Newly elected members of the Undergraduate Council of Students joined many seasoned representatives for the council's first general-body meeting of the semester Wednesday night in Petteruti Lounge.
The bulk of the meeting was spent holding internal elections to fill the open positions of Web master and parliamentarian pro tempore as well as inner group delegate and programs delegate for the Ivy Council.
Jacob Heimark '10, who spent his summer working at Apple and has been designing Web sites for the past several years, was elected UCS Web master and spoke about his desire to facilitate communication between UCS and the student body.
"I think that as far as the Web site goes, it has some features that are nice," Heimark said, "but one thing that's missing is a way for students to connect and submit a form or petition to UCS."
Heimark said he would work with UCS to explore the possibility of setting up a blog to keep the student body informed of the council's actions.
Academic and Administrative Affairs Chair Sara Damiano '08 was elected parliamentarian pro tempore. She will assist Vice President Tristan Freeman '07 in settling debates concerning the implementation of the council's Code of Operations. If Freeman is unable to attend a UCS meeting, Damiano will fill his place.
"This is my third year on UCS and I've sat through many debates and I consider myself pretty familiar with code and parliamentary procedure," Damiano said. "Last year I worked intensively with Zac Townsend ('08) on code changes and because of that I was scrutinizing the code line by line."
Damiano said she will work to update the code as UCS continues to re-evaluate its procedure for internal elections in the spring.
Members of UCS then proceeded to elect representatives for the Ivy Council. Class of 2009 Representative and Herald Senior Staff Writer Kristina Kelleher was elected inner group delegate. She will be responsible for connecting student groups at Brown with corresponding groups at other Ivy League schools.
Tan Van Nguyen '10 was elected programs delegate for the Ivy Council and will be responsible for organizing inter-Ivy programs such as Relay for Life.
Following the elections, executive board members made brief statements about developments that occurred over the summer and their goals for the year.
UCS President John Gillis '07 said he is optimistic that this year's council will stay focused and be an effective force on campus.
"I've been on UCS for three years and this is the fastest I've ever seen UCS staffed up and ready to start tackling problems," Gillis said. "The over all goal - the theme to take to UCS this year - is to focus on leaving things a little bit better at the end of the year than they are now. This year we are going to work on consolidation by listening to as many students as possible to find out over all what students are saying and to fight for it."
Gillis said he has two goals for this year: to keep track of the passage of time and continually evaluate the council's progress.
Damiano spoke about her progress this summer working with the University to create a pilot winter session.
Admissions and Student Services Chair Sara Gentile '09 said she will address the issue of alternative options for summer storage in response to student interest.
Campus Life Chair Brian Becker '09 said he is currently in discussion with Brown Dining Services about possibly extending hours of service at the Verney-Woolley Dining Hall to match the hours of the Sharpe Refectory.
Becker is also working with the Department of Facilities Management to explore the possibility of installing energy-efficient blinds in residence halls in order to reduce energy consumption.
Student Activities Chair Hugh Livengood '07 spoke about his desire to make policies for student groups more user-friendly.
"I'm looking to make clearer policies about our stance of categorization of pre-professional groups. We also need more clarity for what to do for charity and service groups," Livengood said. "People have said they feel intimidated and that the Student Activities Committee seemed a bit superior in the past. I want intimidation to not be a factor this year."
UCS approved category status for 10 groups, including Off Beat, Quiz Bowl, the Bulgarian Club and Brown Meditation.
In time allotted for community issues, Gillis expressed his desire to aid students working to raise awareness of alleged incidents of police misconduct if these students request the council's assistance. He suggested the possibility of soliciting feedback regarding the issue in upcoming polls.
"I think one of the big tenets of (their cause is) to quantify how many people feel their rights aren't being respected on campus," Gillis said. "Even before the coalition was unified we were there saying that student government is here to help in whatever way they want our help. ... It doesn't matter if it's one student or 300, if there are any students feeling their rights are being violated it's our duty to deal with it."
