Senate meeting mixes productivity and frustration

Dean search committee appoints, charter approvals occupy spirited Senate

Once again, the commanding voices of Senate resounded during its Sunday meeting.

Continuing the confrontational mood of last week, senators butted heads over several issues, among them choosing students for the Dean of Student Life and Services search committee. Another topic of discord was the procedure for approval of College group charters.

In a private executive session held after the meeting a slate of three students was approved by Senate for the search committee. College junior Samuel Chung, college senior Laura Iverson and college senior Raquel Olivio were recommended to President Nancy Dye by the Senate selection committee.

They were considered to have filled the three major qualifying criterion: ability to clearly articulate ideas, adequate time to devote and willingness to gather student input. Dye accepted the nominations.

"It was passed as brought," said senator junior BJ Renteria, indicating that there were no major objections among senators.

Members of the search committee include Ray English, director of libraries, who will serve as chair; Peter Dominguez, associate professor of jazz studies; Norman Care, professor of philosophy; Eve Sandburg, associate professor of politics; Mark Blackman, director of the Bonner Scholars Program and Charles Ross, director of the Counseling Center, along with the three student representatives.

After coming to a peaceful conclusion to the dean search appointments, Senate began to tackle chartering. Last week they delayed approving several organizations due to concerns over approval process. Despite considerable discussion, Senate came to no conclusion concerning process, instead tabling the topic for another three weeks to further question the topic. However, using status quo, they were able to pass nine charters.

Charters passed included Oberlin Turntablists, American Indian Council, Quaker Student Committee, The Dial, Oberlin Offbeats, and first, second, third and fourth year class councils.

Senator junior Aaron Slodounik invited Student Finance Committee (SFC) treasurer Mary Sara Salvania to the meeting. Slodounik expressed his hope that Salvania could better explain SFC's concern of Senate's chartering precedent. Other guests included Associate Dean of Students Bill Stackman, SFC member senior Erica Seager and student assistant to the President senior Sarah Stein Greenberg, all with pertinent information to share.

Salvania's concern was based on the allocation of SFC funding. Student groups that serve similar functions often turn in different budgets and then pool their money. These practices leave other student groups at a disadvantage. "We can't check up on redundancy in any way, looking at the budget," she said.

Finally, senator first year Chris Anton brought Senate several proposals. His first proposal for the creation of a charter log stating the title and purpose of every chartered organization was tabled. Senator junior Sarah Fineberg pointed out that the Student Union already has a similar set of documents.

Anton's second proposal, concerning the addition of two clauses, addressing necessity of organizations and redundancy within organizations, to the charter format, was rejected. Most senators agreed that the two concerns are usually addressed in the purpose clause of charters and therefore rejected the proposal.

The third proposal brought forth was to "set a precedent to say no [to a charter request]," according to Anton. There was considerable opposition to this proposal.

"I think we get into problems defining each senator's role," said senator junior Sam Taylor, agreeing with several senators.

During the discussion guests found it difficult to clarify their comments. In an attempt to make it easier for the guests, Anton made a process suggestion to be more lenient to guests because of their unfamiliarity with the procedure of Senate. The process suggestion failed.

The process suggestion led to more arguments which degraded to a short shouting match. "I have never seen so much tension about initial process," said one guest.

After a moment to cool down, charter discussion resumed. Anton pulled his third proposal. "A lot of time could be saved if this were done outside of session," he said.

Senate then agreed that they did not have enough information to proceed. They passed a proposal made by Slodounik to form a committee to study the question of Senate's role in the chartering process. The committee will report back in three weeks.

In evaluations senator sophomore Amy Pandjiris affirmed many senators' feelings. "I'm frustrated on how we treat our guests," she said. Fineberg said that she was concerned about how mistreatment of guests would affect Senate's outreach.