Senate Report 9/29/2010

Senate to create exploratory committee on possible student handbook

On Monday, College Government President (CGP) Perry Hodgkins spoke to the Senate about creating an exploratory committee to look into the creation of a student handbook. A student handbook would present information about student life outside of academics, including how to get involved on campus and how certain student organizations such as Student Organization Funding Committee (SOFC) and the Student Organizations and Appointments Committee (SOAC) function. Similar handbooks were created in the 1990s by Wellesley College government. An exploratory committee focused on the creation of a student handbook, which would be short-lived until CG could take on the project later in the year, would look into the details of creating such a handbook, including assessing its necessity at this time and how other similar schools present information in student handbooks.

Senate to vote in student senator from Regis College

Next week, Senate will vote on a temporary suspension of the CG Senate constitution to allow the addition of a senator to represent students housed at Regis College. For new constituencies to acquire representation through a CG senator there is usually a semester long trial process for the representative wherein they must attend Senate meetings as a non-voting member. However, in the case of the Regis representative, it was deemed necessary to suspend the constitution to allow the representative to be a voting member. Senators were instructed to return to their constituencies with information on the constitutional amendment and to take a vote on it within in their constituencies.

CPLA holds voter registration week

College Government Committee for Political and Legislative Action (CPLA) chair Lyles Morgan spoke to Senate Monday about CPLA's voter registration week. CPLA will be holding events all week to encourage students to register to vote in the upcoming midterm elections. Dorms will compete to see who can register the most residents, and individuals can attend events to collect stamps and win prizes. See CPLA posters around campus for more information.

Dean's Corner

Debra DeMeis, dean of students, spoke to Senate on Monday to welcome students back to Senate and give updates about the Division of Student Life and recent administrative changes. She reported that this year there is a new director at Harambee House and a new associate director at Health Services. There are currently on-going searches for a new assistant director of health education and promotion and a new director for LGBTQ programs and services. At the level of the senior staff (the group that advises Wellesley College President Kim Bottomly), there is currently a search for a new Chief Information Officer (CIE) to head up the division of information services, with the goal of having a new technology director on campus by the beginning of January. Coming up this weekend the College will celebrate Homecoming and Friends and Family Weekend with special events all weekend long including a parade on Saturday morning in which residence halls and college government will display floats in the form of decorated golf carts. A schedule of the weekend's events can be found online.