SENATE BEAT is Vitamin D Deficient

Student Body President Andee Gude ‘26 opened this week’s Senate Public meeting by reporting that they met with Student Life regarding self-care sessions and what students could benefit from, especially following the election. They shared that the most recent Renn Fayre meeting discussed plans, themes, outreach, and recruiting volunteers. At the Presidential Council on Campus Climate meeting, they presented three documents: comments from SJP, information from CARDS, and Senator Bella Moore ‘26’s research on accessibility at Reed.

Student Body Vice President Jefferson Ratliff ‘25 didn’t have much to report, but said that his subcommittee (Immediate Response and Engagement) of the Presidential Council on Campus Climate continues to have conversations about events on campus and poster standards; that poster standards will definitely come up in the Legislative Committee meeting this week; and that he’ll be meeting with the new Election Czars soon to get a schedule worked out for the upcoming elections.

Head Treasurer Lucy Knight-King ‘26 reported that there were no budgets at the last FinComm meeting, as it took place on Election Day. At the most recent Renn Fayre meeting, topics discussed included volunteers for Bagel Patrol to keep people safe during Spring/Fall, setup logistics, and avoiding the East Great Lawn during Spring/Fall to keep the grass nice for graduation ceremonies.

Baby Money Yuri Garcia ‘27 shared that she’s now on the Bylaw Committee as the second parliamentarian, working with Senator Lina Eid ‘26.

Senator Catherine Hoyle ‘25 had several updates from the HCC. There are multiple mental health events coming up, including Emotionally Safe(r) Sex tabling in the GCC foyer on November 19 and a new virtual, anonymous therapy group every Monday and Wednesday, which they highly encouraged students to go to. Additionally, the HCC has 51 COVID-19 tests available at the moment, with more coming soon. They said that everyone should check their Health Portal to see if they have gotten or need to get the meningitis vaccines. 

Furthermore, Senator Hoyle passed on a message from the HCC encouraging students to take their Vitamin D, as depression and anxiety rise when the weather gets cloudy, and many students (especially those from out of state) have Vitamin D deficiencies. Depression is especially high among freshmen, they said, so “freshmen make sure you’re taking care of yourselves.” They reminded students, with cold and flu season upon us, to please wash your hands and don’t go to class if you’re sick. Health surveys will be sent out soon; please take them. They also plugged eco-containers at Commons once again. Lastly, they shared that CARDS will be designing their mural soon.

New Senator Alyssa Daggett ‘27 announced that she will be joining the Legislation, SCAPP, HCC, CARDS, AOD, and Reed Union committees. Senator Jenna Ong ‘28 will be joining the FinComm, Commons, HUM 110, Library Board, SCOD, and Sports Services committees. Senator Leila Ong ‘27 has not yet had a chance to join committees.

Senator Lina Eid ‘26 reported that Student Life is working on revamping their mission statement and that she is still working on creating a redlined copy of the bylaws. It’s taking longer because her previous co-parliamentarian resigned.

Senator Andrew Happy ‘27 and Vice Treasurer Maya Gutierrez ‘27 had nothing to report.

Senators Bella Moore ‘26 and Lindsay Worrell ’25, on behalf of AppComm, proposed Astrid Liu, Kiana Fields, and Prasiddhi Thapaliya for Judicial Board; Bee Kim and Katherine Lamont for Election Czar; Maya Franzen, Skyden Canfield, Leila Menezes, Aidan Mokalla, Victoria Hutchinson, and Emma Hill for Honor Council; and Nanati Safawo and Schwa Yeleti for SCAPP; all of whom were unanimously approved.

Senator Moore also reported that the locker in the GCC is stocked with fentanyl testing strips and Narcan that students can access, and they can email her if it needs to be restocked. Senator Worrell shared that this week is the last week of interviews, so “now we can move on to bigger and better things.”

Worrell asked for the following statement to be included in Senate Beat:

Regarding the resignation of Andrew Sakahara that occurred at last week’s public, first and foremost, we would like to say we are regretful that Andrew had a negative experience on Senate. That was not the intention of anyone on Senate and as we move forward, we are having deliberate discussions on how to make this workplace more welcoming and open to dialogue in the event of interpersonal conflict. We would like to express our concerns about certain parts of his letter. It is true that there was a bias report filed earlier this semester. To respect confidentiality and the privacy of those involved, we will not be mentioning details, but we feel it is important to note that this decision required lots of deliberation after various harmful instances against some of our coworkers. The decision to move forward with the process was ultimately made based on the unfortunately longstanding patterns of sexist and microaggressive behavior witnessed and experienced by several Senate members. We were not informed that any information about this report would be made public and the announcement was distressing to the Senate members who were involved. We ask that everyone be respectful of others’ privacy and mindful of their experiences. 

Senate Public occurs weekly on Mondays in the Student Union (SU) at 4:00pm.