Student Senate discusses plans for retreat

Activities will orient three newly elected senators

On Sunday night the Student Senate sat down for what senator sophomore Aaron Slodounik jokingly referred to as "our shortest meeting in history." With a smaller agenda than at previous meetings of the semester, senators wrapped up their meeting after two hours.

Issues discussed at the meeting included advisory council updates, the upcoming Senate retreat to provide orientation to new senators and several proposals.

Advisory Councils

Senator first-year Erika Hansen, co-chair of the Initiatives advisory council, said she was given some interesting data when she met with the department of Admissions last week.

Included among the statistics she learned were figures showing that 100 percent of female prospective students would pick Oberlin as their number one choice for College if a community service program was integrated into the College, and most male prospectives would do the same if the program were related to their intended career field.

"This is very promising," Hansen said.

She said Initiatives will work with Assistant to the President for Community Affairs Dan Gardner in the Center for Service and Learning to see if some kind of program can be integrated.

"This would really speak to the administration. We think it's very encouraging," Hansen said.

Senator junior Meagan Willits, co-chair of the Health Plan advisory council, gave her report to Student Senate also.

"Final negotiations with CHC [Collegiate Health Care] are this week and right now the administration won't let students participate in it. It seems like a lot of people were frustrated with that," Willits said.

She added that the Health Plan advisory council will put together a piece for Senate's upcoming newsletter updating students on the new Student Health program.

Senate Retreat

As this was Student Senate's last meeting before the three newly-elected senators took their seats, the senators discussed plans for Sunday's full-day retreat and orientation for the new senators.

Senator senior Dan Persky has planned a full day of activities for the new 15-person Senate. Included in the orientation is a lunch with many College administrators so new senators can learn the faces and jobs of the people with whom they'll be working. Assistant to the President Diana Roose is funding the lunch, as well as a dinner just for the senators.

Senator first-year Nnenna Onumah proposed inviting all 11 Senate candidates to the lunch, not just the three election winners. "I think it would be a nice gesture to include all of the students who ran," she said.

Senator senior Chapin Benninghoff was wary of inviting all the candidates."Generally I'm in favor of this idea, but what worries me is, what's the rationale for excluding the rest of the campus?" Benninghoff said. "Every time you make the choice to include someone, you're also making the choice to exclude someone. There are many people who are regular activists on this campus, but they're not being invited. My concern is for those people."

Willits disagreed. "If we're going to be inviting so many administrators to this lunch, why not invite all the Senate candidates too?" she said.

The proposal ultimately was passed by senators.

Proposals

Before the meeting's close senator senior Joshua Kaye told senators he wanted to make a proposal adding two changes to Student Senate's bylaws concerning the role of the Senate liaison.

"I'm proposing first that outstanding business should be a regular part of the liaison's job, and second that part of the liaison's role should be doing a 'State of the Senate' address once each semester for the public, separate from Senate's newsletter," Kaye said.

The proposal was unanimously passed by senators.

Slodounik then discussed the possibility that extra hours the senators worked last semester could carry over for senators to get paid this semester.

Although three different proposals were originally brought up, two were withdrawn after much debate. Senators ultimately voted on Willits' proposal that any hours over 15 that senators worked during the last week of first semester could be applied for payment exclusively to first semester of this year.

The proposal was passed.

Other business

The senators also discussed their first lunch with President of the College Nancy Dye. At their lunch they discussed issues pertaining to both the administration and the student body, according to senator sophomore Nathaniel Stankard.

In honor of the upcoming Board of Trustees meeting March 6 through 8, Stankard said, "There was a lot of discussion about how students and the Student Senate can get more involved with the Trustees and learn more about the Trustees' expectation of students."

Also discussed at the lunch were issues such as reconceptualizing athletics at Oberlin and the need for more spaces for the arts on campus, according to Stankard and senator sophomore Sarah Stein Greenberg.