The next proposal was from the sailing team who requested funding for new team uniforms. The sailing team now has 32 members and is earning prominence in the Northeast as an esteemed sailing team. The sailing club is beginning to compete in higher profile events and feels that the lack of uniforms does not portray the image it wants to send as a sailing fleet on the rise and as a representative of RPI. Two representatives of the team at the Executive Board meeting came with multiple quotes from different companies for the appropriate standard uniforms. The uniforms will not have numbers specific to team members or names on the uniforms but will be standard with RPI on the front and the one size fits all. The uniforms will then be reusable for subsequent fleet members and thus more cost efficient. Motion No. 2 to buy fund 25 uniforms for reliable racing was passed with one abstention.

When the two presentations were complete, Director of the Union Rick Hartt ’79 brought up the smoking policy once again from last week. Hartt noted that two specific instances regarding the issue have come up over the last two and half weeks. The sale of cigarettes at Fathers made the Times Union last week and there have been several reported complaints about students and other people on campus having to walk through a smokescreen outside the Union and other buildings to get inside the “smoke free” building. Also, people were reported smoking on the balcony of Union Room 3202 last week. This violates the rule from the State Health Department of Safety that forbids smoking within 25 feet of an opening to a building or the wall of a building. Hartt noted that the choice to sell cigarettes in the Union has always been the decision of the students and he seemed to suggest the cost of sacrificing RPI’s student life reputation was not worth the relatively minute sale of 80 packs a week. Hartt also seemed to suggest that banning the sale of cigarettes in Father’s would decrease the amount of smoking and smoking violations on campus, despite the fact that cigarettes can be bought off campus. Hartt is sending more specific information out to all the members of the Executive Board so that they can have time to adequately educate themselves and form factual opinions on the issue of smoking and how it relates to student life at RPI. The Senators discussed the issue at its meeting on Monday and will be getting back to the Executive Board with their thoughts to make a decision on whether the sale of cigarettes at Father’s should be banned. One Executive Board member suggested a smoking gazebo to relocate smoking from outside the Union to a designated location to increase the safety of non-smokers on campus. This view was discouraged by Hartt because of the tremendous red tape involved with establishing a designated smoking area by New York State Health Departments standards for college campuses.

The Senate liaison Brian Zaik ’09 briefly relayed some of the issues discussed in last week’s Senate meeting, including the idea of the Student Activities Agency. President of the Union Rob Odell ’09 announced that the Executive Board will be supporting the new Student Activities Agency and is looking for E-Board members who would be willing to represent this new agency. The worry of some members from the Senate is that the SAA will only create more bureaucracy issues despite the goal of the agency to streamline the communication between activities, clubs, groups, and the general student population. Other important issues discussed by the Senate include residence life, most of which has been outlined in various other articles. Zaik did, however, point out that in the new residence life plan, greek life would be repositioned under Student Life. This was a point of interest to Odell, who is very involved with greek life and was head of the Inter-fraternity Council.