Senate meets with members of Res Life

Members of Residential Life and Services as well as former senator senior Diepriye Kuku came to the Dec. 8 student Senate meeting. "We had a very good two-way respect going on," said Senator sophomore Nicole Johnston.

Communications was a topic that Kuku, who came as a student voice despite his roles as Student Assistant to the President and head of ABUSUA, discussed with Senate. Most important was how to make Senate more accessible to Oberlin students.

Senate plans to publish a biweekly newsletter, which is mandatory according to bylaws, containing attendance and voting records, committee blurbs and a question and answer section to inform the student population of what current issues Senate is debating.

Ideas for Hall Council updates and the newsletter will be explored by senators Johnston, first-year Bobbi Lopez, junior Chapin Benninghoff, junior Joshua Kaye and first-year Russell Menyhart over Winter Term. They hope to begin publishing the newsletter in February, said Johnston.

"We hope to come up with a plan to change things long term," said Johnston. "We don't want a quick fix-it."

To further accessibility, Senate will also work on a web page and keep the Senate Board in Wilder. They plan to hold dorm raps and other meetings to educate students on how Senate works and how to go through Oberlin's bureaucracy.

Oberlin's meal plan was also discussed with Associate Dean of Residential Life and Services Deb McNish, Assistant Dean of Students Yeworkwha Belachew, Assistant Director of Residential Life Michelle Gross, Director of Housing and Dining Sandra Houghland and Director of Campus Dining Services David Jensen. The flexibility of the current meal plan was investigated as were the logistics of a partial meal plan. Oberlin's current meal plan assumes that students will only eat an average of 14 meals per week, so a partial (14 meal a week) meal plan would only save students about $100.

Members of Housing and Dining also said that they wanted to improve the current meal plan by forming student focus groups, a student satisfaction survey and inviting an outside consultant to look over the budget.

Senator sophomore Bill Stevens announced that the Educational Plans and Policies Committee has approved a College music major with a TIMARA concentration.

Senator junior Dan Persky said that he met with Ray English, director of Mudd Library, to discuss library services and curriculum additions such as research methods.

The Student Financial Committee has approved a student assistant work study position for Senate. Senator sophomore Chuckie Kamm accepted the nomination for the position of Internal Secretary, a similar position she held over the semester. Kamm's responsibilities will change to include overseeing the administrative assistants.

Workgroups and Internal Committees met for approximately 40 minutes. SOC will hold an organizational Forum to fill the empty senator seats on Feb.15 in Wilder at 2:30.

Senate voted to approve the appointment of Claudia Von Vacanno and Scott Hennessy to the Student Finance Committee.

Senators junior Nicholas Baumgartner, junior David Heafitz and sophomore Anil Murjani have resigned from Senate due to other commitments. The Communications Committee is planning a Student Assembly to fill the open seats on Senate.