NEWS

Senate discusses charters; two senators to resign seats

by Ireta Kraal

Student Senate was still trying to define its role in the chartering process at its last meeting before Thanksgiving. Regardless of their chartering uncertainties, Senate was able to pass one charter and a proposal. But the meeting was set back in the end when one senator made public his resignation.

Senator junior Sam Taylor publicly announced his resignation. "I have a lot of work to do," said Taylor, citing personal reasons for leaving the group. He recommended that Senate hold elections for the spring semester. Senate is not required to hold elections unless there are three or more vacant seats.

Senator junior Aaron Slodounik also commented that he would formally announce his resignation at the upcoming Senate meeting. This will open up an officer's seat.

Despite these setbacks, Senate had a productive meeting. Senate is making progress with the chartering issue. Working outside of its regular meetings, senators have been educating themselves about the process and the problems. To continue this process of education, college junior Danielle Hirsch, co-chair of the Student Finance Committee (SFC), spoke at their meeting.

Hirsch spoke on SFC's role in allocating money to student organizations. She stated that all organizations are broken into two groups, large and small, and then are given a certain amount of money according to a list of criteria. "Large" and "small" is nowhere formally defined, however Hirsch said, "[Large groups have] a big appeal towards campus." She explained that the definition is not based on membership but on how many people the group serves. For example, large groups include Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Union (LGBTU) and the Sexual Assault Support Team.

She stressed that once SFC allocates the money, the organization is able to do with it what they will. SFC does not scrutinize how an organization spends its money. Obvious misuse of funds can be noted and can reflect on the following year's allocations, but less obvious misuse often goes unnoticed.

Less obvious misuse of funds can occur when organizations fall under the umbrella of another organization or are closely related to another. The groups combine resources to get what the want, allowing one organization to have nearly twice the funding of any other group. "I think this is a problem because a lot of organizations are barely making it by," said Hirsch.

Hirsch stressed the SFC does not make value judgments when they allocate funding. Senator sophomore Amy Pandjiris suggested that SFC's method of determining large and small groups without written documentation was a value judgment in itself. She further pointed out that when a group is reprimanded for a blatant misuse of funds, the SFC again appears to be making judgments. This is again because of a lack of strict outline dealing with misuses of funding and no written system of checking their use.

After the open discussion with Hirsch, senators side-stepped the chartering issue and passed the charter for the Oberlin Bio-Medical Journal Club.

Senate also passed a proposal by senator sophomore Micah Thorner. Thorner's proposal would allow club sport members access to the varsity coaches. It will give varsity player priority during their season and equal access during all other times. This would allow varsity coaches to help when a club athlete is injured, one of the driving concerns behind the proposal, among other things.

Previous proposals of this nature have not passed through the student-faculty athletic committee. There is, however, one fundamental difference: the previous proposals have not given priority to the varsity players, as this one does. Senate hopes the proposal will be favorably looked upon by the committee.

The next public senate meeting will be Sunday, Dec. 6.

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Copyright © 1998, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 127, Number 11, December 4, 1998

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