SGA Senate Minutes Tuesday, April 7, 2015 7:00­8:11PM 1. Call to Order 7:00PM 2. Roll Call 7:00PM 3. ORC Bylaw Presentation, Laura Lubben 7:03PM a. Separate committee, the Finance Committee, made up of cabinet members b. A new matching program to help organizations get out of debt; ORC will match any money they raise via fundraising up to $4,000 c. Eliminates the confusion for organizations between ORC and Sawyer Fund funding 4. Open Forum 7:17PM a. Dean Ohotnicky on SmithConfessional i. Doesn’t actually want to shut down SC. That’s not really doable. Considers this a larger campus culture question. ii. Senator Jennie: SC has led to people feeling unsafe. Because it’s anonymous, people can say anything without repercussions and people being talked about don’t know who they can trust. iii. Senator Emily H.: Some responses from her house include 2 that consider SC completely toxic, and 1 who stated that she found SC very helpful her first few months on campus. However, the prevailing opinion is that SC is very toxic, especially compared to other schools. A working group might be productive. iv. Senator Jessica: Would it be possible to track IP addresses? 1.
No.. v. Senator Sarena: Who runs SmithConfessional? 1.
Not a Smith student. We have very little control over it. vi. Senator Stacey: A group of individuals in her house don’t want SC shut down, but something still should be done. vii. Senator Marisol: At the free speech panel, they discussed that SC was actually being used to prevent speech. For example, people are posting other people’s Moodle posts or using words against them. In the SC terms, all content belongs to the Confessional, which is particularly worrisome with people’s academic work. 1.
The owner of a particular Moodle course can see who views things when, which has allowed them to investigate who might have posted from Moodle. However, this method isn’t foolproof. viii. Senator Zoe: Heard overwhelmingly that it should be shut down. Has anyone ever asked the owner to just shut the Confessional down? 1.
There is the free speech component. It’s hard to justify shutting it down. ix. Senator Jennie: Free speech protects you speaking, it doesn’t protect you speaking anonymously. That’s not a given right. There might be fewer issues if SC wasn’t anonymous. We should be creating productive conversation, and SC rarely has productive purpose. x. Senator Jessica: The anonymity seems to go against the code of conduct. xi. Senator Emily H.: Feels as if SC restricts free speech in a sense, since students are being called out and bullied for what they say in the classroom. There have even been death threats on SC. Can we have a conversation with the student body about the toxic culture on SC? Why specifically Smith? xii. Senator Sarena: Is there a way to have it so they can track IP addresses and the individual who runs the site can store/monitor those? 1.
The intention of these sites is to not involve the college­­to not hold people accountable. xiii. Senator Catherine: One issue is the intolerance towards people with certain opinions. Even if we take away SC, it won’t take away that intolerance. xiv. Senator Stacey: What has the administration thought about doing so far? 1.
Intentionally trying to develop this campus discourse conversation. Certainly the Judicial Board holds people accountable when they can. Bringing this topic up is an example. There have been two fireside chats about bullying. Trying to start a student movement. xv. Senator Rose: One of the most important things we can do is just stop engaging in the website. Also, we can’t assume that all of these people are Smith students­­eduroam is open to lots of other people. xvi. Senator Emily H.: One of the biggest issues is people bringing things from the classroom into SC. As long as there are people engaging on SC, this probably won’t stop. xvii. Senator Catherine: Maybe we should have a day devoted to this conversation. xviii. Senator Marisol: Maybe this could be addressed at orientation, too­­some sort of a facilitated campus discourse. xix. Senator Jennie: The training received during orientation needed to go farther. The issue of dialogue on campus is very strained, and incoming students would really benefit from a ‘training’ in productive dialogue and free speech. 1.
Dean Ohotnicky had this very conversation this week with members of the administration, thinking about how to bring new students to campus and set up successful dialogue. 5. Approve minutes from 03/24/15 7:46PM a. APPROVED 28­0­8 6. Approve minutes from last week
7:49PM a. APPROVED 22­0­14 7. Judicial Board Bylaw Changes 7:50PM a. Senator Rose: Why are we changing the name to Conduct Board? i. The purpose of the Conduct Board is to educate, whereas the word judicial has more punitive connotations. Lots of comparable schools refer to their boards as Conduct Boards b. Senator Maya: Is there a reason you’re now allowing the use of actual lawyers? i.
There’s a strong recommendation from the White House­­their review of Title IX makes it clear that students should be allowed an advisor of their choosing. This does not change the role of the advisor, so they still can’t address the board. c. APPROVED 34­0­2 8. Curriculum Committee Bylaw Changes & Student Life Committee Bylaws 7:55PM a. Curriculum Committee Bylaws i. APPROVED 33­0­3 b. Student Life Committee Bylaws i. APPROVED 33­0­3 9. Elections and Appointments Committe a. Two changes to their bylaws: Want to get rid of recounts, because it’s online and there’s no longer any need for recounts. The bigger thing is that right now there can only be a write­in candidate if there are two official candidates running­­considering changing that. b. Senator Sarena: Do they have to follow the same rules for campaigning? Would this be for this race or the next race? i. Yes, the same rules. It would work retroactively. c. Senator Maya: Do you know what the original rationale was? i. No one really knows. Possibly just arbitrary. d. Senator Stacey: Write­in candidates can’t campaign, right? i. They can’t do banners or chalking, but they can do free things, like social media. 10. Announcements
8:06PM a. Send out house emails and CC sgasenate@smith.edu b. Send me your committee updates by Monday night c. Student Leadership Awards on Tuesday, April 14 at 7PM. Come wearing your shirts! d. Answer the VP Binder questions! Also, meet with your committees and write a report of what you’ve done in your committee last year. e. Dining Committee: Starting this Friday, Tyler will stop serving food at 7:30 instead of 7. Also, the Subway downtown has 10% off for any Smith student. f. Tell your houses about Autism Acceptance Month! g. Email Ellen at ​
emonroe@smith.edu​
about the Committee of Investor Responsibility. Also, the Food Recovery Network is looking for volunteers. Tell your houses! 11. Adjournment 8:11PM