At this week's Senate meeting senators planned for the upcoming Senate elections, approved a proposal to prohibit most all-campus mailings and approved a proposal to slightly change the new Student Life Committee (SLC) charter.
Senate elections will begin May 5, and all candidates must announce their candidacy by May 3. Senators spent part of their meeting this week working out logistics for the election process, which will be the first exercise of the new student government passed last week.
The main change for elections under the new constitution is the endorsement system and the fewer number of seats. The new Senate will have 15 rather than 30 senators and each of those senators can be endorsed by student organizations.
Senior Devin Theriot-Orr said it is assumed students running for Senate will get one or two endorsements which will serve to help guide the Senator in deciding what issues are important to push for. Laura Iverson said she thinks the new endorsement system will help senators know their constituency better.
Theriot-Orr said his one reservation about endorsements is what will happen if a Senator ceases to represent their endorsing organization.
In addition to planning the elections Senate approved a proposal brought by Theriot-Orr and junior Sadhu Johnson about all-campus mailings. The proposal would create a Presidential policy which prohibits most all-campus mailings except certain notices from the President and the Office of Security.
The proposal will go into effect without approval by the General Faculty. After being approved by the Office of Communications and other offices it affects the policy will go into effect as a Presidential policy.
The proposal creates a system of mailings by which students receive a weekly mailing printed on half-sheets of paper with short, numbered descriptions of announcements. The full text of each announcement will be displayed in a glass-enclosed case by number, and full texts will be available in the boxes in the mailroom.
The system will be implemented by a work-study coordinator and will be started next year.
According to Theriot-Orr the plan will reduce use of paper in all-campus mailings by more than 70 percent. The cost of mailings will be reduced about 50 percent as well. The decrease is smaller because of the increased cost of a coordinator for the program.
In addition to the approval of the paper-saving plan Senate approved a slight change in the voting procedure of SLC. Instead of a simple majority of the 12-member body, a majority-plus-one will be required to pass a vote if the new proposal goes into effect. It must be approved by the SLC.
Senate also approved new students to the Judicial Board, Honor Committee and the Housing and Dining Committee.
At the meeting senator junior Andreas Pape resigned his seat on the Senate. Pape has been a member of Senate since his first year. Pape said his resignation was work-related. Pape said he is optimistic about the new government. "I hope that people will give the new Senate a chance," he said.
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