“Greetings” from ASWC, your faithful student government!
We at ASWC are gearing up for a year of serving you: the Whitman student body. As President Nadim Damluji explains, the goal this year is to “be the most productive, accessible, accountable, creative, student-life-improving student body government possible.”
What exactly is ASWC, you ask? ASWC (pronounced az-wac) is short for the Associated Students of Whitman College. ASWC is essentially three elected committees: Finance, Student Affairs, and Nominations/Communications. Each committee consists of senators (there are sixteen in total, four from each class) and an elected chair who meet weekly, in addition to biweekly full Senate meetings. There is also an Oversight Committee as well as a number of smaller, appointed policy committees.
Whether you are a first-year or a returning student, now is the time to get involved!
First-years: run for Senate! There are four open Senate positions and elections will be held within the month. Newly elected Senators will serve on the Finance or Student Affairs Committee. Petitions to run are available outside the ASWC office upstairs in Reid.
Any and all Whitties: start a Club! Apply for funding for an individual project! Apply to serve on the Oversight Committee, which runs elections and ensures ASWC officials are kept accountable. All petitions will be available outside the ASWC office.
The two largest committees, Finance and Student Affairs, are preparing for an exciting semester. Finance, chaired by sophomore Matt Dittrich, has a budget of nearly $500,000 this year. This money will go towards funding all campus Clubs, campus events, campus improvements and individual student initiatives.
Last semester, the Finance Committee purchased a laser printer for Anderson Hall and funded a zombie musical in Reid by our very own senior Peter Richards.
This year, Finance will spend over $20,000 on travel and conference funds for students. Last year, ASWC was able to fund trips to oversee an election in El Salvador, study food in Tokyo and learn about studio art in New York. Requests for funds will be available outside the ASWC office.
The Student Affairs Committee is chaired by senior Jordan Clark.. As Jordan explains, “The bylaws assign no specific tasks to the Student Affairs Committee, but this lack of specificity is by design. The Committee is largely unstructured in order to more easily adapt to the changing issues that face the student body. Thus, we are here for only one purpose: to serve you, the Whitman student.”
Goals for the Committee this year are to reform Whitman’s credit system, create a formalized system to bring complaints to ASWC, work with greek leadership to identify common problems, create a campus band practice space and increase student input through tabling, surveys and forums. Contact Jordan at [email protected] with any suggestions, comments or complaints about campus life.
ASWC will formally be in session by early October, once first-year Senate elections have taken place. Students with any questions, comments or concerns can e-mail [email protected].
