Senators discuss transition to AAS

The group lacked a quorum of senators in attendance until halfway through the meeting.

Senator Christian Sanchez ’05 presented a motion clarifying what would happen to Senate and e-board positions during the transition to the new constitution which was recently approved by the student body.

According to the motion, members of the e-board will remain in office until, but not including, the next meeting on May 6. The motion passed 20-1, with three abstentions.

Current senators will fulfill their committee responsibilities until the end of the academic year and new senators will take over next fall.

There will be an election on May 2 to fill the the positions of AAS president, vice president, treasurer, secretary,and judiciary council chair. Eight senators from each class and three judiciary council representatives will be elected on May 10.

The body also discussed a proposal by Eric Osborne ’04 to increase the budget of the Social Council (SoCo) in order to offset inflation.

“We run out of money every year, leaving us with a deficit that must be made up in the fall,” said Osborne. “So many ideas are thrown out [for discussion] but can’t happen because of monetary concerns. This proposal would open the door to new possibilities.”

In response to questions as to what SoCo would do with the money, Osborne gave the example of a mock wedding combining Jewish, Christian and Islamic faiths as an idea that could not be implemented due to lack of funds.

The SoCo budget has not been increased since the 1980s. SoCo gets $18,000 a year from the College and $10,000 each semester from the SGO.

Discussion on the issue ended when Stacey Kennard ’03 proposed tabling the motion until the AAS could consider it together with next year’s budget. A simple majority voted to table it and Vice President Matthew Moses ’02 informed Osborne he could raise the issue again at the May 6 meeting.

Lincoln Mayer ’04 discussed his negotiations with Dean of the Faculty Lisa Raskin to expand the Take Your Professor Out (TYPO) program to include upperclassmen. The program currently provides funding to small groups of first-year students and their professors to have dinner at local participating restaurants.

Mayer hopes $5,000 will be allocated to the program by the administration for upper-class students and plans to ask for matching funds from the budgetary committee.

The first-year students’ program would continue to operate under a soft-capped system, under Mayer’s proposal. In the first year of the expanded program, Mayer has proposed having a grace period of a few weeks when the program would be limited to senior use.

Raskin is still finalizing the details of the proposal.

Kennard, a member of the Committee on Educational Policy, updated the SGO on faculty discussions regarding the new honors system.

Only one level of English honors, distinction, will exist. Students in the top 25 percent of their class will receive this honor. Latin honors are still scheduled to be based on thesis work and a minimum grade point average.