We’re Not Idiots, Cosi
Up first this week, Vice President for Finance Cosimo Thawley ’11 presented the budget for ASPC next year. After the best weekend of their lives, in which members of this year’s and next year’s Budget Committees worked 25 hours to set the budget, the group decided to increase funding to student organizations by about $10,000 for next year. Income will rise by about $14,000 next year, as a result of an increase in both student fees and enrollment. Some notable allocations include $117,000 to CCLA (a $1,250 decrease from this year, likely due to several committees not spending their entire budget and Vice President for Campus Life and Activities Frank Langan PO ‘11 making up for it with his legendary “Frank Langan Presents” parties, which will hopefully continue in Langan’s absence next year), an increase of $5,000 to the security fund, and an increase in admin expenses to a total of $20,000 for the ASPC Office. With the departure of Associate Dean of Students Neil “What Dunk Tank?” Gerard, the ASPC Office decided to finally splurge on that three-in-one ping pong / foosball / pool table they’ve wanted for so long so that Assistant Director of the Smith Campus Center and Student Programs Ellie Ash can “kick some ass.”
Less Money à Don’t Spend Less
This year’s Budget Committee spent only half of the $14,000 from the unallocated fund, which is used to fund student organizations throughout the year. They also only spent about half of the $8,000 alcohol fund. As such, they decided to cut the allocations for each fund to $11,000 and $6,000, respectively. The lower budget, combined with the graduation of ASPC President Stephanie “The Stickler” Almeida ’11 (Almeida has been on the last three Budget Committees, none of which have spent their total allocation), should afford next year’s Budget Committee an easier task to spend the entire allocation of student fees on student organizations. A special shout-out to Almeida for sitting in Budget Hearings three years in a row, for a total of 75 hours of fun times. Number of smiles cracked by Almeida over the period? One, while she was watching The Masters last year. Or maybe that was me.
Bringing The ASPC To You
After everyone applauded the Budget Committee for their hard work, Almeida introduced the idea of creating a position for a Director of Public Relations for the ASPC Senate. This person would send out weekly e-mails to the student body with the agenda for Senate meetings, the previous week’s minutes, and recent accomplishments of the Senate, as well as update the ASPC website and social media sites. The goal would be to increase and facilitate communication with the student body. The position, as Almeida described it, would act as more of an employee than a volunteer, so they would be paid by the college. Some Senators raised arguments that the Senate Secretary would be able to perform this role since the role of the Secretary is already fairly limited in scope, but next year’s Environmental Affairs Commissioner Hsuanwei “Birthday Boy” Fan ‘12 aptly pointed out that “someone who would be a great secretary may not be great at using Twitter.” South Campus Representative Ian “The Beard” Gallogly ’13 wondered what this person’s role “with the press would be,” while next year’s ASPC President Nate Brown ’12 said he was in favor of the idea, since ASPC wouldn’t have to pay the person, and if the position didn’t work out next year, it could be liquidated in the future. Senior Class President Meredith Willis ’11, never one to shy away from comment (unless she decides to pick up her cell phone during the middle of the meeting and carry on a conversation with her friend while the Senate discusses other matters) added that the ASPC's Facebook account is “not really running right now. I wouldn’t call it dormant, though, more slovenly.”
CCLA Commissioner Frank Langan Presents: Charter Planes Back From Vegas
Lastly, Langan offered up a summary of CCLA’s events this year. Some committees did very well and spent all their money (way to go Off Campus Events!), while others didn’t put on as much programming as they would like. CCLA has a few events left for this year. This weekend is the Vegas Turnaround, which is leaving Claremont at 12:30 p.m. on Saturday and leaving Vegas at 2 a.m. on Sunday morning. Langan has personally offered charter planes to all the people trying to make their money back at 2 a.m. and too drunk to care that they’re missing the bus. Or personal rides from the legend himself. Your choice. Next Wednesday, the last day of classes, will be the De-Stress Extravaganza, featuring puppies and bunnies, cotton candy, a dunk tank, 21 Choices frozen yogurt and, most importantly, roller bubbles. Yes, roller bubbles—basically boy-in-the-plastic-ball wars on water in an inflatable pool. In response to a question from recently-elected Commissioner of Community Relations Sarah Appelbaum PO ’13, Langan noted that “we’re very careful about where our puppies come from… They don’t sit in a cage the other six days of the week that they’re not with us.” After Langan’s summary, Thawley offered the idea that CCLA should change its name since no one knows what it means. Ellie Ash asked for a show of hands to see who knew what it meant, and only Thawley, Almeida, Gallogly, and members of CCLA (of which there were a surprising amount in the meeting) raised their hands. Next year’s Vice President for Campus Life, theory friction practice ’12, did not.