CC Dissent: Last week, the assembly discussed supporting CC Dissent and their involvement with Occupy Wall Street. The vast majority of the assembly demonstrated vehement opposition to formal support of CC Dissent, a non-affiliated student organization. Many in the opposition felt that CC Dissent should have brought forth a formal resolution asking for support and that the discussion about offering support was inappropriate without this formality. The small minority of proponents asked SGA to put aside their personal feelings towards Occupy Wall Street and focus instead on the virtues of Dissent’s political activism. After much discussion, SGA came to an unofficial consensus that before discussing granting CC Dissent an official stamp of support, CC Dissent should revise the language of their letter of purpose.
Resolution 9 and 10: Resolution 9 addresses the lack of guidelines for mid-semester senator replacements while Resolution 10 overrides the necessary referendum for C-Book changes that will be made regarding this issue. The new installed guidelines read that elections for a replacement will be held in the next house council, unless the senator stepped down fourty-eight hours before the next house council. Until a replacement is elected, the senator is responsible for either showing up to his or her meetings, or finding a replacement.
Resolution 11: This resolution declares SGA’s support for designating funds for new furniture in dorms. The idea is to look to replace the oldest furniture first, particularly the furniture in Abbey.
Resolutions 12 and 13: These resolutions support changing the name of the SGA Executive Board to the SGA Operations Council, and override the referendum on corresponding C-Book changes. These resolutions were tabled indefinitely, amid the apparent opposition to these changes from the majority of the assembly as well as Dean Briddell.
Resolution 14 (now known as Resolution 12): After having this issue on its docket for over two years, SGA passed a resolution to support funding for more automated external defibrillators (AEDs) on campus. This has been an issue for some time, as Conn currently only has one AED on campus and therefore fails to meet the accepted requirements for two working AEDs. AEDs are estimated to cost roughly $1,600 per unit.
Resolution 15 (now known as Resolution 13): The Educational Planning Committee (EPC) is working with administration to reevaluate our general education requirements. These requirements haven’t been updated since the mid-1980s, with the exception of the addition of the required freshman seminar. Resolution 15, which passed successfully, establishes a task force to look into this specific issue. The Chair of Academic Affairs, Mihir Sharma ’12, and the Chair of Diversity and Equity, Juan Pablo Pacheco ’14, will co-chair this task force. There are spots for two assembly members and at least two students-at-large on this task force, to be elected by the assembly next week.
Warnshuis Solar Panel: Elias Kauders ’12 raised concern about the proposal for erecting a solar panel on the roof of the Warnshuis Center, citing that the panel would comprise a mere 0.1-0.2 percent of total energy use at the College. Elias brought forth an alternate plan; with the help of funds from administration, Connecticut College can build a more powerful solar panel on either the roof of Cro, Harris or Lambdin that would provide 1% of total energy use on campus.
Dorm Stigma: Justine Keller ’13, Chair of Residential Affairs, is looking to provide REAL with information about any existing dorm stigmas on campus. Justine asked every senator to raise this issue in their house councils, and the senators reported back that there are overwhelming sentiments that the dorms in south campus have have loud parties while Blackstone is the “nerdy” dorm and Burdick is the “loser” dorm. •
