Illustration by Annabelle Barrett
By Josh Hughes
On Friday, June 1, the AS Board of Directors met to discuss the tuition update for the upcoming school year, vote on two grants for on-campus groups and finalize the Sustainability, Equity and Justice Rules of Operations and Budget Committee recommendations for the 2018-2019 year.
Tuition Update:
The board went over the increases in tuition for the upcoming year for both in-state and out-of-state students. Washington State sets the resident tuition increase for the school each year, and this year the increase will be 2.2 percent. The school has more power over non-resident tuition, but these numbers were unavailable at the time.
AS Review Website:
Jeff Bates, Publicity Center coordinator, spoke about a proposal for the Review website for the upcoming year. The proposed website would only be a temporary, year-long fix until AS revamps their overarching website. The board briefly discussed the possible domain names for the website in the process.
Budget Committee Recommendations:
Alex LaVallee, VP for Business and Operations, went over recommendations from the Budget Committee with the hopes of finalizing and approving the document. The board discussed one segment of the recommendations that would eliminate the print New York Times available to students on campus. This means that the AS will not be paying for their portion of this yearly fee as they normally do.
The board cited a desire to increase digital accessibility of the paper for students. AS President Simrun Chhabra stated that she felt uncomfortable passing the recommendations without first providing more information to the student body about the decision.
The board ultimately decided to not pass the recommendations with the hope that they would be able to at their next meeting. Annie Gordon, VP for Student Life, made note that members of the board would spend the next week starting conversations with those most impacted by the NYT decision.
Outdoor Center Recommendations:
The board then passed the recommendations for the OC for the upcoming year. Changes included updating the front desk system of the bike repair shop, creating standardized training for incoming front desk and bike shop employees and installing a winter gear closet for the equipment shop. The board passed the recommendations.
Personnel Office Assessment Recommendations:
Next the board discussed changes to the Personnel Office for the following school year. This included updating phones that the employees use, developing learning outcomes for the AS employment experience and getting a lock for the cabinet that contains student records.
Blue Group United We Dream Congress Funding Proposal:
Erick Yanzon, VP for Diversity, spoke about a proposal for the Blue Group that would fund the group’s trip to the biggest gathering of undocumented folx in the country, the United We Dream Congress. The group asked for $5,600 to fund plane tickets for the trip. The board approved the proposal.
Antisemitism and Anti-Islamic Statements
Hunter Eider, VP for Academic Affairs, discussed resolutions to the AS statements concerning the antisemitic and anti-Islamic issues that have occurred on campus. The statement on antisemitism was passed with a small stipulation, and the anti-Islamic statement was to be amended and brought back at next week’s meeting.
AS Underrepresented Student Leadership Council Proposal
The board then passed a proposed grant of $6,000 that would be used for programming to promote on-campus positions to ESC and ROP identified students. The grant would last for two years, with $1,000 being spent every quarter.
Sustainability, Equity and Justice Rules of Operations
Gordon talked about the work she had done throughout the year in changing the Sustainability, Equity and Justice rules of operations.
“I created a task force to address systemic issues with the sustainable action fund program,” Gordon said.
The board decided to look at this document in further detail next week in hopes of passing the Sustainability, Equity and Justice Charge and Charter.