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Planned Parenthood: Now Accepting Flex
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Right at the start of last week’s Associated Students of Pomona College (ASPC) Senate meeting, ASPC President Sarah Appelbaum PO ’13 gave a quick update about the status of Senate’s plan to install a Plan B vending machine on campus. Appelbaum told senators that after a meeting with Director of Health Education Outreach Elizabeth Wilmott, it appears that there are no “prohibitive issues” in the way of making the vending machines a reality other than logistical details. Although it is somewhat uncertain as to whether the new vending machines will accept Claremont Cash, Pomona students are reportedly excited about their parents unknowingly funding their snack and emergency contraceptive habits.
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No Representation Without Representation
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Getting non-Senate students to come to ASPC Senate meetings has been an issue for a while, but last week’s Senate meeting illustrated a new problem: getting senators themselves to show up. While there were a handful of non-Senate students present at the meeting, a similar number of senators were absent, which made almost everyone else feel like chumps for showing up and representing their constituents. Ironically, this was also the meeting where Appelbaum discussed the findings of the senator stipend subcommittee regarding the plausibility of giving senators stipends for their positions. According to Appelbaum, the ASPC Senate could afford to provide a $500-800 stipend to each senator besides the President and Vice Presidents. Well, if there’s any lesson we can take from American politics, it’s that inefficiency should be rewarded and the best way to fix a flawed system is to put more money into it.
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Fossil-Free ASPC
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Representatives from the 5C Divestment Team visited Senate last week to deliver a presentation on the problems of the fossil fuel industry and demand that the ASPC Senate freeze all investments in fossil fuel corporations and divest all current investments in fossil fuel corporations within the next five years. Senators agreed to potentially put a resolution pressuring the administration to also divest on the ballot in the spring elections to give students a chance to voice their opinions on divestment. Commissioner of Clubs and Sports Emma Wolfarth PO ’14 voiced her issues with divestment, saying, “Why isn’t everyone divesting if it’s as good as people are saying?” Shortly after, she followed up with another reasonable argument: “What have future generations ever done for me?”
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All the News That’s Fit to Tweet
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If weekly updates about your very own student government don’t satisfy you, follow @NotASPCSenate on world-famous social networking site http://www.twitter.com for all of your favorite senators’ quips, gaffes, and occasional concrete results as they happen in real time!