SENATE BEAT Got Their Vitamin D

President Andee Gude ‘26 began this week’s Senate Public by sharing that they had a campus climate assessment meeting with Dean of Institutional Diversity Phyllis Esposito where they talked about how to strengthen student autonomy and communication. “We’re going to meet with Restorative Practices and Honor Council to talk about how we can serve them and communicate with them,” they said.

Reporting for the Student Spaces committee, Gude said they are working on getting lockpads for locked spaces, providing the rationale that they are more accessible than keys. President Gude reported working to collect documents and data to present “a student perspective” to the Presidential Council on Campus Climate. Gude also announced that next Monday’s Senate Public will be themed around student autonomy, and encouraged students with concerns or “grievances” to attend. 

Finally, Gude announced that they and Head Treasurer Lucy Knight-King ‘26 will be sending out invites to a signator’s event, and encourage all signators and club leaders to come so they can be photographed for a bulletin board to celebrate club culture. 

Head Treasurer Knight-King provided the following statement to the Quest on this week’s funding allocations, “At FinComm on 11/12 we made the following allocations: $1,364 to Beer Nation and $267.98 to Signator Appreciation Event. This allocation of further funding to a Top 40-funded club is unusual. In this case, it reflects a 309% increase in ticket sales from the Spring 2025 semester to this semester. Because Senate based our funding allocation to Beer Nation on ticket sales numbers from Spring 2025, and those predictions turned out to be inaccurate, we have re-evaluated our funding allocation and decided to allocate Beer Nation additional funds.”

Appointments Committee Co-Chair Lindsay Worrell ‘25 nominated Taylor Barth ‘27, the current Senate Secretary whose current contract ends this semester, to continue in their position; Appointments Committee Co-Chair Bella Moore ‘26 nominated Piper Brandy ‘26 for Honor Council.  Worrell also announced that in a meeting with SHARE Director L Mattson they talked about upcoming SHARE tabling events, mentioning that on December 4 SHARE will have a Home for the Holidays table, and on December 6 SHARE will have tabling on consent for Spring/Fall. Worrell noted that freshmen, and anyone who hasn’t been to Spring/Fall, are especially encouraged to go to the latter.

Moore attended a meeting of the Computer Policy and Planning Committee, from which she noted a new policy in which “Reed will be highly recommending/requiring that you not use your Reed password for any other passwords.” 

Senator Andrew Happy announced that Academic Support Services are hoping to gauge student feedback for 4-week assessments that were newly mandated this semester. Happy asked students with positive, negative or neutral feedback on those 4-week comments to send it his way. 

New senators Jenna Ong, Layla Mye, and Allisa Daggett said that they are still being introduced to their new committees. 

Senator Lina Eid ‘26 announced that the Mural Committee approved the second half of a mural, saying “mural committee gets to do something!”

Senators Catherine Hoyle ‘25 and Bella Moore ‘26 attended the first meeting of the Accessibility Committee. Senator Hoyle further noted that due to the Department of Health and Human Services changing their enforcement of Title II, Reed may have to change how logins work. They also discussed audits on external and internal signage and maps. On behalf of the HCC, Hoyle invited students to the virtual “simple skills to stop ruining your life or at least get more of what you want out of it” trainings in Dialectical Behavior Therapy which will be November 20, 25, and December 7,1:00-2:00pm. Hoyle also attended the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee meeting, which completed bureaucratic reviews of student trainings, thesis steps, and animal facilities. Senator Hoyle announced for Renn Fayre Committee that November 23 is the Spring/Fall theme reveal.

Assistant Treasurer Maya Gutierez ‘27 announced that the Student Committee on Academic Policy and Planning discussed a survey on the distribution requirements, which faculty are currently considering changing.

Vice President Jefferson Ratliff ‘25 announced that the Legislation Committee meeting that was supposed to happen Friday of last week was canceled, in which he was hoping to talk about student concerns about posting guidelines. Ratliff added that the guidelines are right now basically a proposal from the Student Life team, which once solidified will go through approval through the usual slow bureaucratic processes, and predicted that the earliest it could be implemented was spring 2025. He mentioned that he will be getting back to students who reached out to him about the issue as soon as possible. Vice President Ratliff also announced that election candidate petitions are open. Thanking a “great set of czars,” he said that Senate hopes this election “is gonna go really smoothly.” Ratliff noted last semester’s expansion of Senate by 2 seats, and mentioned that Senate should be at full capacity going into the spring. Ratliff encouraged students to run for Senate.