AAS Meeting Minutes – February 6th, 2017
- Attendance
- BC Recs
Aditi Krishnamurthy presented the BC Recommendations.
Jesse Levitin asked why the Native American Students Organization’s request was zeroed.
Aditi said that the group hasn’t requested funds before, so they will be coming to Discretionary on Thursday.
Alejandro Quintero asked why the Sailing Team was given more funding.
Aditi said that sailing is an expensive sport and this request was the Sailing Team’s last.
Paul Gramieri asked why the Asian Culture House’s requests and La Casa’s requests were zeroed.
Aditi said that these groups should max out their theme house budget and then request funds.
Pierre Alexander-Low Amherst said that the Amherst Student Band Association has a music room that students so far have used very responsibly. He said that they want to purchase a drum kit.
Aditi said that the BC gave them some funding and the group can possibly get more funding from the Music Department.
Aditi said that Amherst alum Chloe McKenzie wants to come back to do her BlackFem workshop. She said that the BC did not feel comfortable funding the entire event.
Paul Gramieri asked why publicity was zeroed for the event.
Aditi said that Chloe McKenzie has not yet gone to other sources for funding. Even though 15 dollars is a small amount, she possibly can get this funding from somewhere else.
Aditi said that WAHM and Student Activities are trying to add an artist to their concert on March 3rd. She said that the BC is working on striking a balance between what the AAS is funding and what Student Activities is funding. Student Activities does not pay for club sports, while the AAS does. Since Student Activities has been working on this event, the BC thinks that they should take responsibility for most of the funding.
Aditi said that Anime Club wants to go to a convention in Rhode Island, similar to the typical Boston convention that they attend. She said that they would be using a lottery system to decide who gets to attend.
Aditi said that the Electronics Club requested funds, almost equal to their budget for the semester.
Aditi said that the Quest Scholars requested funds for an event. The BC zeroed their request for integral food, since the food is not integral. Instead, they are going to use their intro meeting food funding. She said that the BC asked that the group does not market the event as a QuestBridge event, because the event could seem exclusive.
Alejandro motioned to fund the BC Recommendations for the week.
Motion to fund BC Recommendations for the week by role-call vote.
Result: Passes
Karen Blake requested funds from the Senate Fund to rent a PVTA bus for the SGA mixer.
Paul requested funds from the Senate Fund for Election Night pizza.
Philip Yan motioned to fund Karen’s Senate Fund request and Paul’s Senate Fund request.
Motion to fund Karen’s Senate Fund request and Paul’s Senate Fund request.
Result: Passes
- Distinguished Teaching Award
Silvia Sotolongo said that students nominate professors for this yearly award and then a committee reads through the nominations.
Chico Kosber took down the names of senators interested in being a part of this committee.
- Elections
Paul said that he must figure out the date of the election, send out a school-wide email about the election, email the Amherst Student about putting in senator statements, reserve space in Merrill, and create a Facebook event.
Silvia said that the AAS needs four senior senators, two or three junior senators, and one freshman senator.
- Committee Reports
Paul said that the College Council met and continued talking about the Honor Code. They finished their revisions and are going to do a school-wide vote soon. They talked about reviewing the list of behavioral fines, because Dean Gendron thinks that fining someone for bad behavior is antiquated. They had a fruitful discussion about the role of athletics at Amherst.
Chico said that the Committee on Educational Policy met and discussed getting the pass/fail option extended and implementing minors at the college. They had a discussion about the ten-day reading period at the end of the semester. The Q-Center and Writing Center said that they would offer “enhanced office hours”.
Aditi said that the Committee on Priorities and Resource met and had a consultant come in to look at benefits for employees of the college.
Alejandro said that they found that the College is more generous than its peer institutions in terms of these benefits. He said that the College does not currently provide certain benefits to domestic partners that are provided to others. He added that the Mascot Committee needs feedback about the mascot choices by next Monday.
- Elections: Faculty Committee on Admissions and Financial Aid
Natalia Khoudian, Kaelan McCone and Cornell Brooks were nominated for the seat on the Faculty Committee on Admissions and Financial Aid.
Natalia said that she has a lot of different, diverse opinions on how admissions should evaluate students.
Kaelan said that he has worked a lot with admissions as a mentor for QuestBridge and as a tour guide. He said that he has worked with financial aid to put together information packets for first-generation students and low-income students.
Cornell said that he worked in his high school admissions office. He said that they got a wide range of students from different socioeconomic backgrounds, so he has experience working with different kids of students. He added that he is a huge proponent for diversity outreach.
Cosette Lias asked if Amherst should consider standardized testing.
Cornell said that Amherst should, but put where students come from in perspective. Students from poor areas in DC will not have as much exposure to SAT Preparation compared to students in Northern Virginia.
Kaelan said that Amherst should go test-optional.
Natalia said that it should be mandatory component to application, but context is important, which is why we have affirmative action.
Chico asked the candidates if they have any thoughts on how Amherst could increase international recruitment.
Natalia said that the best option would be through international alums.
Kaelan said that the College should change-up from where they recruit international students, so they are not just viewed as a wealthy group.
Cornell said that international students have difficulty getting home, so Amherst could possibly include funding to get back home in financial aid.
Sade Green asked if the essay is more important than the SAT.
Cornell said that the essay is a little bit more important because the Admissions Office can get a better sense of the person.
Kaelan said that the Admissions Office is able to tell a lot more about academic and personal background through the essay.
Natalia said that she thinks the SAT tells the Admissions Office about educational background while the essay shows personality. She said that the essay does not show everything, but acts as a tipping point for an applicant.
Cornell gets the seat on the Faculty Committee on Admissions and Financial Aid.
- Officer Reports
Aditi said that there was a security breach on the debit card, so she ordered a new one. She said that she talked to Biddy about the offensive way the Athletics Report characterized AAS funding. She reported that Biddy said that she would recommend to the Committee to do better research on the AAS funding. Aditi added that the AAS spent tons of money on fixing damaged vans.
Silvia said that students are going to be able to reserve AAS vehicles online through Event Management Systems.
Karen said that after the walkout last week, she wants there to be more communication between administrators and students. She said that if senators are interested in supporting students and encouraging the administration to act, they should let her know. She added that senators should go to their dorm tea-times to let them know about elections.
Chico said that the phone bank event was successful.
Chico requested funds from the Senate Funds for Senate Discussion food.
Motion to fund Chico’s request from the Senate Fund.
Result: Passes
Alejandro said that he spoke with students on club sports and these students have complained about the difficulty in arranging field space and indoor space.
Aditi said that she has met with Gregg DiNardo and talked to Don Faulstick about this issue last Friday. While varsity sports play in specific seasons, club sports play all year so they need field space more regularly. Aditi said that the Athletics Department is actually doing the best they can, even though it seems like club sports are getting the short-end of the stick.
- Approve the Minutes
Olivia Mastrangelo motioned to approve the Senate minutes from January 30th.
Motion to approve the Senate minutes from January 30th.
Result: Passes