Fresh off their beginning-of-the-year retreat, the ASWC Senate, complete with its first-year representatives, began legislative activity this last week with a meeting and a joint session with the House of Clubs.
The bodies met on the night of Sunday, Sept. 30, to discuss by-law changes, recognize new clubs and to confirm nominations set forth by the Nominations Chair.
The senate confirmed three clubs at its meeting, including the Whitman Folk Music Society and the Immigration Interest Group. The body also re-recognized the American Indian Association, which had dissolved at the end of last year.
Later in the evening, Policy Chair Maile Zeng presented three by-law changes to the joint session of the senate and house. All three passed. The first of these resolutions designated the Director of Student Activities (currently Andrea Ramirez) as the faculty advisor of ASWC. Ramirez already oversees ASWC, and this change was more a formality than anything else.
Discussion arose in the House over the second by-law change, which allowed the Senate to excuse the communications director from his or her responsibility to run two town hall meetings a semester by a super-majority vote (two-thirds). The representative from the Young Democrats moved to amend the motion to require consent from the House as well, but the motion failed.
The final by-law revision eliminated the requirement that clubs submit a membership list with their constitution. “This will help protect your anonymity,” said President Jeff Wilson.
The joint session also passed Nominations Chair John Stewart’s nominations to the Nominations Committee, which will hire for various committees and paid positions later in the year. The new members are senior Sarah Haas, senior Loren Schmidt and junior Justin Hayashi. Also, the House elected junior Melissa Navarro as their representative on the committee.
Stewart also announced his recommendations to the faculty for the Symposium Planning Committee. His recommendations are senior Nani Gilkerson, senior Jyotsna Shivanandan and sophomore Will Canine.
These students will work as liaisons between the administration and the Diversity Committee, which Stewart will soon be accepting nominations for. The Diversity Committee will help ensure that student input is considered in the planning for this year’s symposium.
Additionally, Finance Chair Elliott Okantey announced the creation of the Travel and Conferences Fund, a new fund that will allow students and clubs to request money to attend conferences or plan educational trips. This fund will hopefully free up club money for more on-campus activities.
Be sure to check out the ASWC Web site for up-to-date contact and programming information
