ASPC President Brian Andrews ’01 announced that the planned Senate activity, a showing of two films on Marston Quad scheduled for last weekend, was cancelled due to bad weather. It has been postponed until Thursday of reading days.

Andrews mentioned that the application deadline for committee appointments is this Wednesday. Positions are available on several student-faculty committees, including the Curriculum Committee and the Academic Procedures Committee.

The 5-C Senate had their last meeting of the year this past Sunday. Andrews said that the meeting consisted mainly of delegates "patting themselves on the back" for another year of existing as a 5-C Senate.

Andrews also announced that SAC adopted a new harassment policy at their meeting last Friday. Under the new policy, harassment cases follow a different judiciary track than all other infractions of the student code; these cases will be tried before a panel of six students specially trained to hear such cases. SAC also clarified both the procedure and the definition of harassment in the college code.

Commissioner of Residence Halls and Food Liz Rodriguez ’03 reported that room draw, which took place last week, had generally gone well. She did not know exactly how many people deferred, but she said that it was not nearly as many as last year. All of the rooms available in the draw were taken. Rodriguez noted that this year was somewhat unusual because areas designated as substance-free were in the draw, and all of the second floor of Mudd Blaisdell and the towers will be sub-free next year.

Rodriguez also reported to the Senate on the theme groups that her committee has selected for next year. A total of 35 groups applied, from which five were chosen. She explained that this year they had limited theme group placement options to areas that have at least one double.

Commissioner of Campus Events Julie Kern ’01 announced that Deputy Campus Events Commissioners have been selected for next year. The new deputies will be Danielle Ticoulat-Bowers ’04, who is currently Co-Chair of Social Events, and Jed Stiglitz ’02, who is currently abroad but has served as Chair of Special Operations and Social Events. Kern noted that they wanted to be careful not to stack CCLA’s executive committee with seniors. Senate approved the appointments.

Kern also announced that Angela Crisp-Sears, the Assistant Director of the Campus Center and Student Programs, will be leaving next year. A selection committee has been assembled and is in the process of finding a replacement.

North Campus Senator Grayson Schaffer ’01 distributed to senators his proposal for a "budgeting incentive program." According to this plan, the Senate would set aside $3000 to be awarded to the club or organization that meets the following criteria: "the club or organization that, through its programming, best embodies the mission statement of Pomona College; offers inclusive programming that represents the most quality per dollar of funding; shows an awareness and appreciation of the origin of the Senate’s funds." The ostensible purpose of this plan is to "incentives [sic] the clubs and organizations of Pomona College to better spend their allocation [sic]."

Senior Class President Lauren Shawn ’01 said that she found the notion of bribing people in organizations to allocate their funds more effectively somewhat disturbing. Commissioner of Environmental Affairs Pam Grewal ’03 added that the Senate couldn’t very well make value judgments about how clubs choose to spend their allocated funds. South Campus Senator Adam Rick ’02 made a motion to give the proposal to the budget committee (on which Schaffer serves), let them review it and return next week with a recommendation and then the Senate could vote on it. Rick’s motion was seconded and passed; the Senate will return to the proposal next week.

Elections Commissioner Wells Miller ’02 reported that ASPC elections had run very smoothly, and there were no problems of note. Andrews asked senators if they had any thoughts regarding how the election was run. Commissioner-elect of Campus Events Liz Fasse ’02 said that she thought students studying abroad should be able to vote, especially since about a third of the constituency for Senior Class President is abroad when elections take place. Miller responded that students are theoretically allowed to vote from abroad, but there is no mechanism to allow them to do so; he agreed that something should be done to fix the problem, such as sending ballots via e-mail to those students.

Assistant Director of the Campus Center Dave Swenson noted that this issue has been raised before, and that a major stumbling block is that only students in developed countries with access to e-mail would be able to vote. Junior Class President Jake Oken-Berg ’02 said that he thought as many people should be able to vote as possible, even if some students are excluded because they have no access to e-mail.

Andrews raised the idea that perhaps run-offs could be eliminated altogether if the voting system were altered. Associate Dean of Students Neil Gerard explained that this could be accomplished by having voters rank candidates in order of preference instead of just voting for one person. This way, someone could win by plurality instead of by majority, as the election code currently mandates.

Senators’ reactions were mixed; some thought that such a system would entail more work, while others thought it would be easier. Oken-Berg expressed his concern that given the opportunity to rank candidates, students would think that it is OK to rank first someone whom they don’t really support (as a joke), because they would be able to do so while still partially supporting another candidate. Shawn said that she didn’t think Oken-Berg gave students enough credit. Miller noted that many people had difficulty following directions the way they ballots are now.

Sports Commissioner Nick Grudin ’01 asked how turnout had been in the past run-off election relative to the turnout for the initial election. Miller said that it was "decent" this year. Grudin said that if run-off turnout was fine, then he sees no reason to change the system. He asserted that everyone who is informed and who cares votes anyway.

Oken-Berg suggested that the election by-laws be amended to require that ballots be sent via e-mail to juniors studying abroad; there was general agreement.

Grudin raised the issue of not enough people running in the election, and wondered what could be done about that.

ASPC Vice President Ellen Lin ’01 distributed the budget allocations for next year agreed upon by the budget committee. Senators are to look over it on their own time and come back next week with suggested amendments and changes.

-Compiled by Samantha Brenner