AAS Meeting Minutes – April 22, 2013
I.Attendance
II.Swearing in of new E-Board, Swearing in of new Senators
III.Public Comment
a.Open to all students on any topic
IV.Presentation by Marcy Larmon, Alumni and Parent Programs (~15 minutes)
Marcy: This is the end of a 5-year campaign. Goals were financial aid, student enrichment. We’re hoping to hit $500 million. During the stock market crash, we almost lost the entire amount we raised, but after that rough start, we’ve come a long way. Next September, we’re going to have a big celebration on campus with panels, seminars and keynote speakers. We also want to end the day on Saturday with a grand finale… perhaps Biddy will speak. There will probably be some short video on the quad if the weather is good. I want something fun and exciting and crazy! Flash mobs have been suggested. September 20th and 21st are the dates.
Andre Wang ‘14: What is the nature of the celebration?
Marcy: We want to renew the excitement about what we’re already doing and where that’s going. We’re celebrating the exciting new faculty, increased financial aid, extended internship programs and increased diversity on campus.
Peter Crane ’15: The Fun Police, RAK and Program Board specialize in creating fun on campus. We could draft something in writing and email it out.
Marcy: At the end of the celebration, I’d like music and dancing to continue with students for the rest of the day. Make it your party at the end of the day!
Kasope Aleshinloye ‘14: I would suggest Amherst College buy a bounce-house instead of renting it all the time.
a.Soliciting feedback: all-campus celebration for completing 5-year fundraising campaign
V.Introduction for new Senators (~30 minutes)
a.Structure of Senate meetings
b.Overview of parliamentary procedure; will hold a practice session after the freshmen join
Noah Gordon ’14 introduces small pieces of paper on which Senators can write conversations instead of speaking out loud to each other in side-conversations that distract others.
c.2013-14 Senate Mission Statement
VI.BC Recs
Friends of Jacklyn: Zumbyes performing requesting $100. Flyers and table tents: $10.
Eli Harris ‘15: Club soccer made the playoffs in Boston! First game is at 8:30 at Harvard on Saturday, but we have to be there at 6:30. We have to leave around 4:30. Required to have ACEMS members staff our home games (ex-post facto… cannot fund). $900 for hotels and $300 for referees. Added to BC recs.
Kasope: ACES. 7:30 PM hosting owner of J. Gumbo’s will be speaking. $100 honorarium requested, $200 for food and $10 for publicity.
Motion to separate out Tierney’s Senate Project
Richard Park ‘16: I don’t understand why we should be funding this. This is a student health issue. This should be funded by the school or ACEMs.
Tierney Werner ‘16: I contacted Rick Meers and John Carter. Meers told me his budgets are nil since he’s at the end of the semester. He could get $2500 and he’s wondering if Senate could put up $1500. He’s arranging for training.
Abigail Xu ‘15: Senate fund is maxed out so we need to put this into discretionary. Department budgets are extremely tight.
Chris Friend ‘14: We already do fund things we consider life-savings on campus.
Friend moves to separate it out.
Passes.
Matt’s motion to separate out Tierney’s request.
Passes.
BC RECS PASSED.
Tierney: Facilities budgets are going to be increased for next year. Increased AEDs aren’t falling under that budget increase. AEDs are not a big priority. My original plan was to request two and to slowly increase. I want to get it done now because we’re going to have reunion soon.
Matt deButts ‘14: Difference between defibrillators and ACEMs is that one is a piece of equipment and the other is a student activity. I think it’s the college’s responsibility to keep it alive.
Joe Kim ‘14: If we have an AED already with ACEMs, why do we need one in Converse?
Richard: If you need an AED, it’s an emergency and you need it immediately. My only worry is that we would have to fund things like this again and again.
Enkhnasan Enkhbold ’15: I’m driving around the volt… pulling up into Merrill is a pain. Harder for ambulances to get there. Important in a huge building like Merrill that we have an AED.
Amani Ahmed ’15: I don’t dispute that this is essential or important. My understanding of ACEMs is that it is interactive with students. AEDs are completely necessary but the school should be funding them. BC funds student activities.
Hao Liu ’16: We’re creating a precedent for this kind of thing. We should push the school to fund it rather than create a precedent that will come back to us.
Chris Friend ‘14: We wouldn’t find fire extinguishers. We wouldn’t fund life-saving devices. It’s weird that we fund a lot of things for ACEMs to use.
Liya Rechtman ’14: Why isn’t this a top priority for Rick Meers?
Tierney: I don’t know why it’s not a priority. In the beginning I was going to ask for all $4000, but they made it clear they wanted some input from the Senate.
Sam Keaser ‘16: I love discussing principle but I think we need AEDs and we need them soon.
Andre Wang ‘14: I think the right thing to do is to come up with a resolution or letter to persuade Rick Meers to fund AEDs.
Tomi Williams ‘16: When it comes to club soccer, we can do the principle thing and try to argue with the administration. When it comes to something that saves people’s lives, it’s petty to argue. If administration isn’t going to fund it, we should.
Abigail Xu ‘15: I think the school should make it a priority to fund it, but because there’s a time-crunch, I think we should fund it now but we shouldn’t fund it in the future.
Shruthi Badri ‘16: The school is looking at us as an unlimited source of money. But that’s not what we’re here for.
Move to end discussion.
Passed.
yesses: 13
no: 11
Passed.
VII.Reports
a.Committee Reports
Sam: Committee on IT policy met. Request that green sheets come back for the rest of the year. Over the summer, we’ll come up with more solutions.
Shruthi: College council met. Suzanne Coffey came in and the Title IX Committee will now be composed by experts from the other four colleges. Amherst College professors will be on other committees. LGBTQIA community is also represented.
George: HD TVs proposal includes buying HD TVs only for common rooms. Dorm rooms wouldn’t have HD in the rooms.
Shruthi: We thought it would promote community to get people out of their rooms and into the common room. It was just too expensive. We didn’t want to seem as if we were splurging on something when we weren’t funding other things.
Matt: Committee on Educational Policy deals with all kinds of academic policies and it’s a really cool committee. We’ll be having an election for it at the end of this year. I encourage you to run for it. It meets every Friday from noon to 2 PM.
Chris: Committee on Priorities and Resources discusses a lot of things to which the college allocates money. We’re putting together a faculty salary report.
Rama Hagos ’15: Arts committee met and we discussed cool ideas.
Andre: MRC special committee formed last October. The committee hasn’t met for three weeks. The main initiative has been to hire a full-time interim MRC director to facilitate the envisioning of the MRC and to prepare for the fulltime national search.
b.General Announcements
Rama: Will Shortz will be in the red room!
Liya: Pride and Allies week. Handing out t-shirts. Bouncy house on Wednesday.
c.Officer Reports
Tomi: JC elections are this semester. Senators please give me your Senate projects. Students will hopefully be able to click on a tab on the AAS website where they can read about Senate projects.
VIII. Noah Gordon ’14
All are in favor of Noah’s NY Times website initiative.
IX. Coal Divestment
Two representatives.
Other schools have passed similar resolutions. We used language to keep in accordance with other schools. Brought this to Board of Trustees and he seemed receptive, but this semester we’ve received no response.
Mountaintop Removal is one of the main problems. Take all the toxic sludge and place it in lakes and such that could poison people and nature. Mt. Tom’s Coal Plant create hire asthma rates in the area.
Straw poll: All in favor of voting on this tonight
More people want to move the voting to a next meeting.
X.Committee Elections
a.Orientation and First-Year Life Committee (3 members)
Liya, Juan Gabriel and Peter Crane elected.
b.Elections Committee (5 members, 1 rising senior)
Ian, Rama, Andre, Ali, and Blaine elected.
c.Judiciary Council (2 members)
Servet and Joe elected.
XI.New Business
Servet: I’d like to request money for the AAS Teaching Award (to ship and have it engraved).
Funded.
a.Senate Project: Boxes for storage
George reads out an email from Pamela of Storage where she cites student misuse of storage.
Lord Jeff Mascot is no longer an appropriate mascot. Trustees are recommended to begin finding a new mascot. George presents an alternative resolution that college council has passed.
XII. Meeting ends: 11:08 PM