success.

 

i.   Amy moved to approve at last semester’s funding $1031.00

ii.   Seconded by Patrick

iii.  Vote 9-0-3 (Max, Teddy and Jimmy)

 

Teddy announced that the budget is in red thus senate should move for a transfer today.

 

i.    Amy moved to transfer $4608 from Other Operations  to Senate discretionary account.

ii.   Seconded by Rozell

iii.  Vote: GC

 

C. Finance and Public Relations Committee Update

 

Konstantin said that the La Encina lady postponed there meeting because she and her staff are figuring out alternatives for the yearbook. He said that his committee is being patient with them at this point. Patrick said that he will be sending his proposal out. There need to be a  reallocation of this fund because it will be of better use for clubs.

 

Rozell is still working on the safe campaign and it’s working very well. He will be meeting Programming Board tonight. He met with Dean Avery that is willing to match $175 for the adds

 

i.    Rozell moved to approve $175 for the safe campaign add.

ii.   Patrick seconded

iii.  Vote: 110-1 Jimmy

 

Alison said that they are currently trying to get a printer in the cooler. Working with the late night dinner hours and there will be vending machines that can read student ID card. Amy said that Earic Peters said that there are not enough students in the cooler late at night so senate should spread the word.

 

Caroline is working on the gym hours and the only issue around it is security because there is a need to have a professional security there not just a student acting like one. She said that because of this reason, the school has to be in charge of this and should be there priority.

 

Caroline also meet with Dean Avery regarding the Cultural Graduation and she hopes the college will take charge of these graduations in future years.

 

Mike Meyers said that if anyone needs help with class events to please let him know because he is working with Patrick to develop something for the sophomore class.

 

Andrew is accepting any feedback regarding the website that he sent out.

 

Alison said that regarding the website,  things should be prioritized  for example the map because if more than half of the students live on campus, they  won’t really need the map.

 

Rozell suggested to add facilities hours such as the gym, pool, Postal services etc…

 

Caroline suggested to add ASOC funding instead of just ASOC because this is what draws most of the students.

 

D. Scholastic Committee Update:      

 

Max said that Reading days didn’t pass so he will be back on this project.

 

E. Constitution Changes:

 

Matt presented the draft of the changes made to the constitution. Further changes were made by senators. Caroline asked if they are voting on the changes today because she feels she needs to read through it. Kenna said that the changes are not drastic or important changes, most of them are clarifications. Matt said that everything is grammatically correct except the part on the Budget. Amy was concerned about how this will show on the ballot -just grammar correction?. Kenna said that  there will be a part of it then the rest will have a link to it on the ballot.

 

i.    Mike moved to put both of the amendments on the ballot

ii.   Seconded by Konstantin

iii.  Vote 11-0-0

 

F. Scholastic Committee Review

 

What did the committee do well this year?

 

Caroline said library hours. Amy said that they have a list at the beginning of the semester of their goals and they met them. Mike said that they are very efficient and got things done. Amy also said that they formed a very good relation with the administration and faculty and they make senate look good.

 

What should this committee do to ameliorate next year?

 

Caroline said that the application process should have been more visible so there is a more diverse pool. This is a recruitment issue. There need to be a process that include different background on campus not just academic. Everyone should feel included.

 

John is concerned about academic diversity vs. cultural/racial diversity. Max said that this year they were focusing on academic.

 

How can they  improve?

 

Rozell asked if this committee can work on getting credit for senators. Max said that next year this can be done in collaboration with the GA. Patrick said that it’s like the issue of stipend. He believes that people shouldn’t be in this position to get money or credit for their work. Max said to add a member. Matt asked how they resolved the issue of Dance Production’s resolution. Teddy said that if next year, dance production is writing another proposal, just tell them that it will not happen because this takes money out of department’s budget and the theater department doesn’t want to spend too much money to allocate credits for students. They have to pay a professor ( Francisco who is Dance Production’s advisor) to administer this.

 

G. Campus Culture Review

 

What did they do well this year?

 

Cooler project was very successful, Caroline said that the way they lay out everything was very easy for her to fit in. John asked to know what really worked for them this year. Alison said that the survey was very helpful. Andrew said that Campus service day, Kenna added that the relationship with the administration was good.

 

How to improve next year?

 

Rozell asked the difference between what senate considered as campus climate and what the administration considers campus climate. Matt asked what can the ASOC do about it. Amy said that it’s better for the ASOC to mesh things together. Caroline said that  ASOC can be better bridges between students and the administration. Rozell said that because everyone in senate is so involved in different things such as the Greeks and cultural clubs, they should take more leadership roles to try to work on this type of issues.

 

Committee structure

 

Andrew said that there should only be one meeting a week.

John asked if everything is done with the cooler project because the administration is getting in the way. He also asked if there are things left and how can this be done. Alison said that they haven’t gave up on all the project but the vending machines are under way and they have plans for summer and for fall.

 

Next year’s improvement?

 

For the community service day, Mike said that two people should organized this because he received a lot of help from Patrick. He will also write a general overview regarding the planning of the event for the next’s senator. Matt suggested to plan this with relay for life.

 

Andrew said that student website should have different phases of development and the next senators should work on the issue of students space on campus.

 

Alison and Amy said that they will be able to write up an overview regarding the cooler project.

 

V. Senate/GA Forum

 

  1. General Comments

 

* Kenna updated senate on the elections. She said that so far the pool is heavily male oriented.

 

* Matt said that he met with Dean Avery and she said that RHA members can serve in Honor Board next year.

 

 VI. Adjournment @ 9:00pm

 

 i.   Patrick moved to adjourn the meeting @ 9:00pm

 ii.  Seconded by Rozell

iii.  Vote: GC