Senate beat is crying, pissing, shitting on the floor

At this week's Senate Public, Student Body Vice President Margot Becker announced the removal of Reed student Aaron Grinberg from his position as Election Czar.

During her committee reports, Becker stated that last Friday's Student Committee on Academic Policy and Planning (SCAPP) meeting had discussed a recent Committee on Academic Policy and Planning (CAPP) meeting, in which some faculty were concerned about the continued lack of transparency in Reed's response to Paul Currie's racist transgressions and what, if any, disciplinary actions were being taken. Becker expressed gratitude that faculty seemed to be "pushing in the same directions as the student body" on this issue. Becker also noted that CAPP had been largely against a proposal to add an extra day off from classes in the Spring semester as a way to alleviate student stress. Becker implored students to talk to their professors about ways they'd like for the college to help remedy its stress culture. She pointed to Karnell McConnel Black and Tawana Parks as administrators who are particularly interested in student input in combating stress culture. If students feel uncomfortable talking to faculty or administrators, Becker recommended that they raise concerns or bring suggestions to SCAPP members.

Head Treasurer Sean Brown announced that he met with the Department of Student Life to discuss the recent and controversial hiring of the Director of Student Support Luis Giraldo. They came to the decision it would be best to meet with him, and Brown expressed plans to bring the findings of that future meeting to another Senate Public.

Brown also announced the Financial Committee’s allocation of $415 for the basketball club. Vice Treasurer Wani Pandey walked into the Student Union just in time, meaning the Senate had reached the necessary number of people to vote on the allocation. The motion passed unanimously.

Student Body President Safi Zenger announced that the Academic Success committee hadn't met at all this semester, which is highly unusual. Zenger attributed this to the high rate of turnover in Academic Support and Services, making it hard to figure out who to meet with. This has prevented Zenger from moving forward with her proposals for a system for advisor feedback, as well as a way for freshman to know whether or not their HUM 110 conference will have a student HUM 110 consultant or not before classes start, but that hopefully she will be able to move forward with these soon.

Senator and Appointments Committee (App Com) Chair Jefferson Ratliff announced that App Com was accepting applications for Judicial Board member, SCAPP member, and Honor Council member. App Com will also soon be accepting applications for "Baby Money," the entry level Treasury position; Wage Review Board member, and Senate Secretary.

Lastly, Senator Lennox Reeder said they had a "lovely meeting with the wifi people" scheduled for next week, as well as a meeting with Gary Granger that the student body should "stay tuned after break" to hear about. Reeder wished all in attendance a lovely Thanksgiving break, but not "too lovely" because Thanksgiving is "bad, it's colonial, etc. etc."

STATEMENT:

Given a pattern of behavior over the course of the last week which led Senate to lose confidence in his ability to run a fair election, Senate will no longer be working with election czar Aaron Grinberg. We're sorry to see Aaron go, but he was no longer the right fit for the position, we have offered him severance, and we wish him the best of luck in his future enterprise. 

Ares Carnathan, the other election czar, will be continuing on in his role, and will be supported by me and Kiana Cunningham-Rodriguez (the election liaisons) as he takes on the task of finishing out this election cycle. We will be releasing a statement shortly to all of the candidates in this election to clarify some misinformation which has been swirling in the past week, and we want to apologize to the community for what has been a more convoluted election cycle than was necessary. We assure the student body that we will do everything in our power to make this election fair and equal to all candidates.

We will not be taking questions at this time.