Senate has been quite busy the past two weeks! During these two weeks the Associated Students of the University of Puget Sound (ASUPS) Vice President has chaired the Senate while we do nominations and elections for the new Senate Chair and other positions.
On Oct. 12 Dean Bartanen came to visit Senate and talked about her role on campus as the Academic Vice President, and Dean of the University/Interim Vice President for Student Affairs and Dean of Students. She answered questions that senators had related to her position as well.
ASUPS President Amanda Diaz talked about the Budget Task Force, asking for a fee increase for ASUPS. ASUPS is in the process of buying a new van for student use and progress has been made on that.
The Office of the President and Division of Student Affairs are working on putting together a Halloween event (because it’s President Crawford’s favorite holiday) and Sarah Comstock had updates on that. ASUPS is going to be involved somehow, probably with a themed Italian Soda bar.
Diaz submitted her Board of Trustees report last week and encourages all students to go to the open session on Friday, Oct. 27 at 11 a.m. in the Tahoma Room.
We confirmed the following senators after the election: Emma Piorier ‘21 (residence Hall senator), Morey Lipsett ‘19 (on-campus housing senator), Nicolas Rothbacher ‘18 (off-campus senator), Hannah O’Leary ‘21 (freshman senator), Elena Staver ‘20 (senator-at-large) and Matthew Parone ‘21 (senator-at-large).
We also confirmed three new clubs: Health, Environment, and Animal Liberation (HEAL), a club devoted to reducing the suffering of animals, humans, and the environment through active awareness and education; UPS Students for FEPPS, a club that aims to raise awareness and support for the Freedom Education Project Puget Sound (FEPPS) among campus members and to advocate for increased institutional support for FEPPS; Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Club. Brazilian Jiu Jitsu Club is an opportunity to practice, train and compete with Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
The Senate made two finance allocations: $75 to Underground Sound to provide scholarships to members for the purchase of uniform t-shirts and $300 to ECO Club to purchase the rights to the live-streamed Q&A with Al Gore and “An Inconvenient Sequel.”
Senators also made nominations for Senate liaison positions.
On Oct. 17, Jessica Pense and Sarah Comstock presented on the Student Integrity Code Revision process. It’s been 17 years since it’s been revised and they have allotted two years for revisions. They encourage students to get involved since it is their policy. The student representatives will be Collin Noble, Caroline Schramm and Priyanki Vora.
ASUPS made a capital allocation for $769 for the purchase of credit card machine for the ASUPS Office. This can be used to pay club sports dues, miscellaneous payments to ASUPS, and many other things.
Senate elections happened at the conclusion of Senate. The election positions were:
- Senate Chair: Katie Handick
- President’s Council Liaison: Morey Lipsett
- Club Liaison: Matthew Parone
- Club Sports Liaison: Elena Staver