A big supporter of athletics speaks
The Student Senate meeting began this week with a visit by Director of Athletics Al Bean. Bean began by giving a rundown of facts pertaining to the Athletics Department. There are 24 varsity teams and 425 sports participants this season. A proud Bean explained “our program is strong and recruiting is getting stronger.”
Regarding academic issues, Bean declared the department “is very committed to academics and academic support for our athletes.”
He described the department’s goal of seeing every athlete reach at least a 3.0 grade point average.
“One-hundred ten athletes are already there. We expect to reach it in three years,” said Bean.
Resident Sen. Andrew Goodman asked Bean about the progress of the potential football team.
“I thought there would have been a decision by now. An external group came to us and proposed the idea. They are now trying to raise $2 million.”
Bean said a decision about the football team should be made sometime in the next six weeks.
See story on page 24.
Be there or be square
Though the meeting of the Senate began late and almost without enough senators to reach a voting quorum, discussion about attendance began immediately.
Frustrated by consistent senator absences, Commuter Sen. Justin LaBerge claimed, “It is time to clean up house.”
Commuter Sen. Benjamin Hoffman agreed. “We are relying on a very small group of people this semester.”
Also discussed was the efficiency of proxies and their use in the senate. A senatorial proxy is a person authorized to act as the deputy for an absent senator.
Commuter Sen. Mike Norton spoke against the use of proxies, declaring it leaves open the possibility of unsecured channels of communication in the Senate.
Proxies, by Senate law, are not allowed to vote. Secretary Tyler Stanley also expressed his belief that proxies are unnecessary. “Our Senate is unusual in that we have a gallery. Anyone who wants to watch is allowed to come and watch and speak.”
Stanley suggested that if an absent senator would like to send a person to a senate meeting to convey a point or record a part of the meeting, that person could sit in the gallery. Since proxies have no power to vote, Stanley said they’re not necessary.
After close to an hour of discussion, a 10-1 vote ended the future use of proxies.
A vote followed with a discussion equally as extensive as the last, addressing the second half of the attendance policy. A 2-3 vote was passed establishing a slightly more strict policy concerning attendance. The new policy forbids the use of proxies and allows three absences. The policy was changed last year when senators were allowed the use of five absences accompanied with two uses of a proxy.
New student group
Without discussion, the Student Senate unanimously voted to add a proposed new student chapter of the Society for Human Resource Managers to the student groups.
Executive session called
Citing “personnel issues,” Senate Chair Marcy Muller made a motion to go into executive session. The session lasted 20 minutes. The returning Senate unanimously voted to continue discussing moving forward with full-time employee transitions.
Senate funds
The senate budget is unclear until the student add/drop period is final.
Absent
The following senators were absent without proxy: Commuter Sen. Sean Brady, Commuter Sen. Jeanette Burns, At-Large Sen. Nic Carter, At-Large Sen. Jonathan Crasnick, Resident Sen. Tiffany Cumming, Resident Sen. Melissa Lachance, Resident Sen. Mark Royer, At-Large Sen. Leah Wentworth and Sen. Resident Harry Wright III.
Next Meeting
The next meeting of the Student Senate will take place at 10 a.m., Sept. 14 in the Woodbury Campus Center, rooms B and C, Portland. All are welcome to attend.