Author: Lilliane Ballesteros
Congratulations were doled out for next year’s ASOC President Patrick McCredie (junior) during the Senate’s April 23 meeting. McCredie currently serves as Junior Class Senator.
In an April 22 email, Senate Adviser and Assistant Director of Student Life Kenna Cottrill announced McCredie’s victory, which along with all the other candidates was uncontested. Other winners included: Renoa Batista (first-year) Denise Loera (junior) and Sandy Runyan (junior) for Campus Wide Senators; Alex Graves for Senior Senator; Konstantin Chaykovskiy for Junior Senator and Xochiltl Ramos for Sophomore Senator. Next year’s General Assembly (GA) Co-Chairs will be Kristin Beck (first-year) and Alex Nourafshan (first-year). Additionally, Lee Budner (sophomore) and Noah Goldsmith (sophomore) will serve as future Honor Board Jurors. “A fall election will be held to elect First-Year Senators and two more Honor Board Jurors,” Cottrill said.
The election also produced the approval of two amendments. The two amendments that passed were Amendment 11 and Amendment 12. Amendment 11 received a total of 443 people voting and Amendment 12 received a total of 447 people voting, Cottrill said. As outlined by Amendment 11, the number of times which the GA must meet per semester has changed from 10 to five. The passage of Amendment 12 related “to the process for filling vacancies when Senators resign with less than 10 weeks remaining,” Cottrill said.
Current GA Co-Chair Paolo Cosulich-Schwartz (junior) spoke to the Senate about the GA meeting regarding the Student Representatives to the Board of Trustees.
Cosulich-Schwartz said the student representatives felt they didn’t know their role between the students and the board and they had little to show for their work. He explained that even though this reflects poorly on the GA the Senate should acknowledge that the committee hasn’t done much this year and felt they didn’t have much to say.
According to the April 23 Senate minutes, “Cosulich-Schwartz assessed that the Representatives were frustrated, as they felt that their voice was not heard by the board and that they had accomplished little in a year’s time, which reflected poorly upon student government as a whole.”
Newly appointed senator Jimmy Gillan (senior) commented on the role of the Student Representatives. The minutes stated that “[Gillan] stated that the role of Representative was a difficult one, as the Board was not obligated to take their opinions into account. Citing Spencer Jemelka’s (senior) Honor Board case, he recommended greater vertical transmission of information by having the Representatives report back multiple times during the semester instead of appointing them and sending them off.”
Campus Wide Senator Santiago Mendez (sophomore) asked the Senate for advice regarding the newspaper proposal, which introduced the Los Angeles Times and New York Times back to campus earlier this semester. He said he would like the administration to take up the costs for future years, saying his proposal would cut the cost of having the newspapers delivered on campus to less than half of what it had been in previous years. Mendez said he wanted to get the approval of the Senate in going forward with the proposal before taking it to the GA. Replies came from ASOC President Ryan Bowen (senior) and Gillan, who said that Mendez should clean up the proposal and possible present it to administrators as a trial period.
Senior Senator Dominique Kirkwood spoke about the multicultural project the Senate is hoping to showcase to the College before the end of the semester. According to both Kirkwood and Bowen, the multicultural report had not been printed and proved to be a “burdensome process.” According to the minutes, “Ryan told the Senate that since the Project would not be printed by a date during which it would be feasible to hold a reception, he recommended holding a study break-type event for three consecutive nights wherein students could pass through the Johnson Student Center, eat food that would not necessarily have to be prepared by Campus Dining, and bask in the glory of the Project.” First Year Senator Tilak Gupta suggested shortening the amount of days the project would be on display.
Bowen discussed his visit to the Board of Trustees meeting and advised future ASOC President McCredie to attend the meetings when possible, as it is something that he can do. Bowen said he talked to the Board about the student perception of the group as being an “ominous force.” He said the Board will begin to upload their minutes onto the internet.
Ending the meeting, the Senate once again voted in Senator Gillan as Bowen “alluded to the Honor Board case concerning Jimmy’s appointment, saying that he had met with Dean Avery and Honor Board, who had told him that Jimmy should be voted in under the requirements of the new amendment to legitimize his position,” according to the minutes.
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