The 18th Undergraduate Senate underwent a practice round of the new elections system for the ASSU ballot in its second meeting of the new year. The body also discussed resolutions for drinking fountains in Crothers and Florence Moore (FloMo) Halls.
New elections system
Elections Commissioner Paul Serrato ’19 had the Senate take a practice run of the new ballot.
The new ballot will be sent through a Qualtrics link specially tailored to the student by class year.
“We’re still having some small issues,” Serrato said. “We have to go back and look at some things to make sure they are running.”
The new system is still in the testing stages, but Serrato hopes to fix all of the kinks without an absurd amount of code.
ASSU Executive updates
ASSU Vice President Amanda Edelman ’17 said the ASSU Executives will send out an all-campus email to explain what the ASSU’s goals are for this year.
“We definitely want to communicate all the work that Exec is doing,” Edelman said.
Edelman said that Executives were working with the Faculty Senate on basing the Engaging Diversity WAYS requirements on power dynamics instead of on religious and cultural studies.
Edelman also discussed changing the Diversity in the Major requirement to Diversity in the Field and whether the Senate should institute a systemic change or make the change grassroots.
The Senate and Executives also sat on Title IX investigation interview panels. Edelman said that they have participated in two thus far.
“One was good, the other was not-so-good — kind of bad, actually,” Edelman said.
She did not elaborate on the nature of the investigations.
Senate Chair Shanta Katipamula ’19 announced a joint meeting with the Graduate Student Council (GSC) next Tuesday during the latter portion of normal Senate hours for a proprietary meeting about Stanford Student Enterprises (SSE). The meeting comes in the midst of the annual grants process and will be closed to the public.
Drinking fountain resolution
Senator Matthew Cohen ’18 pitched his bill for installing drinking fountains in Crothers and FloMo. Cohen hopes that drinking fountains can be built by the end of the year.
“I don’t know if you’ve talked to people who live in Crothers, but their eyes just light up whenever you talk about it,” Cohen said.
Senator Jasmin Espinosa ’18, who is living in Crothers this year, believes that Crothers residents are thirsty for drinking fountains, saying that it is an area of concern.
The Senate unanimously passed the resolution.
Funding and approvals
Senate used 12 percent of the quarterly budget this week to pass funding using the resolution instituted last week to have Senator and Appropriations Committee Chair Cenobio Hernandez ’18 recommend pre-approved funding.
The largest funding bill gave $6,000 to Sigma Nu and $6,000 to Kappa Kappa Gamma for their joint sexual assault awareness event, Snowchella.
Senate also voted to approve the Nominations Commission (NomCom) chairs, who will serve toward the end of winter and the beginning of spring quarters. Members of NomCom chairs appoint students to University Committees, such as the Board of Trustees and academic policy committees.
Contact Gillian Brassil at gbrassil ‘at’ stanford.edu.