The Student Assembly presented a resolution against the administration's "Field-Rush Policy" and listened to speakers on many topics from the Patriot Act to incidents of sexual assault at last night's weekly meeting.
The resolution, which passed unanimously, sets up a committee to discuss the College's regulations against students "rushing" the football field during the Homecoming game.
"Let it be resolved that the Student Assembly calls upon the administration to rescind its policy prohibiting students from peaceably traversing the field during halftime of the Homecoming football game," the resolution reads.
The reason for the resolution came from the Student Athletics Reinvigoration Initiative. Included within this initiative is the Assembly's plan to increase the student body's pride through recreation and athletics.
In order to act upon this resolution the Assembly plans to "work with, aid and assist the administration to reshape the current policy on rushing the field during the Homecoming football game."
Helen Sterling '06 presented to the Assembly the possibility of adopting a resolution against the U.S. Patriot Act, mirroring a similar event that has occurred at 10 other institutions of higher education across the country.
The Assembly has passed resolutions in the past concerning laws that affect students' lives. However, a concern among Assembly members was the purpose of passing a form of this particular resolution, because of the Act's relative importance among undergraduates.
"There are parts of the Patriot Act that are more relevant to the students than others," Janos Marton '04 said in response to why the Assembly should pass such a resolution.
Nothing was officially resolved during the meeting, but the issue was delegated to a sub-committee considering "privacy concerns."
The final presentation to the Assembly was a group of four students representing an array of student organizations including Men's Project, Women of Color Collective, Sexual Assault Awareness and CARE, which is an organization that focuses on domestic assault. These students asked the Assembly to support their efforts to put a discussion about sexual assault at the top of campus issues.
The group was formed in order to gain stricter rules from the administration concerning sexual assault violators, as well as bringing more awareness about sexual assault to campus.
No action was performed in response by the Assembly, but the request to have members join a committee to work out this group's goals was acknowledged and discussed.
