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New student government approved by students, GF

Stipends also approved for Senators

by Sara Foss and Jake Feeley

Senior Joel Whitaker and Student Senators were still collecting votes at 4:15 Tuesday -- literally moments before the General Faculty (GF) meeting began.

Due largely to their persistent efforts, the new student government proposal passed, supported by 95 percent of those who voted. The GF quickly approved the constitution at its meeting.

For the new government to be implemented, it had to be approved by the GF. Before the GF could approve the new constitution, 50 percent of the student body, or 1,440 students, had to vote in the student referendum that ran for seven days.

Fifty-two percent of the student body, or 1,484 students, voted. Ballots arrived in mailboxes on Tuesday, April 8. Students could also vote via e-mail, and senators placed typed pieces of paper explaining how to access the alpha voting system on computer terminals all over campus. In addition, senators tabled and approached students in dorms, dining halls, co-ops, Wilder Bowl and other areas, to convince them to vote.

"We absolutely blitzed the campus," Whitaker said. "I never thought we'd get 50 percent of the campus to vote on anything in seven days. That's never happened before ... I was shocked."

Seventy-seven percent of those who voted supported stipends for senators. Of that 77 percent, 62 percent supported annual reaffirmation of the stipends by the student body. Because concern was voiced as to whether senators should receive stipends, the stipend was approved separately on the ballot.

"There's a lot of work to do in the next few weeks," said senator Devin Theriot-Orr, a senior.

Aspects of the New Government

The new constitution calls for 15 student senators instead of the 30 who sit on the current Student Senate. It also eliminates organizational senators; in the future all senators will be elected at large but can seek endorsements from student organizations, dormitories or co-ops.

Senators will serve as officers or coordinate an advisory council. Advisory councils are issue-oriented committees that interested students, student members of faculty and administrative committees and senators will serve on. Advisory councils will formulate recommendations that will be sent to the administration, Senate and faculty and administrative committes on particular sets of issues.

The new senators have specific job descriptions. "If people have specific skills or interests they're going to find a way to exercise them on Senate," Whitaker said.

Six officers are called for. Under the new government, Senate will have a liaison, secretary, communications coordinator, organizational coordinator, membership coordinator and education coordinator.

The new constitution also opens up faculty and administrative committee seats to all students, not just student senators.

Stipends would make Student Senate more accessible to low income students, Whitaker has said. Money for the stipends would come from the student activities fee.

The new constitution also calls for stricter standards of accountability for senators and student committee members. If senators and student committee members do not attend meetings or hold regular dorm raps or office hours, they will be removed from Senate. If enough students are unhappy with a senator's performance, they can call a student referendum to remove the senator and hold an election.

Student Finance Committee and Stipends

Junior Becca Barnes, Student Finance Committee (SFC) treasurer, said that the money for stipends will come out of the student activity fee. Barnes said she expected SFC to take the money for the stipends out of the ad hoc money set aside for next year. If student senators are on work study, 75 percent of their salary is paid for by the government. If they are not, SFC covers their entire stipend.

SFC plans to set $50,000 of its budget aside as ad hoc money. Because the number of work study students on next year's Senate has not yet been determined, SFC does not know how much it will have to provide for stipends. Senior Alex Freumen, a member of SFC, said about $20,000 of the ad hoc money will be set aside for stipends.

Freumen and Barnes both said that other student organizations will lose money because such a large amount of the activity fee has to go toward the stipends.

"It will really cause a problem," Freumen said. "It will make it more difficult to meet the needs of student organizations." Freumen said that SFC deals with the same budget every year, while the number of student organizations increases.

Barnes said, "We have the money. Technically it means that other organizations are not going to get as much."

Barnes and Freumen were not aware of the stipends until the ballots were distributed. Barnes said, "I feel the student body wasn't informed well enough on what was going. They don't realize that other organizations don't get money."

Whitaker said that the funding for stipends will have to be ironed out, but will work similarly to the OPIRG and dorm fees.

"I hope a lot of low income student run for this because that's who it's designed for," Whitaker said.

People were surprised the stipends passed. Freumen said most of the people he heard discussing the stipends said they were voting against them.

General Reaction

Senators were pleased with voter turnout.

"It wasn't really that 51 percent voted," Theriot-Orr said. "It's that Student Senate used every means short of putting guns in people's faces and got people to vote."

Persky said, "I'm very happy that so many students, in such a short amount of time, voted. It shows how interested students are in reforming government."

Whitaker said that some students he spoke with were interested in the new constitution -- though most of them had already voted -- while others were not and said things like 'I'm busy, don't bother me.'


Related Stories:

Government referendum could restructure Senate
- April 11, 1997

Senate continues reform
- April 4, 1997

Highlights of the proposed Student Government Constitution
- April 4, 1997


Oberlin

Copyright © 1997, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 125, Number 21, April 18, 1997

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