AAS Meeting Minutes 4/16/12

4/16/12, 8:30 PM

Association of Amherst Students

I. Attendance (Nathan Nash ‘12)

II. Call to Order (Geoff Ainslie ‘12)

III. BC Recs (Abigail Xu ‘15)

Alex Propp ‘13: Green Amherst Project. We’re holding an panel event tomorrow. DIdn’t accept honorarium, so we want to do gift baskets. $70.

Amani Ahmed ‘15: We don’t generally fund gift baskets.

Alex Propp: Green Amherst Project (GAP) Farm Work Day: $10 for publicity. Food for GAP $100.

Jess Sidhu ‘14: When a speaker comes without requiring an honorarium we give him/her a gift basket.

Adam Gerchick ‘13: Never hurts to give someone a small thank you.

Romen Borsellino ‘12: Just because it’s called a gift basket, it should not be disqualified. It’s a lot like paying someone to come here. It’s more of a good-will act.

George Tepe ‘14: I would suggest BC considers changing this precedent on funding gift baskets. But we should move on.

Abigail: Since it’s tomorrow, we need to emergency fund it. This is a nice hospitality thing.

Noah Gordon ‘14: Requesting $150 for next Monday’s speech night for pizza.

Joe Kim ’14: Getting 3,000 boxes for move-out for students. Comes out to $4680.

Ian Hatch ‘14: Romen just requested a speech night for the treasurer and presidential elections. Requesting money for pizza for this event.

Cash: Money for Green Amherst Project for food was actually for another event. I’d like to propose that the money be allocated for the event tomorrow. Requesting $75.

IV. Benyam Ashenafi’s Senate Project (Hammock and Picnic Table)

Benyam Ashenafi ‘15: When I proposed this project four months ago, I wanted to set up hammocks and picnic tables on first-year quad, since it’s the central part of campus. Benefit: classes have the 4/16/12, 8:30 PM

option of being outside. Funding request for picnic tables (single one costs $400). Facilities and Dean Fatemi are willing to fund $12.

Jess: On the freshman quad, I think 12 is way too many. Part of the beauty of the quad is the beautiful open space.

George: I agree with Jess. Joe’s about to ask for $4000 out of the Senate fund. 12 picnic tables are a great place to start, especially because we only have $6000 left in the fund.

Abigail: I think it’s a great idea, but too many picnic tables would be a hassle.

Benyam: 12 hammocks would be set up on the quad sometime by the end of this year. Picnic tables will go by Keefe, Memorial hill, and the quad. We’re distributing these picnic tables, but setting the requested number of picnic tables on the freshman quad.

Kyra Ellis-Moore ‘15: 12 is a lot. It’s a new project and it hasn’t been done before. We should experiment with a few and see the outcome.

Benyam: I can wait until next week to make an exact funding request and find out exactly where they are going to be set up.

Motion to fund Boxes for Move Out: Joe Kim: Boxes for Move Out. $4,680 requested. Motion Passed.

Motion to fund Brendan’s Senate Project: Brendan Burke: $200 additional dollars for my Senate project to get a few more pieces framed. Motion Passed.

Noah: On behalf of election committee. Two speech nights. One tomorrow, one on Monday. $150 each for pizza.

V. Reports

a. Committee Reports

Peter Crane ‘15: Spring Concert this Saturday! Five College friends or others can still buy tickets from Dean Fatemi. We may be selling leftovers at the door. We’re looking for a new agent for next year. Our current agent told us false information.

Kyra: College council met. Lunch with Biddy. Coming up with a strategic plan for improving student life. Peer institutions have a plan and we’re trying to have a document that can be used year after year. 4/16/12, 8:30 PM

Noah: Student Computing Committee met. I’d like to set up a meeting with Bob Ryan and Meghna to attach faces to names so when something goes wrong, people know who to go to.

Matt deButts ‘14: Comm. on Educational Policy. For double majors: some majors say you can’t double count and some say you can. There is no policy about discrepancies between double counting and not double counting.

b. General Announcements

Kyra: EDU is having a SPLASH event on Friday. Volunteers needed.

Amanda Villarreal ‘12: Girls inc. Senate activities from 1-2 PM. Help to increase political awareness in 6 to 8 year olds.

c. Officer Reports

George: Ask unanimous consent to approve all amendments to constitution. No objections. Amendments approved.

Nathan: We’re looking into getting a new van. Meeting with Irene and perhaps making a pitch to campus police.

Romen: National Student Government Association. For about $300 a year, they’ll give us advice on how to run a better student government. We may pass on this but interested parties, come talk to me.

Abigail: We approved fall semester budgets at the BC meeting. Set up a direct account with Lord Jeff Inn. When clubs want speakers, we can reserve a room at the Lord Jeff Inn and they’ll directly bill the AAS.

George: The charging station is on campus! Electricians were in the house putting in new internet and such. It’s going to be on MoPratt circle.

VI. New Bylaw (Noah Gordon ’14). Noah drafted a bylaw and brought it up before the Senate. It deals with voting/candidacy rules and eligibility as well as elections procedures.

Noah: This legislation comes in two parts: first, a new bylaw designed to codify maintenance of our website. Our site is only about 3 years old, and right now nothing in our constitution or bylaws outlines how it should be managed. That's what this bylaw seeks to do. 4/16/12, 8:30 PM

Second is two small amendments to the Constitution, the first of which I think is common sense, and the second of which directly addresses those recent issues and may warrant some debate.

New Bylaw

22. The AAS Website

a. Maintenance and management of the AAS website shall ultimately be the responsibility of the Secretary. [The Secretary is the official record-keeper of the AAS; as such, it makes sense that ultimate responsibility for the website should fall to him/her.]

b. A Webmaster shall be appointed by the Secretary with the approval of a majority of the Senate. This person will be trained by the previous webmaster in the technical aspects of site management. The Webmaster will receive $200 payment each semester for his/her services. [This is a slight variation on what we do now, which is more a committee-style election. I think this makes more sense given the technical nature of the position.]

c. The Webmaster is required to train anyone with legitimate editorial permissions on a section of the website in web management, should they request or require training. [The purpose of this clause is to illustrate what I think should be the proper role of the Webmaster: not to administer every slight change to the website, but to administer larger changes, create large new pages and reorganize site structure. The Webmaster would, for example, show BC clerks how to upload BC documents and show the JC Chair how to edit the constitution. This should improve efficiency and allow the Webmaster to focus on larger issues.]

d. The Secretary, Webmaster, and Dean of Student Activities shall comprise the permissions group “AAS,” which will have access to and editorial control over the entire website. [In the past, this group was made up of the President, Treasurer, Webmaster and Dean Fatemi. I do not know why – I simply inherited this tradition when I become webmaster. This scheme makes more sense to me.]

i. In the case that the Secretary and/or Webmaster are running in an election, their permissions shall be removed until results are publically released. In the case that both Secretary and Webmaster are removed in this way, the Elections Committee Chair shall serve as Interim Web Manager and be added to this list until results are released. [The reason we need an Interim Web Manager is so that they can re-add the others to this permissions list after the elections are over. I’m open to this being 4/16/12, 8:30 PM

handled more democratically, but I’m in favor of a simpler fix given the short time frame of elections.]

e. The Elections Committee Chair shall have access to the “elections admin” page of the website and live elections results. No one running in an election may have access to this page during an election. Information contained on this page is strictly confidential. Transmittance of the results while polls are open or within 24 hours of the polls closing constitutes a violation of elections rules. [Self-explanatory.]

f. Website permissions shall be organized as follows:

i. The Treasurer and chosen members of his/her staff shall constitute the permissions group “AAS BC Group” and be granted editorial control of the Budgetary tab on the website. [This is current practice.]

ii. The Chair of the Judiciary Council and chosen members of the Judiciary Council shall constitute the permissions group “AAS Constitution Group” and be granted editorial control of the Constitution and Bylaws tabs of the website. [Currently the Parliamentarian is also given access. I do not know why.]

iii. The entire AAS Senate, along with the Executive Board and the staff minute-taker shall constitute the permissions group “AAS Senate” and be granted viewing access to the Senate Docs section of the website and other relevant sections. [Current Practice.]

iv. The creation and maintenance of other permissions groups shall be left to the discretion of the Webmaster with the approval of the Secretary. [Examples of other permissions groups I currently use: AAS Appointments Board, AAS Transportation, Senate Documents.]

Constitutional Amendment

5. Elections Committee

e. Voting/Candidacy Rules and Eligibility

ADD: viii. Under no circumstances may a member of the Elections Committee run in an election while they serve on the committee. A member must resign from the committee prior to submitting his/her candidate statement. If the Elections Committee Chair plans to run in an election, a new Elections Committee Chair must be elected at an emergency meeting of the Elections Committee. 4/16/12, 8:30 PM

[Common sense, but it helps to codify this.]

f. Elections Procedures

ADD: xi. Candidates shall not obtain information regarding election results while polls are open, within 24 hours of the close of polls or while results are withheld because of an elections complaint to the Judiciary Council. The Judiciary Council may disqualify candidates who gained explicit or implicit knowledge of election results prior to the results being released to the public. Individuals who explicitly or implicitly give information to candidates regarding election results prior to the results being release to the public shall face disciplinary actions deemed appropriate by the Judiciary Council. [Also self-explanatory.]

Romen: This looks awesome, thank you for taking the time to do this. I disagree with removing permission from the president and treasurer to be an administrator to the website. There have been many times where it’s been necessary to have the power to check and edit things. Before the dinner with the trustees, I had to create a survey asking students what they wanted to do and where they wanted to sit. Taking that power away, no longer allowing the president and treasurer to have a role in what they need to work on and have a say in is problematic. The president and treasurer are elected to speak on behalf on different departments. If they get left out of those conversations, that could be a problem for their interactions with the student body.

Benyam: Why did you rule out the possibility of only allowing Fatemi to access information? Noah: I think a student government should be the responsibility of the students. I don’t trust a position within the administration to handle a situation that is so vital to the student body. Noah: We approved that a senior must be on elections committee that way with everyone running for reelection, at least the senior can become the elections committee chair. If no one can be the elections committee chair, we can elect an interim chair.

Nihal Shrinath ‘12: Propose that Dean Fatemi not get access at all. This is a student government function.

Noah: On what Romen said, I agree in principle but I don’t think the president and treasurer should have access to live elections results. I think most members of the E-board are going to have a stake in the elections because of the nature of these elections.

Romen: I’m not talking about election results. I agree they should not have access to live elections results.

Noah: [Right, you’re concerned with] members of the AAS committee having access to everything except elections results. Would you be okay with the entire E-board being there or…? 4/16/12, 8:30 PM

Romen: I’m open to that. The only things I can specifically think of is I think the president should hand this power to the treasurer.

George: Did anyone asked Dean Fatemi if she wanted to monitor the results? Fatemi didn’t know she had access until Friday, when I was talking to her about the elections results. If there’s an election complaint, we’d have to bring Dean Fatemi in for questioning and such. If the administration doesn’t want to be very much involved in the elections, we should allow the elections committee chair to see results.

Nihal: Perhaps we can divorce the AAS website from the Amherst website. I thought it was messed up that the administration wouldn’t let us handle our own elections. We should handle permissions completely and handle looking retroactively at who has access.

Alex Stein: Our site requires a complicated permission structure, which means we would have to pay a web designer a large amount of money. I like the idea of giving control for the treasurer but those permissions don’t give them the ability to delete things that were posted before by people of higher positions.

Motion to add two clauses to AAS constitution YESSES: 25 NOS: 0 ABSTENTIONS: 0

VII. Approve Minutes, 4-9-12 (Geoff)

Minutes approved.

VIII. New Business

Adam Gerchick: Students complained that AAS is not sufficiently accessible, which I think sometimes means that it’s not sufficiently accessed. There’s a request for more communication. We have the AAS column and put up our minutes on the website. But I think we can sympathize with the fact that if information is not directly delivered to their inboxes, people won’t read it. My proposal is to send an e-mail within 24 hours of a senate meeting.

Noah: I love the idea, but many people don’t even read important AAS all-school e-mails. Perhaps we can print out a sheet and put it in everyone’s mailbox.

Adam: If I may say so, I’m concerned that would have largely the same affects but with more paper usage. This isn’t with the intention that everybody will read it, this is with the intention that those who 4/16/12, 8:30 PM

complain about our lack of transparency can read it. If anybody wishes to continue to be upset, they at least have everything that we did right in front of them.

Joe: Is sending an e-mail the best way to create transparency? I don’t have another alternative off the top of my head.

Romen: I don’t think e-mails are the best way to inform the student body but I think it’s a start, and I think that we should send it out. If a good amount of the student body does not read it, at least those students who do read it will be informed.

Peter: I’m worried about e-mail inflation. Perhaps we can try this as a pilot program. But my intuition tells me people will still complain.

Christina Won ‘15: Maybe an option to unsubscribe from the emails would lessen the annoyance of large quantity of AAS e-mails.

Alex Southmayd ‘15: It’s important to keep the option open for students to unsubscribe.

Nathan: AAS did used to send out weekly announcements in 2005 or 2006. As for a pilot program, it could be useful. In the next weeks, we’re going to be sending out many e-mails. Perhaps the pilot program can start next semester or next year.

Meghna: We should simply make this e-mail service a subscribe option.

Nicole Umina ’15 (minute-taker): Three years ago, there used to be an AAS Amherst College YouTube account. I’m wondering if we could do a quick video summary.

Next Agenda Item: Motion to pass language for referendum for Dvij.

To approve the total of $12,500 out of senate reserve funds for school ID card readers outside each practice room of James and Stearns.

Alex Southmayd ‘15: Wall Street journals in addition to the New York Times. I’ve heard this from many students. Interested parties come talk to me. This has been tried by Chris Friend ’14 before.

Alex Propp: Farm Project. We’re going to try to find a farmer to use some college land. We’re going to try to give volunteer and internship opportunities to students.

Kyra: Amherst Dance show this weekend! 7:30 PM Friday and 4:00 PM on Saturday. Free!

Romen: Late Night Val tomorrow night from 10 PM to 12 AM. 4/16/12, 8:30 PM

IX. Adjournment: 9:51 PM.