Wesleyan Student Assembly — Wesleyan University

Minutes: January 25, 2004, No. 9

WSA Officers President: Sohana Punithakumar
Vice President: Daniel Rodriguez
Coordinator: Sara Mirsky
Treasurer: Camille Zahniser

Meeting Agenda and Business:

1. Meeting Opening
2. Approval of Minutes
3. Approval of Appointments
4. New Business
5. Committee Reports
6. Internal Appointment
7. Constitution
8. Announcements
9. Adjournment

Opening of Meeting

The meeting was opened at 7:05 PM.

Approval of Minutes

Minutes approved as corrected.

Approval of Appointments

The appointments of Emily Polak and Jeremy Abrams are approved unanimously.

New Business

No new business.

Committee Reports

1. Independent Projects Committee (IPC)

   Danny Rodriguez, IPC Chair, reports:
   The Career Resource Center Advisory Committee will meet next on February 4 at 5 pm.

2. Finances and Facilities Committee (FiFac)

   Nathan Victoria, FiFac Chair, reports:
   On January 19, I met with the University Center Committee, and will meet with Manny Cunard to discuss the CAFSAC Committee, as well as housing. This Tuesday Sohana Punithakumar will speak at the rededication of Summerfields. The Kosher Kitchen opens Monday.

3. Educational Policy Committee (EPC)

   Karen Coutheoux, EPC Chair, reports:
   E-mail kcourtheoux@wesleyan.edu with comments about the new electronic add/drop process.

4. Student Affairs Committee (SAC)

   Rebecca Solow, SAC Chair, reports:
   Tim Reiss will reschedule his WSA visit. Please, e-mail specific dining feedback to dmatzkin@wesleyan.edu. One position is open on the search committee for the next Director of Residential Life; e-mail rsolow@wesleyan.edu by 10 pm on Tuesday. The Student of Color Sub-Committee to the Student Life Committee will meet Friday, February 6 at 2 pm; everyone is invited to participate in the meeting.

5. Student Budget Committee (SBC)

   Camille Zahniser, Treasurer, reports:
   The first meeting of the semester is tomorrow, Monday.

6. Coordinating Committee (CC)

   Sara Mirsky, Coordinator, reports:
   The Student Budget Committee elections begin tomorrow. As a reminder, anyone late to the 7 pm meeting time will be considered absent, and any four absence warrant impeachment.

7. Executive Committee (EC)

   Sohana Punithakumar, President, reports:
   Every committee must review their fall semester performance, and set goals for this semester. EC met with the Board of Trustees and will report back next week.

   Stack

   • Danny Rodriguez asks what the latest time for absence excuses to be sent to the Coordinator is.
   • Sara Mirsky replies, one hour before the meeting.

Internal COCo Chairperson Election

Jeremy Abrams and José Marantes accept nominations.

Jeremy Abrams's Statement:

After one semester off from the WSA, Abrams saw how important it is for the Assembly to increase transparency by connecting with student groups. He notices that often there is momentum at the start of the year which just drops, but he will work to create permanent connections with groups.

Stack

• Sohana Punithakumar asks why Abrams wants to chair COCo again, and why will he believes he will be good at it.
• Abrams says he had many good members last year, and he wants to be part of the committee in a strong way.
• Jesse Watson asks Abrams why he would not want to be just a member of COCo.
• Abrams says he has valuable experience to apply to the position of chairperson.
• Watson asks Abrams to outline how he will achieve the transparency that he talked about
• Abrams says that forums failed last year, so he would use one-on-one meetings to solve the transparency issue.

Jose Marantes's Statement:

Having been on the committee for one semester, Marantes has worked on the Student Group Packet and with Public Saftey. He says last semester the WSA was highly engaged with USLAC, and he sees that the Assembly must reach out more; he will hold a training retreat for representatives and student group leaders. He says that for the WSA to improve transparency, it must first work on itself. Marantes will plan a dinner with leaders of all groups with the frosh representatives. He realizes that the COCo-SBC relationship must develop much more.

Stack

• Sohana Punithakumar believes it is important to have experienced members chairing committees. She asks Marantes how he is qualified to lead COCo.
• José replies he is a student and his experience started the first day he stepped onto campus. He says he is not scared of the administration.
• Punithakumar is concerned with having forums that target groups, because the contact people are sometimes tokenized. She asks how he wants to bring these groups together.
• Marantes believes it is important to have the group leaders to talk amongst themselves. He simply wants to bring people together just to network and build respect between one another in the community.
• Georgi Radev asks how each nominee feels about a COCo member attending SBC hearings, and they have suggestions for strengthening the connection.
• Abrams says he support the initiative. The SBC, he says, can hold groups account, while COCo can see if the groups follow through in using their allocations.
• Marantes says that as COCo member at the hearings he just listened. He would suggest having the chairperson of COCo attending more SBC meetings. He would also have the two committees get together and discuss the relation.
• Nathan Victoria asks Marantes if he has experience working with Marianne Wiggan.
• Marantes says no.
• Allison Burson asks what each candidate knows about the proposed shuttle service changes.
• Marantes says he was Anay Shah's back-up man and this next phase of planning is the key to being able to execute it this fall.
• Abrams says that it is important to pressure the right administrators in order to get the money around. He says the service must remain on campus for safety.

Closed discussion of nominees.

Jeremy Abrams is internally elected as the COCo Chairperson.

Brief Discussion on the Constitution

The IPC and CC will work together with any interested members of the WSA to give the College Body Constitution a facelift.

Stack

• Emily Polak says that at the end of last year she and Adam Lachman rewrote incorrect parts of constitution, which have not been officially added to the document.
• Sara Mirsky says that the goal is to insert the By-Laws into the Constitution.
• Jesse Watson suggests that the procedure for passing resolutions be changed to require that a member of the Assembly sponsor or cosponsor every resolution, and asks, who is responsible for the location of passed resolutions?
• Camille Zahniser suggests that problems with election procedure, and COCo and SAC be reviewed. Along with Watson's comment, if no assembly member sponsors a resolution, the Coordinator or Assistant Coordinator should have to sponsor it.
• Sohana Punithakumar suggests that their COCo group advisor be the sponsor for resolutions.
• Nathan Victoria suggests having the names of positions inserted into the Constitution.
• Punithakumar says that she presented resolution the Green Energy Resolution to President Bennet and Camille
• Zahnizer presented it to Marsha Bromberg.
• Josh Bryant recommends that this idea be put constitutionally required for every resolution.
• Sara Mirsky wants to add that the CC must submit something to every issue of the Argus.
• Camille Zahniser would like to codify the role of WSA in overseeing Honor Board and Student Judicial Board.
• Karen Courtheoux says that appointment procedures and attendance policies should be reworded.
• Danny Rodriguez wants detail added to the responsibilities of the seventeen summer interim WSA members.
• Emily Polak asks what the timeline for the project is.
• Sara Mirsky says it will be completed in time for spring elections.
• Punithakumar says the goal is to have the correction recommendations finished before spring break.

Announcements

• Sara Mirsky announces a time change for next week's meeting, because of the Super Bowl; the meeting will begin at 1 pm. And, the SBC election begins tonight at midnight?
• Jesse Watson suggests that everybody vote for Georgi Radev in the election.
• Nora Connor suggests that there be themes for WSA meetings. For example, next week's meeting could have a Super Bowl theme.
• Becca Solow motions for a Super Bowl theme, which is voted down.
  
• Danny Rodriguez announces that ITS is switching servers, and because of authentication problems on the new server, E-Squid looks horrible. Dan Stillman is working on finding a new server for E-Squid; he spent this past weekend repairing the voting page.

Adjournment

The meeting was adjourned at 8:50 PM. Respectfully Submitted,
Juan Sebasti—n Moreno, WSA Secretary