Today I attended my first Student Assembly meeting in Willard Straight. Apart from one unknown straggler who came in halfway during the meeting, asked what was going on and then immediately left, I was the only student observer in attendance. My intention here is not to make any value judgements on the SA (with my conservative skepticism about bureaucratic inefficiency, they definitely surpassed my expectations and actually talked about relevant stuff), but to give you an insider rundown of some of the things that go on in our Cornell government. Here are my notes:
– The SA commenced with the singing of happy birthday. The recipient of this song was unclear to me.
-Student trip to D.C. for federal scholarship lobbying was announced.
– The existence of an SA Facebook group was brought to light.
– Apparently there is a new committee for women’s affairs.
– A long, winding debate ensued about electoral challenges for the upcoming SA elections.
– Rules were changed so that each SA member had a speaking time of 2, instead of 3 minutes.
– Some sort of new committee was formed to oversee student groups that help transfer students.
– A resolution was presented that would force outgoing presidents to “mentor” incoming SA presidents before leaving office. This resolution was discussed for at least half an hour.
This all, of course, took more than an hour of time. Cornell Insider will be updating you with more SA news in the upcoming weeks.
Actually besides the last point this all seems like decent stuff. Good for the SA. Hope the next meeting is as productive.
Hi, cool site, good writing 😉