Senate Resolutions
Table of Contents
- Sense of the Senate Resolution on the Rules of Order
- Add-Drop Resolution
- Monday Timeslot Letter to the Faculty
- Proclamation of Appreciation to Valentine Dining Hall
- Statement Concerning Funding for Services Over Thanksgiving Break
- Social Council Senior Sweatshirts
- Proposal to Enact the use of AC Dollars online by the end of Spring Semester
- Amherst College Divestment Resolution
- Resolution on Hate Speech and Campus Community
- Letter to President Martin concerning the Chief Students Affair Officer appointment
- Amherst College Disposable Plastic Water-Bottle Free Resolution
- Recent-Graduate Alumni Trustee Resolution
- Censuring and Condemning the Senator-elect of the class of 2027
Sense of the Senate Resolution on the Rules of Order
The following regulations are, by tradition, observed by the Senate.
- “Point of Personal Privilege” is often used even when the point at issue is truly a “Point of Privilege” or a “Point of Order.” This variation from Robert’s Rules of Order is not considered out of order.
- Short, out-of-turn responses to the member with the floor are usually permitted, but the holder of the floor may raise a “Point of Personal Privilege” or “Point of Order” if he or she feels the unrecognized responses are egregious. If debate is limited, time wasted on out-of-order comments is not counted against the speaker’s time. If one of the out-of-order remarks is a question to the speaker, and the speaker chooses to respond, the response shall be subject to the limits of the debate; however, the response shall not be considered against the time of the speaker’s main speech. For instance, if debate is limited to a minute per speaker, and a speaker is fifteen seconds into his or her speech when a question is asked, he or she then has a minute to respond to the question and forty-five seconds to continue the rest of his or her original speech.
- Generally, members take a dim view to moving or calling at the end of a speech. A call is technically an informal request to the Vice President, so, per Robert’s Rules of Order, it can be made at the end of a speech. A move (technically, a motion for the previous question) cannot be made if the member has given a speech, but the member may give a speech justifying the move if he or she limits the speech to arguing for moving per se.
- The AAS Constitution grants Senators the right to vote as they wish and the right to “voice” on any issue. If a modification to the rules of order violates one of these provisions, it is null and void. If necessary, the Judiciary Council may be called upon to settle disputes of this nature. For example, in the fall of 2009, these limitations forbade the Senate from banning clubs who are repeatedly absent from Budgetary Committee meetings from requesting funding at Senate meetings, since the Senate does not have the right to stop a Senator from proposing to fund the club and yielding his or her time to representatives of the club.
- The AAS Constitution grants members of the AAS (basically, current students) all participation rights in Senate meetings except the right to vote. Alumni who are former Senators are not members of the AAS and only have full debate participation rights if the Senate expressly grants said rights to them.
- The Senate may decide to “take an amendment as friendly” and accept it without a vote. At this point, the Vice President asks if any Senator objects to taking the amendment as friendly, and the floor is opened to responses. By tradition, the Senator who proposed the motion being debated is given the first chance to reject the amendment as friendly. However, if any other Senator objects to the amendment being taken as friendly, it must be put to a vote.
Add-Drop Resolution
Resolved, whereas the shortening of the add/drop period in the Fall 2009 and Spring 2010 semesters has resulted in considerable difficulty in course selection (particularly for five-college courses and courses that meet only once a week), whereas this has resulted in numerous students being in courses they would not otherwise have taken, and whereas a full add/drop period is a critical part of the Open Curriculum and the belief that students should choose their own courses, a belief that is perhaps the most important part of Amherst’s liberal arts educational philosophy, the Association of Amherst Students strongly urges the Faculty to return the add/drop period to two weeks.
Monday Timeslot Letter to the Faculty
The following is a letter to the faculty in response to a motion proposed by the Committee of Six to add a new 7:00-9:30 timeslot Monday nights.
To the Dean of the Faculty and the Professors of Amherst College,
We are writing on behalf of the Association of Amherst Students. While we are not opposed in principle to the implementation of night classes, we would like to express our concern both over the substance of this proposal and the methods employed to arrive at it. Specifically, we write to express concern regarding the selection of Monday as the appropriate day to hold night classes.
While we acknowledge that students were asked to complete a survey about their preference for hosting night classes on a certain day of the week, we are troubled that students were only presented with a choice between Sunday and Monday. We urge the Faculty to send this proposal back to committee so that the full range of options may be considered both by the Faculty and the student body.
Furthermore, the AAS would like to note that any decision of this committee to implement Monday night classes will put strain on several of the largest student organizations. The Senate, Program Board and Social Council all meet on Monday nights. We acknowledge that any night class will require student organizations to adjust their meeting times, but the nature of Senate, Program Board and Social Council is such that the magnitude of this change will have major ripple effects as most student-life organizations already structure their meeting times around these three student groups.
It remains fully possible that Monday night is the best time to hold evening classes, but the reality is that the issue has not been fully explored. We, therefore urge you to send the current proposition back to committee that we may first gather more student input and explore all options before binding ourselves to a decision that may prove less than ideal for the students of Amherst College.
Thank you very much,
The Association of Amherst Students
UPDATE: The Committee of Six, after the Dean of Faculty's had received this letter, voted to recommend to the faculty that an amendment be brought forth modifying the motion to open a Sunday timeslot instead of a Monday timeslot. The motion was not addressed at the May 3, 2011 faculty meeting because the meeting ran too long.
Proclamation of Appreciation to Valentine Dining Hall
The following proclamation is in response to changes made in Valentine Dining Hall during the 2010-2011 academic year and the renovations completed the following summer:
Whereas, Valentine Dining Services undertook significant renovations based on student input that brighten, refresh and improve the dining experience for all Amherst students;
Whereas, the quality and selection of food choices have noticeably increased; and
Whereas, Valentine Dining Services has shown a sincere commitment to collect, consider and address all student input;
Now, therefore, the Association of Amherst Students, on behalf of Amherst’s student body, commends and expresses appreciation to Valentine Dining Services and its entire staff and pledges support in future endeavors.
Statement Concerning Funding for Services Over Thanksgiving Break
The AAS strongly encourages the administration to fund all events that occur over Thanksgiving break, including a Thanksgiving dinner open to all students remaining on campus. The AAS believes that such an event is an essential college service, and not something within our purview of responsibility. The AAS will not fund this event in the future.
Social Council Senior Sweatshirts
Resolved: The AAS strongly discourages future bodies of the Senate from allocating additional funds for Social Council’s Senior Sweatshirts from the operating budget. We encourage additional funding for next year’s Social Council budget out of master general, and increased transparency in their budget as well.
Proposal to Enact the use of AC Dollars online by the end of Spring Semester
We the Student Body propose that the IT department and the Comptroller’s Office develop a service which will allow students and parents to deposit funds into AC Dollar accounts online. The need is greatest at the beginning of each semester, so we propose to have this in place long before the beginning of the fall semester 2013.
The current system requires a great deal of manual processing; it is outdated, inconvenient and inefficient. Student and parents can deposit funds into the AC dollar account in three ways: By mailing a check or cash to the college; by bringing a check or cash to one of three locations on campus (The comptroller’s office, Dining services or information Technology department) or by calling the “check-by-account” services. The use of these methods is highly unbalanced. The Comptroller’s Office processes approximately 250 deposits per semester. The Information Technology processes approximately 150 transactions per semester, and Dining Services processes over 1000 transactions per semester.
The lack of online deposit option is thus a burden on the Dining services and the other offices that have to handle and coordinate the sizable number of cash and check transactions throughout each semester. It also puts the college at considerable and unnecessary risk by having various offices receive, process, and transfer large sums of money to the Comptroller.
As an additional benefit, this service would also allow students to check their AC Dollars balances online and to view their transaction history, neither of which are currently possible.
We would like to have the new AC Dollars system running by the summer so that the small population of Amherst students interning at the college can test and review it. This will help the IT department to perfect the system before the entire student body begins to use online AC dollars.
Thank you for your time and help.
Sincerely,
Hadassah Masudi Minga
Association of Amherst Students
Amherst College Divestment Resolution
The AAS reaffirms the "Amherst College Divesment" resolution on Dec. 1, 2014
Whereas,
since 1895, average global temperatures have risen by more than 1.5
degrees Fahrenheit, and 80% of this increase has occurred since 1980;
Whereas,
human activity--primarily through the combustion of fossil fuels and
the release of greenhouse gas emissions--is responsible both for
observed global temperature rises and their associated effects on
climate;
Whereas,
this rapid temperature increase has exacerbated weather extremes including heat waves, drought, flooding, and sea level rise;
Whereas,
these extreme events have and will continue to negatively impact the
U.S. economy. In 2012, the US accounted for 67% of the $160bn lost
globally due to natural catastrophes;
Whereas,
projections for future warming based on various scenarios of fossil
fuel consumption vary between 2 degrees Fahrenheit and 10 degrees
Fahrenheit;
Whereas,
among the many fossil fuels in our global economy, coal has the highest carbon intensity relative to energy output;
Whereas,
coal mining and combustion have negative effects on human health due to the decline of both air and water quality;
Whereas,
these consequences disproportionately affect lower income and minority persons at home and abroad;
Whereas,
such concerns have prompted the imminent closure of the Mt. Tom coal plant in Holyoke;
Whereas,
the voluntary acquisition of financial stocks and holdings represent an
implicit support of a company and its industry, and it is within the
right of any stockholder to sell and purchase shares for reasons that
lie outside mere financial self-interest;
Whereas,
Amherst strives to be an institution of higher learning that imbues its students with a strong moral sense and that produces students capable of enacting positive change;
Whereas,
On April 18, 2013, 88.4% of Amherst students polled voted in favor of divesting from the coal industry;
Whereas,
The extraction and combustion of coal creates social problems of such magnitude as to be ethically insupportable;
Be it resolved by the Association of Amherst Students here assembled,
that this body supports complete financial divestment from the coal industry, including companies involved in the extraction and refinement of coal, and especially those performing mountaintop removal* and all members of the “Filthy fifteen” coal companies.
Be it further resolved,
that this body calls upon the trustees of Amherst College to avoid any and all future direct investments in the coal industry, and to request that external investment managers apply screens to our investments excluding these companies;
*This term refers to the practice of destroying mountaintops by detonating large amounts of explosives to extract coal.
Resolution on Hate Speech and Campus Community
Whereas, on the evening of September 15, 2013, a swastika and racial epithet were found drawn near the entrance to Chapman dormitory;
Whereas, on September 16, 2013, an offensive note was found on a bulletin board in Waldorf which used a pejorative term often targeted at gay men;
Whereas, the Amherst College community, as with our broader culture and society, contains elements of bigotry and prejudice;
Whereas, our community purports to strive toward ideals of inclusion and compassion and is opposed to the sort of ugliness embodied by these acts of hate speech;
The Association of Amherst Students, here assembled:
- Condemns all acts of hate speech, whether targeted at members of our campus community or members of the broader community;
- Affirms the right of every student to a safe and non-discriminatory environment, as codified in the Student Handbook;
- Expresses appreciation to the Dean of Students for reporting on these instances of hate speech transparently and in an earnest manner;
- Resolves to take actions that make explicitly clear that acts of hate are incompatible with the values of the Amherst community.
Letter to President Martin concerning the Chief Students Affair Officer appointment
President Martin:
We, the Association of Amherst Students (AAS), are writing to you to express grave concern over the recent departure of Dean of Students Jim Larimore, and more importantly, the hasty and unclear appointment of Suzanne Coffey to “Chief Student Affairs Officer.” This new position, which for reasons unexplained will last for two years, was created without any consultation with the student body and was filled by an administrator who has provoked controversy in the past. We believe that the student body deserves both an explanation and a role in the restructuring process. We request immediate action, including a timeline for a search that incorporates student input on this issue.
As approved by a majority of the AAS Senate on February 3, 2014.
Amherst College Disposable Plastic Water-Bottle Free Resolution
Whereas,
According to the Beverage Marking Corporation, U.S. bottled water consumption increased 10.1 billion gallons in 2013, an increase of 4.3 percent from 2012;[1]
Whereas,
An individual in the U.S. uses approximately 167 plastic water bottles every year, a total of 30 billion nationally;[2]
Whereas,
The average American throws away approximately 185 pounds of plastic per year, which accounts for around 10 percent of the total waste we generate.[3] Although Americans do recycle, the U.S.’s recycling rates for plastic is only 23 percent;[4]
Whereas,
According to the Sea Education Society, there are 580,000 pieces of plastic per square kilometer in the Atlantic Ocean, some of which are from plastic water bottles. Plastics do not biodegrade, but rather break up into tiny pieces that are later consumed by fish and sea mammals. Plastic kills more than 100,000 sea turtles and birds a year via ingestion and entanglement;[5]
Whereas,
Plastics release chemicals harmful to humans and other species. Disposable (plastic) water bottles are made of BPA. Over time, the polymer chains of BPA break down and can enter the human body via contaminated drinking water, or through the consumption of fish that are exposed to the broken down toxins;[6]
Whereas,
The production of plastic uses around eight percent of the world’s oil production,[7] making America’s demand for bottled water more than 17 million barrels of oil annually;[8]
Whereas,
President Obama, in his remarks on climate change in 2013, spells out his plan to cut carbon pollution, mentioning, “This plan begins with cutting carbon pollution by changing the way we use energy—using less dirty energy, using more clean energy, wasting less energy throughout our economy.”[9]
Whereas,
Amherst College has abundant access to safe and clean municipal tap water, to be used as drinking water, which carries a dramatically lower carbon footprint than beverages packaged and shipped to campus in non-reusable bottles;
Whereas,
Amherst College prides itself on providing undergraduates with “substantial responsibility for undertaking inquiry and for shaping their education within and beyond the curriculum,” and thus strives to be an institution of higher learning that imbues its students with a strong moral sense and that produces students capable of enacting positive change;
Whereas,
Amherst College has already taken considerable strides in eliminating disposable plastic water bottles, through eliminating disposable plastic water bottles in Student Dining Hall and Catering operations, through using boxed-water in place of disposable plastic water bottles at future Commencements, and installing water bottle filling stations throughout campus;
Be it resolved by the Amherst Association of Students here assembled, that this body supports that Amherst College, including faculty, staff, administrators, alumni, and students, take all steps necessary in order to ensure a disposable plastic water-bottle free campus by Fall 2016.
Respectfully Submitted,
The Green Amherst Project
Re-resolved by a majority of the AAS Senate on March 7, 2016.
[1] Hogan, Chris. “Bottled Water Trends for 2014.” Food Manufacturing (January/February 2014): 38.
[2] “Bottled Water Statistics.” Statistic Brain, 2 Jan. 2014. Web. 3 Nov. 2014. <http://www.statisticbrain.com/bottled-water-statistics/>.
[3]Hasselberger, Lynn. “22 Facts About Plastic Pollution (And 10 Things We Can Do About It).”EcoWatch: Transforming Green. (April 7, 2014).
[4] “Bottled Water Facts.” Ban The Bottle. Web. 2 Nov. 2014. <http://www.banthebottle.net/bottled-water-facts/>.
[5] Andrews, Gianna. “Plastics in the Ocean Affecting Human Health.” Geology and Human Health: Tropical Resources. Web. 30 Oct. 2014. <http://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/health/case_studies/plastics.html>.
[6] Andrews, Gianna.
[7] Hasselberger, Lynn.
[8] “Bottled Water Facts.”
[9] Obama, Barack. “Remarks by the President on Climate Change.” Georgetown University. Washington, D.C.25 June 2013. Address.
Recent-Graduate Alumni Trustee Resolution
Whereas, The most recent graduate of Amherst College currently serving on the Board of Trustees graduated nineteen years ago in 1995; and
Whereas, Twenty-five percent of all current Amherst alumni graduated in the last decade and still remain unrepresented on the Board of Trustees; and
Whereas, Campus culture and climate, student experience, and school-wide dynamics are periodically shifting; and
Whereas, The Board’s in-depth understanding of the present condition of campus directly correlates with its ability to optimally act on behalf of Amherst Community members, past, present, and future alike; now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Association of Amherst Students strongly urge the Board of Trustees to designate two Board seats for Recent-Graduate Alumni Trustees.
Censuring and Condemning the Senator-elect of the class of 2027
Whereas, the then candidate of the Class of 2027, with two other candidates of the Class of 2027, inappropriately obtained and used an email list for the Fall 2023 election;
Whereas, the then candidate of the Class of 2027, with two other candidates of the Class of 2027, emailed all members of the Class of 2027 as part of their campaign scheme for the Fall 2023 election despite Article V, section h, clause iv of the Constitution of the Association of Amherst Students explicitly prohibiting the use of email lists for the purposes of campaigning;
Whereas, the then candidate of the Class of 2027, with two other candidates of the Class of 2027, shared the link to the ballot in the aforementioned email, despite explicit instruction sent out by the Association of Amherst Students Secretary to not share the link to the ballot to anyone;
Whereas, the then candidate of the Class of 2027, with two other candidates of the Class of 2027, inappropriately interfered with the Fall 2023 election process and with election integrity in engaging in the aforementioned misconduct in order to secure votes for the Fall 2023 election; and
Whereas, the then candidate of the Class of 2027 was elected by their class to the Association of Amherst Students despite their violations of the campaign rules and their inappropriate conduct regarding their campaign: now therefore,
Be it RESOLVED by the Association of Amherst Students here assembled, That—
the Association of Amherst Students censures and condemns the member of the Class of 2027 for their conduct unbefitting of a candidate during the Fall 2023 election that inappropriately interfered with said election;
the Association of Amherst Students holds that ignorance of our Constitution and its rules is not justifiable by candidates and Senators seeking to represent the Amherst College student body;
the Association of Amherst Students holds candidates and Senators should be familiar with our Constitution and rules regarding the Association of Amherst Students;
the Association of Amherst Students urges members to hold each other accountable for misconduct; and
the Association of Amherst Students seeks to revisit, alter, and enforce election integrity in future elections to maintain the integrity of this body.