It was an eventful fall semester for the 2009-10 Students’ Association Senate. So much seems to have happened, and yet we still felt it possible to boil down everything to an ample list of accomplishments. That’s right: While you were busy listening to “Tik Tok” (great song though it is), those crafty student representatives were busy making motions. HI HO SILVER!

Speaking of taking off, who took off the most time from Senate? Let’s take a look at last semester’s attendance:

Asad Arastu: Perfect
Shubho Bhattacharrya: one excused (11/09)
Kristian Brooks: Perfect
Harry Brookstein: one excused (10/19)
J.J. Gonzalez: Perfect
Sylvia Guerra: Perfect
Bradley Halpern: Perfect
April Hu: Perfect
Jon Junig: one excused (10/26)
Ryan Mills: three excused (10/19, 11/23, 11/30)
Dennis Nave: Perfect
Sneha Rath: Perfect
Casey Slone: one excused (10/19)
Scott Strenger: Perfect
Lauren Sussman: Perfect
Carlos Tejeda: two excused (11/23, 11/30)
Chizoba Umesi: one unexcused (11/02); Impeached on Nov. 16, 2009
Calvin Yoon: Perfect

Those are all accurate up to Nov. 30, because minutes have not been posted for the final meeting on Dec. 7 (they need approval) and we forgot to take attendance.

To catch any lollygaggers up to speed: There are four main committees: SA Appropriations Committee (SAAC/Appropro), Communications (CommComm), Policy & Review (P&R) and Projects & Services (P&S). Each has a different chairman and gives a full report every meeting. COMMITTED!

SAAC, led by staunch money advocate Andrew Flack (FLACK!) doled out a good amount of cold hard cash last fall. Among the successful recipients: Pride Network, the SA Graphic Artist, Strong Jugglers, Filipino-American Students’ Association, No Jackets Required, Campus Activities Board, ADITI, Men’s Club Volleyball, Mini Baja, Women’s Rugby, Class Councils, Tae Kwon Do, Kendo and Black Students’ Union. MMM… SUPPLEMENTS…

CommComm had a surprisingly eventful semester, in that it served a purpose. Rocky’s Report went out monthly as planned, and the SA Fireside Chats brought in some feedback as well. CommComm also launched an “SA Spotlight” that highlights various SA organizations. Since the initial launch on Oct. 8, the spotlight has included three clubs out of 234: the little known D’Lions and ROC the Raas, as well as S.A.L.S.A. Poor Slavic Club; it will never get recognized. KIEV FOREVER.

Also, the new Hive launched and after some delay all the Senators had their photos online. In a slight jab to a certain cynical blog following the SA, Brookstein noted at the Nov. 30 meeting that freshman senator Rohini Bhatia also got her photo taken. That’s great! The trick is to get it online, though, which has yet to be done. It’s okay, because we gave them until February. ADMIRE OUR BENEVOLENCE!

In Policy and Review news, a number of groups sought SA recognition. Engineers for a Sustainable World and EcoReps were denied preliminary status, although ESW went back to the drawing board. Refugee Student Alliance made preliminary status under the umbrella of Community Service Network, and Engineers Without Borders also made prelim. The Photography Club did not make full SA recognition, but UR Cooking Club did. [Note: See correction, appended]

In Projects and Services, senator and co-chair Bradley Halpern and co-chair Alissa Brill put the committee in high gear, establishing new bike racks on campus, getting feedback on the UR-sponsored Taxi service (it’s bad), opened discussions with Event Support on improving its service, worked with Dining Services on all sorts of things and asked for more left-handed desks for all the freaks — er, “right-impaired.” BEING DIFFERENT IS WRONG, KIDS. (We’re joking, of course; kids don’t read this blog.)

As for creating and acting on New Business (feel free to interpret “business” how you please), the Senate:

1. Put people on all sorts of committees after several grueling rounds of executive session (when the gallery is thrown out so that the Senate can speak frankly).
2. Interrogated Dean of Students Matt Burns and Assistant Dean of Students Morgan Levy about things that no one remembers anymore, because thanks a lot, midterms. Check out the seven pages of minutes for that one (Sept. 28).
3. Approved constitutional changes for several groups and the creation of other groups, including the overturning of P&R’s denial of group status to Louvre (dance ensemble), and rejecting an appeal by UR Consultants Club for preliminary status.
4. Debated how to be as fully representative of the student body as possible.
5. Impeached freshman senator Chizoba Umesi for poor committee attendance and replaced him with Rohini Bhatia.
6. Voted to sing “The Genesee” at the opening of every Senate meeting.

So as flows the river gathering force, so does the Senate move forward into both a new semester and a new year. We’ll be in the gallery, watching like a hawk, bad jokes at the ready.

Adjourned!

[Correction: Engineers for a Sustainable World has already been SA Recognized. The group in question was actually Engineers Without Borders.]