Because of Jake Kaufman's '02 contestation of last Thursday's student referendum vote, Monday night's meeting was conducted under the policies of the current SGO constitution.
The majority of the night's discussion was centered on the budgets of the SFC and the SGO e-boards. SGO Vice President Matt Moses '02 presented to the Senate the expenditures by each group thus far this semester. "Ours are the only budgets not made available to the public," said Moses. "We thought this would be a good way to make you aware of how we spend our money and a good way to inaugurate review and recognition before we start to get critical of how other groups spend their money." Review and recognition is a process of evaluating the purpose and spending of campus organizations that, under the new constitution, would be done by the entire Senate.
"Each of the e-boards is given $4,000 for the semester," explained SGO President Michelle Oliveros-Larsen '02. The discussion hinged on food expenditures this semester totaling $652.98. The SFC has spent a total of $2,382.28 and four of the six expenditures were spent on food.
Mike Flood '03, a member of the ad hoc committee on constitutional review questioned the nature of two charges listed as "Delivery Express (Constitution Committee), 2/10/02" totaling $171.51. "The constitutional committee didn't order anything from Delivery Express," said Flood. "Is there a receipt?"
"[Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Student Activities and of the Campus Center Samuel] Haynes gave me two receipts [from the constitutional committee] and asked me to reimburse them," said SGO Treasurer and SFC Chair Blake Sparrow '04, who has sole discretion over spending from the SFC account."All I have is a bank statement."
"He doesn't have the receipts in front of him," said Moses, suggesting that specific line items be discussed at a later time. "He doesn't have the books in front of him, so this isn't going to be productive right now."
Sparrow, however, left the matter open to scrutiny. "There is nothing here that was done wrong," said Sparrow. "My logic is they came to me, they asked me for money, I gave it to them. I did nothing wrong."
"I find this really outrageous, for $650 to be spent on food, especially considering the rules set for other clubs," said Marisol Thomer '03E. "We are constantly told to keep our food budgets to a minimum. If we spend more than $25, we're considered a 'food' club. Am I the only one who thinks this is ridiculous?"
Sparrow defended his decisions, saying that precedent guided his spending. "I didn't do anything wrong. I just did what was lined up for me, what I thought was right," he said.
"What you did may not be unconstitutional, but it may have been a bad decision," said Oliveros-Larsen. "What bothers me is the frequency and overall repetitiveness of the behavior."
The largest expense in the SFC food budget was a $205 bill at Panda East, dated Jan. 30, paid from petty cash. "That was from appeals night," explained SFC sub-chair Irv Rakhlin '04. "We were in the office all night, going through the whole list of clubs."
"We meet from 5:00 to 7:00," said Sparrow. "When we have to miss dinner, we order out."
Thomer questioned Sparrow's precedent, paraphrasing what she thought was the SFC's reasoning. "Whenever a club has a lot of work to do, they get $200 to spend on food," she said. "Seeing this before me, I feel that we are in gross need of some guideline for ourselves."
Flood made a motion that any further expenditures on food be brought to vote before the Senate. The Senate voted 12 for and 7 against, with 7 abstentions.
The e-board was unsure whether a simple majority of the yeas and nays was a sufficient majority for the measure to pass. Seth Birnbaum '02, the Senate's parliamentarian, was not present at the meeting. Moses consulted the constitution and declared that the measure, having not received a constitutional majority, that is a majority of those voting, 12 out of 26 votes, including abstentions, had failed.
"Where do you find that we need a constitutional majority and not a simple one?" asked Eric Osborne '04.
"We had always been operating under the assumption that a simple majority was necessary," said Flood. "Shouldn't we be going on precedent, since that's how we've been going on everything else tonight?"
"I may have made a mistake," said Moses, admitting that he was unsure of precedent.
Flood made a motion to vote on whether or not a simple majority would be sufficient to pass internal Senate matters.
"It's a little annoying that we have to decide whether or not to follow precedent," said Rakhlin.
"Does the Senate have the authority to set its own rules?" asked Luke Swarthout '04. "We probably should just decide this and move on. And so I call the question."
Prior to voting on the motion that votes are to be determined by a simple majority, there was a question as to whether a simple or constitutional majority would be necessary to pass the motion. With the Senate at an impasse, Oliveros-Larsen asked senators to refrain from abstaining.
The Senate voted 20-6 to use simple majority as the standard for internal Senate matters.
Oliveros-Larsen suggested that the Senate re-vote on the previous matter about Senate expenditures on food, rather than allow the prior vote to stand. "I believe you should have a chance to vote knowing what your vote means," she said.
The previous question failed in the second vote, 9-12-4.
Also at the meeting, Lincoln Mayer '04 delivered the report by the ad hoc committee on student phone service. "Currently, the campus has a contract with Verizon for Student Centrex service," said Mayer. "Students negotiate directly with Verizon."
According to Mayer, Co-Director of Systems, Network and Telecommunications Stephen Judycki had said that between 85 and 90 percent of the College's student phone lines are in use. "We're still working on pinning down the exact figures."
The total cost of the current system is $150,000. "There has been some suggestion that the school deal directly with Verizon," said Mayer. "That, however would cost the College $250,000 [per annum].
"Much of the administrative overhead would have to be handled by the College," he added, explaining the increased cost.
"My official recommendation is that the College consider working with financial aid to arrange assistance in individual cases," said Mayer.