Author: Kelsey Longmuir
On Monday, Feb. 9, the monthly meeting of the General Assembly (GA) was held in Johnson 200. The meeting dealt with funding requests for capital improvements, and the approval of an amendment to the Honor Board constitution.
The capital improvement requests were from The Occidental Weekly, the Bengal Room, and Programming board. The Weekly and Programming Board sought to receive funding for new computers, while the Bengal Room, home of the La Encina yearbook, requested to install internet.
“We have no working computer in our office,” Programming Board manager Victor Sowers (senior) said. Programming Board requested money for three computers with internet which was an estimated cost of $3000.
The amendment to the Honor Board constitution would choose jurors randomly to sit on the Academic Hearing Judicial Panel. The amendment is designed to allow jurors to assist faculty members in proceedings on academic misconduct.
In order for the General Assembly to vote on resolutions, they have to make quorum. To ensure that quorum was met, General Assembly co-chair Alex Nourafshan (sophomore) stepped down to vote as a student.
“17 people is the threshold for quorum, which may be a low number, but it has been embarrassingly difficult to maintain for the majority of this year,” Nourafshan said. “It’s pretty shocking that for a campus full of self-proclaimed activists, nobody shows up to confront the issues or administrators brought before the GA.”
“I think that the basis of the GA is a good idea in theory, but something has to be changed or else our entire system is going to fall apart,” GA co-chair Kristen Beck (sophomore) said. “It is likely that towards the end of this year we will be looking into how it needs to be changed and proposing the necessary changes to the student body.”
All resolutions were passed, and were sent to the Senate for approval.
“For those students who think that the GA isn’t worth their time or doesn’t do anything significant, I would like them to know that while they were complaining about being overcharged tuition, 17 of us approved $12,000 worth of capital improvements in half an hour,” Beck said. “If you want the right to complain, come eat your lunch with us and raise your hand.”
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