NEWS

Senate revisits search woes

by Ireta Kraal

When the new senators took office this semester, former senator Chris Anton gave warning that Senate would not always be productive. The first-year's warning panned out at the last meeting.

Sunday's Senate meeting was only able to accomplish one thing: accepting Anton's formal resignation from Senate. Senators did, however, discuss some important issues, like the upcoming senatorial elections and a public letter to President Nancy Dye about the dean search.

For the third time this year, senate will be having elections. According to the senate charter, elections must be held at the beginning of the fall semester and the end of spring semester. Moreover, the charter requires elections to be held if three or more senators resign. With the end of the semester upon us and the recent resignation of junior Jennifer Ok and the resignations of Anton and first-year Camille Newman, that part of the charter came into play.

The elections for next semester are looking promising. At the meeting, junior senator Mary Jo Bates announced that she had already received eight nominations for ten seats. Moreover, the new email voting system is currently being tested.

Sophomore senator Noah Kirshbaum brought up another major issue for discussion. He asked Senate, as a collective body, to address Dye in regards to the dean of students.

The previous meeting, Senate voted in executive session to not take a position. This new proposal would not contradict that; however it would ask Dye publicly to address the concerns of students in some sort of open forum. "[We would be] asking them to tell us what happened," Kirshbaum said. Moreover, the letter would ask the administration to let students know how they can be more effective in getting their issues heard in future searches.

This proposal was discussed briefly and then it was decided that Senate would be better able to deal with it outside of the open meeting. Rather than writing a letter, Senate later decided to start constructing an informational forum that will be held within the next two weeks.

The only thing that Senate was able to accomplish was accepting the formal resignation of Anton. In his resignation, Anton took a moment to offer some observations and advice that may play a part in the future of Senate.

Among his words of advice was a suggestion that senators refuse pay in order to earn more legitimacy. Although it was discussed outside the open meeting, it was decided that no action would be taken on the affair because there will be a referendum concerning salaries next year.

As Anton left Senate he said, "I'd like to see a very active Senate when I return."

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Copyright © 1999, The Oberlin Review.
Volume 127, Number 21, April 23, 1999

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