2008 Woodie Awards
Oversight Committee causes controversy at Student Body Meeting
Daniel Orlow
Issue date: 2/15/07 Section: News
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On Feb. 12, a Student Body Meeting was held in the Great Room at 7:15 p.m.. The meeting commenced with Christina Vergos '09, Student Body Treasurer and Representative for her class, giving a report on a revised finance manual for Student Council.
The manual includes instructions on the technicalities of how money is allocated and spent on different clubs and organizations throughout the campus. After Vergos was finished with her report, the Student Body Meeting officially began. Ryan Campbell '08, Student Body President, introduced how the meeting would be run and what would be going on. The meeting was a series of proposed resolutions to the finance manual. The first of these proposed resolutions was made by David Liskov '07. The issue was over a section of the finance manual that stipulated that leaders of different clubs and organizations around campus would have to report back to Student Council if they had had funds allocated to them by Council. The point of this section of the finance manual is to make sure that the money that Council is allocating is spent properly. Liskov proposed to strike this section; however, it turned out to only be an amendment which was passed, stating that an email describing how successful the funds had been would suffice.
After Liskov was finished speaking, Rachel Rosenberg '07, Vice President of the Student Body and Representative of her class, proposed a one-week reading period to be enacted for any changes to Student Council by-laws. This means that any proposed changes to the Student Council by-laws will have a week grace period between when they are read and voted upon.
The majority of the meeting, however, was taken up by an issue proposed by Matt Fash '09, President and Representative of his class, and Dave Dolan '07. They proposed a resolution to institute a peer review board into the Student Council by-laws which would be charged with the responsibility of keeping Student Council members accountable for their positions. Essentially it would be an Oversight Committee with the purpose of making sure that the members of Student Council were doing their jobs. If the Committee were to find that a particular member had not been doing their job, they would be able to kick that member off of Student Council. Unlike the previous two resolutions, the students present at the Student Body Meeting were much more divided on the issue. The supporters of the peer review board claimed that there needed to be some kind of check on the power that Student Council had as well as a group to make sure that they are responsibly carrying out their duties. Those students opposed to the peer review board claimed that it would be an overbearing institution without any real purpose other than that of carrying threats to Student Council members who are just as vulnerable to error as any other human beings
The manual includes instructions on the technicalities of how money is allocated and spent on different clubs and organizations throughout the campus. After Vergos was finished with her report, the Student Body Meeting officially began. Ryan Campbell '08, Student Body President, introduced how the meeting would be run and what would be going on. The meeting was a series of proposed resolutions to the finance manual. The first of these proposed resolutions was made by David Liskov '07. The issue was over a section of the finance manual that stipulated that leaders of different clubs and organizations around campus would have to report back to Student Council if they had had funds allocated to them by Council. The point of this section of the finance manual is to make sure that the money that Council is allocating is spent properly. Liskov proposed to strike this section; however, it turned out to only be an amendment which was passed, stating that an email describing how successful the funds had been would suffice.
After Liskov was finished speaking, Rachel Rosenberg '07, Vice President of the Student Body and Representative of her class, proposed a one-week reading period to be enacted for any changes to Student Council by-laws. This means that any proposed changes to the Student Council by-laws will have a week grace period between when they are read and voted upon.
The majority of the meeting, however, was taken up by an issue proposed by Matt Fash '09, President and Representative of his class, and Dave Dolan '07. They proposed a resolution to institute a peer review board into the Student Council by-laws which would be charged with the responsibility of keeping Student Council members accountable for their positions. Essentially it would be an Oversight Committee with the purpose of making sure that the members of Student Council were doing their jobs. If the Committee were to find that a particular member had not been doing their job, they would be able to kick that member off of Student Council. Unlike the previous two resolutions, the students present at the Student Body Meeting were much more divided on the issue. The supporters of the peer review board claimed that there needed to be some kind of check on the power that Student Council had as well as a group to make sure that they are responsibly carrying out their duties. Those students opposed to the peer review board claimed that it would be an overbearing institution without any real purpose other than that of carrying threats to Student Council members who are just as vulnerable to error as any other human beings