This entry refers to the Senate meeting on September 15^th:

Hi friends, this week was relatively docile. We had one lengthy debate during the BC recommendations and one election for a seat on the Disciplinary Committee. Weeee…

First, officer reports and committee reports. VP Raj told us about the high level of freshmen interest in the senate. Every year, I relish that brilliant moment of disillusionment after freshmen senators sit through their first senate meeting. Pres Nick is meeting with Marx about the responsible endowment coalition, green Amherst, and the multicultural center. Treasurer Peter wants more on his plate by asking senators to refer all questions about the BC to him or other BC members. Mike approved 2 clubs this week – Homeless Connect and Think. Chris, representative to the Committee on Educational Policy, announced that we are finally moving into the 21^st century, and by next semester, the electronic registration process should be rolling out. Thank the Lord and Al Gore.

Next, BC recs. The debate this week was over the swing and ballroom club. When was the last time anyone seriously debated swing and ballroom dance? The disagreement is this: we have a precedent of allowing each club sport to have one coach with a fee cap of $3,000 per semester. This precedent prevents sports from decimating our semester budget. Swing and ballroom dance, however, wanted to pay their coach for lessons for the general public and for the competitive sport. The argument hinged on the question whether or not swing and ballroom dance should count as a club sport and therefore should be subject to the $3,000 limit for their coach or if it is more like two things: a club sport and a student activity. On one hand, it does seem like we’re paying one coach to teach two levels of the same activity – recreationally and competitively. On the other hand, maybe swing and ballroom dance is different. They advertise for all open lessons and have a huge group of students who swing and dance purely for recreation. Similarly, dancing is different from playing football or soccer. You can have a pick-up football game without a coach, but you can’t have a pick-up swing dance in the middle of the Hamilton ballroom. The senate decided to approach it as two separate entities.

Before I move on to the Disciplinary Committee election, I’m going to explain something I want to start in this blog. Chase, as all senators can attest to, is one of the most outspoken senators, God bless him, and considering how often he raises extremely technical points, I’ve learned a lot from the kid and want to spread this learnin’. Therefore, I’m going to start “Weekly ‘Points of General Privilege’ I learned from Chase” (if any other senator says something particularly enlightening or random, maybe s/he will get the privilege for the week). This week’s “Weekly ‘Points of General Privilege’ I learn from Chase is”: Did you know that all club sports have to accept anybody who wants to just come and hang out for one practice? According to Chase, that means that if I want to, I can crash a [enter club sport] and they have to allow me or else I can threaten to defund them. Suck it!

After BC recommendations passed with quite a few “no’s” (me among them), we elected one senator to the Disciplinary Committee. The DC helps makes rulings on what happens to students when they break the code of conduct or the honor code. Still unsure of what exactly the DC does, Mason asked, “What kind of things go through there?” Nick responded, “Serious stuff.” Enlightening. Victor and Nic were nominated. These two speeches were the most awesome speeches so far heard before the 2008-2009 senate. Victor claims that he “knows a lot of students who have committed some of these offenses and [he’d] like to be a part of the decision making process.” Awesome. I’m glad we have senators representing all our constituents including Amherst’s seedy underbelly. Nic provided by far the best reason, however, for being qualified to serve on the DC. While serving in the Singaporean military, he “knows a lot about discipline”!! Holy shit, I bet he does!! Nic was elected.

On that note, we adjourned.

Edited: thanks to vigilant commenters.