Senate
discusses changes for spring elections,
child center
By
Daniel Linck Savino
Online Forty-Niner
Staff Writer
The Associated Students Senate held an active final meeting Wednesday. Five
resolutions were debated and reports from ASI Executive Director Richard Haller
and Dean of Students Mike Hostetler illuminated changes in the pipeline for
the Isabel Patterson Child Development Center and student elections.
“
Last year’s election, I think most of us could say, was not pleasant,” Hostetler
said. Aside from seeing candidates violate the elections code, “I believe
I witnessed infractions of the student code of conduct.”
Hostetler promised next year will be different. The Division of Student Services,
under Vice President Doug Robinson, will pay to hire security guards to monitor
the polling booths.
“
If we see things that are flagrant...if they’re serious enough, we’ll
take them to campus judiciary officers and have them adjudicated under the
student code of conduct,” Hostetler said.
Violations of that code lead to various punishments, including expulsion.
The continued efforts to go from paper to electronic or online ballots was
the focus of one resolution debated. The
development of new voting techniques will be done in collaboration with campus
Information Technology staff under Roman Kochan, dean of library services.
Kochan wanted a statement showing both ASI interest and an idea of what the
final electronic voting format should look like, Haller said. Until then, he
would be reluctant to invest his staff’s time in any preliminary work.
The resolution was debated at great length and was revised on the floor repeatedly.
The revisions were so numerous Sen. Mike Emenhiser, College of Business, asked
his name be removed as a co-sponser.
“
I did feel really strongly about this, but this is not what I wrote up,” he
said. “The intent isn’t there.”
In the end, the resolution was sent back to the Documents and Bylaws Committee.
That prompted Emenhiser to let himself be relisted as a sponser, and Sen. Elisa
Herrera, College of Education, to object to what she saw as a needless delay.
“
I think the main intent is clear,” she said. “[Haller], who is
going to have to do this, knows what needs to be done.”
The resolution will be revisited during the Senate’s winter break meeting,
Jan. 11, 2006.
The Senate is also reforming the elections code for next spring’s ASI
elections. The biggest proposed change would convert the elections commission
to a committee, which will require the Elections Handbook to be changed and
approved by the Senate seven weeks prior to elections—as early as the
beginning of February. Hostetler reminded the
Senate time is running out.
If the elections committee reform does not happen soon, he said, “we
will go back to the former method of having elections with a commission.”
In a development affecting the short-term future of the Isabel Patterson Child
Development Center, the State of California has determined the geodesic dome
structure, used for the school-age children’s program, is irreparably
incapable of meeting state sesmic standards.
The dome, Haller said, will have to be torn down and replaced. Because roughly
2,000 square feet of space are needed, and construction costs run $150 to $200
a square foot, a number of options, including pre-fabricated units, are being
considered. The state will pay for $400,000 of the construction cost, Haller
said.
Demolition and construction will begin during the summer and continue through
fall 2006. In order to keep the school-age children’s program, the Soroptomist
House will be its temporary location. Though it will severely limit, if not
entirely prevent, events from being held there, Haller said it was the cheapest
way to continue the program.
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