Author: Soo Jin Kim
On Tuesday, Oct. 27 the ASOC Senate met to discuss various issues, such as the failure to pass the new budget, plans to update the current ASOC Web site and the Off-Campus Students Coalition.
The meeting started with the senators discussing the failure of the proposed budget amendments to the ASOC Constitution due to a lack of voters. The ASOC Senate then voted 10-2 to pass an operational budget, not a constitutional one. A big factor in this decision was that the ASOC Senate will not be able to hold another election until the end of this semester or at the beginning of the next semester and needs a budget now.
Campus Wide Senator David LaPorte (junior) provided an update on his current project to rebuild the current ASOC Web site. Several options were laid out before the ASOC, including hiring a professional web designer, contracting the work to the Information Technology Services (ITS) department or using a student designer.
The first option, hiring a professional, comes with an expensive price tag. The recently revamped Oxy homepage cost about $55,000, well outside the Senate’s price range. The second option of hiring ITS would mean that the Web site would be updated for free, but, according to LaPorte, would take a long time to redesign and look exactly like all the other pages on the Oxy Web site. LaPorte explained that, should the ASOC Senate choose the third option of hiring a student, ITS recommended hiring a student for $1,000, basing it on an hourly wage of $15-20 an hour for 20-25 hours of work.
“It would be worthwhile to make the Web site better, by making it clearer and more informative, so that it will make [the] ASOC [Senate] clearer to the student body,” said Senator and ASOC Fund Chair Aliza Goldsmith (sophomore). The ASOC Senate voted to have ITS draft a proposal to update its Web site in the future.
During the meeting, the Senators also presented their goals for their personal projects this semester. Senator Andres Quispe-Hansen (junior) is planning on working with new Assistant Dean of Students for Residence Life and Housing Services (ResLife) Tim Chang to make the applications for Pauley less stringent for returning students who wish to reside there, and also to change the application date for incoming first-years to correspond with the time when they pick their CSPs.
Senator Kyle Boers (first-year) is planning on reorganizing the funding requests of all student clubs in chronological order to catalogue the amount of funding clubs were given in the past years. This will be used in the future when the ASOC handles funding requests from clubs, in an effort to distribute ASOC money more fairly and equally among the different clubs.
Senator Aliza Goldsmith (sophomore) plans to write letters to all existing club leaders and meet with General Assembly co-chairs in an effort to facilitate better communication.
Senator Lia Ballard (senior) is working to set up a designated driver system that follows Campus Safety guidelines, in an effort to provide an alternative to walking or waiting for Campus Safety. The system will be set up like a shuttle service, operating between midnight and 2 a.m. on Fridays and Saturdays and will return students to campus from off-campus locations around Oxy.
Senator Renoa Batista (junior) is planning on submitting a proposal to Dean Eric Frank to increase student involvement in selecting additions to the Oxy curriculum in future semesters.
ASOC President Andrew DeBlock (senior) reported on his meeting earlier that day with the newly formed Off-Campus Students Coalition.
The meeting ended with the conclusion to work on goals and create committees in the future for the students.
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