On the eve of the Fall Student Senate elections, the current Senate met to conduct normal committee appointment business, iron out the kinks in the election and discuss a General Faculty Planning Committee proposal to drastically alter class schedules.

The GFPC proposal would install a system called “Four-by-Four,” in which students would take and professors would teach only four classes per semester. The GFPC postulated that this would both reduce overwork among the students and faculty and combat laziness.

The report corresponding to this proposal will not be distributed to the student body, as it uses real transcripts as samples in its study.

“Copies are being distributed across different committees,” said Senator and College senior Matt Adler. “There is sensitive material we don’t want to put out.”

Dean of Studies Linda Gates, a guest at the meeting to brief senators on the proposal, wasn’t sure who would have access to the full report.

“A version will be distributed to the whole faculty at some point,” she said.

Although voting for the new senators began that Sunday night  and ended today, questions about procedure persisted to occupy Senate concerns.

The big election question of the evening concerned the constitutional requirement that there be Conservatory representation on the Senate.

“I think that we advertised the position to the Con students, but none of the 17 candidates are from the Con as far as I know,” said retiring Senator and College senior Peter Collopy.

Someone suggested that any Conservatory student with a single write-in vote should become a senator by default.

Ultimately, the Senate decided that since they had nominated and attempted to recruit Conservatory students to run for senate, the requirement had been met. They passed a resolution to confirm it.

A couple of smaller issues were brought up and quickly resolved. First, Ezra Temko, who graduated from the college in May, had nominated 80 candidates, which Gates rejected.

“The nominations by Ezra were out of line,” said Gates. “He is not registered so they are void.”

The other election question was also nipped swiftly in the bud: Adler questioned the continued use of paper ballots as the best way to manage the election.

Collopy responded: “Paper ballots are constitutionally mandated…[in the previous election] about 20 valid votes were cast with paper ballots.”

The  Senate turned to committee appointments, placing College senior Andrew DeCoriolis and sophomore Kathleen Keating on the search committee to fill brand new and long sought-after positions — those of Environmental Coordinators.

“We need gender balance and class balance, therefore I think we should go with Kathleen and Andrew,” said senate member and College junior Colin Jones. The senate voted unanimously to appoint College sophomore Lucas Brown to the committee if a new student slot is created.

Senator and College junior Colin Koffel proposed the creation of two student positions on the search committee for a new college president, though immediate action was not possible.

“We need to wait until after the trustees meet,” said Collopy. “It could be a good time to advocate. Nothing has been determined.”

Moving away from dealing with specific committees, the senate discussed the overall committee process at the behest of Morris. Senators identified confusion and lack of coordination, communication and recruitment as key problems affecting appointment of students to College committees. Morris concluded the discussion, suggesting the creation of a committee coordinator position. He said he would present an official proposal next week.

As part of Oberlin’s re-accreditation process, Senate, along with its faculty advisor, Associate Dean of Community Life Shozo Kawaguchi, has to update its profile. Morris and College junior Anthony Osei elected to coordinate this process.