The AS Student Senate during their meeting on Friday, Nov. 22. Joe Addison // AS Review
By Stella Harvey
Correction issued 2/26: The AS Review referred to the Committee of Undergraduate Education as the Curriculum of Undergraduate Education. It is a Committee.
Sargun Handa, at-large senator and senate vice-chair, ran the Associated Students Student Senate meeting on Feb. 12, in the absence of Senate Pro-Tempore Adah Barenburg. Senator José Cervantes-Aguilar for the Graduate School and Senator At-large Kaitlyn Davidson were absent.
Sustainable Art Access Proposal
Kevin Harris, a student from the College of Fine and Performing Arts, presented a sustainable art access proposal, which would allow all students to attend up to 15 theatre and dance performances a year for free. The proposal suggests an additional $6.50 fee to the mandatory Services and Activities fee students pay with tuition.
Currently, the Services and Activities fee funds the Departmentally Related Activities Committee [DRAC], which then funds several department-related groups and clubs, including performing arts programs at Western. Harris suggested that replacing DRAC funding with a direct arts fee which would also cover the cost of attending performances, would make Western’s performing arts program more accessible to students.
Luke Arnold, senator for the College of Fine and Performing Arts said that when tickets to art, theatre and dance performances are not free, there is often a low turnout. Arnold said making more performances free would not only make student art more accessible, but also give performers a wider audience.
The senate agreed to discuss the proposal more in the future to consider placing it on the spring election ballot.
Student Senate By-laws
The senate discussed revising the senate by-laws. Earlier in the week, several senators met during a By-Laws Subcommittee to review the current by-laws. Possible changes include changing the name of the position senate pro-tempore, and what time of year the student senate should be elected.
Several senators, including senator Nicole Ballard for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Rukhsar Sadat for Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies and Abdul Malik Ford for the College of Business and Economics, argued that the senate election should remain in the fall. They said they believe voter turnout would suffer if there are more elections in one quarter. Maya Noesen for the Huxley College of the Environment argued that the election should be moved to the spring so that senators can have more time in the fall to work on projects.
Ballard also said that currently, there is only one AS Elections Coordinator, and adding the responsibility of organizing another election at the same time would be too much work for one person. Program Advisor Leti Romo said if the senate voted to move the election to spring as part of their revisions, they would need to find more resources to compensate the AS Elections Coordinator. The senate voted unanimously to re-open the By-Laws Subcommittee to continue discussing potential changes.
Math Department Letter
Kristopher Aguayo, senator for the College of Science and Engineering, presented a letter outlining his concerns over the pass/fail rate of many math classes. Aguayo explained that the letter is intended for the Committee of Undergraduate Education, the Academic Coordinating Commission, the Dean of the College for Science and Engineering and all faculty and staff within CSE and the math department. Aguayo asked for comments or potential revisions to the letter.
Several senators, including senator Maya Noesen for the Huxley College of the Environment, suggested Aguayo add more data to support his claims. Romo suggested that the senate consider passing the letter as a resolution, which would mean anyone who votes yes would also sign their name to the letter. Aguayo agreed to make revisions and bring the letter back for a vote.