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| Senate Discusses Accountability, Health Fees | ||||||
| Senator Morgan Wheeler advocated the importance of the Senate being accountable for its actions and decisions at yesterday's Senate meeting. | ||||||
| Wheeler proposed several bylaw amendments that would affect the Senate but one particular addition stood out and came with a great deal of discussion from the senators.� According to Wheeler, the addition he added would "put into legislation what [the Senate does] and holds [the Senators] accountable for it." | ||||||
| Specifically, the new line in the A.S. bylaws would grant the Senate power to "Exercise all authority and duties pertaining to its role as a legislative body and Board of Directors," a very important concept, Wheeler said.� "This was added to solidify and clarify, within the A.S. bylaws, the role of Senate as a legislative body and a board of directors, which encompasses subsequent professional and legal roles, responsibilities and expectations," according to the list of changes Wheeler made to the bylaws. | ||||||
| The A.S. Senate, many people may not know, is essentially a board of directors of the school, its shareholders being the approximate 35,000 students that are on campus and its money coming from students' tuition fees.� Wheeler added this simple yet tremendously important phrase to the bylaws to drive home to the senators the fact that they are making rules that are affecting every student here in some way or another.� "It is important to define powers and duties," Wheeler said, also noting that putting these rules specifically into the bylaws allows for Senate accountability.� The addition was met with much support from the senators, but they agreed to further discuss the issue at a future convening. | ||||||
| In other news, A.S. Treasurer Mike Johnson spoke of the fee committee's decision to approve the increase in fee students will pay to use the campus health center. Despite the fact that this issue will be discussed again at the first Senate meeting next semester, many students simply cannot afford another increased fee, especially in the wake of the recent tuition hike.� Harvey Morley suggested several means of bringing this issue of increasing student fees to a head, one of which being a CSU-wide student walkout.� Morley said, "It is not impossible [to change things]," and also urged the Senate to "make a mark for yourselves," mentioning such social activists as Cesar Chavez, John F. Kennedy, and Martin Luther King, Jr.. | ||||||
| The student health center, it should be noted, already offers medicine and medical needs to students at an extremely reduced price.� Renee Twigg, director of the student health center, spoke to the Senate two weeks ago and said that because of the increasing size of the student body, it is necessary to increase student health center fees to continue offering the same services students have been enjoying. | ||||||
| Copyright Gerry Wachovsky, 2003, and Yahoo! Inc. All rights reserved. | ||||||
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