Sorry I have been slacking on my blogging duties. Prepare for an onslaught of postings.

This entry refers to the Senate meeting on October 6th:

Without any E-board reports, we dived right into committee reports. Aaron of the Committee on Educational Priorities explained the nuance between “writing intensive” and “writing attentive”. Apparently, the CEP spent the entire meeting discussing this. They even created an ad-hoc committee for the online catalogue. Sign me up.

Next, we inducted 11 new senators including 8 first years.

In BC recommendations, the senate was totally hoodwinked this week. It was ridiculous. I felt like Haley Joel Osment in the Sixth Sense except that instead of seeing dead people, I’m the only person to see dumb decisions. First, we debated some not-so-controversial, but micromanagy, issues like how many color pages of the Element there should be and whether or not to give indoor soccer club money to buy cleats. The senate has the precedent of only buying gear that can be used for future students. Senators argued that maybe it’s difficult (not to mention gross) to pass down size 11 cleats. But we voted for it anyway considering financial need of students to participate in these activities. These decisions were fine and totally understandable.

So, here’s the rock in my BC recommendation shoe. The Mixed Martial Arts Organization (AMMO). They asked for $900 for an extra “instructor’s contract” for a series of “workshops” and $629.45 for Jiu Jitsu uniforms. So we have a precedent of only funding $3000 for any coach for any one club, right? So this series consists of “on-going” “workshops” with their coach which will eventually lead to competition creating the need for uniforms. Does this sound familiar? Yeah, it should because it’s the exactly what a club sport does. All you have to do is replace “workshop” with “practice”. I think Swing and Ballroom Dance made a good case for their general classes and even Fencing for their workshops, but AMMO clearly did not pass any kind of threshold for believability. We don’t have an automated funding system so that senators can use their discretion to recognize when something is a legitimate claim and when someone is trying to pull a fast one. How did they fool the 30 senators who voted for it? I’ll never know.

After a few relatively noncontroversial budget requests from Educate! and Mock Trial, the Committee on Priority and Resources described what they do. Right now, they’re changing faculty benefits – mainly the health care plan and childcare plan. Even the members on the CPR called it “arcane and boring”. Capital campaign… etc. etc. Finally we got to the important part. When is Val and the campus center going to be remodeled? The answer? Not in any of our lifetimes so stop asking.

Then we voted on a new BC member. Congrats to Wanza. Anticipate being harassed by students. We’re also instituting senate office hours because BC office hours are so popular (not). So now we have a PR committee that will hopefully deal with these issues. And with that, we adjourned.