In their final meeting before spring break the Student Assembly passed the Preserving the Honor Code Act, the Student Opinion Survey and the Printer Reallocation Act. The Student Activities budget was also presented; however, it was sent back to committee once it was revealed that a graduate senator was not emailed the budget prior to the meeting. Senate Chairman Walter McClean ’09 made death threats, which I assume were in jest, to any senator who intended to attach a politically motivated amendment to the budget during the next SA meeting.
The Student Opinion Survey was unanimously passed and charges a senate representative to electronically survey students once a semester in order to more effectively run the SA.
The specific questions in the survey had been a topic of debate during previous meetings. Most of the questions are in regard to either student opinion on the functioning of the SA or on supposedly hot topics such as General Education Requirements and whether or not there should be a service requirement to graduate.
I will be promptly deleting this survey when it appears in my inbox since I have a public forum for my opinions regarding the SA, but if you find yourself filling it out please take into consideration that the SA will be looking for any excuse to push any of the inane propositions included in this survey. If I have to start worrying about completing service hours because you fell asleep mid survey and your head made contact with your keyboard in such a way that would lead the SA to believe that you were in favor of a service requirement, this blog could get ugly.
The Preserving of the Spirit of the Honor Code Act passed 19-0-1 and strongly encourages that the Honor Council to consider student’s recent rejection of changes to the Honor Code in the forming of future referenda. Amid questions regarding the bill’s efficacy co-sponsor Senator Ben Brown ’11 assured the SA that it has no authority to change anything regarding the Honor Code or Honor Council. Now normally I would just dismiss this bill an another masturbatory gesture by our SA; however, this bill is of particular interest since when it was originally presented as new business by Senator Steven Nelson ’10 it called for the immediate resignation of the entire Honor Council.
All week I had been looking forward to watching Nelson present this bill to a throng of boos and hisses, but instead all I got to see was another toothless bill get rubber stamped. To add insult to injury Nelson himself was in support of the bill and during debate said that, “This bill is striking while the iron is hot.” To claim that this legislation is striking anything is hyperbole of the highest regard and while the iron may very well still be hot, no senators are willing to get near it. In a perfect world this bill would call for an immediate disbanding of the Honor Council and the abolishment of the Honor Code, but even in the imperfect world of student government this bill just doesn’t cut it.
The Printer Reallocation Act was also unanimously passed. It charges the senate with conducting an investigation of “low traffic” printers on campus and presenting this investigation to the administration with recommendations for better printer locations.
Possible question for next semester’s SA survey: “On a scale of 1 to 10 with 10 being ‘very little’ and 1 being ‘not at all’ how much do you care about printer placement on campus?”
