ASWC, in its joint session with the House of Clubs last Sunday, began to ask big questions about the effectiveness of its current legislative structure.
The first joint session of the term met for an hour and a half on Sunday night to conduct routine business, including the consideration of the Cascade Climate Control Act. If signed, the act would serve as a formal declaration of the college’s interest in sustainable energy.
Several Whitman students attended the Cascade Powershift conference hosted at the University of Oregon. One of the students, Brittany Smith, attended the joint session and spoke in favor of the resolution.
“They are pushing to create more green jobs, to educate people how to install solar panels,” Smith told the session. “Western Washington professors, NASA, Oregon State and Willamette professors all support this.”
Debate arose when sophomore Sen. Alex Potter raised his concerns about the scope of the project. He specifically questioned the project’s assertion that lawmakers “commit to immediately halt all new fossil fuel infrastructure development projects to serve our region’s energy needs.”
“What is fossil fuel infrastructure? It is roads?” said Potter. “If we are addressing this to lawmakers, we need to see this as a law. ”
Several members of the house of clubs expressed their concerns with the resolution, as many of the representatives had not read the resolution. The House moved to table the resolution until a later joint session.
The Senate, however, passed the resolution without tampering with the present language. Because the Cascade Climate Control Act qualifies as a resolution, not an act, the motion passed without the approval of the House of Clubs.
In open forum, ASWC President Jeff Wilson expressed his frustration with the legislative actions taken at the meeting. He asked the House of Clubs representatives if they felt like their time was well spent in joint sessions.
“As far as I understand it, the only issues discussed at joint sessions relevant to the house of clubs are budget issues,” said Rep. Joe Bornstien. “If you are thinking of re-vamping the system, there should be a segment of the meeting devoted to the budget and then people can leave.”
In other business, the joint session passed a $2,000 travel and conferences request to the Borders in Our Backyards club. The club will use the money to fund their spring break trip, when they will study border issues.
“The idea is that we speak to a wide variety of people related to these border issues,” said senior Johanna Allen. “The trip is based on the experiential learning model, in which you must see something to truly understand it we previously went on a three day trip and created art in response.”
The joint session also confirmed first-years Glory Bushey and Jenna Mukuno as the co-editors of Whitman’s literary magazine blue moon for the 2008-’09 academic year.
“We hope to emulate and go beyond the success of this year and last year,” said Bushey. The magazine won the Columbia Scholastic Press Association’s Gold Metal for last year’s publication.
“We feel like our role is less about the selection process but rather the entire process of publication,” said Mukuno. “blue moon is an important part of this campus, and it is essential to support the arts. We want to reach out to a wide range of writers and readers.”
The next ASWC meeting will be on Feb 24. Visit whitman.edu/content/aswc for a complete list of all the times and dates for ASWC meetings, contact information and minutes from all of this year’s legislative activity.
