Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
By-Laws
Page 1!
a. Senate shall choose dates for its general elections as outlined in the
Constitution of the Association of Students of Oberlin College.
b. Students shall elect Senators by employing the Single Transferable Vote
(STV) system. Students shall be allowed to rank as many candidates as
there are seats available on Senate.
c. A general election shall last five days or until the election reaches
quorum, though no election may extend beyond the academic year. A
general election reaches quorum once at least twenty percent of the
student body has voted. Those students with the highest ranks according to
the STV system shall be offered an open seat on Student Senate; if a
winning student declines to accept a seat, the student with the next highest
rank who did not win a seat shall be offered the seat.
d. Online balloting shall be conducted if possible. The voting program
used in an election must allow voters to write in as many candidates as
there are open seats on Senate. The program must also provide the
candidate statements of all declared candidates, prevent voters from
choosing more than the allowed number of candidates, require an OCMR
and T-number, invalidate duplicate ID numbers, and provide a means of
comparing T-numbers and OCMRs on paper ballots.
e. Both online and printed ballots must include the names of all candidates
and a space for write-ins. One candidate is randomly selected to appear at
the top of the list, and the rest follow in alphabetical order by last name.
Each student must include his, her, or hir T-number and OCMR with their
ballot for it to be considered valid. Ballots without T-numbers or with Tnumbers that do not match their corresponding OCMRs shall not be
considered valid.
f. Oberlin students who are abroad, on leave, or do not have an OCMR
shall not be prohibited from voting. Such students shall either be provided
a provisional OCMR number or shall be allowed to cast ballots without
OCMRs. Such ballots shall be considered valid.
iv. Appointments
a. If a Senator resigns or is removed from Senate and there are still at least
two General Faculty meetings remaining in the semester, Senate will offer
the position to the candidate from that semesters elections who received
next highest rank according to the STV system and did not initially win a
seat on Senate. Such a candidate shall serve for the remainder of the
semester and the seat shall be considered vacant in the following
semesters election.
b. If a Senator resigns or is removed from Senate and there are less than
two General Faculty meetings remaining in the semester, Senate may
choose to leave the seat open until the next election.
v. Special Elections
Page 2!
Page 4!
i. The Senate shall elect officers at the first meeting of the full Senate and shall
elect interim officers at the last meeting of the full Senate. If an office is vacated,
a new officer shall be elected immediately. Amendments to the officer positions
may be made at any time.
a. Liaison
1. The Liaison shall be the Senates spokesperson with the student
body, staff, faculty, administration, Trustees of Oberlin College,
and the greater Oberlin community.
2. The Liaison shall coordinate the legislative work of the Senate
and send the Senates legislation and proposals to the appropriate
faculty committees or administrative offices.
3. The Liaison shall keep track of Senates outstanding business
and produce a monthly report to this effect. This report shall be
published on the Senate website and presented at the first Plenary
Session of each month.
4. The Liaison shall deliver a State of the Senate address once
per semester, to be printed in the student media. The spring
semester address shall also be presented at a meeting of the
General Faculty. This address will also be posted on the Senate
website.
5. The Liaison shall serve on the General Faculty Planning
Committee.
6. The Liaison shall, on behalf of Senate, send a thank you card to
each trustee that attends the Class Trustee Forum.
7. The Liaison shall manage the Senate email account.
8. The Liaison shall ensure that the Senate scrapbook is kept up to
date.
9. The Liaison may not hold any other officer positions.
10. Only one (1) Senator may serve as Liaison.
b. Associate Liaison
1. The Associate Liaison shall work with the Liaison to coordinate
Senates legislative work.
2. The Associate Liaison shall coordinate the network of student
advocates and meetings with the administrators of Oberlin College.
3. The Associate Liaison shall serve on the Student Life
Committee.
4. The Associate Liaison ensures that Senators, student committee
members, and the college community are informed about campus
governance. The Associate Liaison shall act as a resource for
Senators and students on the college governance system.
5. The Associate Liaison shall coordinate referenda in accordance
with the procedures set forth in the Constitution of the Association
of Students of Oberlin College and these bylaws.
Page 5!
6. The Associate Liaison shall schedule and lead the Senate Retreat
in accordance with the requirements outlined in these bylaws.
7. The Associate Liaison may not hold any other officer positions.
8. Only one (1) Senator may serve as Associate Liaison.
c. Secretary
1. The Secretary shall keep the agenda and take minutes for Senate
meetings when the Designated Minute Taker is incapable of doing
so.
2. The Secretary shall publish the Senate bylaws, coordinate bylaw
revisions, keep the Senate handbook up to date, and look into
Senate reforms.
3. The Secretary shall act as a resource on Senates operating
procedures.
4. At the beginning of each semester, the Secretary shall send
copies of the minutes from the previous semester to the Oberlin
College Archives.
5. The Secretary will post all minutes to the Oberlin College
Student Website.
6. The Secretary shall keep the Senate handbook up to date.
7. The secretary shall manage the official senate blog, which will
be posted on the official senate webpage, and make updates on a
bi-weekly bases at the minimum.
8. The Secretary shall publish a weekly Senate update in the
Oberlin Review.
9. Only one (1) Senator may serve as Secretary.
d. Operations Manager
1. The Operations Manager is responsible for the internal functions
of Senate, individual Senator accountability, and monitoring the
attendance of Senators.
2. In the absence of the Secretary, the Operations Manager shall
take minutes for Plenary Sessions.
3. The Operations Manager maintains a list of all Senate working
groups and their members and publishes this information on the
Senate website.
4. The Operations Manager publishes the minutes for working
group meetings on the Senate website.
5. The Operations Manager manages the Senate mailbox, the
Senate office, Senators office hours, and the Senate website.
6. The Operations Manager shall act as a resource on Senates
operating procedures.
7. The Operations Manager will keep an up to date online record of
all senators points and rational behind each pointing. This page
Page 6!
must be accessible to the senator who the points are allotted to.
The page shall also lists the consequences of each point total.
8. Only one (1) Senator may serve as Operations Manager.
9. The Operations Manager shall verify every Senators attendance
at his or her scheduled office hours and meetings by means of a
surveillance check.
- Though the time and frequency of checks are up to the
discretion of the Operations Manager, each Senator shall be
verified at least once a semester.
- Senators shall not be notified in advance of when
surveillance checks will occur.
- Verification is defined as:
a. For office hours, seeing the Senator at the time and
Place that is publically listed on the Senate website
(or a previously rescheduled location or time, given
that notice of the change was made available to the
public.)
b. For meetings, written confirmation from a meeting
participant who is not a Senator that the Senator in
question was in attendance at the stated date and
time.
- If a Senator is found to have been misrepresenting his or
her attendance at office hours, meetings, or other Senate
events, he or she shall be subject to a hearing at the next
plenary session. A vote shall be taken on removal, censure,
and the addition of 15 points for that Senator.
e. Treasurer
1. The Treasurer shall be responsible for Senates payroll and
collecting Senators work logs.
2. The Treasurer distributes new time cards to Senators.
3. The Treasurer shall write and submit a budget for the Senate to
the Student Finance Committee during the annual budgeting
process.
4. The Treasurer shall check the electronic time cards of Senators
every week and ensure that they are only requesting payment for
activities that are approved by these bylaws.
5. After checking them, the Treasurer shall download each
Senators electronic time card and publish it to the Senate website
by 11:59 P.M. Sunday night at the end of each pay period.
5. The Treasurer and Operations Manager shall meet at least once a
week to go over the work logs so the Operations Manager may
assign points to Senators who failed to carry out their duties.
Page 7!
Page 9!
Page 1! 0
3. Senators who are not running for the wildcard position will
decide which proposal is the most worthwhile to pursue
4. By the next plenary the senator who is chosen for this position
must write up a full officer position description for the officer
position they have created.
5. An appendix of previous wildcard positions will be kept at the
end of the bylaws.
o. Appendix of possible Officer Positions
1. City Liaison
i. The City Liaison is responsible for representing Senate in
affairs with the college to benefit the common welfare. The
City Liaison will attend City Council and City of Oberlin
meetings, as necessary.
ii. The City Liaison will hold at least one forum per
semester to discuss an issue pertaining to City relations.
iii. No more than two (2) Senators may serve as City
Liaison.
2. OSCA-Senate Liaison
i. The OSCA-Senate Liaison is Senates primary liaison to
the Oberlin Student Cooperative Association (OSCA) and
is responsible for bringing to Senate the views and
concerns of OSCAs membership.
ii. The OSCA-Senate Liaison shall facilitate productive and
mutually beneficial communication between OSCA and
Oberlin College by serving as an intermediary between the
appropriate officers of both institutions.
iii. The OSCA-Senate Liaison shall attend the weekly
OSCA Board of Directors meetings receive the appropriate
organizational training (attend the OSCA Board of
Directors retreat or the equivalent).
iv. The OSCA-Senate Liaison shall attend a meeting of
OSCAs General Management Team approximately once
monthly, subject to invitation.
v. The OSCA-Senate Liaison shall pursue involvement in
and stay abreast of negotiations during a school year in
which OSCA and the College negotiate rent contracts.
vi. The OSCA-Senate Liaison shall not receive
compensation through Senate for the same work for which
the Liaison receives compensation (co-op hours) through
OSCA.
vii. Only one (1) Senator may serve as the OSCA-Senate
Liaison.
3. Student Health and Wellness Liaison
Page 1! 1
Page 1! 2
ii. Senators who choose not to receive compensation must fill out a weekly work
log, to be submitted to Senates Treasurer and Operations Manager.
B. Points
i. The Operations Manager shall penalize Senators for failing to execute their
duties and responsibilities by assigning points. Points accrued by a Senator shall
remain on that Senators record for the duration of their term. If a Senators term
is longer than one semester, then points from their first semester carry over to
their second semester. If a Senator is appointed to Senate as a replacement, they
do not acquire the points of the Senator who they replaced.
ii. If a Senator fails to perform the following obligations, the Operations Manager
shall assign the following amount of points to a Senator at his, her, or hir
discretion, subject to an appeal to the entire Senate:
Failure to:
Points:
10 points
5 points
Attend Treasurer Training night or meet oneon-one with the Student Treasurer or
Assistant Student Treasurer
1 points
1 points
1 points
3 points
3 points
3 points
3 points
3 points
2 points
5 points
Page 1! 3
1 Point
3 Points
Failure to:
Points:
Liaison
2 points
per month
2 points
per
semester
5 points
Page 1! 4
Operations
Manager
Treasurer
1 point per
week
2 points
2 points
per
semester
2 points
1 points
per week
1 point per
week
3 points
per week
2 points
1 point per
week
4 points
Page 1! 5
Student Finance
Co-Chair
Committee
Appointments
Coordinator
5 Points
2 points
per
semester
1 point per
week
5 Points
3 points
3 points
3 points
3 points
Committee
Liaison
2 points
3 points
Page 1! 6
3 points
Failure to:
Points:
Page 1! 7
Number of Points
Action
10 points
20 points
25 points
30 points
ix. Senators may be excused from a mandatory event by notifying the Operations
Manager of a scheduling conflict at least 24 hours prior to said event. Senators
who fail to notify the Operations Manager of a scheduling conflict prior to a
mandatory event are not to be excused unless the situation was an emergency and
prior notification was impossible. Excused absences from events are granted at
the discretion of the Operations Manager, subject to an appeal to the entire Senate.
a. Senators may not be excused from more than two (2) plenary sessions
per semester.
b. Senators may not be excused from more than two (2) meetings of the
General Faculty per semester.
c. Senators may not be excused from more than two (2) Senate-sponsored
forum per semester.
d. Senators may not be excused from attending Treasurer Training Night
or a meeting of the Student Finance Committee.
e. If the Operations Manager is unable to attend an event, he, she, or ze
shall notify the Liaison of his, her, or hir pending absence.
C. Censure, Removal, or Resignation of a Senator
i. A censure is an official Senate rebuke of a Senators actions and can be issued
by a majority vote of the Senate. Any Senator can offer a proposal to censure a
Senator at any time. A Senator may be censured for accumulating points, or for
committing one of the following actions:
a. Purposefully breaking procedure, repeatedly creating distractions, or
otherwise impeding Senate meetings.
b. Showing disrespect, insulting others, or acting abusively during a
Senate meeting or when acting in a senatorial capacity.
Page 1! 8
end, unless specified otherwise, at 9:30 P.M. Senators are required to be in attendance for
the entire plenary session.
i. The Senate may enter and exit Executive Session, which is not open to the
public and in which minutes will not be taken unless decided otherwise by Senate.
The processes governing Senate Plenary Sessions shall govern Executive
Sessions.
ii. Senate may call for additional meetings through a majority vote of the Senate.
B. Formation of the Agenda
i. Senators may submit agenda items to the Secretary until 8:00 P.M. on the
Wednesday preceding the appropriate Plenary Session.
ii. The Secretary shall send the tentative agenda to all Senators by noon on the
Thursday preceding the appropriate Plenary Session.
iii. The Secretary shall publish the tentative agenda on the Senate website by noon
on the Friday preceding the appropriate Plenary Session.
iv. Revisions to the agenda may be made during Plenary Sessions, subject to
approval by general feelings.
v. Any person or persons with outside business for Senate to address are not
required to submit agenda items prior to a Plenary Session.
C. The Revised Feminist Process
i. Facilitators
a. A Senator shall be chosen to be a facilitator by a vote of general
feelings.
b. A facilitator keeps a speaking queue and determines the order in which
Senators and other individuals speak on an issue before the Senate.
c. A new facilitator may be chosen by a vote of general feelings.
ii. Discussion
a. Anyone may speak before the Senate during a Plenary Session by
indicating to the facilitator that they wish to speak. The facilitator will
then add the person to the speaking queue.
iii. Proposals
a. Any Senator may make a proposal regarding an issue at any point
during a Plenary Session.
b. When a proposal is made, the conversation continues, and anyone can
join the queue and speak on the issue to proposal addresses, or to speak on
the proposal itself.
iv. Process Suggestions
a. Process suggestions can be made at any time, without waiting for stack,
and require an immediate vote by general feelings. Permitted process
suggestions include:
1. Close stack anyone who wants to get on stack does so and no
additional persons may be added to the queue. When the queue is
exhausted, discussion is considered complete.
Page 2! 0
b. Approval of Agenda Senators may add and/or remove items from the
agenda of the meeting, subject to approval by general feelings.
c. Outside Business Senate discusses business brought before Senate by
outside parties
d. Announcements Senate hears business that requires little discussion
or decision
e. Office Hours Report Senators report on discussion held with students
during office hours.
f. Committee Reports Senate hears updates from the committees on
which Senators serve
g. Decisions Senate hears issues that require a decision to be made.
h. Discussion Senate shall discuss other topics and may or may not
make decisions in regards to these topics.
j. Facilitator for Next Week Senate selects a facilitator for the next
Plenary Session
k. Check outs Senate ends its meetings with each individual Senator
checking out. Senators will declare goals and tasks they plan to carry out
during the upcoming week and said goals be recorded by the Secretary in
the minutes.
E. Voting
i. Senate shall vote on process suggestions by taking general feelings. Each
Senator indicates support, neutrality, or opposition to a process suggestion by a
thumbs-up, thumbs-sideways, or thumbs-down, respectively. The facilitator shall
accept the process suggestion if there is no opposition.
ii. Senators shall vote on proposals when a queue is empty or when a process
suggestion requires an immediate vote. Senate shall hold formal votes on proposal
by hand vote, roll call vote, ballot vote, or secret ballot vote. Senate shall vote on
a given proposal using a hand vote by default unless any Senator requests a roll
call vote, ballot vote, or secret ballot vote. The Secretary shall note the proposal,
vote, and the results of the vote in the minutes.
iii. If there are two conflicting proposals concerning the type of voting process,
the order of precedence for the process shall be as follows:
a. Secret Ballot Vote All Senators write their vote for, against, or in
abstention of a proposal on a piece of paper. Facilitator counts the votes
and announces the results.
b. Ballot Vote All Senators write their name and vote for, against, or in
abstention of a proposal on a piece of paper. Facilitator reads the name and
vote on each piece of paper, to be noted by the Secretary in the minutes.
The facilitator counts the votes and announces the results.
c. Roll Call Vote The Secretary calls the name of each Senator who
responds with a vote for, against, or in abstention of a proposal to be noted
explicitly in the minutes. The Secretary counts the votes and announces
the results.
Page 2! 2
Page 2! 3
for a vote they will not be counted toward quorum or in the affirmative, negative
or abstention vote counts.
G. Approval of Minutes
i. The Senate shall hire a Designated Minute Taker (who will by default be the
OST Committee Coordinator), who shall take minutes at each plenary session.
ii. The Senate has the ability to relieve the Designated Minute Taker of this duty
by a majority vote.
VII. Senate Retreats
A. The Associate Liaison and the Senator who ran the elections shall hold a training session for
new Senators to explain the internal workings of Senate guided through the handbook prior to the
first plenary session of the newly elected Senate.
B. The Associate Liaison is responsible for coordinating a Senate retreat within the first two
weeks of the new Senate.
C. The Senate may hold additional retreats as it sees fit.
VIII. Referenda
A. Referenda may be called through the processes outlined in the Constitution of the
Association of Students of Oberlin College.
B. Referenda last at least one week. Referenda that include potential changes to the
Constitution of the Association of Students of Oberlin College shall have a quorum of
one person more than 50 per cent of the student body and shall last until either one week
has passed or quorum has been met, whichever is longer. Referenda cannot extend
beyond the end of an academic year.
C. Votes are validated and tallied in accordance with the process outlined in the Election
of Senators section of these bylaws. Votes on issues that are left blank count as
abstentions.
D. Each issue shall have both affirmative and negative options, though each of these may
be split into further options. If more than one options exists under either the affirmative
or negative response, the majority on affirmative/negative is ascertained first and then a
majority is established from among the included options.
E. Voters shall be given the option to abstain on every question.
F. A referendum question passes only when more than 50 per cent of votes are in the
affirmative.
G. The Associate Liaison is responsible for coordinating referenda.
IX. Forums
A. Senate shall sponsor at least three (3) forums per semester.
B. Any Senator may propose a topic for a forum.
C. Senate may sponsor forums only if the forum will occur more than two weeks from
the date of the proposal.
D. Senate may not sponsor more than two (2) forums per month.
E. The Events Coordinator is responsible for organizing all forums.
E. The Outreach Coordinator shall publicize the forum.
G. All Senators are required to attend Senate-sponsored forums.
X. Committee Appointments
Page 2! 4
regardless of committee. Senate may choose to appoint a student for a term longer than
one year.
i. An exception to the general interview practice is the Student Honor Committee,
for which appointment interviews are conducted by a group of three Senators and
three current Student Honor Committee members. After each of these interviews, t h e
interviewers vote as a group by majority to pass the candidate on to Student
Senate
for final consideration. If there are under three interviewers from either b o d y , t h e
decision to pass the candidate must be made by consensus. Quorum is
two members
from each body. Following each interview, the Student Honor
committee will
provide the resume and application of the candidate to be available
for
the
following plenary.
I. Each semester, every Senator is required to attend a minimum of four of the committee
interviews schedule by the Committee Appointments Coordinator. In the fall semester,
two of Senators required interviews must take place prior to Fall Break. In the spring
semester, two of the Senators required interviews must take place prior to Spring Break.
Senators will be assigned two (2) points for each interview that they fail to attend on
schedule. Points will not be assigned if the Committee Appointments Coordinator has not
scheduled interviews.
i. If a Committee Appointments Coordinator fails to attend 50% of the interviews
conducted each module (measured retrospectively before Fall or Spring Break depending on semester - and before Finals Week), they should be given 5 points. If they
fail to attend 75% of the interviews, they should be given 10 points. If they
fail to
attend any of the interviews in a given module, they should be awarded 15
points
for failure to perform their job to any satisfactory degree.
J. Voting procedures in Senate plenary for committee appointments are as follows:
Following discussion of a candidate, Senate will vote to appoint the candidate. If a
majority votes in favor, the candidate is automatically appointed to the committee. If a
majority that is less than a two-thirds votes against the candidate, Senate will seek further
information. This can include, but is not limited to, contacting the candidate or
organization (if applicable - for instance, in the case of the Student Honor Committee)
with further questions, etc. If a majority that is two-thirds or more votes against the
candidate, the candidate will not be appointed. In the case of limited seats on a
committee, this procedure in no way prevents Senate from choosing one or more
candidates over others.
i. To preserve confidentiality, when making Student Honor Committee
appointments, Senate must go into executive session.
ii. At the close of executive session, a senator will report the results of the
vote and provide their reasoning for the decision.
K. Senate may remove, by formal majority vote, any student holders of committee seats
who show poor attendance to their committee(s) or to their working group(s).
i. Senate may not remove members of the Student Finance Committee or Forum
Board in this manner.
Page 2! 6
Page 2! 7
i. The chair of each working group shall submit bi-weekly attendance reports to
the Operations Manager by 4:00pm on the Sunday of a Plenary Session.
ii. If a Senator is unable to attend regular working group meetings due to a
scheduling conflict, he, she, or ze shall resign from that working group.
J. Working groups shall be disbanded with a majority vote of Senate.
i. If a working group fails to meet twice in a row, the Operations Manager will
propose to disband the working group at the following Plenary Session.
K. Senate may have no more than fifteen (15) active working groups at any given time,
including the two permanent working groups listed below.
L. In addition to other working groups, Senate shall maintain the following permanent
working groups:
i. The SFC-Senate Working Group
a. The working group shall be the main body of communication between
Student Senate and the Student Finance Committee.
b. The working group shall be composed of at least 11 voting members, as
follows:
1. The Senate-appointed Student Finance Co-Chair
a. The Senate-appointed Student Finance Co-Chair shall
serve as the facilitator and administrator for the working
group.
2. The Associate Liaison of Student Senate
3. The Treasurer of Student Senate
4. The Operations Manager of Student Senate
5. The Committee Appointments Coordinator of Student Senate
6. The Committee-elected Student Finance Co-Chair
7. At least three (3) members of the SFC
a. This number does not include the Committee-elected
Student Finance Co-Chair
8. The Student Treasurer
9. The Assistant Student Treasurer
c. Other Senators may join the working group, if they have the desire to do
so.
XII. Chartering Organizations
A. The chartering process
i. Purpose
a. Any group of students must be chartered in order to use the name of
Oberlin College, or its buildings, facilities, or services. This includes
anyone on the Oberlin campus who wishes to:
1. Publish literature intended for on or off-campus distribution.
2. Bring outside speakers to address open meetings
3. Carry out activities for the benefit of non-members
4. Participate in off-campus activities in the name of Oberlin
College.
Page 2! 8
that an officers list, for the upcoming year, signed by their advisor,
will be filed in the Student Union Office by May 1 of each
academic year. Organizations must also determine and state a
method of publicizing their meetings and activities to the entire
student body. The organization must also state that it will abide by
its charter and the rules and regulations of Oberlin College.
7. Amendment Procedures: The charter must allow for
amendments and revisions to be made. Amendments may require
the approval of the Student Senate, Student Life Committee, and
the JCSC.
8. Signatures of founders: Five founding members must sign their
names at the end of the charter, and their OCMR and email
addresses.
iii. How a charter is considered for passage
a. A new charter must be submitted to the Student Union Office. The
charter shall be forwarded to the Student Senate via Senates Chartering
Liaison(s).
b. Within one week of class days while classes are in session from the date
of submission, the Student Senate Chartering Liaison(s) will contact the
founding members to serve as a resource and to assist with revision.
c. The charter will then be considered for passage by the Joint Chartering
Subcommittee (JCSC). The JCSC will be composed of Senates
Chartering Liaison(s) (at least one must be present), Senates Liaison, a
senator elected from within Senate, the Student Life Committees (SLC)
Charter Liaison, a non-senator student member of the SLC, and a faculty
member of the SLC. Senates Chartering Liaison(s) will be an ex officio
(non-voting) member. The Dean of Students (or designee) will serve as a
member of the JCSC (also ex officio and non-voting). Any member of the
JCSC who is also a member of the petitioning organization (whether the
recognition or review) may not be present during the deliberations or
voting pertaining to that organization. Should more than two voting
members be affected by this provision, Senate will appoint Senators to
temporarily serve on the JCSC. Deliberations on recognition or review of
charters will be conducted in closed session. The Senates Chartering
Liaison(s) will contact the members of the JCSC to schedule a hearing on
the charter. The JCSC will not consider charters in the final two weeks of
classes or when classes are not in session.
d. The JCSC shall act on each charter within two weeks (of class days,
while classes are in session) of the charters submission to the JCSC.
e. The JCSC must explicitly consider the following aspects during
deliberations:
1. Liability concerns relating to potentially dangerous activities.
Page 3! 0
Page 3! 3
iv. The SFC will then be granted a ten-minute period in which to explain and
defend the methodology and rationale behind its allocation to the appealing
organization.
a. The Secretary shall give the SFC a two-minute warning prior to the end
of the ten-minute period.
v. The Student Senate will then have a period no longer than twenty minutes to
ask factual questions of the members of the SFC and the appealing organization.
a. Senators may not use this period for a discussion or to present their own
personal opinions on the matter. They may only use this time to ask factual
questions of either the members of the SFC or the members of the
appealing organization.
b. If a Senator attempts to abuse this process by stating personal opinions
or asking questions that are not factual in nature, the Operations Manager,
at the conclusion of the twenty-minute period, shall propose to assign the
Senator who attempted to abuse the process 5 points and to have them be
censured. If the Operations Manager is the Senator who is attempting to
abuse the process, the Liaison shall make this proposal.
vi. At the conclusion of these three processes, the Senate must vote whether the
appeal is legitimate. Senate may not delay this vote to a following Plenary
session. As per the Constitution of the Association of Students of Oberlin College,
an appeal is only legitimate if and only if the appealing organization demonstrates
that the SFC exercised its power in an unfair or arbitrary nature.
a. The following Senators are required to recuse themselves from voting
on the legitimacy of the appeal:
1. The Senate-elected SFC Co-Chair
2. The Chartering Liaison(s)
3. Any Senator who has an affiliation with the appealing
organization of the SFC, as defined by these bylaws.
vii. The appeal shall be deemed legitimate and shall move forward if and only if
two-thirds of the Student Senators who are not required to recuse themselves vote
in the affirmative.
a. For the purposes of this vote, quorum is two-thirds of all Senators who
are not required by these bylaws to recuse themselves.
E. Appeal Allocation Process
i. If the Student Senate determines that an appeal is legitimate, they must call an
additional Plenary session prior to the next regularly scheduled Plenary session in
order to review the budget of the appealing organization and to allocate funds.
ii. The Student Treasurer shall be invited to this specially scheduled plenary
session to serve as a resource on SFCs allocation policies.
iii. The Student Senate shall be bound by all allocation policies of the SFC.
iv. The meeting will be open to the public and minutes shall be taken, but only
Senators who are permitted to vote under the stipulations outlined in these bylaws
may participate in discussion.
Page 3! 4
v. The following Senators must recuse themselves from the appeal discussion and
allocation:
a. The Senate-elected Co-Chair of the SFC
b. The Chartering Liaison(s) of Senate
c. Any Senator who has an affiliation with the appealing organization or
the SFC, as defined previously in these bylaws.
vi. The Plenary session shall begin with a period of discussion, to last no longer
than one hour, in which no proposals can be made.
a. The Secretary will give regular updates as to how much time remains in
the discussion.
vii. At the conclusion of the discussion period, there will be a voting process in
which the budget will be reviewed on a line-by-line basis. During this time,
proposals may be made but no discussion shall take place.
a. In the event of conflicting proposals, approval voting shall be used to
determine the order in which the proposals shall be voted on.
viii. The Student Treasurer shall mark up the budget in accordance with standard
procedures of the SFC as Senates proposals are voted upon.
F. Return of the Budget to the Student Finance Committee
i. Following the Senate Plenary in which a new allocation decision is reached, the
Student Treasurer shall send the marked up budget to all members of the SFC.
ii. The SFC will then have one week in which to review the budget and the
minutes of the Senate Plenary meeting.
iii. Following its budget review, SFC will make a recommendation to Student
Senate concerning the allocation for the appealing organization. There are three
options for this recommendation:
a. To accept the first allocation made by SFC, during the annual allocation
process.
b. To maintain to decision made by Senate during the appeal Plenary
session.
c. To accept a new allocation, determined during the review session.
iv. In the subsequent Plenary Session, Senate will review SFCs recommendation,
and will make a final decision concerning the budget allocation. There are two
options for this decision:
a. To accept the recommendation of the SFC
b. To maintain the allocation made during the appeal Plenary session.
v. As with all other parts of this process, the Senate-elected SFC Co-Chair, the
Chartering Liaison(s), and any senator with an affiliation with either the SFC or
the appealing organization may not participate in Senates vote on this matter.
G. An organization may only appeal their budget on one occasion during each academic
year, including a failed appeal request.
H. The rules governing the appeal process must appear in the bylaws of both the SFC and
the Student Senate. As such, revisions to this process may only be made by the mutual
Page 3! 5
consent of both the SFC and the Student Senate, in accordance with the processes for
bylaw revisions of each organization.
XIV. Senator Compensation
A. A Senator may be compensated after filling out an electronic time card every two
weeks. Electronic time cards are submitted to the Office of the Student Treasurer.
Senators may choose to not get paid, but a Senator cannot divert pay to another source
without getting paid first. Senators must have appropriate paperwork filed, including a
student employment card and I-9 form, in order to be compensated.
B. Senators may be compensated for the following activities:
i. Plenary sessions
ii. Holding office hours by tabling in a public place
iii. Contributing to the webpage, newsletter, Facebook page, and Twitter account
iv. Meetings of a working group of which the Senator is a member
v. Meetings set up officially during plenary sessions concerning Senate business.
vi. Meetings of the General Faculty
vii. Meetings of any faculty or administrative committees of which the Senator is
a member as that Senators committee pick, with the exception of Judicial Board
and Community Boards.
viii. Meetings made in advance by appointment relating to Senate business.
ix. Any duties directly related to a Senators officer position
x. Time spent at a Senate retreat
xi. Time spent doing tasks approved by a two-thirds majority vote of Senate
(which, previously, has included time spent on elections, committee
appointments, etc.)
C. Copies of completed time cards shall be made and documented by the Treasurer.
D. Senator compensation is capped at 20 hours per week. A Senator can seek an
exemption from the Senate at the Plenary following a week during which a Senators
work exceeds 20 hours. Such an exemption is approved via a majority vote.
XV. Institutional Memory
A. The Student Senate Handbook
i. The Student Senate Handbook is the responsibility of the Operations Manager.
ii. The Student Senate Handbook shall exist in print form and shall be kept in the
Senate office.
iii. The following documents shall be included in the Student Senate Handbook:
a. The Bylaws of the Student Senate
b. The Constitution of the Association of Students of Oberlin College
c. Instructions for how to run an election.
d. A list of current Senators and their contact information
e. A list of all current Senate working groups and their members
B. Senator Interviews
i. To preserve institutional memory, each senator shall participate in an interview
at the close of each semester on Senate, regarding his/her/their experience on
Senate.
Page 3! 6
ii. Each senator will have the ability to choose the interviewer of his/her/their
choice, provided that said interviewer is currently a student senator.
iii. Each interview will consist of a set of pre-prepared questions that are agreed
upon by all senators before interviews start, and which can be rewritten each year
if desired.
iv. The interview questions should address the following topics:
a. The general background/introduction of the Senator being interviewed;
b. The officer position(s) of the Senator being interviewed;
c. The specific working group(s) that Senator was a member of, especially
and working groups that Senator may have chaired;
d. The specific committee(s) that the Senator served on; and
e. Any further topics regarding Senate that Senate considers to be of
importance.
iv. A copy of questions shall be given to each Senator at the beginning of each
semester, and, in the event that the list of interview questions is amended at any
point in the semester, a new list of questions shall be distributed to each semester.
v. Each interview shall be recorded for posteritys sake, and a transcription of
each interview shall be made available on the Senate website.
a. Members of the Institutional Memory Taskforce shall transcribe each
interview, and have all transcriptions completed before the last Senate
Plenary session of the semester.
b. The interview recordings must be available to future senators, but they
do not need to be posted to the Senate website.
v. The Operations Manager shall ensure that all interviews are successfully
scheduled, and that all transcriptions are posted to the Senate website.
vi. There will be a penalty of 3 points to any Senator who fails to complete his/
her/their interview by the end of the semester.
vii. At the conclusion of the interview, each Senator will be given access to the
transcription of his/her/their interview to make any additions, amendments, or
other edits to the transcript, to better reflect that Senators opinions,
before it is posted to the Senate website.
C. The Student Senate Payroll Log
i. The Student Senate Payroll Log is the responsibility of the Treasurer.
ii. The Student Senate Payroll Log shall exist in print form and shall be kept in the
Senate office.
iii. The Student Senate Payroll Log shall contain the weekly work logs and/or
payroll records for each Senator.
XVI. Amendments to these Bylaws
A. Amendments may be made to these bylaws with a two-thirds majority vote.
B. The bylaws may not be changed without a written proposal including exact language.
Page 3! 7