AAS | Minutes

AAS SENATE MEETING

Monday, September 29, 2003

I. Attendance

SENIOR SENATORS						8
Kay Bradley						X
Geoffrey Brounell						X
Arshia Choudhury						/
Mihailis Diamantis						X
A.J. Korytoski						X
Lincoln Mayer						E
Luke Swarthout						X
JUNIOR SENATORS
Ethan Davis						X
Rosalyn Foster						E
Gabriel Mattera						X
Daniel Reiss						U
Christian Sanchez						/
David Scherr						X
Justin Sharaf						X
SOPHOMORE SENATORS
Rania Arja						X
Taamiti Bankole						X
Caleb Deats						/
John Lian						/
Molibi Maphanyane						X
Mira Serrill-Robins						E
Ian Shin						X
Matt Vanneman						X
TOTAL SENATORS

EXECUTIVE BRANCH
Andre Deckrow						X
Elan Ghazal						X
Alex Linden						X
Ryan Park						X
Paris Wallace						X
LEGEND:
x = Present
E = Excused Absence
U = Unexcused Absence
/ = Half an Absence

II. Call to order (9:04 PM)

III. Approval of minutes (9:05 PM)

A. September 15, 2003 Minutes

Elan: Someone needs to put in the budgetary information. I have some

corrections.

Elan reads the changes.

Elan: Unless there is an objection I will consider them approved by unanimous

consent. The minutes are passed.

B. September 22, 2003 Minutes

Elan: Does anyone have any corrections? I have some corrections.

Elan reads the changes.

Elan: Unless there is an objection I will consider them approved by unanimous

consent. The minutes are passed.

C. September 24, 2003 Minutes

Elan: Does anyone have any corrections?

Elan reads the changes.

Elan: Unless there is an objection I will consider them approved by unanimous

consent. The minutes are passed.

IV. Officer reports (9:10 PM)

A. President

Ryan: the ad hoc filing sharing committee spoke last week and drafted a letter

that will be sent out. If you have any suggestions on who else the letter should be

sent to or if you would like to read the letter, please let me know.

Andre: Can you post that on the website?

Ryan: Yes. Also, can the honor code committee meet after the meeting? Also,

the New York Times program will be 50% funded by the administration.

Elan: We have one pretty important thing left to go over and that is the constitutional changes and by laws.

B. JC Chair

Andre: There are a couple of grammatical changes. The first one is with number 6.

Molibi: Point of order: Are we still in the officer report state?

Elan: Yes.

Paris: Point of information: These have to be voted to be put in the by laws. Are we going to vote for these now or are you just giving a report?

Andre: Just giving a report, we will vote for them later. Two weeks from today the JC is going to have review and recognition session for clubs.

Andre goes through the changes.

C. Secretary

Alex: We are sending President Marx a thank you letter for meeting on Wednesday. I am going to pass it around for you to sign.

V. Announcements (9:28 PM)

Paris: The constitutional revisions – I made copies of them for everyone. If you need

one they are on the table.

Matt: Elections are on Thursday. Freshmen vote for their senators and the

constitution changes we just made.

Molibi: Could the 06 Class Council meet after the senate meeting?

Arisha: Program Board is sponsoring The Matrix and The Matrix Reloaded this weekend.

VI. Special Orders (9:31 PM)

A. BC Funding Recommendation

Breakdown
Entire Fund	$98,568
TTL Requested	$53,000
TTL Recommended	$24,662
TTL %Remaing (Rec)	$73,906
TTL Allocated	$27,232
TTL Remaining	$71,336
% Remaining	72%
Weeks This semester	13
Suggested Per Week	$7,582
Suggested % Per Week	8%

Requestor	Requested	Recommended	Allocated
SKAmherst	$250	$0	$0
Amherst Crew	$5,900	Tabled
Students for Informed Political Choice	$492	$0	$0
Affirmations	$850	$0	$850
Men's Project	$90	$90	$90
Model UN	$2,805	$1,355	$1355
ACF	$500	$500	$500
Total Week 4	$10,827	$1,945	$2795

Mihailis: Point of information: I was wondering what policy they are applying to

Skamherst in their decision. It seems like it should be the same as any other cultural

club.

Paris: Specifically, the committee decided it would be a really bad precedent to start

paying for concerts. I think you are right about cultural events on campus but we

haven’t necessarily given any money to that this year and we will take this decision

into account when making decisions on other cultural events.

Mihailis: I was wondering if things like poetry slam and other performance type

events that took place last year would be funded.

Paris: That has yet to be decided.

Molibi: I was wondering why the Model UN trip’s food expenses aren’t covered.

Paris: This would allow anyone going away for the weekend to ask us to pay for

their food. For example, if the Rugby Team had an away game, they could ask us to

pay for the food they ate while away and we would have to cover it.

Matt: I move to pass these recommendations

Ian: second:

Tammy: We are the two chairs of bi-semester (points to Julian) and we came to tell

you about the event. The reception and the food we are requesting food is for an

event attended by Dean Moss and other members of the faculty and administration

where we all come together and enjoy community and fellowship. The worship

service and the reception go hand in hand. You are in fellowship with God and that

also extends in fellowship with people. We would like to bring to your attention the

Hillel dinners which promote fellowship with them and that is an analogous situation

with us. We looked at catering situations to make sure we weren’t wasting BC

funding and our next estimate was much more. We are very cognizant of funding

and hold our meetings in Valentine. This is a very important part of our community

and this is our ninth year having the event.

Taamiti: Who paid for this last year?

Tammy: The BC.

Paris: To address the Hillel situation, they have this every Friday and so the event is

focused around the food. It provides food for people that can’t eat at Valentine for

whatever reason.

Mihailis: I would like to move to amend the BC Recommendations to include the

bi-semester funding.

Elan: Is there a second

Yes throughout the room.

Ethan: We should explain why food is essential to the event

Mihailis: I think Tammy did a good job of explaining the event. We can see why

food would be more essential for this event than the Outreach Dinner we funded last

week

Molibi: Point of information – What is the breakdown of cost?

Tammy: $500 for speaker, $100 flowers, $150 organist, and the dinner.

Paris: I would like to point out that we have already made decisions about similar

events such as funding the food at the 3D orientation meeting where they were trying

to build community around the food. This means we have already set a policy and

are now going back on it.

Julian: In the African American tradition, food is an essential part of a service. Bi-

semester tries to bring that experience to the community four times a year. Last year

at our first service, we didn’t have food and people were not happy and were

unsettled.

Justin: Where is the food in the service? Is it traditional food?

Julian: It is after the service. It is soul food

Luke: Call the question.

Objected.

Ian: How many people attend this event?

Julian: We usually fill Chapin Chapel.

Paris: It seems really high. It is $10 and so it is basically like taking everyone out to

dinner.

Luke: Call the question

SEE VOTE 9 BELOW. $850 Increase Amendment for Affirmations Bi-Semester –

MOTION PASSES:14-4-0.

Andre: Is the Men’s Project open to women?

Rania: The point of the club is for men, specifically, to deal with violence.When

they have workshops it is open to both sexes.

Caleb: We are working with the Feminist Alliance and so women can go through

them.

Matt: I move to have full funding for the students for political choice.

Taamiti: Second.

Matt: Last week we were voting to give money to the Generation Dean campaign

but this time we are talking about three candidates and there is some interest in other

candidates. It is a different issue.

Luke: There is no rule that says students can’t fund specific campaigns. The other

thing is that this is not something we have funded for Republicans or Democrats. I

will yield to anyone who has a contradiction to that claim.

Matt: The Republicans were given campaign funding for the primaries.

Ryan: I was looking at the budgets and I know that last semester the Democrats were

given money to go to New Hampshire and work on a campaign.

Ethan: Student government should not be funding campaigns.

Ted: I came today because I heard about this from The Daily Jolt. I am proud of the

BC for voting this down. This is money that would be going toward funding a

national campaign whose elections will not even be taking place this school year. As

someone pointed out on the Jolt, a Nazi candidate would have to be funded under

this precedent regardless of your own non-discrimination views.

Matt: Point of privilege – That would be covered under hate speech.

Ted: Well, that is already on shaky legal ground. Taking a trip to campaign is an educational experience but campaign funding is different.

Ethan: We would have no principle ground to deny political campaign funding for any party.

Molibi: Amherst students aren’t very involved politically and I think that any event that raises awareness is great. If there is any way to assure it is raising awareness without showing a bias I think it should be passed.

Christian: I think it is terrible that workers for this campaign are asking us for money. Voter registration was a great idea. I think it isn’t respectful to ask our students for money. I think it is a terrible idea.

Ted: I agree.

Luke: Call the question.

Ethan: object

AJ: I yield to Ethan.

Ethan: Molibi, what if we asked for funding for ten Democrat candidates, wouldn’t that be unfair for any other candidates?

Molibi: I think we are just educating. Unbiased education would be beneficial.

Matt: I move the question.

Luke: Second

SEE VOTE 10 BELOW. $492 Increase Amendment for Students for Informed Political Choice – MOTION FAILS: 2-15-1.

Mihailis: Call the question.

Matt: I object.

Paris: For the ACF speaker, we actually recommended $500 not $0.

Andre: Does that affect the total figures?

Paris: Yes it would be $500 more.

Mihailis: I would like to call the question

SEE VOTE 11 BELOW. 9/29/03 BC Funding Recommendations - MOTION PASSED: 16-2-0.

B. Constitutional by laws and amendments

Andre: 6 - Get rid of “clubs may” and change it to“not charged admission fees”.

Mihailis: Do you have a copy of the whole constitution with you? Can you read that whole portion?

Andre: It is in the budgetary changes.

Mihailis: Ok thank you

Ryan: 9 - Don’t you want to say “the” campus?

Andre: Yes.

Paris: I think it is really important that if they are going to have a constitution it needs to say how constitutional changes and revisions can be made.

Luke: Can’t they just submit a new one?

Paris: I think they should say how the changes can be made.

Luke: Motion to accept the bylaws.

Taamiti: Second.

Matt: Motion to add to 5a 1d “this constitution may be updated as organizations see fit”.

Taamiti: Second

Molibi: Technically, the clubs can change their constitutions after they have been recognized that year. Shouldn’t we say changes should be approved by the Senate?

Andre: The reason we don’t want that is because recognition is supposed to be a continual process. The JC is supposed to make sure that the new constitution still fits with the by laws.

Paris: if people think a club is going wrong then it should say in that document how to change it. It shouldn’t be arbitrarily done.

AJ: I feel we need to have a discussion about whether we are in a position to force all clubs to have a constitution. I don’t think forcing all clubs to have a constitution is effective since we don’t say how the constitution is to be enforced.

Mihailis: I don’t think it is something we should spend too much time discussing. It is just statements 1a, b and c.

Andre: If it would make everyone feel better someone could motion to say that we don’t require anything besides those three things.

Matt: Withdrawing motion.

Elan: Motion is withdrawn

Luke: Motion to amend – “shall submit”.

Matt: Second

Andre: The only reason we wanted it to say that is so the clubs would do it all together.

Luke: “shall submit together”

Paris: Is this going to be submitted online?

AJ: I think we should just say “shall submit” and then the JC can discuss how they should submit

Luke: Have the constitution reading just submit.

Elan: Any objection to Luke changing the motion?

Matt: Call the question

Elan: All in favor say aye, all opposed say nay – amendment passes.

Luke: Call the question

SEE VOTE 12 BELOW. J.C. Bylaw Changes – MOTION PASSED: 18-0-0.

Elan: Constitutional amendments regarding budgetary issues.

Paris: Does anyone need time to read it? Ok, basically we felt these were really important changes that need to be made. They are the results of problems we have had in the past.

Matt: Motion to pass.

Ethan: Second.

Matt: I move to strike section five subsection d on page 6.

Ethan: Second

Matt: This allows the students to circumvent the senate.

Molibi: I think this allows the BC to operate in the event that there is some sort of emergency. We should trust the BC.

Dave: I don’t think this disempowers the Senate. It is a reasonable amount that allows for some flexibility.

Mihailis: I think d allows for a system of kickbacks. I am not entirely comfortable with d as it stands now.

Molibi: The treasurer doesn’t get to vote correct?

Paris: Unless it is a tie. Anyone who can’t get their act together can come ask us for money and the BC has to meet within 48 hours to evaluate the situation. Maybe if we change it so that it doesn’t make us at their beck and call.

Ian: We trust the BC with making recommendations, not with approving expenditures. If we are going to be so stringent with something we have to be stringent with everything.

Luke: There was a time when the BC made all decisions without any oversight of the Senate. How often was this used in the last two years? I see it as a useful thing when it happens and we should keep it as a safeguard. I call the question.

Matt: I object. This will become all the more useful when people start hearing about it. Call the question

Dave: I move to amend the amendment to read that this request should be made 48 hours before the next BC meeting and any request should be brought to the Senate. Keep the first sentence and then the second sentence should say that.

Elan: I am going to require this in writing because it is too long

Andre: I think it is important to keep this because some things came up last year. I

think it needs to be preserved in case there is an emergency.

Arshia: Point of information – If we change it, these clubs have to go to the BC more

than 48 hours before the meeting?

Dave: The idea is that they will consider it at the next meeting.

Ian: You said that this clause has tried to be revoked before. My concern is that

people should get there stuff together sooner.

Paris: One was from a club that didn’t get together on time for a meeting and the

other was for food for an event that didn’t end up taking place that semester.

Luke: Call the question. Why does the BC need 48 hours?

Paris: 48 hours gives the BC a chance to talk about it.

Elan reads the new amendment written by Dave.

Matt: Can you make it to say any request?

Dave: Yes

Elan: All those in favor saying aye, all those opposed saying nay – it is amended.

Luke: Most of this is transferring the by laws, not cutting?

Elan: There are some specific changes but there are some that transfer to the by laws

Luke: My request is that you go through the changes.

Elan: Can we pass it? Amendment is passed

Paris goes through the changes

Andre: I want to submit a motion that all the language be consistent.

Paris continues going through the changes.

Luke: Could we make it a duty of the treasurer that by the third week of school we

should have a layout of when each semester’s budget is going to be?

Paris continues to go through the changes.

Alex: Why is it my position and not your webmaster?

Paris: It would be an AAS official archiving.

Alex: I don’t understand why it wouldn’t be on the budgetary website.

Luke: It would assure that one person is responsible for all of those things.

Alex: Ok so its jut for archiving purposes.

Paris continues with the changes.

Elan: All of these are recommendations for approval of the Senate.

Alex: I have a question about number 7. Does that mean it has to be on the website?

Elan: It wouldn’t be made public because it is a closed meeting.

Luke: I would like to add under the duties of the treasurer a 13th duty. By the 4th

meeting of each semester, present the senate with budget approvals.

Elan: Is there any further discussion on the constitutional portion of these budgetary

revisions? No, ok we will take a second while Luke writes this.

Elan reads the amendment – amendment is accepted

Matt: Call the question

9/29/03 Constitution Revisions (Budgetary Sections, brought by E-board) –MOTION

PASSES: 18-0-0.

Elan: Move on to the by laws.

Paris goes through the changes on the by-laws.

Paris: Someone should change the wording on part 3.

Matt: Call the question.

Motion passed.

Luke: Motion to adopt non discrimination policy language to read as stated in these

by laws.

Motion passed.

Mihailis: Amend – add to the end of section b subsection 2: “with the exception of

special cases approved by the majority of the senate”

Molibi: Second

SEE VOTE 13 BELOW. 9/29/03 Budgetary Bylaw Changes – MOTION PASSES:

18-0-0.

VII. New Business (10:45 PM) - Discussion about locating funds from the Spring

Formal

Ethan: Funds are missing from 2003 Spring Formal - where are they?

Elan: They are sitting in a bank account and according to our constitution those

funds should be ours.

Arshia: Is there any way we can get a breakdown?

Elan: You can ask them but they don’t have to give it to you.

Ethan: I think the BC should be in charge of finding where the money is and

how we can get it back. Motion.

Matt: Second

Elan: Report back next senate meeting.

Paris: I think that would be a good pursuit but I don’t know where to get started on

that.

Elan: We acted unconstitutionally by giving them a blank check. All we can rely

on is that bc is going to look where the money is and that the people in charge of

the event are being truthful.

Luke: Call a question.

BC will look into it and report back.

VIII. Adjournment (10:55 PM)

ROLL CALL VOTES

Vote Description

9 $850 Increase Amendment for Affirmations Bi-Semester

10 $492 Increase Amendment for Students for Informed Political Choice

11 9/29/03 BC Funding Recommendations

12 J.C. Bylaw Changes

9/29/03 Constitution Revisions (Budgetary Sections, brought by E-board)

9/29/03 Budgetary Bylaw Changes

SENIOR SENATORS	9	10	11	12	13	14
Kay Bradley	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	Y
Geoffrey Brounell	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	Y
Arshia Choudhury	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	Y
Miahilis Diamantis	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	Y
A.J. Korytoski	N	N	Y	Y	Y	Y
Lincoln Mayer	/	/	/	/	/	/
Luke Swarthout	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	Y

JUNIOR SENATORS
Ethan Davis	N	N	Y	Y	Y	Y
Rosalyn Foster	/	/	/	/	/	/
Gabriel Mattera	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	Y
Daniel Reiss	/	/	/	/	/	/
Christian Sanchez	Y	N	N	Y	Y	Y
David Scherr	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	Y
Justin Sharaf	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	Y

SOPHOMORE SENATORS
Rania Arja	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	Y
Taamiti Bankole	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	Y
Caleb Deats	Y	A	Y	Y	Y	Y
John Lian	Y	N	Y	Y	Y	Y
Molibi Maphanyane	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y	Y
Mira Serrill-Robins	/	/	/	/	/	/
Ian Shin	N	N	Y	Y	Y	Y
Matt Vanneman	N	Y	N	Y	Y	Y
Y = Yes
N = No
A = Abstention
/ = Not Present for Vote

Amherst Assosciation of Students