This entry refers to the Senate meeting on September 22^nd:

This week, when senators walked into the Red Room, they were greeted by about 12 new faces, mainly first years looking to run for senate (we’re still looking for upperclassmen to run). They introduced themselves, and I’m totally excited about the class of 2012. One of them even called Raj a douchebag (granted it was Romen, Raj’s brother), but a first year called Raj a douchebag!! During officer reports, Nick lied to the freshmen by telling them that “senate meetings are fun.” He continued by describing his conversation with Marx (Nick’s definition of fun?). They talked about the Economics and Psychology Department crunches and what might be causing them — class times, major requirements, changing trends in college students, etc (Intro to Psych had 180 people and it’s an 8:30 class?!). Thoughts?

This week, excitement was mainly to be found in an unusual place, the committee reports. Program Board wants to bring Girl Talk and Frank Warren from Post Secret? Yeah, I miss high school, too. Furthermore, in the TV Show polling, the Office (the link is an example of a post secret) won by TWO HUNDRED votes. That’s more than many Senate elections get.

Moving on, the BC rec’s only major debate was the South Asian Students Association’s dinner/fundraiser in Friedmann Room. They wanted $3,000 for food/drinks plus $500 in other miscellaneous costs. They anticipate 150 students which brings the cost to $23.33 for dinner from India House which seems pretty ridiculous for a fundraiser.

So, there were many issues at play here. One issue the Senate apparently never tires of debating is the cost/effectiveness of fundraisers. Let’s do the math: Cost of event is $3,500. Revenue of event is (at best) $900, which includes $5 suggested donation ($750 for 150 students) + $1 raffle tickets ($150 for 150 students). Clearly that doesn’t make sense. And the representative claimed that even $100 would make a huge difference in India, but what would $3,500 do? So that’s one dilemma the senate has always faced, how to account for the fact that our “fundraisers” never actually make a profit. This has historically been solved by recognizing the cultural value and fact that it is still a student activity. Most senators, however, were still concerned about the exorbitant costs of the dinner which included all Hallal meat. The Senate voted to fund only $2,000 instead of the $3,000.

Finishing BC recs, we moved onto a special presentation by Chris and Aaron about the Committee on Educational Policy. They started out by telling us that a lot of what they talk about is confidential so they actually can’t talk about it. Mainly, they mean the Fulltime Equivalent Requests which in English translates to open professor positions. These must be confidential or else the departmental squabbling would be bad. While FTE’s can’t be discussed, the result becomes obvious once they start searching for professors. For example, Psych and Econ are about to start their search. Next Chris and Aaron raised the single most exciting thing that will ever happen to us during the first two weeks of every semester – electronic registration! It will probably be exactly like the system we have now, but without paper. We won’t be moving toward radical online registration changes like auctioning off credits or Smith’s code system. Like the good ol’ Amherst way, prerequisites won’t prohibit you from enrolling in any classes and the professors will still have full discretion over who can enroll in their classes.

Lastly, they discussed the proposed changes to Summa and Magna. As of now to get these Latin Honors, you must be recommended for them through your thesis work and also be in the top 25% of the class. They are proposing to graduate the percentages like the honors. In order to get Summa, you have to be recommended and be in the top 25%. To get Magna, you have to be recommended and be in the top 30%. Alternatively, they’re considering tightening Summa honors. Mainly, Summa doesn’t mean that much if up to a fourth of the graduating class is eligible. Egregia cum laude anyone? Weigh ins?