Senior Will Canine, student advocacy chair for ASWC, could not have been happier.

“That’s student input right there,” he said as he held up a stack of responses to the Whitman policies that were discussed at the ASWC Town Hall last Thursday, Oct. 22.

A “ballot” was offered to the more than 50 people who attended the ASWC Town Hall meeting, asking them to give their input on everything that was discussed. The topics put forward for students to consider were the GoPrint system, the Alternative Voices requirement and a discussion of Whitman’s plagiarism policy.

“In the past these have been on one topic, something non-sexy. Not that these issues are huge but they are things that are directly impacting students,” said senior Jordan Clark, ASWC vice president and student affairs chair.

One measure ASWC is taking to ensure student participation in the Town Halls is strongly encouraging each campus club to have a student attend. Two years ago  ASWC dropped the House of Clubs, which required campus clubs to send a representative to Senate meetings that could last three hours. Senate meetings remain open to all students, but the Town Hall presents a new means to involve more voices in the ASWC decision-making process.

“It went as well as it could have,” said Clark. “It’s hard to make anybody do anything. When you say you have to be here or your funds will be cut, you face resistance. But we’re happy with the fact we got rid of an ineffective system with the House of Clubs. This is more reciprocal, less forced.”

For many clubs, the implication that funding could be at stake did force representatives to attend the Town Hall, though they appreciated the reduced time commitment compared to regular Senate meetings.

“They’re suggesting that they’ll cut off funding if you don’t show up,” said senior Kevin Chung, representing the Baking Club. “This is better than before. [With the House of Clubs,] there were more meetings. This is once or twice a semester so this is a huge improvement.”

Each of the three topics began with a presentation of what ASWC has been doing in committees followed by a general discussion in which anyone could participate. For the GoPrint system, senior Senator Divneet Kaur addressed concerns that the system was unfair to certain majors by offering a proposal to tailor the GoPrint system more to the needs of individuals. It would give students the ability to request a certain amount after they received their syllabi in the fall and the spring. Although the proposal seemed to answer the concerns of many students, WCTS member Mike Osterman responded to the proposed changes.

“We looked at this and found it to be nearly impossible,” he said. “That takes staff time and we’re happy to do it but if we expand that to every student we’d need a full-time staff member to do it.”

Expanding upon the GoPrint system, senior Senator Graham Brewer proposed a “Toner for All” policy to increase the number of printers on campus. Despite high set-up costs of $2,000 per printer, which would be funded out of the ASWC budget, people seemed happy about this prospect, which would increase access especially for students who live far away from the library or the academic buildings.

The General Studies committee sought feedback on the Alternative Voices distribution requirement. The committee has been working to come up with written criteria for how the requirement should seek to enhance students’ education.

“We’ve got ten years of history, thirty classes that fulfill it, but no idea what it was trying to do,” explained Canine. “Trying to describe it as it is right now is an important first step for what Alternative Voices should be in the future.”

Discussion was mixed on this issue as students raised concerns about a proposed change in the name from “Alternative Voices” to “Critical Perspectives” and why exactly Whitman has that distribution requirement.

Whitman’s Plagiarism Policy was the last topic on the agenda. Clark, along with sophomore Senator Noah Lerner, presented the proposed changes, which they said are strongly supported by Dean of Students Chuck Cleveland and Associate Dean of Students Clare Carson.

Lerner and Clark said the current policy disproportionally hurts international students and first-years, who sometimes struggle to grasp the policy. The senators also noted that the policy is problematic because it demands the same punishment for missed quotations as for a paper purchased off the internet.

“What we find is that technically speaking, there’s no room [for professor discretion in determining punishment], so professors don’t report it. We want professors to follow policy; that’s why we want to change it,” said Lerner.

The Town Hall finished with an open forum, asking students for input. ASWC reminded students that they can check out its new Web site, www.goaswc.org to contact their representatives if they have any further comments.

“We’re trying to get ideas for new policy directions, new problems we can fix and things we’ve already done this semester,” said Clark.