The ASSU Undergraduate Senate discussed proposed changes to the residential draw system Tuesday after hearing a presentation from Rodger Whitney, Sue Nunan, Melissa Mocker and Linda Dorset of Residential and Dining Enterprises (R&DE).
“Our feedback overall has been very positive about the changes to the draw in the past couple years,” said Whitney, executive director of Student Housing, before outlining two proposed plans to further streamline the process.
The first proposal would combine residence selection and room selection. Draw groups would be given a “gate time,” in order of draw number, to go online and look at available rooms across residences to make their selection. This option would eliminate the current in-house draw.
The second proposal, largely favored by senators, would keep residence selection the same, while in-house draw and room selection would be automated using online gate times, with an in-person meeting optional for residents.
“The majority of complaints we’ve gotten over the past few years have been about the in-house draw process,” Nunan said, referring to issues of organization and efficiency.
Whitney acknowledged several practical issues with the first proposal, such as the stress of coordinating with other students to choose rooms within the allotted 15-minute gate time and expressed his fear of “making the ‘drawma’ of spring even worse than it is now.”
Senator Pat Bruny ’13 weighed in, suggesting to “keep the system but work on the in-house draw.”
Elections Commissioner Stephen Trusheim ’13, a staff member in Roble, described the merits of the current in-house draw system, if run well by dorm staff, to allow residents to meet one another and gather more information before choosing their rooms.
The Senate also discussed whether draw groups should be limited to six people, rather than the current maximum of eight, and the process of house pre-assignment.
Whitney said typically only 7 percent of draw groups exceed six people, while around 20 percent of students choose to draw individually.
The Senate passed two bills Tuesday concerning meeting attendance. The first aimed to better mandate full attendance by senators at entire body meetings by formalizing a roll-call method to document tardiness and early departures. The second allowed flexibility of committee meeting attendance, permitting committee chairs to request the presence of the Senate chair or deputy chair or appoint a committee member to serve in their absence.
On Tuesday, the Senate confirmed the freshmen Senate associates and the Nominations Commission’s third round of appointees to University committees.
The senators also discussed and made slight alterations to Big Game Week spending from the Senate traditions fund. The Senate allocated $1,200 for an additional bus to Berkeley, $650 for T-shirts and other giveaways at an on-campus viewing party and $450 for other viewing party expenses, including food. An extra $450, and any funds not spent, will funnel back to the general discretionary fund.
Advocacy Committee co-chairs Robin Perani ’13 and Kamil Saeid ’13 presented Tuesday a budget for Camp Anytown, a community-building retreat for freshmen in January. The weekend-long retreat this year will aim to create a diversity council, which would fundraise for a fall retreat in future years. The Senate allocated a maximum of $2,000 from general discretionary funds and Senate advertising funds to the retreat.
Rebecca Sachs ’13, Senate parliamentarian, reminded the Senate Tuesday of its responsibility to use the Senate internal and public e-mail lists appropriately and to not post formal business on the internal list. The senators discussed the current policy and expressed a desire to be more careful in the future, though many expressed that only minor, accidental mistakes had occurred.
The Senate approved all funding bills of the evening.