By Erasmus Baxter
The February 7 Associated Student Board meeting began 11 minutes later than scheduled, some of the board members went to the wrong meeting room.
Ana Ramirez’s Position to Be Left Open
AS President Simrun Chhabra read a statement announcing that the board would not be filling the AS VP for Governmental Affairs position vacated by Ana Ramirez. Though it violates the bylaws they felt it was the best way to respect the fact that Ramirez was elected by students. Read the statement below:
Food Pantry Funding Approved
The board unanimously approved funding for a food pantry in the Viking Union, leading to cheers from board members.
The $5,100 from the reserves will be split over three years. For now the pantry will be administered by work study employees with the Resource and Outreach Programs and Environmental Sustainability Programs, as well as ROP adviser Leti Romo.
The name will be the “Western Food Pantry” instead of the “Viking Food Pantry” to disassociate from a mascot that not everyone is down with, AS VP for Student Life Annie Gordon said.
Extra Student Appointed to Election Committee
The board unanimously approved adding an extra, eighth student at large to the Elections Advisory Committee.
Cora Cole, the AS committee coordinator, told the board that the committee was having trouble having enough students at large show up to do their business. Since the work the committee does is time sensitive with AS elections coming up, AS Elections Coordinator Francesca Cruz wanted to add another student at large, Cole said.
The board agreed to appoint Marquis Mason, who Cole said has already been attending the meetings, as the new student at large. Mason ran for the AS VP for Diversity for position last year.
The board also approved the other committee appointments, which are listed in the agenda here. The Student Academic Grievance will also be meeting soon to consider some matters, Cole said.
Lobby Day Agendas Approved
The board unanimously approved the agendas for Ethnic Student Center lobby day, Disability Outreach Center lobby day and environmental lobby day.
The only substantial changes were adding asks for more support for counseling, disability and academic advising services on campus, to the ESC lobby day agenda. The lobby days will all take place over President’s Day weekend.
Ethnic Studies Conference Funding Discussed
AS VP for Diversity Erick Yanzon brought a proposal to take money from the reserves to help fund sending either eight or 12 students to a national Ethnic Studies Conference.
They will also be seeking money from the Student Enhancement Fund and the activities council, as well as the funds allocated to Yanzon and AS VP for Academic Affairs Hunter Eider’s positions. The amount requested from the reserves change based on how much funding they’re able to acquire, Yanzon said.
The point of the SEF was to avoid spending reserves money on travel costs, so they should maybe look at how it’s functioning, Casey Hayden, the student activities coordinator, said. AS VP for Business and Operations Alex LaVallee said it seems backward that Students for Ethnic Studies could only count on $250 a student from the SEF while the Dead Parrots Society, Western’s improv club, was able to get $650 per student in the past.
Eric Alexander Assoc. Dean of Student Engagement/Director of Viking Union said that that the AS business director was putting together a work group to look at travel costs.
Yanzon said that this couldn’t wait since they need to apply for the conference soon. He will bring back an updated proposal next week after finding out about the other funding.
Scholarships to Be Reallocated for Undocumented Students
The AS non-profit that is run by the AS Board to distribute scholarships met after the main board meeting in the same room.
They discussed reallocating at least two of the 14 current scholarships to go to undocumented students. Potentially by eliminating or combining the AS Employee, Campus Activity and Community Involvement scholarships.
Lavallee also discussed looking at the criteria for the scholarships to make sure they are fairly administered. He pointed out that Rutledge had received the scholarship he oversaw while she was working as his assistant last year.
LaVallee also requested that they talk about moving the non-profits money away from US Bank, though the board ran out of time to do so. The board agreed to come back next week at the same time with more information about scholarships before taking action
Miscellaneous Reports
- Eider said the Student Technology Fee committee finalized the technology fee renewal and will bringing it to the board so it can be voted on this Spring. The amount will not increase, but it will be allocated differently.
- AS VP for Activities Julia Rutledge said she’s preparing a food pantry funding proposal to take the Western Foundation. “It’s very ‘I believe in students, and people are starving’,” she said. AS President Simrun Chhabra said that President Randhawa was interested in the proposal and she could set up a meeting with Stephanie Bowers, the foundations CEO.
- Chhabra said she had met with Patrick Freeland at Student Outreach Services about supporting indigenous students and fostering civic engagement. She will also be doing a “board tour” where she meets with ESC clubs and has conversations.
- Gordon said she was finalizing the rough draft for a residence hall safety survey. “[It will] hopefully come up with a little more numerical data on approaches to take in order to make [residents] feel more safe,” she said. The housing and dining system work group us meeting to finalize their budget.
- Res Life admin will be meeting with the REP about increasing voter turnout in the dorms.
- Gordon is finalizing the days for four suicide prevention training that she will be hosting with Ian Vincent, Western’s men’s resiliency specialist. She has arranged so that AS employees can get paid to attend the trainings. They will also be conducting one for the Eden’s-Higgenson community.
- Yanzon said the undocumented students support group is working on a protocol for what to do if ICE comes too or near campus. He said the ESC is having a lot of conversations for how to compensate students for putting on programming. “A lot of time when students put on shows and dinners there’s a lot of burn out.. So who’s really benefiting from those?” he asked
- He is also meeting about planning a groundbreaking ceremony for the Multicultural center in March or the beginning of Spring Quarter.
- LaVallee said the Structure Review Committee, which is in charge of implementing the new constitution had their first meeting. He said that its mission and scope are growing and shifting, but he’ll have a charge and charter next week. Due to its complexity it makes it inefficient to to get input from students at large in athletics and Residence Hall Association, he said.
- There may be a referendum for a new student fee coming, LaVallee said.
- The Personnel committee voted to make AS employees re-apply for their jobs each year in the interests of equity and avoiding cliques, LaVallee said.
- Referendums and fee proposals need to be to Sabrina Houck AS Board Program Assistant by February 22 so the board can consider them for this Spring’s election.