General Announcement

ASPC President Brian Andrews ’01 selected Wells Miller ’02 as the Elections Commissioner.

ASPC Vice President Ellen Lin ’01 reported on the allocations the Budget Committee has made. The committee gave the Women’s Union (WU) its request of $150. Students for Sensible Drug Policy was granted $450, most of which will go towards paying for the plane ticket for speaker Sylvester Saucedo. The biggest allocation went to the literary magazine Mightier Than the Sword, which will distribute its magazine to the five colleges according to how much each college gives.

Lin informed the Senate that there is $4500 in unallocated funds, which is fortunate because the budget for security is out of money. Several cheaper options are now being considered, such as hiring two servers, one to serve the beer and one to monitor the alcohol and no security, or hiring event pro staff, or implementing a student security force.

Junior Class President Jake Oken-berg voiced his concern that event staff would be unfamiliar with Pomona students.

Campus Events Commissioner Julie Kern ’01 reported that the Spring Formal will be held on April 14 at Walter’s.

Academic Affairs Commissioner Richard Sun ’01 informed the Senate that he is looking for Senate approval of the current Dynamics of Difference and Power proposal.

Oken-berg wondered if there has been any thought about revising the PAC system, or about implementing an overlay to the system. Sun responded that the Curriculum Committee has considered the possibility of replacing PAC 9 with the DDP.

The DDP Committee stated that they wanted to see DDP implemented in either way.

The Senate thought it might be a senior-heavy effort, and wondered if it would die after the seniors graduated. The committee responded that people have come back to work on bringing this to fruition. The committee also informed Senate that a meeting was held that night to recruit under- classmen, and that most other colleges competitive with Pomona have this requirement already.

Sun reported that 40-50 percent of students have taken a DDP class. South Campus Representative Adam Rick ’02 asked if the DDP requirement would be a burden to students. Sun replied that the Curriculum Committee is very concerned about the burden for students and takes that into consideration. They have also considered combining PAC 8 and 9.

Shawn said that mentors, sponsors, and different organizations address these issues on a residential and social level, but there is no way to address them on an academic level. She feels it is important to address these issues in an academic realm, since students don’t discuss them unless it affects them.

Off-Campus Representative Omayra Ortega ’01 said that the Cal State school system have this as a general education requirement.

Schaffer raised his concern that approving and putting through the DDP overlay would lead to more overlays and requirements being added, thus creating a top-heavy PAC system. Oken-berg said to keep in mind how long it’s taken for one new requirement to get to this stage. That proves how incredibly hard it is to add another requirement. That it would have to be something on which everyone agrees is important, which is difficult.

Rick asked if the significance of DDP is as significant as we are making it, or if focusing on these issues exacerbates the issues.

Senior Class President Lauren Shawn replied that she is deeply disturbed by what he had just said. She said that this is something people confront every day, since the day they were born, and that it is not a problem that is going to go away in our lifetimes. The academic realm is the perfect realm to start understanding and addressing these issues.

Schaffer informed the Senate he has taken classes that fulfill the DDP requirement, and they did not address the issues they were supposed to address. He warned that when making the list of classes for DDP, they should make sure the classes address the issues.

Sophomore Class President Tanya Laguerre said that she supported the proposal.

Sun motioned for the Senate to support the proposal as is. If supported, the proposal would go to the faculty forum next Tuesday at the earliest, and would then come up for a vote on April 6, if it came before the faculty on Tuesday. The motion was approved.

In two years, there may be a change in housing. The trustees want to have all freshmen living on South Campus, to address the issue of poor sophomore housing.

Kern said that she thought the pros and cons list made by the head sponsors was biased, because the cons were very well developed, but the pros were not.

Grewal stated that this was not a formal list, and that it was not biased. It was to inform the Senate of the issues.

Schaffer told the Senate that he went to a 100 percent boarding school, and that this exact same debate took place at his school. He warned that changing the housing would drastically change the dynamics of campus life.

Head Sponsor Laura Rosen ’01 addressed Kern’s feelings that the list was biased. She responded that the list was made to counter the housing consultants’ report, which was very heavily focused on the pros. Oken-berg said he’d rather see freshmen and upperclassmen interacting through activities rather than because they happen to be living near each other.

Sports Commissioner Nick Grudin ’01 said that cliques form in the freshman class, that the Walker freshmen are the biggest clique. He suggested that snack be rotated from North Campus to South Campus every two weeks to facilitate interaction between the upperclassmen and lowerclassmen.

Rosen told the Senate that moving all freshmen to South Campus would reduce flexibility in placing freshmen according to lifestyle issues, such as substance levels. She pointed out that some hallways aren’t good for sponsor groups, because some of them have corners which split the group in two. There is also the problem of placing head sponsors and RAs.

Laguerre felt that the proposal just structures what happens naturally.

Shawn said that as a former sponsor, she saw that her friends who were not sponsors didn’t have much of an interest in interacting with freshmen. She felt that if all freshmen lived down south, it would reduce interaction between upperclassmen and lowerclassmen.

Oken-berg asked what will happen after they discuss this proposal, and how much influence the head sponsors have. Rosen responded that their influence is great, since they are the ones who do housing.

An informal poll of the Senate showed that the senators are split evenly about the issue.

Schaffer reported that while Pomona does not wish to participate anymore in the discussion of creating a 5-C Judicial Board, Ivy Grey SC ’01 wanted a definite no from the college.

Shawn said that she spoke to the 5-C Senate. She said that if she were in a sensitive situation, she would want to have a panel of her peers to judge. In making changes, they must tread very carefully. She said that they should look at creating new boards to deal with assault cases exclusively.

Rush suggested that a 5-C code be written, so that all students at the colleges would have the same set of rules. This suggestion was passed by Dean of Students Ann Quinley six or seven years ago, but was never written into Pomona’s code.

Schaffer wrote a motion to no longer participate in discussion of the creation of a 5-C J-Board; it passed.