In what was described by one Student Assembly member after last night's meeting as a "battle royale," a divided Assembly passed six of seven resolutions for social and residential life - but only after effectively gutting the resolutions of their most drastic reforms in a complicated series of procedural motions and amendments.
The marathon five-hour meeting, which stretched into this morning, was a continual push and pull between proponents of controversial change in line with the Trustees' Five Principles - sponsors of the resolutions led by Tom Leatherbee '01 - and those drawing a harder line in the sand, led by Alex Wilson '01. Wilson and his followers won almost every tug-of-war.
In a massive Assembly power play, Wilson succeeded in axing measures calling for a limit to the number of students living in Greek houses, an institutionalized system for collection of house dues by the College and restrictions on College-disciplined students' involvement in rush and the Coed Fraternity Sorority system, among other things.
Much of the debate on the Working Groups' recommendations centered around the willingness of the Assembly to compromise with the Trustees' presumed vision. Some members advocated controversial Greek reform and a greater role for the College in house management and funding, while others felt the proposed compromises went too far in removing existing Greek features and reducing house autonomy.
"I just hope everyone who lives in a Greek house moves out before the bulldozers come," Matt Benedetto '00 said after most of the reforms were voted down. "When the Trustees see this, you better pack your bags."
"We're not in battle with the Trustees' Five Principles," Marc Fenigstein '01 said. "There is no opposing them."
But those sentiments lost out to ones like these: "This is not a compromise document," Wilson said of the resolutions. "This is begging."
"Who goes into a negotiation giving up points and giving up ground," Ryan Clark '01 said.
The sponsors of the bill, including Jeff Fine '99, Ricky Joshi '01, Theresa Knoedler '00, Melissa Maggio '00, Jen Parkinson '99, as well as Leatherbee and Fenigstein, appeared at times desperate to preserve their initial resolutions. At one point, Leatherbee twice attempted to replace language calling for support of a new College system of rush regulations for disciplined students, even after those references had been explicitly removed by an Assembly vote.
Many of the sponsors ended up voting against their own resolutions because of the changes made.
Leatherbee, who reluctantly voted for the gutted resolutions, resigned from the Assembly in protest at the end of the meeting saying the group "had made a systematic effort to tell half the community their vote doesn't matter," making reference to what he saw as a meeting dominated by the Greek portion of the Assembly.
The Assembly ended up passing six, comparatively tame resolutions.
The seventh resolution, and also the most drastic, was rejected altogether. It called for a limit to the number of students who could live in any Greek house. Sponsors said this "de-emphasis of the residential component" of Greek life would mean only about five people could live in each house, which they said would become more social and inviting for outsiders. They proposed that the College make up lost rent revenue through a new endowment for the houses.
Wilson failed in an attempt to reword the resolution so it would state the Assembly's opposition to a reduction in the residential nature of the Greek system, but the original resolution was still voted down 31 to 18, largely on Greek-unaffiliated lines.
This resolution, which contained what Parkinson herself called a "pretty radical" proposal, sparked the most heated debate. While Parkinson said "this is the kind of concession we need to make," most members disagreed, saying both the residential aspect of Greek life was too important to lose and the Assembly should not be making these kinds of recommendations without CFS support.
One of the resolutions that passed called for increased social space including a replacement to Webster Hall and underground connectors between Robinson Hall, Collis Center and Thayer Dining Hall.
The second called for the construction of new residence halls, in townhouse and suite style, as well as the destruction of both the River and the Choate clusters.
The third stated the Assembly's support for an increase in the amount of nonstudent workers within the residential education system who would take on some of the role currently held by Area Coordinators.
The fourth, and last noncontroversial measure, called for more alcohol awareness education including programs during freshman year.
The fifth resolution would have established a new set of rules for students who have received College disciplinary actions. The proposal would have mandated the revocation of house membership and rushing rights for upperclass students who received "College Discipline." It would have prevented first-year students from rushing in their first term of eligibility if they received the same College sanction.
Instead, the Assembly voted only for a gutted resolution which encouraged the CFS and individual houses to impose a new system of rush and membership guidelines for disciplined students.
The call for a system of greater gender parity - consisting of eight fraternity, sorority and coed houses each - and the institutionalizing of house dues through a single College-maintained account were also torn from the sixth resolution last night.
Opponents said the CFS itself should make these changes, and it was not the Assembly's role to advocate that the College impose them. The words through "attrition" were cut, and the new wording stated that the numbers of each type of house "should be determined ultimately by student interest," and not by a set formula.
