The Rice Thresher

Location: http://the.ricethresher.org/opinion/2007/03/02/sa_resolution_confusion

March 2, 2007 > Opinion > SA Resolution Confusion

SA Resolution Confusion

By The Rice Thresher Editorial Staff | Thresher Editorial Staff

Last week’s Thresher made multiple references to a resolution proposed by Student Association Internal Vice Chair Laura Kelley on behalf of the SA Academics Committee. (“SA needs its own Vision” and SA box, Feb. 25.) The document Kelley referenced was a copy-and-paste cutout of points 2, 6 and 8 from President David Leebron’s Vision for the Second Century, accompanied by a summary of results from an informal SA survey on minors from the 2005-‘06 academic year. At the time of publication, the Thresher had received confirmation from multiple SA Executive Committee members, including President Althea Tupper, that this document was in fact the resolution the Academics Committee had intended to propose.

It is unclear whether the Academics Committee would have agreed with that statement.

At Monday’s SA meeting, Kelley said the document she had introduced the previous week, and which was handed out to all meeting attendees alongside the week’s agenda, was not intended to be language for an SA resolution. (See SA box, Page 7.) Rather, it was intended to highlight the points from the V2C that supported a policy statement in favor of undergraduate minors that the Academics Committee formally introduced this week.

The new statement, which has not yet reached its final language, is largely a string of statistics and quotes from the administration supporting the thesis that minors are consistent with the V2C — wise political positioning that gives credence to the SA’s agenda. If this is a sudden change in policy language as a reaction to last week’s Thresher, we are very glad the SA took our words to heart by refusing to roll over on the issue and is instead asserting representative student opinion.

However, if the document Kelley introduced last week was actually never intended as a resolution — or “policy statement” — then the SA was the victim of a gross internal communication error. Such an error reflects a governing body in need of a strong leader and stronger senate. Kelley, the association’s president-elect, has her work cut out for her, and we wish her luck in the position.

The SA has made strides in its internal structure in the last few years. After all, it was only February ‘05 when presidential and senatorial absences from SA general meetings almost prevented SA approval of campus-wide elections, positioning the association on the brink of collapse. But if it continues a recent trend of revitalized and more businesslike activity, the Student Senate has the ability to put forward a resolved pro-student agenda.

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