Senate Beat is Cum-Free
Senate held its second public meeting of the semester on Monday, February 10. Student Body President Andee Gude ‘26 called the meeting to order at 4:10pm and began by announcing that the Presidential Council on Campus Climate (PCCC), on which they are a student representative, is meeting on Tuesday. They also announced that Ren Raskin ‘27 and Karter Stanton ‘26 will be attending Admissions and Financial Aid meetings in their lieu due to scheduling conflicts. Gude and Student Body Vice President Lucy Knight-King ‘26 are serving on the Commencement Committee and seeking input from graduating seniors on potential speakers. For PCCC, the Education Subcommittee was working on finalizing an announcement to get input from students around possible educational programming, which came out in a mass email the following day.
Knight-King announced she is having the first Alumni Liaison meeting on March 30 and still needs to reply to some emails. Additionally, she has scheduled a meeting with Vice President for Student Life Karnell McConnell-Black to go over her responsibilities as a student representative on the Legislation Committee.
Bella Moore ‘26 then took the floor to announce AppCom’s Wednesday appointments. These were Lutetia Wang ‘26 for Griffin Yearbook Editor, Taliah Churchill ‘25 for Griffin Business Manager, and Erika Spencer ‘28 for Griffin Yearbook Editor-in-Chief. All the appointments were unanimously approved. Churchill stated to the Quest that another Griffin editor position was cut by Senate due to “unforeseen circumstances,” and they did not receive notification of this until their own appointment.
Moore also announced she was emailing with Community Safety Director Gary Granger for the Community Safety Committee, meeting for CARDS, meeting with Assistant Dean for Student Rights and Responsibilities Leo Cruz for the AOD Committee, and holding a meeting with L Mattson for SHARE. Moore also announced that the Publications Committee will be holding meetings with all Reed student publications in the near future now that the Griffin Yearbook staff have been hired. Moore also reported that the Reed Union Committee met earlier in the day and was planning to reach out to other accountability groups to discuss holding a Reed Union this semester for the first time in several years.
Catherine Hoyle ‘26 reported that she was planning to meet with Commons on Tuesday and that students should reach out to senators on the Commons Committee to share feedback on Commons so they can bring it to Commons Manager Michael Bucavalas, “like the tempeh stuff.” Hoyle also announced that the CARDS mural is finally happening after a lengthy planning and approval process, to applause from the other senators.
Hoyle also elaborated on the Union Committee’s activities, saying that the committee is trying to figure out how Reed Unions work since none have been held in so long. The committee is holding a “mini-union” with accountability groups to “discuss how to make a larger one happen.”
Senator Alyssa Daggett ‘27 reported for the HCC Committee, saying that the HCC has started a new grief group called Grief Nest which will meet on February 26 from 3:30–4:30pm. Interested students will have to complete a brief phone screening beforehand. The HCC has also started offering fireside ecotherapy workshops, and is currently offering flu and COVID vaccines. For the Harm Reduction Committee, Daggett reported they are going to begin tabling with kits to help students quit smoking and will consider offering appointments if demand for the kits is high.
Head Treasurer Maya Gutierrez ‘27 reported on FinCom allocations, saying that Mock Trial requested $2173.79, Boba Nation requested $9, Greenboard requested $12, and Shakespeare Club requested $543.09. FinCom allocated $1367.95 to Mock Trial, $9 to Boba Nation, $12 to Greenboard, and $337.98 to Reed Shakespeare Club. Senate voted unanimously to approve all the allocations, with members of Mock Trial abstaining.
Vice Treasurer Yuri Garcia ‘27 announced that Funding Poll is live and encouraged students to vote. Treasury removed several duplicated clubs from Funding Poll after it went live. All votes for duplicate clubs will be merged. Garcia said that all clubs should remember to submit Top 30 budgets by Friday (TODAY!) at 11:59pm, and signators will be notified of their Funding Circus timeslots by Saturday at 8:00am.
Sima Fasihi ‘28 reported that she and Lina Eid ‘26 were introduced to International Student Services earlier in the day to talk about the possibility of informing international students about general changes that may come with the Trump administration but have not begun working on anything as of yet. Fasihi is working on setting up meetings with their other committee assignments. Lina Eid ‘26 said she would like to add that ISS wants everyone to know they are hiring interns! Students can apply to be ISS Interconnect Mentors in Handshake.
Milo Gardner-Stephens ‘25 said his only announcement was that he “reached out to relevant people” and had been in communication with the MLLL signators about the MLLL’s ongoing temporary closure. As Gardner-Stephens explained to the Quest after the meeting, the MLLL is closed until approximately the end of the week because several students took nude photographs of themselves on the “Sex Couch,” printed them, and posted them in the MLLL. The couch must be sanitized prior to the MLLL reopening due to contact with students’ bare asses and genitals, although Gardner-Stephens hastened to clarify that “nobody came on it or anything.”
Raskin reported that she had met with Academic Support Services along with Andrew Happy ‘26 and discussed the possibility of faculty instating a language requirement as part of anticipated changes to the distribution requirements for new students. Faculty have full discretion to modify the requirement but Assistant Dean of Students for Academic Life Steve Abrahão recommended that Senate conduct a student poll to get input on the possible addition of a language requirement.
Eleanor Davis-Diver ‘26 announced that she and Stanton were in the process of setting up an initial meeting with Registrar Jason Maher.
Andrew Happy announced that he had an Academic Support Services meeting along with Ren Raskin. According to Happy, Senate wants to conduct a survey of students’ views on the prospect of a language requirement so that faculty have additional data to consider when making their decision, which is likely to come by mid-March. Happy also said that part of his project is to archive input from students surrounding 4-week assessments, in light of last semester’s implementation of mandatory 4-week assessments for all students in all classes.
Happy then announced two Thursday appointments from AppCom: Oscar Pulliam ‘25 for Darkroom Manager and Imogen Hinchcliff ‘26 for Print Shoppe manager. Both appointments were approved unanimously. According to Churchill, Senate promised and subsequently cut assistant manager positions for both Darkroom and Print Shoppe.
Following the conclusion of other Senators’ announcements, Maya Gutierrez read the following statement on behalf of Senate:
It was brought to the Senate's attention that the Wage Review conducted last semester was in violation of the Bylaws in process and in implementation. The Treasury would like to communicate that decreasing enrollment and retention has severely impacted the funds available for student activities this semester. Therefore, both the Senate and Treasury worked in the past week to review the data collected during last semester’s wage review to adjust stipends to adhere to both current budget restraints and position demands. Those currently in a Student Body position impacted will be notified soon. The first payroll date for all student body positions will be February 14th.
Following this, Gude attempted to adjourn, but the sole student audience member besides this Quest reporter interjected with a reminder to Top Six the Reed Ski Club. After this, Gude adjourned the meeting for real.
Senate Public is held 4:00pm every Monday, usually in the Student Union. However, the next public is in Psych 105, and the two after that are in Eliot Chapel.