Senate Beat: Apr 20, 2021

Senate talks new ideas for next year

This week’s Public Senate meeting was more broad in its topic than usual, covering how Reed handles grievances. Student Body President Aziz Ouedraogo explained that Senate has had ongoing discussions about improving the reporting and support process for groups of students with larger grievances and is excited to get student feedback. Senate is aiming to put together a group of students to collaborate with Senate in working on handling grievances. This, as Ouedraogo explained, would help individual students or groups of students navigate their situation and guide them to the group or committee on campus that would best hear their suggestions. 

Ouedraogo said that this group, unlike other reporting avenues, will be for larger, systemic community grievances. She said this group will tackle larger issues from larger groups on campus. This group will not handle the outcomes or the resolutions for these problems, but instead will guide students to the appropriate bodies to air their grievances to. Before Senate implements this idea, they want student input and ideas to be included in the creation of this group. Contact Senator M.J. Quintana-Rodriguez if you have any feedback or suggestions at mjq@reed.edu! 

Committee reports started with Senator Margot Becker giving an update on the current bylaw review. The Judicial Board (J-Board) is heavily involved with the review of the bylaws, according to Becker. This process will include several other groups on campus and as a result, will not be a quick process. 

Senator Beq Yonaka and Student Body Vice President Alondra Loza are joining the Student Committee on Academic Policy and Planning to discuss a memo outlining changes to the physical education graduation requirement. Both Yonaka and Loza are both very excited about the memo and the collaborative nature of this project. 

Senator Safi Zenger continued committee reports by appointing three new people to the Student Health Advisory Committee. She then talked about her frustration with Humanities 110 (HUM 110) professors in regards to content warnings. Her work with HUM 110 faculty has been stalled, and instead professors have introduced and approved their own proposal, all without consulting any students. Zenger called this proposal, as well as the lack of transparency from faculty members, “troubling and disappointing.” Following the break, Zenger hopes to revamp her fight for more apparent content warnings. 

Zenger also spoke about her role as Appointments Committee chair. She is meeting with J-Board this coming week to discuss reforms and the reappointment process for J-Board members. Right now, a person on J-Board does not have to reapply or run for reelection, which Zenger is interested in changing to make the board more democractic and accountable. J-Board, according to Zenger, is against this idea, but willing to have the conversation. 

Vice Treasurer Kodinna Anachebe spoke next about Treasury business. They have been working to finalize reconciliations, or the process of matching credit card statements to receipts and giving the information to the Business Office. Head Treasurer Ena Hashimoto chimed in about her conversation with Director of Bookstore and Auxiliary Services Jessica Valeske about food pantry funding. According to Valeske, she has been proposing school funding for the pantry for years, and it has been rejected every single time. She wants Senate to draft a formal statement in support of funding the pantry to include in her presentation to administration.

Senate never acknowledged the holiday on which the meeting occurred. As such, we would like to take this opportunity to wish all our readers a happy 4/20.