This past Wednesday was the first meeting of the new Student Senate with the newly-elected Grand Marshal Zack Freeman ’07 presiding over it. Following the elections of the previous week, Freeman started the meeting by introducing his goals and objectives and stated that now that the elections are over, the Senate must come together in the name of teamwork and the best interests of students.
The biggest point of discussion for this senate meeting concerned the Dean of Students Office’s new alcohol and greek policies that were presented to the students of RPI by the administration two weeks ago. In response to these changes in policy, the Senate passed a resolution outlining all the points in which it felt that the administration would be violating students’ rights and that the administration disregarded student input on these changes in policy.
With the resolution came a letter written by a graduate student member of Alpha Chi Rho, Marcus Ciuryla, who was concerned about the administration’s plans, detailing the violations of The Student Bill of Rights the administration would be making with the proposed changes in policy. In the paper, Ciuryla concluded, “because the suggested alcohol policy and mandatory live-in advisory policy are in flagrant violation of The Student Bill of Rights, I suggest that they utterly lack legitimacy, and are entirely invalid.” He quoted five excerpts from The Student Bill of Rights that he held are violated by the administration’s plans. Finally, Ciuryla stated that its most blatant example of violating The Student Bill of Rights was not giving the students an avenue to express their feedback on affairs concerning students. The resolution was passed unanimously by the Senate.
Along with the resolution, the Senate also discussed a referendum which would be put to the student body. The students would be questioned as to whether or not the administration denied student input on the matters concerning the changes in policy with alcohol and greek life.
Bob Fishel ’07 commented that the Student Senate needs to take a stand and that “the Senate must stand up for the students of RPI and let them vote.”
The motion for the referendum did pass, but not without a word of caution from Senator Dan Horvath ’08, who stated that “we need to be careful not to alienate people.” The actual question for the referendum is as follows: “Whereas students had no means of input on the new disciplinary Greek policies—a violation of The Student Bill of Rights and the Greek Relationship Statement—we, the student body, disapprove of the policies and demand that the administration include student input on all points to shape more appropriate policies that adequately ensure the safety and welfare of students and hold off on enacting any current proposed policies until such times that all involved parties have the chance for review and input.”
The referendum will be held on May 3, though the Senate will decide how it will be conducted tonight. They are expected to approve voting in the Union and Commons from 9 am to 7 pm, and in the DCC from 9 am to 5 pm.
