At Monday's meeting of the Association of Amherst Students (AAS), the Senate filled vacant positions on four committees, including the Committee on Priorities and Resources and the College Council. Senators also voted to create an ad hoc committee that will look into advising at the College.

The Senate elected senators Raj Borsellino '08 and Stephen Scriber '06 to the Information Technology Director Search Committee. The committee sought one person who is knowledgeable about information technology and one student who is not.

Scriber said in his campaign speech that he has worked with IT for over two years and has focused on several issues that he hopes a new IT director will pursue, including making sure that the College's IT does not fall behind that of other comparable schools and making hardware repair easily accessible to students.

Senator Daniel de Zeeuw '08 won the first-year seat on the College Council. The Senate also elected Senator Richa Bhala '07 to the Committee on Priorities and Resources. Senator Erika Sams '08 ran unopposed for the vacant seat on the 5-College Coordinating Board.

President Ryan Park '05 announced his desire to create an ad hoc committee that would focus on faculty advising at the College. Park said that he had discussed the issue with the trustees. "[The trustees] are very interested in this issue," he said.

Park hopes that the committee will submit a report to the Committee on Academic Priorities (CAP). Park and Senator Marco LoCascio '07 have both been involved with this issue and will both be part of the committee. The senate also elected Esther Lim '05, Ali Berman '08 and Boris Bulayev '07 to the committee.

The senate discussed the use of the online AAS voting booth as a means of conducting surveys. Several senators expressed concern that the Senate and committees were administering multiple surveys per week. Senators seemed to agree that some regulation of the system was necessary.

The Senate charged Senator Elan Ghazal '05, chair of the elections committee, and Ryan Smith '07, chair of the judiciary committee, with creating language for a possible by-law amendment.

The amendment would require a majority of the Senate to approve surveys posted on the AAS voting booth. Ghazal and Smith will present the possible amendment to the Senate at its next meeting on November 1.

There was no debate regarding the budgetary committee's proposed allocations. The Senate allocated a total of $5,668,20.