Senators debate upcoming Senate election

Senate talked more about upcoming elections this week as well as visitor policy in dorms, dress codes and organizational charters. Senate also passed a proposal urging Oberlin to opt out of the US News and World Report college rankings.

Senate is working on preparing for the incoming Senators, though only six people -- five previous Senators -- had signed up to run as of the Senate meeting on April 27.

Senators were concerned about the lack of interest, and decided to push their publicity efforts to recruit people.

"This should be the biggest publicity thing we do as a favor to the next student government because that's what we want -- an effective student government," Senator Sophomore Chuckie Kamm said.

Ex-Senator junior Chapin Benninghoff added, "If people read in the newspaper that 10 senators were elected out of 10, that invalidates Senate." He feels that one good year of government will increase enthusiasm for the Senate for the next year.

"Next year will be a serious playing field for Senate regardless of who's on it," Senator junior Joshua Kaye said.

May 3 is the deadline for submitting candidate statements.

The Dress Code/Appearence policy elicited much discussion, especially in the area of varsity sports following the green-haired boy debate. Benninghoff and Kaye worked on a new policy.

Present rules state that there are no rigid dress standards, but that community members should dress in a manner that shows consideration of others. Health codes also demand that shoes be worn in dining halls.

The new proposal states that commuity members refrain from dressing in a manner that constitutes a clear and material interference with other community members and supports that appearence should not be grounds for discrimination or punishment.

The questions of what concerns a coach's power over creating a unified team and what aesthetics have to do with playing ability were main opposite points. Senator senior Claire Koczak suggested the matter be researched further before voted upon, so the proposal was tabled.

Senator sophomore Whitney Smith said, "We can't afford to pick and choose athletes."

Resident hall guest policy was also discussed. The current policy says each guest must be approved by the Commons Coordinator (CC) and can stay a maximum of three days.

Senate proposed that guests not have to be approved by the CC, but rather by the Resident Coordinator, as the CC positions are shrinking.

The amount of time a guest is allowed was also debated, and a suggested change was made to move the time allowed from three to seven days.

The US News and World Report annual college ranking boycott was the next topic of discussion presented to Senate. There are a coalition of colleges and universities across the country, including Stanford and University of Southern California, that do not send their statisitcs into the publication on the grounds that the rankings are not an accurate display of the quality of an institution.

While many senators agreed it would be good to add Oberlin to the list, someone pointed out the administration wouldn't probably back Senate up on this as Oberlin would end up at the bottom of the survey with all zeroes, but at least the student government could say it took a stand against the ranking system.

The College did say they would withold statistics when their competitors, such as Brown and Wesleyan, did the same. The new proposal reads:

"Senate calls for the Office of the President to cooperate in writing a letter to US News Editor James Fallows, urging him to reform the rankings, in a manner that reflects the complexity of the nation's colleges and universities, in addition... Senate encourages the Oberlin administrations to contact and form coalitions with other schools across the country in order to protest the flawed ranking system."

In the internal committees report, it was reported that 20 out of 80 student organizations submitted charters for next year, and that 20 others requested an extension.