The ASSU Undergraduate Senate discussed strengthening the role of the sustainability subcommittee and scrapped an ethics bill co-authored by Senators Shelley Gao ’11 and Brian Wanyoike ’12 in favor of a more formal report at Tuesday’s meeting, which seven of 13 senators attended.
A sustainability sub-committee bill introduced on Tuesday would work toward “strengthening and defining the role of the sustainability committee,” said Appropriations Chair Anton Zietsman ’12, who is also a member of the sustainability subgroup.
If the bill passes next week, the sustainability sub-committee would include representation from the Senate, the ASSU executive cabinet, Students for a Sustainable Stanford and the ASSU Green Store. The committee would work with student groups to plan green events based on a checklist developed by the Senate, as well as oversee an account for green events and a pilot program for “green consultants,” or students trained to help groups throughout the process of running events.
The three target areas of the pilot program would be food, marketing and event supplies, Zietsman said. Based on research by Students for a Sustainable Stanford co-president Theo Gibbs ’11, fees for sustainable food could be as much as 40 percent higher. The bill would reflect this with a 40 percent increase in the funding cap for food at events.
Zietsman described the program as an “educational initiative” that would provide a valuable way to “introduce sustainable practices,” an issue he hopes the 12th Undergraduate Senate will continue to push.
The Senate also discussed an ethics bill co-authored by Gao and Wanyoike, which outlined new roles for the Senate Advocacy Committee. Under the bill, the Advocacy Committee would perform a monthly review of ASSU and Senate expenditures, include an ombudsman to hear complaints about ASSU officials and committees and provide recommendations for disciplinary measures if allegations of misconduct by officials are substantiated.
Senator Alex Katz ’12, the chair of the Administration & Rules Committee, expressed concerns, saying some of the bill’s goals, such as expenditure review and disciplinary action, are already adequately addressed through other mechanisms.
“The point of an ombudsman is to be independent and not within the body,” he said. He suggested that while it would be good to have a central place for complaints, the next Senate should decide on the necessary infrastructure.
Zietsman said he would favor a formal process through which groups could complain about Appropriations.
The senators agreed that a formal report should be written in place of the bill and given to the 12th Undergraduate Senate.
It is “critical to get the new Senate invested in this,” Gao said. “They need to feel the responsibility to work on this.”
Next week the Senate is set to vote on a bill to edit its by-laws, incorporating legislation from its term and the past three years. Under the proposed change to the by-laws, community groups would be entitled to $1,000 more than programming groups, which currently receive a maximum of $6,000 in general fees.
Also next week, the Senate plans to vote on the 2011 Elections Commission. Cotis Mitchell ‘12, current assistant commissioner for undergraduate elections, briefed the Senate on the committee’s nomination of Jonathan Bakke, a doctoral student in chemical engineering, for assistant elections commissioner for graduate elections; Jean Paul Blanchard ’12 for assistant elections commissioner for undergraduate elections; and Stephen Trusheim ’13 for elections commissioner. Nine applicants were considered for the positions.
All funding bills for the week were approved.
No bill to dissolve the 11th Senate was introduced on Tuesday, extending their session to two weeks from now and making any action by the newly elected senators unlikely this academic year. The Senate last week defeated a bill that would have dissolved the group this week.