Author: Martha Carol
On Tuesday, Oct. 8, the ASOC Senate met with administration officials to discuss how best to assuage growing tensions between Eagle Rock residents and Occidental students, and modifications to facilities.
Dean of Students Barbara Avery and Assistant Dean of Students for Residence Life and Housing Services Timothy Chang led the Senate in reviewing Occidental’s projects to improve housing and academic spaces and the new guidelines to discourage rowdy off-campus parties.
The Senate also worked to finalize the 2009-2010 budget, to process requests for funding by various clubs and organizations, and to prepare for next week’s voting. The ASOC will be electing two new General Assembly co-Chairs as well as voting for legislation changes on Thursday next week.
Deans Avery and Chang sought Senators’ feedback regarding the administration’s proposed efforts to handle student misconduct off campus. They discussed the Office of Student Conduct’s release of a set of guidelines which conduct officers will follow to discipline students who have disruptive parties at off campus residences.
The Sanctions for Off-Campus Misconduct states that students holding off-campus gatherings in which there is any “underage alcohol use, excessive noise, excessive littering, crowding of public streets, lewd behavior, and property damage” are liable to face, “probation, notification of host(s) parents and landlord, community restitution, fines, meeting with one of the Student Affairs Dean of Students.”
Dean Avery explained that the situation was getting out of control and that punitive actions seemed to be one of the best solutions. These new guidelines come as a reaction to increasing complaints from the community.
In recent years, relations between Occidental College and its neighbors in Eagle Rock and Highland Park have grown strained due to the abundance and noise levels of student parties. According to Dean Avery, there has been a significant increase in complaints to the college and LAPD by the community. Occidental’s ability to gain approval for any renovations on campus is dependent on the maintenance of positive relationships with its neighbors. This dependency has led the administration to introduce these new sanctions and policies to promote amity.
“I am not out to destroy everyone’s undergraduate happiness,” said Avery, addressing concerns by the senators that these new sanctions would curb students’ social lives. “We think the only way we are going to make a change is to hold students accountable. Some people within the administration are even considering expulsion [as a penalty for continuing disruptions to the community by students living off campus].”
ASOC President Andrew DeBlock pushed for further discussion of the new guidelines so the senators could review Dean Avery’s proposal. He brought up the possibility of forming an association of students living off campus who would agree to follow certain restrictions including guidelines pertaining to party hours and noise levels.
“We are going to talk about what students can do to participate off-campus more responsibly [. . .] It looks like the administration is very set on what they are going to do now because they have a lot of outside pressure forcing their hand,” said DeBlock, adding that the council will give students a voice in improving off-campus relations.
Chang and Avery also asked for student input on current and future plans for the school’s facilities. Chang outlined Occidental’s plans for creating more spaces for students to study and hang out. In order to recondition buildings, housing has asked students to paint murals around campus.
In a broader plan to improve housing, Residence Life and Housing Services is planning to create more themed houses for students to live in on and off campus. The first house planned is a sustainable living/cooking themed house powered by solar panels with an organic garden.
Additionally, a new convenience store will be opening on campus offering food and household items, all for around a dollar. To improve current housing, the school plans to create storage facilities, and install card readers for all dorms and laundry machines. There was a general consensus among the senators that these changes would all positively affect the atmosphere of Occidental’s campus and the culture of Oxy students.
The Senate finished the meeting by finalizing legislation proposals and reviewing funding requests. Continuing their push to make up for past mishandling of finances and to increase productivity of the ASOC General Assembly (GA), Senator Joellen Anderson (junior) and DeBlock proposed legislation changes that will be up for vote on Oct. 15. In addition to this budget amendment proposal and potentially a proposal to amend the role of the GA in the ASOC Constitution, the election of the new GA co-Chairs will be on the ballot when the ASOC votes next week.
President DeBlock submitted his ASOC Budget Amendment Proposal to the Senate on Oct. 6 citing “the ASOC Constitution mandate that Senate allocate more than 100% of the budget before accounting for the GA, Honor Board, Senate Operating Expenses and ASOC Elections” as the primary rationale for updating the ASOC Constitution.
DeBlock’s proposal included updates to the language of the Constitution that would give the Senate more freedom to allocate money where they see fit and simplify the budget given to Student Services.
Additionally, DeBlock and the rest of the Senate are considering changes to the structure and purpose of the General Assembly. This tentative amendment to the ASOC constitution was introduced to promote practicality. According to the DeBlock’s proposal, “In recent years the usefulness and popularity of the General Assembly has greatly declined.”
As a solution to these problems, the proposed legislation would transfer many of the GA’s duties to the Honor Board including the review of ASOC legislature as well as a new structure for committees to address specific problems within Occidental.
The Senate meets every Tuesday at 8 p.m. in the Galarza Room of the Mary J. Clapp Library. They will not be meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 20 for Fall Break.
This article has been archived, for more requests please contact us via the support system.
