The 2001-2002 Student Assembly -- headed by Student Body President-elect Molly Stutzman '02 -- convened last night in Rocky 1 to address various organizational issues, chief among them student appointments and changes to the Student Services Committee.
The meeting, which was the second of two such organizational gatherings, first dealt with the confirmation of Assembly members chosen by Stutzman to serve at the head of five of the six Assembly committees.
All five students nominated for the positions were approved by vote following a brief discussion in which assembly members voiced their support for each of the choices.
Aly Rahim '02 was elected head of the Academic Affairs committee, while Stephanie Long '04 was appointed to lead Administration and Faculty Relations. Julie Webb '04 became head of the Communications Committee, Bill Jaeger '02 will lead Student Life, and Sabeen Hassanali '02 was elected to lead Student Organizations.
Other confirmed appointments included Amit Anand '03 to lead Alumni Relations, Josh Marcuse '04 as Presidential Assistant, Reid Thompson '03 to the role of Webmaster and Beau Roysden '04 as Ivy Council Head Delegate.
Additionally, Mike Perry '03 and Rebecca Davis '03 will serve as Summer Assembly Chair and Vice Chair respectively, while Stephanie Bonan '03 will be Summer Assembly Programming and Community Service Chair.
Steve Zyck '04 was voted secretary and Kendra Quincy Kemp '02 was voted treasurer.
As for the sixth and final committee, Student Services, no appointment was made to reflect changes that opened the position to all students on campus, rather than Assembly members only.
These changes, which were implemented through a constitutional amendment passed at the meeting, aim to give greater autonomy to the Student Services committee, as well as to promote involvement from people from outside Student Assembly, according to Stutzman.
"The amendment in one sense formalizes what we did this year, but we also acted to make it explicit that Student Services will recruit from outside the Student Assembly membership," Stutzman said.
"It allows us to involve Assembly members as well as those students who are interested in Student Services, but who would prefer not to join Student Assembly, or who would want to work only for a month or a week."
She also drew attention to the increased independence granted to the Student Services committee, which now may approve its expenditures by a vote of committee members, rather than through the deliberations of the entire Student Assembly.
Such a measure will help save time at Assembly meetings for other issues, according to Stutzman. In past years, she said, even minor proposals, such as bus rides, were subject to debate and approval by the Assembly, which would result in meetings that often spent as much as half an hour arguing minor points better delegated to a separate committee.
"Student Services is a very important part of what Student Assembly does, but it's not all that SA does -- there are other things that are very important to what we do," she said.
Though Stutzman will not be on campus during the upcoming Summer term, Summer Assembly -- a "more relaxed, more casual" version of Student Assembly, according to Stutzman -- will meet in her absence.
