Senate debates proposal and inflated textbook prices

Process was the substance of Student Senate's Sunday night meeting. The Senate spent more than two hours debating a proposal on proposals and looking ahead to elections and the upcoming referendum vote.

The "Proposals proposal"

Kaye's proposal specified that proposals may only be made by senators, although the original author need not be a senator. Kaye said the proposal was necessary for "preparation time to increase professionalism and effectiveness."

The purpose of Kaye's proposal was to ensure that senators would read all submitted proposals prior to the Senate meeting at which they are to be discussed. This way, they would be able to revise an original proposal with its author before voting on it.

"It's not our intention to have people come in to the plenary session with proposals they've had no aid in writing, and then blast them in terms of process," Kaye said.

"This way, senators will be involved more intimately with the students making the proposals. They'll come during our office hours and sit with a senator, and we can work with them on formatting the proposal, checking background and anticipating potential questions about where the proposal comes from and where it's headed," he said.

The proposal was also necessary because it will help maximize senators' efficiency at their Sunday night meeting, or plenary session, according to Kaye.

"Plenary session is not for discussions, but for voting and having things to vote on. The more we can come to the session with things as close to being able to be voted on as possible, the more effectively we'll use the plenary session," Kaye said. "The intention is to get criticism and questions out of the way beforehand."

Kaye also felt that more proposals will be passed more easily under his new proposal.

"The proposal is not about adding bureaucracy, and it's not about putting up barriers. My opinion is that it will increase the level of intimacy between senators and those submitting proposals," Kaye said.

In the past, Kaye said, some student proposals brought before Senate would be debated for awhile and then be heavily criticized, "causing the student to leave with a negative feeling towards the Senate." This led to a greater feeling of separation between the student body and the student government, which Kaye said will be minimized by the new proposal's guidelines.

Senators expressed several concerns about the proposal.

Senator first-year Erika Hansen said, "Is this just more red tape for students? Students may see this as in the way to accomplishing goals with Senate."

Senator first-year Amy Pandjiris created a counter proposal in which students are allowed to make proposals but "all proposals deemed by authors or proposers as meriting a formal vote must be reviewed and co-signed by a Senator for proper format."

Although Kaye's proposal passed Senate, at next week's meeting Kaye said senators might try to clarify its wording somewhat.

Co-op Textbook Prices

Senators also spoke of aiding in the cutback of Co-op Bookstore textbook prices.

Every spring, Oberlin faculty members receive letters from the Co-op Bookstore requesting their textbook orders for the upcoming year. Along with the order forms comes a warning of late fee policy.

According to a letter Student Senate voted to send out to the general faculty, "Late forms increase the cost of books in several ways. After the May 4th deadline, the cost of books skyrockets at least 25 percent," leaving the students to foot the outstanding amount.

"We peel the little price sticker off the book that says $48 when the price under the sticker would say $35," senator junior Megan Willits said.

Senators talked about the responsibility of faculty members to turn in their textbook order forms on time.

The Co-op management feels the majority of faculty members ignore its warning to return the orders by the spring deadline.

"Faculty may ignore our warning also, but even if they do, the students won't," said senator senior Dan Persky.

Senators discussed students' proactive role in heavily reminding the faculty to return their orders before the deadline. The letter will also address buying thrifty paperbacks or used texts to deaden the costs.

Elections and Referendum

Also at their meeting, senators set the dates for the upcoming Senate election. Nominations for Senate candidates are now open. The election will begin April 25.

Senators are also conducting a referendum, or survey and vote from the student body, which will poll students on a number of different issues.

Although Senate has not yet finalized what issues will be mentioned on the referendum, among those they are talking about are College investment policy and the Senate pay structure.

As of one year ago, Senate's Constitution was revised to stipulate that senators would get paid for 10 hours per week. This was the first year senators were paid for their involvement in Senate; the change was made primarily to accommodate those students in the work-study program who could not conceivably work for Senate and hold down another job simultaneously.

The Constitution stipulates that at the end of one year, the pay structure must be reaffirmed by referendum.

"I think it's worked really well," Kaye said. "Before, senators had little accountability and lacked a real sense of responsibility to the student body. Now, it's all business."

Kaye added that because of the new pay structure, two-thirds of Senators are members of the work-study program.

"I think that's in line with campus statistics in general. And senators are working to target low-income issues on campus," Kaye said.

Referendum votes will begin April 15 and will last for five days or until 50 percent of the general student body votes. A majority of that 50 percent must vote one way for any motions in the referendum to pass.