Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Stuff from the week after two weeks ago
Jonathan Poullard is angry about the lack of civility on campus. Boo fucking hoo. Among the things he's angry about is Islamofascist Awareness Week in October, because people might do a counterpoint. Or something. I don't know anything about Islamofascist Awareness Week (though I think I can guess).
Nad Permaul wants the Auxiliary or SOB to be on the search committee for a new lawyer, since they need someone to do the business law stuff, and the ASUC sucks at business. It turns out that Mark Himelstein is retiring, or so the minutes suggest, which would mean we get a new lawyer. Yay! Hopefully, this one doesn't suck, and doesn't "serve[] the ASUC with distinction" as the minutes say Permaul said. A lawyer who doesn't serve with distinction may be more willing to take the side of the ASUC when it gets sued. But with Permaul demanding a seat (and the tendency of the ASUC to cave to the Auxiliary), the odds of that are pretty low.
Corey Jackson got up to bitch about deteriorating respect. I'm thrilled to see it. The idea that things need to be "civil" and "respectful" between the conflicting views leads to a very detached, internally supportive government structure, which becomes unaccountable to students. Open, bitter conflict is what makes the system work and remain open. Everyone getting along is a quick path to shutting the students out completely from the system.
Anyway, Danielle Duong complained about it, too. The conflict isn't all that obvious to us outsider-types, so now I'm curious.
The bill to make it so that Senators don't have to check out binders for office hours, also meaning attendance would not be taken, was discussed. Winnie Kuo got up and said that the honor system would work, and the change would just reflect what is already done. Which means, of course, that what is already done was in violation of the By-Laws. This, then, calls into question just how effective that honor system could possibly be, since apparently By-Laws were violated quite freely in the past. Albert Wu pretty much said so, suggesting that the honor system just wouldn't work.
Shortly after the discussion about the importance of transparency, they started discussing some money handout from the Greek Philanthropy Fund:
Mr. Weiner moved to go into a committee of the whole. The motion was seconded by Mr. Silver and passed with no objection. Ms. Allbright said they would have an informal discussion and minutes would not be taken. This meeting entered into a committee of the whole. Awesome! Take all the interesting discussion about the broad approach to take for monetary allocation, the most important job the ASUC Senate does, and remove it from the minutes.
That Jena 6 bill includes some amusing statements in the final version. But first, in a discussion about whether or not to add a clause saying that the charges should be dropped against one of the students, Roxanne Winston has something odd to say:
Ms. Winston said she would like to thank the External Affairs Committee for spending so much time and coming up with a Resolution that would work for everyone. She felt it was necessary to include something about freeing Mychal Bell and dropping the charges against the Jena 6. These injustices were not new to the world, the United States, or her community. These six boys were almost being persecuted to the full extent of the law for something that was not their fault. If a beer bottle was smashed over someone's head and somebody made fun of that, the person's friends would probably want to defend them. Wow. Seriously. Does someone making fun of your friend for having a beer bottle smashed over his head compel you against your will to deliver a 6-on-1 beating that extends well beyond when the target is conscious? Because that seems to be what Winston is saying. It's not their fault? Really?
The final bill is enormous, and includes a lot of factual assertions which are false or disputed, including a finding (by the ASUC Senate, the authority on such matters) that the hanging of nooses was a hate crime. No statute that it violated was noted, of course. Finding actual information on the topic is like pulling teeth, though, so I'll spare folks the meaningless discussion.
Van Nguyen has stuff to say about Lower Sproul:
Mr. Nguyen said that when he talked about Lower Sproul and redevelopment, the Chancellor said the students didn't want Lower Sproul redevelopment, as shown by the referendum they voted down. Mr. Nguyen said that wasn't what happened. Students had their fees increased by $500 by the Regents and didn't know what they were buying into with the redevelopment, and the University didn't guarantee it would match the funds the referendum raised. He asked how the campus expected students to buy into that, and they were silent. There were a lot of different interpretations of how policy worked on the campus, and Mr. Nguyen said he'll try to educate the Chancellor on how students felt about this issue. Hopefully, the committee being formed can come up with good ideas about a possible funding model. On lawyers:
Mr. Nguyen said that Mr. Permaul told the Senate he thought a member of the Auxiliary should be on the Selection Committee. Mr. Nguyen said he felt that was problematic. The ASUC Auxiliary was an arm of the University. If the University sued the ASUC, or vice versa, this lawyer would be the ASUC's attorney. Ultimately, the decision was the ASUC's. At least he's talking as if he won't be the University's tool. It remains to be seen if he can actually get results. But...
Mr. Weiner said he didn't see why the GA should have a representative on the Selection Committee for the ASUC attorney. It didn't seem they should have a non-elected rep added, especially since the ASUC represented all students. Mr. Nguyen said GA reps weren't elected like the 20 Senators, but the GA was part of the ASUC Constitution, and the ASUC attorney would represent the GA through Executive Officers and the Senate. It was more out of respect to the GA; but that was just his opinion. Ah, that "respect" again. The respect that involves caving to every GA demand, no matter how unfair, one-sided, or baseless it is.
With Mr. Nguyen chairing the meeting, Ms. Allbright said she had a good time at the Regents meeting, although the Regents didn't care what she thought about anything, which was frustrating. Hah. Haha. Hahaha. Taylor gets pissed about space allocations.
If any student groups came to Senators with concerns about the space allocation process, she would ask Senators to assure them that she was working very hard to accommodate all their requests. Many of them were impossible, but she was doing what she could. Any attitudes that disrespected her or her office would negatively impact them. !!! Did I read that right? "Hurt my feelings, and I'll use my power to make you PAY!"
. . .
|
. . .
|
