Student Senate held its first meeting on Sunday night, welcoming new and old senators. Senate addressed parking issues, upcoming Senate elections, temporary office hours and a Senate retreat.
Elections are currently being held to fill vacant Senate seats. Under the student constitution passed in spring 1997, ten senators are elected in the spring and five spots filled in the fall, to allow first-years and students studying abroad to run. Junior Senator Sarah Stein-Greenberg, one of the senators elected last spring, has since resigned after accepting a position as Student Assistant to the President. Her vacated spot will also be filled in this week's election.
Nineteen students are running for the six open positions, an unusually high number. "There is a lot of diversity among the candidates," said departing senator Stein-Greenberg. "They include a lot of names I have never seen involved in campus politics, which is great." (Candidate statements are listed on page 9.)
Senator junior Aaron Slodounik started the meeting by informing the Senate of changes made to college and city parking regulations. Slodounik was a member of a parking committee made up of students, staff and towns people formed to evaluate college parking policy. They visited the 13 college parking lots, examining space shortage and availability.
The new parking policy requires stickers for all student vehicles. All unregistered vehicles will be ticketed. Repeated failure to abide by regulations will result in cars being immobilized by "The Boot." More serious violations will result in cars being towed. This is a marked change from the past four years, in which not a single student car was towed, according to Slodounik.
Slodounik said fines may be appealed to a parking fine appeal board. Slodounik also said the school is investigating solutions to limited parking space. "They are still looking at building more parking for south campus. They definitely understand the need," he said.
Senate announced a retreat planned for the weekend of Sept. 19 to 20. The 15 senators will learn about student advisory councils, elect officers and define goals for the year. "We have a lot of factual information new senators need to learn and old senators need to review," said Stein-Greenberg. "The retreat is a way of internalizing how big a deal it is to be on Senate." Due to the full weekend retreat, Senate will not have a public meeting on Sunday, Sept. 20.
Senate also decided to have temporary office hours until permanent hours can be set. In the only vote of the night, Senate voted 10-0-0 to have temporary office hours of noon to 1 p.m. and 4:30 to 5:30 p.m. Monday to Friday. Students are welcome in the Senate office in Wilder at those times if they have concerns that Senate can address.
Senate adjourned in a breathtaking one hour. The next public meeting will be Sunday, Sept. 13 in Wilder 112.