Senate
 

• MINUTES

Agenda

I. Call to order 6:30 PM

II. Passage of previous meeting’s minutes (2 minutes)

III. Old Business

Student Representatives Update (5 minutes)

a. Board of Trustee Committees Appointments

b. Campus Committees: Alison, Ken

Budget (12 minutes)

c. RA’s Request Status (5 minutes)

d. Cultural Graduations (5 minutes)

e. Passage of the Budget (2 minutes)

IV. New Business

GA Co-Chairs Update (5 minutes)

Liaisons (3 minutes)

a. Student Services

b. Athletics

How do Senate & GA present themselves well to the community? (5 minutes)

Funding Requests (15 minutes)

Committee Updates (20 minutes)

c. Finance and Public Relations Committee (5 minutes)

d. Campus Culture Committee (5 minutes)

e. Scholastic Committee (5 minutes)

f. President’s Update (5 minutes)

V. Senate/GA Forum

General Comments (5 minutes)

Next Meeting’s Agenda Topics (3 minutes)

VII. Close Meeting

Download pdf minutes: 10-2-07

Minutes from October 2, 2007

Associated Students of Occidental College

Senate Meeting

 

I. Call to order 6:31 PM  

 

II. Passage of previous meeting’s minutes

 

Minutes passed by general consent.

 

III. Old Business

A.     Student Representatives Status Update

a.       Board of Trustees Committee Appointments: Ryan, Mike, Xochiltl, Tilak

Mike told the Senate that he, Ryan, Xochiltl, and Tilak had conducted 38 interviews for the Board of Trustees committees; only Board of Trustees committee members had been appointed as President Prager had canceled the Presidential Planning committee.  Although there were many well-qualified and competent applicants, Mike expressed regret that they would only be able to pick to pick twelve finalists and two committee members. He also stated that President Prager might be involved in the process by either being a part of the student interviews or viewing the applications of the students. Mike had forwarded the applications of the twelve finalists to President Prager, although as of the time of the meeting she was out of town and would not return until the next day.  Mike also noted that the selection process must be completed soon, since the first meeting of the Board of Trustees Committees was in two weeks.

b.       Campus Committees: Alison, Ken

Ken told the Senate that he had sat on an appointment for the Library Information Services Committee, the selection for which was Christina Nakada.  Rozell Hodges and Vince Karlen were chosen for the CEAC committee. 

 

B.     Budget

 

a.       RA’s Request Status

 

Ryan acknowledged the issues surrounding the current status of the RA’s funding request. 

 

Patrick told the Senate that he and Mike had decided it would be best to allocate $3,000, to which all rules and guidelines applied to regular funding would apply.  The funds would be allocated on a first-come-first-serve basis, and once the $3000 is exhausted it would not be replenished.  Since Mike and Patrick did not want to cut the RAs off completely from Senate funding, they agreed that this would be a suitable compromise.  While the original amount that the RAs requested was $5,400, this amount was not spent by them in the past.  Patrick continued, saying that the Senate’s funding for RAs would be slowly phased out but for the present will supplement their current budget. 

 

Rob reported that in a conversation with Kecia Baker, Director of Residence Life and Housing Services, she had expressed that this RA funding was unnecessary. 

 

Patrick replied that the truth of the funds’ necessity was ambiguous.  He stated that he knew some of the RAs were active in programs, and could always use more funding. 

 

Ken asked why, if Kecia Baker believed that the RA’s current funding is adequate, they should receive more from the Senate. 

 

Patrick answered that he did not believe that adequate was an accurate term for the current state of the RA’s funding.  Mike then stated that they were trying to make the best of this situation; the RAs had planned to have Senate funding for at least this year, so it was only fair that they receive it this year.  Patrick agreed, saying that this was not the perfect compromise. 

 

Ken then questioned whether RHA could apply for this money.  Patrick said that they could not; if they could, the Senate might as well allocate the funds to RHA.  Ken replied that say were part of the same department, and that both play a significant role in campus programming.  Mike stated that these funds were always intended for RAs, even when given to RHA in previous years. 

 

Andrew then wondered how much oversight the Senate would have over the use of these funds.  Pat said that the Senate will have the opportunity to review any applications for this funding to determine if they have merit. 

 

Rob asked whether the RAs would apply for RHA or individual programs.  Patrick replied in the affirmative, saying that one RA might want to go to a place or start a program that other RAs might not.  Rob reported that while working on his campus culture project, he came across an anomaly: Many dorms he visited no longer had newspapers delivered to them.  He said that he also spoke to some RAs who said that they had been promised a certain amount of funds but had not received them; this money seemed to be in limbo.  Pat replied that this money was not in limbo, and that the RAs were still receiving $12 per resident. 

 

Pertaining to the Senate’s funding of the RAs, Ryan said that the RAs will not get the entire lump sum, but will still get the amount.  Patrick agreed, saying that they could not simply give the RAs the money, since the Senate would have no oversight over how it is spent. 

 

Santiago then inquired as to why no one had spoken directly with Kecia about the matter.  Mike said that he had spoken to Kyle Bruin, RHA President.  Ken rejoined that the interests of Kyle Bruin and Kecia Baker are two very different things.  Santiago stated that he had many questions for Kecia, including why there were no longer any newspapers. 

 

b.       Cultural Graduations Funding

 

Ryan elected to move on commence discussion concerning the funding of the cultural graduations.

 

Mike took the floor, saying that there were many tricky issues with the ways that cultural graduations are currently funded.  He stated that the Senate had never set aside money for a specific annual event, and asked if it was fair that the Senate funds Cultural Graduations in this manner.  He suggested passing the budget as is with funding with a cap of $7500 (not a guaranteed sum) set aside for cultural graduations, and that he would like to work with the organizers of the different cultural graduations to figure out ways to utilize other monetary resources. 

 

Ken then suggested capping the funds at $7500, and then studying whether it is appropriate to give these graduations more or less than that amount. 

 

Denise revealed the results of her research on this subject, saying that the reason for funding cultural graduations in this manner was to guarantee their financial support; these graduations are growing.  Last year’s Senate did not feel like supporting these cultural graduations would eventually drain ASOC funds.  They based it on how much a graduation would receive the year previous ($2500), and discussed making cultural graduation funding a percentage of ASOC funds.  Denise also stated that she had spoken to the Latino grad reps, and that they were attempting to make progress in the process of institutionalization. 

 

Ken remarked that the College has been running a surplus for a long time, and that he considers it a big issue that there is money just floating around and not being used to fund programs such as cultural graduations.  Patrick agreed that institutional support in that regard would be a good thing. 

 

Denise stated that this was the current goal, and also added that 1^st Nations wanted to do some sort of graduation, and as such may want funds set aside for them. 

 

Ken asked that the funds set aside for Cultural Graduations be limited to Cultural Graduations only, so that they could not be accessed by such events as Ping-Pong Club graduations. 

 

 

IV.  New Business

 

A.     GA Co-Chairs Update—Jessica Simes & Laura Knuttenun

Ryan noted that the GA co-chairs had something to add. 

Jessica informed the Senate that they wanted to make GA t-shirts; this would provide an incentive for students to attend the meetings and also serve as advertising for the GA.  For instance, the first 5 students to attend the GA meetings could receive a free t-shirt.  Jessica said that the GA needed $250 to begin this project; if all of the money was not spent on shirts, the GA could use it for refreshments. 

 

Kenna said that funding for this could be found in the Senate’s operations training fund.  She added that there is roughly $5200 in this training, and that $4240 of it needed to be spent, most likely on club funding.  She suggested that out of the remaining $1000, $250 could be spent on the GA’s needs.  Kenna also noted that it was important to pass motions concerning the matters of RA funding, cultural graduation funds, the reallocation of the ops money, and finally passing the budget.  In its current form, the budget has not been passed. 

 

Rob asked if any amount could be allocated so that the GA could do this in the future, and, if not, whether or not it could be allocated.  Kenna replied that the GA does have an ops budget, but their expenses were much higher than expected. 

 

Ryan then entertained a motion to give the GA $250 out of Senate operation funds.  Rob moved to give the $250, Mike seconded, and the motion was passed by general consent. 

 

Afterwards, Ryan entertained a motion to pass the RA’s request status, leaving funding at a cap of $3000 for specific RAs to access.  Ken moved to change the budget to give $3000 under the above stipulations; Santiago seconded.  The vote was 9-2-0 with Ken and Rob opposing, and the motion was passed. 

 

Ken then moved to change “graduations” in the cultural graduation funding stipulations to “cultural graduations”; Rob seconded, and the motion was passed by general consent. 

 

Patrick then moved to cap the cultural graduation funds at $7500 along with the aforementioned stipulations; the motion was seconded by Mike.  All were in favor except Dominique, who abstained, and the motion was passed 10-0-1. 

 

 

B.     Executive Fund

 

Ryan than brought up the possibility of creating an executive fund; in years past, presidents had roughly $1500 in discretionary funds to fund programs or ideas.  He wanted to bring it up at some point, but did not know how people would feel about the issue. When Denise asked how he would use these funds, Ryan replied that he was planning 2 or 3 mixers a semester involving the President, Faculty Council, and Scholastic Council, as well as other dynamic programs. 

 

Kenna noted that there used to be an executive discretionary fund of $1500 for ASOC-related projects.  There were no policies or procedures surrounding it; GA Co-Chairs, the ASOC President, and the Honor Board President were responsible for its allocation.  Ken then asked why they couldn’t allocate this money into Senate discretionary funds, since Ryan would get more input on that program and conflicts of interest would not arise, and that he did not see the need for an executive fund.  Ryan said that he was just trying to streamline the process of obtaining funding.  Kenna asked Ken how Ryan could request funding through the algorithm for his special projects.  Ken suggested making an ASOC project fund accessible only by the president of ASOC, Honor Board, and the GA co-chairs; Andrew thought that this would just be semantics. 

 

Afterwards, Kenna asked whether $5990 would go to Senate discretionary or ASOC Special projects.  Ken suggested that either of those locations could be a holding place before the money goes to club funding. 

 

Ryan then entertained a motion on the matter; Mike moved to move $1590 to ASOC discretionary, and $4400 to Senate discretionary, and Tilak seconded the motion.  Pat then moved to amend this motion so that all $5990 would be put in the ASOC Discretionary Fund.  Ken seconded the motion, and the vote was 10-1-0 with Dominique opposing.  Motion passed. 

 

C.     Passage Of The Budget

 

Ryan then entertained a motion to pass the budget with the previous amendments.  Santiago moved to pass the budget, Ken seconded, and the vote was 10-1-0 with Ken opposing.  The Budget was passed. 

 

 

D.     GA Co-Chair’s Update-Part II

 

Laura asked for feedback from last week’s meeting with ResLife and Housing, and asked for comments and questions.  Xochiltl noted that many people talked about developing committees, and asked who would do this.  Jessica said that there was a resolution process by which this would become possible; the GA would advertise a committee and a student would develop it. 

 

Santiago observed that people were complaining during the GA meeting and disapproved, but Jessica replied that they can only encourage people to make proactive remarks and not police their speech. 

Rob asked to send thank-you notes to the guests from the administration that attended; Jessica said that this is in progress.  Mike wondered if there could be more GA meetings with Housing, since housing is such a large concern among students.  Laura answered in the affirmative, saying that further meetings would include both more professional staff and President Prager. 

 

Jessica clarified, saying that next week’s General Assembly would involve the cultural communities presenting ideas as well as the investigation into the Grad Assistant Hall Coordinator’s motion that was passed during the previous school year.  The resolution stated that graduate students from outside Oxy would not be employed. However, some graduate students have been employed.  As such, people can talk about what kind of action they want to take at the next meeting.  Jessica also informed the Senate that the GA is in the process of putting gout an online newsletter, and that the GA minutes are also online. 

 

Ryan asked how the Senate could help the GA.  Laura advised the senators to arrive on time at 12, since 7 senators are required to actually begin an assembly, and that if they had any questions about OCC or ISL to simply send an e-mail. 

 

E.      Funding Requests

 

Club Name	Event/Program	Funding	Vote
Oxy Tigers AIDS Walk	AIDS Walk in LA (Fundraiser/Service)	$308.50	Ken moves, Mike seconds, Pat abstains, passed 10-0-1

 

MEChA/ALAS	Latino Heritage Month	$721.62	Andrew moves, Dominique seconds, Pat abstains, passed 10-0-1
Yoga Club	Instructor Fees	$1211.88	Andrew moves, Tilak seconds, Pat abstains, motion passed 10-0-1
While Yoga Club originally requested the monthly instructor fee, from now on they will receive the year’s fees as a lump sum.  Denise believed that this lump sum was a large amount of money; however, Patrick replied that the lump sum promotes equity.  Ken asked why the Yoga Club is classified as a cultural club; Jacob Goldstein, the Yoga Club representative, admitted that it was probably an athletic club, but he was unsure as to how to classify it.

 

Patrick then addressed the Queer-Straight Alliance’s funding issues, and told their representative, Tomas Boatwright, that they would be funded retroactively until October 13, and that the Senate would present him with exact funding at the funding meeting on Friday.  He also apologized profusely for not putting the online funding information out there; since the QSA turned in a paper request, it didn’t go through in time.  Kenna stated that incidents like this could be a major problem in the future, since the QSA was trying to finalize their week but couldn’t because they had no funding. 

 

Ryan wondered if there was a way to inform the clubs how much funding the algorithm would provide for them.  Pat offered to calculate this amount and send the predicted amount to the clubs via e-mail.  Kendra also advised that these predicted amounts be sent to the Senate listserv to keep the members of the Senate informed.  Andrew moved to allow Patrick to send these e-mails, Santiago seconded, Patrick abstained, and the motion was passed 10-0-1. 

 

F.      Liaisons

 

a.       Student Services Liaisons

 

Ryan expressed his interest in liaisons between the Senate and Student Services such as Programming Board, TOA, SAC, and senior yearbook, and said that the Senate is at times in the dark when it comes to the doings of Student Services.  He explained that the Senate could select a few individuals and Student Services would pick between them; this would be a service opportunity for those not heading a committee or for those lacking an official title. 

 

Santiago volunteered, saying that he is part of the PR Committee and also that his roommate is the head of the Programming Board, so it would be a fairly simple task.  Ken noted that, in the metaphorical sense, it was important to light a fire under the chairs of the respective Student Services.  Kenna then reminded him that that was her job, and that Student Services has not been spending money inappropriately. 

 

b.       Athletics Liaison

 

Ryan then brought up the possibility of having an Athletics Liaison; he had received an e-mail from the Athletic Director, who suggested Andrew Dakopolos as an Athletic Liaison to the Senate.  Although Ryan was not sure how the liaison’s relationship with the Senate would work, he figured that it could be advantageous in terms of programming, since the liaison could tell people about upcoming events, whether athletic in nature or not.  Andrew agreed, saying that the more people who come to the Senate meetings the better.  Rob asked if the athletic liaison would represent official sports only and not club sports, to which Ryan replied that he would represent official sports only, and that the liaison had only played official sports. 

 

Ryan than wished to explore the topic of how the senators could better represent themselves in public, but Andrew advised him to table the matter until the return of the GA Co-chairs. 

 

G.     Committee Updates

 

a.       Finance and Public Relations Committee

 

Mike reported that funding requests are now functional online, and that the funding guidelines were revised to make them clearer.   When Ryan asked what was unclear about the previous guidelines, Patrick answered that the stipulation that an open event must be publicized meant that the Oxy digest and ResLife resources should be utilized; before, that particular guideline was unclear.  Kenna corroborated Patrick’s account, saying that none of the actual information changed; only clarifications occurred. 

 

Ryan then inquired as to the status of the Public Relations Committee.  Dominique suggested having a Senate representative at hall spreads, as it gets the word out more easily and is an important aspect of PR.  Santiago then suggested putting white boards in residence halls so that RAs and HCs can communicate events to residents more easily.  Rob asked if RAs do not already have mandates to have and use these boards, to which Santiago replied that these boards could be used by club leaders as well to advertise a club event, and that he wished to volunteer for this project. 

 

Xochiltl stated that the white board in Stewie is perpetually blank, and Santiago added that there are no white boards at all in Chilcott or Newcomb.  Nonda pointed out that these white boards should not be misused, to which Ken replied that the more the white boards are regulated, the less they will be used.  While Rob suggested talking to RHA to require RAs to use the white boards, Santiago said that this was not a priority of RHA’s last year. 

 

b.       Campus Culture Committee

 

Denise made the Senate aware of the committee’s meeting tomorrow, and Andrew added that their website is still set to launch in December.  Andrew also noted that the committee is still working with Kenny Doherty to achieve this end, and that an e-mail had also been sent to President Prager concerning the lack of a projector this year. 

 

Revisiting the subject of the newspapers, Kenna said that the money for them was approved but not spent.  Santiago suggested putting them in the new dorm, to which Tilak replied that during the General Assembly, Kecia Baker had expressed the opinion that the newspapers were unnecessary; the department had been spending $10000 on them and it appeared to her that nobody read them.  Rob responded that after students read them, they would return the newspapers to their respective bins, making it appear as if nobody had read them.  Ken suggested conducting an experiment in which newspapers would be placed in the Cooler, and it would be noted whether students read them or not.  Tilak stated that he expected the question to be asked during the General Assembly, after which Ryan made him the point man on that issue. 

 

c.       Scholastic Committee

 

Ken stated that he would wait to present the plans of the committee until Alison’s return.  He said that the most controversial part of the plans would be the investing the current savings account into something socially responsible, as opposed to a CD.  Ryan asked if they would be working with the Budget and Finance Committee on this, to which Ken replied that they would invest under certain guidelines so that the committee could cash out if needed, and that the rest of the details would be presented via Powerpoint during the next meeting. 

 

d.       President’s Update

 

Ryan reported that he was engaged in talks with Professor Reddy concerning a student/faculty mixer, the reason for his wish for an executive fund.  During these mixers, he wanted to bring up civility, topics related to college admission, and a student/faculty dialogue in general.  Ryan stated his belief that there seemed to be some faculty frustration toward the administration, and that faculty problems are student problems.  During his next meeting with Prof. Reddy, he said, he should have a plan, a budget, and advertisement ideas. 

 

Ken noted that this mixer sounded more like a panel, to which Ryan replied that this would be a structured event.  Ryan also stated his intention to speak to Programming Board later to put on a social. 

 

V. Senate/GA Forum 

     A. General Comments

 

Ryan asked if there were any further comment.  Kenna made known her displeasure with the current ASOC computers; she described them as awful, old, and unable to serve the needs of ASOC.  She suggested submitting a Capital Improvement Request or sing allocated funds to purchase 2 new PCs and a Mac.  Pat asked why a Mac was necessary, to which Kenna replied that some people are more comfortable with Macs, and also that they could be used for tasks such as movie editing better than PCs.  Ryan added that Macs do not require the upkeep that PCs do. 

 

Santiago also suggested moving the meetings to the library; he could not see everyone’s faces with the current rectangular table setup.  Ken supported this idea, saying that there was a huge white wall upon which they could use a projector.  Ryan suggested a test run if the room was available, to which Santiago replied that he would show up half an hour early to set up. 

 

B.     Next Meeting’s Agenda Topics

 

Ryan suggested a Capital Improvement Request to purchase planners for those Senate members who lack them at $10 per planner.  Ken asked why the Senate should spend money on these planners.  Xochiltl remarked that this would be a good investment for those who do not have a planner.  Ryan wondered if a motion was necessary to purchase these planners, to which Kenna replied that if there were two opposing viewpoints, a vote was necessary. 

 

Patrick took issue with spending funds on personal school supplies, even if there is a surplus of funds.  Ryan then entertained a motion for planners to be purchased for those Senate members who do not have them.  Ken moved, Santiago seconded, and everyone except for Santiago and Xochiltl opposed the motion, with Dominique abstaining.  Motion failed 2-8-1. 

 

Ryan then recalled that they had not had time to talk about the status of the webmaster; he noted that webmasters had been the pride and joy of past Senates, and that they were very useful for PR.  Santiago said that he had not spoken with anyone concerning the position, and Dominique volunteered to take action. 

 

VI. Close Of Meeting

 

Ryan entertained a motion to close the meeting, Ken moved, Mike seconded, and the motion was passed by general consent.  Meeting was closed at 8:02.