Senate
 

Agenda

Download WORD document minutes: 11-30-06

Minutes from October 30th, 2006

Associated Students of Occidental College

Senate Meeting

October 30th, 2006

Minutes by Sadia Afolabi

Passed: 11.06.06

 

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 Gillan, Junior; Max Thoman-Tedford, Junior; John Wilson, Senior; Ayesha Khan, Senior

             

Ex Oficio: Kenna Cottrill, advisor; Patrice Hall, GA Co-Chair; Katie Orme, GA Co-Chair

 

Guests:  Rotaract Members, SES members and Ken Smutny

 

I.                   Matt Kuzio called this meeting to order at 7:00 pm

 

II.                Passage of previous meeting minutes.

No Discussion

i.       Moved  by Jimmy Gillian

ii.      Seconded by Patrick McCredie

iii.     Vote GC

 

III.                New Business

 

       A.          GA Update:

This Thursday there will be two GA meetings. The first meeting will host Pamela McQuesten Chief Information Officer for the school. The second meeting will host Susan Popko Director of the International Program Office. This meeting will run from 3-5 pm and the room hasn’t be determined yet. Surely by tomorrow. Last meeting was great as usual. Patrice informed the senate  that she will be leaving to study abroad next semester. Patrick asked if someone will fill in. She said that there will be an election for her position.

 

      B.          Funding Request:

 a.    Rotaract:

Teddy said that the event is a retroactive. Jimmy said that he believes that the board is eliminating retroactive events. Alison said that if the club doesn’t follow funding guidelines then the board shouldn’t fund them. Amy said that we should approve this event regardless because nobody told them when they  were submitting the proposal.

                i.        Moved to abide by the 12 days in the guidelines.

                ii.       Seconded by Patrick

                iii.      Vote: 8-2-1 Amy

 

b.   BSA: Dance 3 Oxy

      No Discussion  Vote: 10-1-0 John.

 

c.    Rotaract: TV Tapings:

      No Discussion  Vote: GC

 

d.    Rotaract: Volunteering

       No Discussion Vote: GC

 

e.    Rotaract: Beach Clean Up.

      No Discussion Vote: GC

 

f.    Fantasticprov: Improve Workshop

      No Discussion Vote: GC

 

g.   International student organization: First Meeting

      No Discussion Vote: GC

 

h.   Gender equity club: AFI  Film “Antonia”

      No Discussion Vote: GC

 

i.    Gender equity club: Get Out The Vote

      Discussion

John asked if the club contacted other political clubs. Jimmy said it doesn’t really matter because they are just shuttling people to the poll.

        i.     Jimmy moved to approve

        ii.    Seconded by Rozell

       iii.    Vote: GC

 

j.     AAPIA: AAPIA Student-Faculty Mixer

       No discussion Vote: GC

 

k.     Student Event Services: Not Unhappy Hour

        Discussion:

 Jimmy: last year the board funded about $1ooo for this event, this year, based on the description and the algorithm system, the funding is low. If the club is willing to open the event to the whole campus or ask other clubs for sponsorship, it might result in higher percentage of funding.

Daven B. club representative said that everyone can technically participate but due to the state and school laws it is restricted only to 21 and over students. He mentioned that the event will he held on campus at Sycamore Glen and explained the reason why the club doesn’t want to open it up for the entire school. If they decide to open it up, the cost of the event  will increase due to the new  attendance. He hopes the board will be considerate and will increase their funding to about $1200. He also said that this event has been on going for a couple of years, is well perceived by everyone and has a very good atmosphere. The second member of the club explained that it is not an event that will allow student to get drunk but another opportunity for students to meet faculty outside of classrooms  and bring the entire school together. Amy said that last year, the senate had a lot of issues with this event but came up with a supportive argument that even though freshmen will not be part of the event now,  they  will at a certain point while at Oxy. She asked if the DJ fund can be cut down. Daven said the DJ is already being cut off. Patrick asked if the club is fundraising at all. Club representative: the club is already fundraising for the purchase of alcohol. Jimmy explained that the club should include the total cost in their funding proposal to get more funding from the algorithm system. He added that the board shouldn’t break the algorithm system because it is setting precedent that is not equitable to the rest of the students. John: suggested to the board to look at the proposal and try to cut some costs and would like to move to approve money based on  food and supplies. Amy said that the board should think about the idea of total cost of the event and see if this proposal can be reconsidered. Matt said that because the event has an idea of community, the club should get more clubs to co-sponsor in order to get more funding. Club representative said that other clubs members are willing to put in the effort and needed to know the number of people in other clubs that constitute a club sponsorship. Jimmy explained the idea of club sponsorship which seemed a bit confusing to the club representative. Jimmy also suggested to the club members that if by Friday they can resubmit a proposal with the total cost of the event  and get sponsorship with other clubs, the funding percentage will be higher. Amy said that the board can’t hold this event because it is happening on Friday and by next Monday  might be considered  retroactive thus loose funds. John asked if the club is willing to push the event back for another week. Ayesha said that it is not fair for the club to postpone their event. Jimmy said that the club didn’t abide by the funding guidelines from the beginning. Amy said that it is not fair for this club to be rejected for the number of days they didn’t comply by. She believes that this should have been taken care of  when the proposal is being submitted. Patrick said that the board just denied funding for one of the Rotaract’s proposal. The club representative said that this funding process is not fair to the students at all.

           i.     Amy moved to hold a special meeting for this event tomorrow.

          ii.     Seconded by Rozell

         iii.     Vote: 11-0-1.

 

Daven B. asked for more clarification on what the board’s decision was.  Matt said that the club will meet with the  funding committee and the senate  will meet in a special meeting tomorrow to decided the funding.

 

l.      Greek Council: Tailgate

Discussion:

Ken Smutny said that he was first happy about the percentage of the algorithm but now that he thinks about it, he is not very happy about the algorithm system at all. He also said that he didn’t understand why his event wasn’t considered cultural. Teddy said that the club is only cooking different foods and doesn’t show how cultural it is. Ken said that about 20 clubs will be involved in this event. He believes that the event can be cultural it just depends on figuring it out. Amy said that the event has the potential of  being multicultural however, she doesn’t believe this has already been planned. Ken said that it is a contract and he will abide by it. Jimmy said that this is not a convincing argument that the event should be classified as cultural. If the club is willing to wait for an extra week, the funding committee could re-take a look at the event. Ken said that if funding has to wait for an extra week for the event to be considered cultural then he doesn’t want the event to be considered cultural. Patrick said that this is very unreasonable because the event can be cultural or not depending on when the club gets funding. Jimmy explained to that because of the low budget, funding will be hard this year.

           i.         Amy moved to approve the funding as it is and the senate might reconsider upon       tomorrow’s special meeting.

         ii.          Seconded by Rozell

        iii.         Vote 10-2-0 Ayesha and John

 

 

    

m.      Yoga Club: Weekly Practices

Discussion:

Max said that it is not fair to fund more than a $1000 for 40 students going to the same event over and over whereas the Tailgate event that is open to the entire school couldn’t get enough funding. Andrew said that it will be fair if we can determine how much funding is attributed per students so it is clearer for the board. Max said that as he shadowed the funding committee on Friday, the club  talked about collecting $1 per person. Amy asked how much does the Office of Religious Life contributing. Teddy said about $2100. John was concerned about the cost and suggested that instead of having yoga classes there should be workshops and it will cut the cost down. Kenna Cottrill said that this idea might not work because the club has already started the Yoga practice with the funds from the Office of the Religious Life.

          i.     Jimmy moved to table the event till next week

         ii.     Seconded by Amy

        iii.     Vote: GC

 

n. Rotaract: Louisiana Trip

Discussion

Alison: asked if the club has been fundraising. The club representative said that they will be fundraising about $1000, $5,000 from Dean Avery, $1000 from Eric Peters, $ 1250 from ASOC and the rest from other sources. The total cost of the event is $10,000. They also mentioned that the event is open to the entire campus and people will not have to pay for the trip. Max said that it is not fair for people who are taking classes in Louisiana to have to pay and this group will not have to. Jimmy said that as the ASOC funded $2500 last year, this funding is not feasible this year due to the low budget. Matt said that the idea of funding per students should be taken into consideration. Teddy said that if this is approved, the budget will be left with $700 for the rest of the semester. 

i.        Amy moved to postpone till next week.

ii.       Seconded by Jimmy

iii.      Vote: GC

 

C.       Finance and Public Finance Update.

 

Jimmy explained that regarding  the funding guidelines, Speakers’ fund will not be fully supported unless the clubs ask Remsen Bird. And the total fund of the event will be the rest of the total amount minus the Remsen Bird contribution. Patrick sent out an email regarding the quad sitting list. Also, Patrick will be managing the quad sits through emails and the Hall spread event on  November 7th . He will be in touch via email.

 

D.       Campus Culture Update.

 

Alison: Printed out the surveys and each senator will be receiving 45. Ayesha asked if students can turn them in student life office. Alison said no because they will not return them. Max asked if this can be incorporated in the sitting in the quad project. Alison said no because it is due by Wednesday.

Amy is working on the cooler project. Matt met with President Prager and the project is on going so there is a need to get the survey done immediately.

Max: Community service day is in full planning. Also, he will be getting Programming Board  involved. He said that the Greek council’s president Gaby seems very interested and will contact some other clubs as well. Teddy asked if this event will cost ASOC. Max said certainly transportation costs. Jimmy asked how will the proposal be submitted. Amy the senate is just helping in organizing this event thus the participating club will submit the funding proposal.

Website committee: Is working on the website with clubs that need help with their website.

 

E.              Scholastic Committee:

 

 Has a new project that needs to be discussed by the senate. They are planning to have a list of comparative schools and their academic program and how this differ from Oxy’s. It will be a general  reference list for students. Also, the deadline for the Dean’s committee application  is a week from today. Jimmy asked if the library hours will be extended. The committee members said that it is one of the issues they will be looking at next.

 

F.              Timesheets:

  Matt collected the timesheets from all senators and distributed new ones.

 

IV.           Senate/ GA forum

 

A.            Zeta Volunteer Project.

 

Katie: The Zetas are planning a project that will need approximately 700 volunteers. This will be very challenging but they will be advertising a lot for the project. The event will incorporate the Bengal bus and there will be a proposal to the ASOC.

 

B.           Teddy: Students Saving Clubs

 

This will not cost  ASOC any money. ASOC only needs to advertise for the businesses. It is a very popular program on the East Coast and it helps students by giving them discounts. Andrew said that the board can get local businesses  instead of getting other people to do it for us. Rozell said that he is doing a similar event for fashion show so he can merge it into his project. Max said that this is an easy accomplishment for the board because they don’t have to put in any effort and it is not costing them as well.

 

C. General Comments:

 

Patrice Hall said that she was a bit disappointed about today’s meeting because people were being cut out of their conversation and not allow to fully express their opinions. There were confusions from the visitors’ side and the tone of some senators were sometimes hostile.  She thinks that senators should be more considerate to the students. Ayesha said that the environment was pretty hostile and all senators should be working on this.  Amy said that SES had problems last year and they were already on the defensive. Jimmy said that with the funding system, everyone is learning and it is not fair for other people to come and attack the work and energy that senators have been  putting into this. John: apologized for his rude manner to the SES and thanked Patrice for bringing up her comment. John said that he believes that the GA meetings need more organization as well. Patrick said that the lack of Parliamentary Procedures is very hard not only for the visitors but also on the senate itself. Rozell said that for the club mixer, senators should start thinking about what they want to discuss with their clubs. Patrice said that in GA meetings, senators shouldn’t be frustrated when the co-chairs do not call on them when they raised their hands. They are just giving other students the opportunity to voice their opinions. She appreciates any feedback from the senate on how the GA meetings are running.

 

This Friday funding committee meeting will be shadowed by Andrew and Alison.

 

 

V.      Meeting Adjourned @ 8: 54pm