~ alcohol for seniors, mission statements, and jewelry ~
college council minutes, october 24, 2001
~ opening ~
A. welcome
let me just begin by saying that there are a lot of really important things that concern you, the williams student, in these minutes. by "these" I don’t mean specifically this week’s, but CC minutes in general. so read them, gosh darn it.
sarah
(co-pres) opened this meeting by reminding everyone of the vote of no-confidence in college council that will be taking place from 12:01 am, 10/30/01 through 11:59 pm, 11/1/01 on jose.williams.edu. contact 03mtr or your house representative with questions. also, just a heads-up that the latino heritage month convocation is coming up this friday at 8 pm in goodrich.B. open floor
for the second straight week, no students other than CC members came to visit during open time. we did, however receive several opinions this week.
caroline (2002) presented, in spite of her self-proclaimed volume-control issues.• lots of people were confused about the vote of no-confidence.
• question regarding the status of the housing group sizes. if this is still under discussion, shouldn’t it be under discussion with the students as well?
• doesn’t CC have the obligation to run the vote of dissolution during its scheduled time?
• is CC allowed to censure
ex post facto?• don’t censure the mad cow
C. committees and groups report
representing the goodrich committee,
adam grogg spoke to CC on many projects the committee is undertaking, most notably the return of "first fridays". these goodrich parties will be starting on november 2nd and continuing on the first friday of each month excepting january. the funding for alcohol for the events, though, is contingent upon how much the social committee decides to give them. if they don’t receive adequate funding for alcohol, they may consider changing it to a non-alcoholic event. grogg also reported that the goodrich committee is gearing up for the shut-down of baxter hall (for renovations), requesting new sound systems, and purchasing more couches to create "conversation centers" downstairs. questions or comments should be directed to goodrich@wso.williams.edu.susie theroux
reported on behalf of the campus environmental advocacy committee (CEAC) which has only recently emerged from its dormancy. since then, they have established subcommittees to divvy up their projects. they are working on 1) institutionalization of their work to impose more lasting change, 2) several current projects including the construction of a new baxter and two new parking lots, and 3) more environmentally-friendly purchasing by the college. next thursday at 9:30 pm there will be a combined meeting between CEAC and greensense, location TBA, where CEAC will present its most recent projects.on behalf of the committee on diversity and community (CDC),
sarah barger provided an update (even though she missed last CDC meeting, and is only ex-officio anyway, she was the only person to show due to floyd’s late notice). the CDC is currently examining curricular applications of issues of diversity and what should be brought into the classroom. they are also investigating the structure of first-days and the dynamic between the WOOLF and WOW/ALANA programs. one option up for consideration is conducting first-days with entries first, then sending first-years out on their respective orientation trips.garry sanders
(all-campus) relayed to CC that jean thorndike is looking for someone to serve on the campus safety committee. time commitment appears to be fairly low, while addressing student concerns like the security (or lack thereof) in on-campus storage spaces. at this, fede (2004) claimed to be on the safety committee, and they haven’t met yet. hmm…not sure what’s going on there, but fede will find out for us soon.~ council business ~
A. group recognition
tommy williams ‘03 came to request recognition for the williams gaming alliance, which would seek to "unite the diverse group of students that make up gamers at williams college". tom cubeta (carter) moved to recognize the group and CC voted unanimously to recognize, 30-0-0 (1).
in an attempt to revive the senior wine club, stephanie autran ‘02 and jonnie vasse ‘02 requested CC recognition. this request caused CC members to stir a bit, as several concerns surfaced. the group professes it would "provide an evening of education and entertainment to be held once monthly throughout the year. Each dinner (at the il tesoro restaurant in north adams) would be structured with educational talks by wine makers, merchants and chefs". since the events this year would be taking place out of walking-distance, sarah wondered how transportation would be handled. the aspiring wine-experts identified this as the very reason for requesting recognition — to receive funding for buses to transport the wine club members. shehryar (dodd complex) and charlie (dennett) asked why this would only be open to the senior class. stephanie replied that it would be nice for seniors to have this senior-only event where they could get together and acquaint themselves with other members of their class. floyd (all-campus) then asked if seniors who happen to be still under 21 (like yours truly) would be allowed to "sit and watch". what an ass. in any case, the vote to recognize the senior wine club passed, 28-1-1 (2). the first senior wine club might take place as soon as november 1st (so keep your eyes peeled). if you have questions, direct them to either 02sca or 02jlv.
B. finance committee appointment — ohm deshpande
sarah briefly explained that early this year, one of our fincom reps quit, vacating a spot on the committee. ohm deshpande ‘04 expressed interest by submitting a self-nom and the appointments committee recommended him to CC. at this meeting, CC voted to approve the appointment, 28-0-2 (3).
C. AG recommendations
this week, the AG recommended allocations of $830.00 to williams for life (WFL) for "respect life week" and $1,083.00 to nothin’ but cuties (NBC) for their year budget, including various performance trips, production costs, and advertising expenses. after some debate over whether CC should be funding more or fewer lectures, the slate of suggested allocations was passed, 25-3-2 (4).
~ unfinished business ~
A. organizations and their mission statements
this motion, proposed by nick (minco) last meeting, stipulates that in order for a group to maintain its college council recognition, it "must act in accordance with its mission statement".
JP (treasurer) got the first word in and moved to postpone indefinitely, explaining that if his motion were to pass, CC would no longer consider it anymore. his justification was that the motion does not have any effect on student groups. two camps quickly evolved. on the one hand, many CC members were wary that the additional condition proposed by nick is too subjective and could easily be misused as a tool to de-recognize a group. on the flip side, some CC members saw this as a provision for groups to be true to the philosophies espoused in their mission statements. shehryar contended that CC should not just recognize groups based on one mission statement and subsequently allow them to behave in whatever manner they choose. noah coburn (bryant/woodbridge) added that he thinks it is, at times, our job to be subjective. however, floyd countered that this bylaw change would be too open-ended and ambiguous. garry added that he would like to see it come back with a system of procedures which CC must abide by. the vote to postpone indefinitely failed 13-15-1 (5) and we returned to discussion on the original motion.
jim irving (our newly-elected frosh-council rep) emphasized that we need something like this to deal with groups that are not in accordance with their mission statements. will allen (all-campus) suggested that we should probably insert a time-delay provision, if we were to consider this. nick moved to amend his original motion to state the following:
9. IV. Maintaining CC recognition
3. An organization must act in accordance with its mission statement.
A) Any organization failing to abide by its mission statement may face possible d-recognition..
I. A group is liable to face de-recognition if council has formerly censured they group by passing a vote of censure at a CC meeting.
II. After 1 month from the time of censure, CC may vote to de-recognize a group by a 2/3 majority.
charlie then quickly moved to postpone, which passed, 23-5-1 (6). next week, we will resume discussion of nick’s amendment to his own motion. everyone still with me?
B. ring committee
we picked up discussion here of fede’s motion to create a ring committee consisting of the four all-campus reps and the three class reps. garry claimed that there is no need for this committee, nor is there need for research of any kind. joe (co-pres) finally made it into the minutes by reminding CC that we can have molly butzer back to visit again before we decide one way or another. (the rest of CC accused joe of just wanting more of molly’s cookies.) floyd displayed his ignorance towards robert’s rules of parliamentary procedure by moving to postpone indefinitely. this failed 9-20-0 (7). the motion to create ring committee subsequently failed 4-25-0 (8). fede volunteered to do research on this on his own.
C. mad cow censure
tom came out firing, saying that "we made this rule for the mad cow, let’s use it". several CC members expressed reservation with allowing any possible censure to apply to the newly instated bylaw (refer to old minutes online at
http://wso.williams.edu/orgs/cc/minutes). in fact, JP moved to amend the motion to censure by adding, "and that this vote of censure not be applied to the bylaw passed on 10/17/01". craig agreed, stating that the only way we can fairly consider the motion to censure is in the absence of any retroactive application of the bylaw. the amendment passed 25-4-1 (9). nick, who proposed the vote of censure, urged that this vote would show CC delegations in the future that the mad cow has a history. floyd moved to postpone to next week, imploring representatives to gain feedback from their constituents. the postponement passed, 22-7-1(10).~ new business ~
A. disallow "motions to postpone indefinitely"
hall (tyler/annex) called these motions "bullshit". JP defended the motion to postpone indefinitely, however, citing it as a great way of not dealing with something. ching (all-campus), in support of hall’s motion, claimed that the motion to postpone indefinitely is not "for the people" and we are here, after all, for the people. the motion failed 9-19-2 (11).
B. financial aid for test-taking preparation
darlene (prospect) relayed that one of her constituents asked if financial aid could consider helping to fund classes taken in preparation for exams like the GRE’s, LSAT’s and MCAT’s. she plans to bring this up again next week.
C. override the motion to vote
mark (2003) moved to allow, even in the wake of a motion to vote, all those who still have their hands up to be allowed to speak. after a brief explanation of the logic behind the motion to vote, CC voted against the motion, 7-22-0 (12).
respectfully submitted,
craig tamamoto
cc secretary, 02cat
jenny veraldi
(co-op), tamika murray (bascom, brooks, chadbourne, perry), chris sewell (sage)