Last Thursday the Student Senate held its second meeting of the semester, convening a couple of committees as well as confirming many appointments. In their first couple of votes of the night, the Senate voted 13-0-1 to “convene the Governance Commission for the purpose of providing the Student Senate with a set of recommended changes to the Union Constitution, should the Commission feel there are changes that are warranted.”
Before the motion calling the commission passed, it was amended to change some of the reporting requirements as well as the requirement of closed meetings. Debate was started on the issue at the prior week’s meeting, but no motions related to the commission were called to question since discussion did not end.
One point of contention during the debate was whether the commission’s meetings would be opened or closed. The final motion that called the commission states, “At no time will their work be open to the public other than through official briefings and updates to the Senate and the other respective members’ bodies … If open hearings are necessary they will be approved on a case by case basis.”
The Senate also stipulated that its voting delegate would give weekly updates, with official briefings also scheduled. At these briefings, votes will be taken to adopt the report and also to give the Senate’s sentiment toward what the commission has considered.
After calling the commission, the Senate confirmed the appointments of the nine members. The Commission will be chaired by Grand Marshal Mike Dillon, who will not be a voting member unless there is a tied vote, and the vice chairman will be President of the Union, Peter Baldwin.
The other members confirmed were Wallace Morris II, president of the Graduate Council; Josh Schuster, president of the Undergraduate Council; Suba Ganesan, chairwoman of the Judicial Board; Charles Centrelli, president of the Interfraternity Council; Anne Marinaro, president of the Panhellenic Council; Matthew Newman, president of the Independent Council; and Michael Goldenberg, who will be the Senate’s delegate on the commission.
After the matters relating to the commission were resolved, the Senate approved three appointments to the Union’s E-Board. Adam Jubanowsky was first removed from his position as Club/ICA Representative to the Executive Board and then confirmed as the Senate’s representative on the body. Rachel Evans was confirmed as the Athletics Board chairwoman and James Fisher was confirmed as the Club Representative on the E-Board.
Dillon then spoke briefly about the three vacancies on the Senate and noted that a presentation was scheduled for the next meeting on the Capital Campaign. Committee reports followed and many committee heads said that they were looking for new members and several had either advertised with posters or were considering doing it.
The Senate then proceeded to close the meeting for about 20 minutes to all but the members. Soon after the meeting was closed, only Centrelli, president of the IFC, was invited back in. After the meeting was reopened, Dillon read aloud the motions that had passed as required by Senate by-laws. During the closed meeting, the Senate called a committee to be led by the GM, “to investigate the matter of student relations concerning the opening of the Biotech Center [and] to return a finding with a possible action (letter drafted to the appropriate recipients) by two Senate [meetings] from now.”
With the meeting reopened, Senator David Scherzer, chair of the Rules and Elections Committee expressed his discontent with the Senate after only seven of the 17 Senators had volunteered to help out during last week’s freshmen elections. He called it “despicable,” pointing out that elections are the Senate’s responsibility.
The Senate also briefly discussed a motion to say that Fahrenheit 9/11 had a particular political point of view, but the objection to consideration of that motion passed, stopping all debate on the subject.
