Editor’s note: This article was initially published in The Daily Gazette, Swarthmore’s online, daily newspaper founded in Fall 1996. As of Fall 2018, the DG has merged with The Phoenix. See the about page to read more about the DG.
The bulk of last Sunday’s CamCo meeting was devoted to clarifying Student Assembly’s (SA) role in student government.
Co-Presidents Lanie Schlessinger ‘15 and Jason Heo ‘15 said CamCo is still trying to figure out how SA meetings are going to be run, how appointments to SA should work, how committee heads are hired, and other procedural details.
“We had a lot of back and forth about what the procedure would be,” Heo said, referring to appointments.
One suggestion was that CamCo’s co-presidents, the chair of internal affairs, and the heads of the Student Budget Committee (SBC) and Student Activities Committee (SAC) would nominate a person that the SA would then vote on through consensus. CamCo is still working on a mechanism for overriding dissent that would “unreasonably prevent consensus.”
Ultimately, the co-presidents said, it is important to establish what each member of student government is capable of and what their powers and roles are.
CamCo also discussed Genderfuck, establishing a date and discussing a sober escort service. There will be no drag contest this year.
CamCo also responded to the recent Phoenix editorial criticizing CamCo’s new policy of all meetings being off the record. To explain its decision, CamCo will write an op-ed in the Phoenix. However, meetings will remain off the record. Journalists will continue to be able to attend them, but they will only be allowed to use quotes with special permission from those who said them.
CamCo has also passed a new policy whereby the individual opinions of CamCo members will no longer be public. Heo explained, “[S]ometimes people don’t want their names attached to their stance.” From now on, CamCo will report its decisions to the public in terms of the outcome and the vote count.
The vote count for this decision was: five for, two against, and three abstentions (two of these were absent members).
CamCo minutes can be found online here. You can submit suggestions for CamCo on the Small Steps Forward page.
1. Off the record CamCo meetings
2. Anonymous voting
3. ????
4. PROFIT
But in all seriousness, what the heck? Is the next move that elections constrain them so we won’t have elections anymore?
If people don’t want names attached to their votes, DON’T RUN FOR CAMCO. Like honestly… I didn’t even know that CamCo did anything important, but I’m curious what they’re trying to get at here.
Considering the fact that our beloved President just appointed her BOYFRIEND chair of SBC, giving him a position with a $5000+ salary, granting him control of a $500,000 budget without any oversight from the administration whatsoever (despite his never having been on SBC), and providing him voting power on StuCo despite his not having been elected (not to mention the fact that they clearly extended the deadline for SBC applications so he could apply, despite the fact that they had multiple qualified applicants) I’d say StuCo does have a bit of power.
But maybe that’s just me
Things just got awkward. Have a good time explaining this one StuCo…