Senate Briefs

SPEAKER COMMITTEE
The meeting opened with an explanation of the Speaker Committee’s goals for the year. These included thinking bigger rather than smaller, focusing on education more than entertainment, bringing a diverse group of speakers, and looking at speakers who students want to hear.

CLUB SPORTS
Sports Commissioner Ashley Hovey ’06then presented an account of a recent discussion between Senate members and the captains of Pomona Club Sports teams. The largest problems with Club Sports included lack of funding, inadequate facilities, and an unsupportive administration. As Club Sports are not given as much attention as Varsity Sports, the teams suffer, and it is not fair to the dedicated student athletes giving up their time for the team.

BUDGET
ASPC Vice President Julia Stiglitz ’04 updated Senate on the current status of the budget and the recent requests. Money was given to the Student Global AIDS campaign, March of Dimes, Passwords, and Andrew Tyler ’04. Stiglitz also presented the Budget Committee’s proposal for raising student fees every year in accordance to tuition raises, instead of the current system of raising fees every four years by as much as 14 percent at once. Reasoning for this change included the fact that it would be easier on the administration, as well as the fact that it would eliminate “pressure years,” such as this one, when there has not been a fee raise for a couple of years.

PILLARS AND SUCH
Greenberg related his experiences meeting with the other five presidents from the Colleges and the Mayor of Claremont to discuss student involvement in City Council and issues of town-gown relationships. Junior Class President Cieran Rockwell then explained the current idea for Senate’s third pillar, Diversity, as developed by him and Off-Campus Representative Lindsay Hill ’04. They decided to change the focus from students of color to minority students in general, and that the first step would be to read a number of books regarding issues of disempowerment, followed by a discussion with Professor Phyllis Jackson.

SNACK
Greenberg then opened up the topic of Snack by first debunking what he believed to be the myths that had been surrounding the issue: no dining hall workers lost hours due to Snack at South Campus, Snack has only been around for five years, and Senate has no jurisdiction over Snack. Juan Matute ’04 presented a petition with 262 signatures that requested that Snack be kept at Frary five nights a week. South Campus Representative Galen Benshoof ’06 motioned to recommend that Snack be at Frank for Thursday nights until the end of the semester, whereupon it would be reevaluated. The motion was seconded by North Campus Representative Adam Gardner ’04, and it was unanimously passed.