Bates College Student Government

Representative Assembly

MEETING AGENDA

In accordance with the Bates College Student Government Bylaws

(Article I, Section 4)

Sunday, February 1st, 2014 5:00pm-6:00PM | Meeting Room: Pgill G52

 

1. Announcements
2. Ratification of Minutes
   1. Vote: For: All. Against: 0. Abstaining: 0. Ratified.
3. Officer Reports
   1. Executive Council
      1. New members of the Executive Council introduced themselves to the Representative Assembly, giving a brief bio about who they are, their past experience, majors, and such.
         1. President Berto Diaz
         2. Vice-President of Clubs Sarah Stanley
         3. Vice-President of Committees Tommy Fitzgerald
         4. Treasurer Henry Finkelstein
4. Committee Reports
   1. Parliamentarian Kiernan Majerus-Collins
      1. Kiernan gave a report on the election, saying it was a “stunning success.” There were over 700 students who voted, which is quite impressive. He thanked everyone on the RA and said that this election process would be implemented in the future. About two-thirds of the voted for at least two candidates per office, making due of the instant runoff system. The full report of election results will be posted to the announce email system for the entire student body to see.
         1. Alyssa asked about what will be released in the email, and Kiernan spoke to the need for complete transparency regarding the election results. The email will present a round by round breakdown of the process. Members indicated their concern for the insensitive nature of such an email, saying it would “simply add insult to injury,” especially given the lateness of such an announcement. Kiernan said the student body has a right to know exactly how the results of the election fell into place, and that it would be crucial to uphold the transparency of our student government.
      2. He also spoke about midterm elections to fill the RA vacancies that have come up in the last months. As soon as a list of vacant seats is presented, members can nominate students to be elected into the RA.
   2. Vice-President of Committees Tommy Fitzgerald
      1. Tommy spoke about two new members recently appointed to the Committee on Committees, Owen C and Audrey Z. Previously there have been six members on the COC, along with the Chair. He mentioned that he is still looking for more members, despite his apparent satisfaction with his hand-selected appointments.
   3. Treasurer Henry Finkelstein
      1. Bates Arts Society Cosponsorship
         1. Arts Commons – The Bates Arts Crawl, which already happened, was held by the Bates Arts Society. The Club asked for $30 dollars, which the Budget Committee agreed to grant them.
            1. Vote: For: All. Against: 0. Abstaining: 0. Passed.
      2. Bates Christian Fellowship
         1. Black Campus Ministries Conference – This conference will be held on the 7th of February, and Bates students will be attending this conference to learn from other students about expanding engagement in college based ministries. They asked for $300 from the BC, which they will add to $200 of their own budget, and which the BC voted to grant them.
            1. Vote: For: All. Against: 0. Abstaining: 0. Passes
5. President’s Report
   1. NESCAC Student Government Conference
      1. Berto spoke briefly about the upcoming NESCAC conference at Tufts on February 27th-31rd.
6. Old Business
   1. Alyssa, and some other RA members, presented on their experiencing presenting the Pass/Fail draft, which wasn’t really accepted by the Educational Policy Committee. THey said an option would be to declare pass/fail up until the last day of registration, and have until the last day of dropping classes to chose whether or not you truly want to pass/fail the class. This deadline falls after midterms, which would allow students to gage how they are doing in the class.
7. New Business
   1. Alyssa and some other members presented a new possible amendment, regarding the structure and function of the COC. This was proposed as an amendment to be voted on at next weeks amendments. However, due to the less than 75% of the RA present, and according to the recent amendments to guidelines made by the EJC, the RA will not be able to vote on this in the coming week.
8. Adjournment
   1. Vote: For: All. Adjournment.

Respectfully Submitted,

 

Katharina Harling  ‘17

Secretary