February 24, 2010

Dearest Beloved Constituents,

I hope the semester has progressed pleasantly for all of you.  As usual, I’ve taken great pleasure at serving you and representing your interests in the Undergraduate Student Government Senate.  As usual, in this report, I would like to demonstrate how I’ve served you recently and update you on my various activities as your elected representative.

At the very start of the semester, I was Acting Chair of the Legislative Review Committee, but I opted to not accept the nomination to be the permanent Chair, as the Chair is unable to make motions and this inability would prevent me from serving you efficiently.  I have maintained my position as Vice-Chair, and will continue to improve the grammar and syntax of legislation passing through the committee.

Over the past month I have spent countless hours working on the revisions of P.A.S.S. (Providing Academic Support to Students) in both the Legislative Review Committee and in the Rules, Elections and Referendum Standards Committee.  These two committees have met, more times than I would like to recount, to discuss and improve the legislation correcting the P.A.S.S. Bylaws.  I’m confident to say that the ideas of Vice President Forbes and Senator Dimitriyadi have greatly improved the functioning of the agency.

Unfortunately the first three weeks of the semester were not the most productive for the Senate as a whole.  Our first meeting was cancelled as we couldn’t find a parliamentarian (and it is unconstitutional for the Senate to meet without one).  The second meeting was severely shortened so that members of USG could attend the Haiti Vigil.  The third meeting was cancelled in favor of a meeting with President Stanley and the much-anticipated USG Social.

On February 16^th I presented a resolution to establish an ad-hoc committee in the Senate to examine proposed tuition increases.  The case I made to the Senate explained that our constituents (including you) are quite concerned about the potentiality of their tuitions increasing; the cost of a college education is at the forefront of the undergraduate student body’s collective mind.  I further explained that it is not only our constitutional duty to “create ad hoc positions, task forces, and committees to take action on issues of importance to students,” that it is the duty of a Senator to “investigate and represent the concerns and opinions of the constituency he/she represents” and that gauging the feelings of the undergraduate student population was the RIGHT thing to do.  In the end, after some debate, my resolution passed.

On February 21^st, the Senate’s Ad-Hoc Committee to Examine Proposed Tuition Changes met for the first time.  At this meeting, I was elected Chair.  As a committee we discussed our impending report.  I finished (and submitted) the preliminary report to Executive Vice President Kriscenski earlier this evening.  The preliminary report will hopefully be presented at next week’s Senate meeting.  The committee will continue in its efforts to discern the feelings of the undergraduate student body through a survey in the coming weeks.

There are two occurrences from last night’s Senate meeting that I would like to discuss with you.  The easier of the two is the Commission on Constitutional Reform Act.  Written by my colleague Senator Dimitriyadi, this act established a Commission to “investigate the inconsistencies, irregularities, and impracticalities of the Constitution of the Undergraduate Student Government.”  It is well-known that the USG Constitution is riddled with errors, of both semantic and substantive natures.  This commission will be responsible for a report analyzing the findings, and hopefully this report will facilitate improvements to the Constitution, which will allow your elected representatives to serve you better and create a more respectable USG.

When the Special Services Council’s representative presented the Council’s recommendations for Line Item Budget Status quite a discussion was held on the Senate floor.  There seemed to be diverging opinions on what sort of clubs should be funded by USG.  It seems to me like certain Senators’ fiscally-responsible notions may be negatively impacting their Constitutional duties “to foster a spirit of community.”  Considering the fact that fostering a campus-wide community is in the second sentence of the Preamble of the Constitution, this is an incredibly important duty of the USG.  As this is an important responsibility, I believe that as long as a student group is law-abiding and productive (by its own standards) it is in the best interest of the campus-community to provide funding.  Any group of students creates a community and it is through these various communities that students connect to SBU and find their respective niches.  I firmly believe that the USG should fund clubs and organizations as they help promote an ethos of camaraderie and an environment of school spirit.

As I have written nearly two whole pages for your perusal, I think I shall draw this Senate report to a close.  I look forward to the next month of serving you and your interests faithfully.  If there is ever anything you need assistance with, please don’t hesitate to contact me at dmachalow@stonybrookusg.org.

Warmest Regards,

Deborah Machalow

USG Senator