The 15th Undergraduate Senate met Tuesday night to finalize plans for the football rally, nominate senators to several University committees, increase the cap for honoraria funding and receive an update on judicial affairs.
An idea for a new peer mentorship program for students from minority communities was also discussed.
The football rally for tomorrow’s game against Oregon, scheduled for Thursday at 12 p.m. in White Plaza, will be filmed by ESPN, which will incorporate the footage into segments on that evening’s football game.
Senator Nikos Liodakis ’16 noted that there will be face paint and posters.
“We want students to be able to get decked out for ESPN,” Liodakis said. The event will also include a surprise guest speaker, as well as an appearance from several members of the men’s basketball team – both features organized by the ASSU.
There will also be food and music, Senator Brianna Brown’16 added.
Senate Chair Ben Holston ’15 expressed excitement for the event, as well as praise for the work of his fellow senators.
“Briana and Nikos have done a fantastic job [organizing the event],”Holston said. “I hope we get a ton of people there. I think having ESPN there is really exciting,”
Other festivities leading up to the game will include the second tailgate of the year, starting at 3 p.m. at Ueland Field.
In addition to finalizing the football rally, the Senate also passed three bills, including a bill that increased the amount of money available to fund honoraria up to $1,500 as long as the event met attendance requirement of over 100 people. Honoraria will also now have a soft cap of $1,000 with an estimate of $10/person.
“The previous [policy] was that all groups could get $1,000 for honoraria and we found that [it] was problematic because some groups wanted to get some really cool speakers who cost over $1,000,” Senator Angela Zhang ’16 said. “We just wanted to make it easier for [the student groups] to get that extra money.”
The other two bills passed dealt with the Nominations Commission. The first bill, passed unanimously, confirmed the nominees to various University committees, such as the Judicial Panel Pool and the Committee on Undergraduate Standards and Policy, among others.
The second bill, which also passed unanimously, shifted the timeline of terms for the Nomination’s Commission from beginning in spring quarter and ending in winter quarter to beginning in winter quarter and ending in fall quarter.
The Senate also received an update from Senator John-Lancaster Finley’16 on the first meeting of the Joint Legislative Committee on Judicial Affairs, which was created to address concerns over the Board on Judicial Affair bylaws.
“We are anticipating, particularly in the conversation about the bylaws, heavy outside input,” Finley said. “We are hoping by the end of the fall quarter to have our response to the bylaws.”
Near the end of the meeting, Senator Hisham Al-Falih’16 introduced ideas for a new peer mentoring program to be housed within the Career Development Center.
“I feel like minority students feel pressured to get jobs and internships and statistically speaking, minority students don’t necessarily get as good of jobs or internships,” Al-Falih said, “I feel like more support should be given to minority students.”
Falih’s initial idea called for a peer mentorship program that would take students from the different minority communities on campus and train them to become mentors to students who might feel more comfortable speaking to a mentor from a similar background. This idea is still in the development phase.
Contact Andrew Vogeley at avogeley ‘at’ stanford.edu.