Alumni Get Down
Representatives from the Alumni Relations Office visited Senate this week, bringing with them: 1) an update on their objectives for the year, and 2) about five dozen fresh-baked cookies. Cookies aside, Director of Alumni Relations Nancy Tresser-Osgood outlined some of the things that her office has provided to students. For first-years, this includes the Cecil-themed “Do Not Disturb” door hangers, Class of 2015 water bottles, and funding for the MillerTime-sponsored Freshman Cup Challenge. Tresser-Osgood also explained that this year, Alumni Relations hopes to highlight all of the things that the Annual Fund provides for Pomona students. In the spring, it will throw a “tuition-free” party, which, according to Tresser-Osgood, will show students just how much of their education is covered by the Annual Fund and Pomona’s 1.6 billion dollar endowment. 1.6 billion dollars? That’s like Mark Cuban stuff. Harwood’s Food Carnival sounds grrreat but that might just be the party of the year.
Bob the Builder
Director of the Office of Facilities and Campus Services Bob Robinson then presented to Senate a progress report on the school’s current and planned construction projects. According to Robinson, plans for the new Studio Art Building are almost out of the design and development phase, and the project should be underway by late next year. The planned building will be located on the former parking lot between the baseball field and Seaver Theatre. Robinson also told senators that the Dartmouth St. Project (better known as the South Campus Sand Trap) has experienced a few setbacks due to delays in getting approval from the L.A. County Fire Department for the project’s underground water structure. Once finished, the newly landscaped area between Mudd, Harwood, and Lyon will provide 160 new bike racks for residents, but this won’t be until November. Oh wait, we mean December. No, actually January…
Hsuanwei’s Soul Train
Commissioner of Environmental Affairs Hsuanwei Fan PO ’12 asked Mr. Robinson during Monday’s meeting about the possibility of housing the Sustainability Office’s ‘Sol-Train’ in the South Campus parking structure. The Sol-Train is a mobile solar charging station, which, Fan said, is currently underutilized because there is no space to store it where it is easily accessible. Robinson agreed to devote two to three parking spaces to housing the Sol-Train and the Sustainability Office’s bio-fuel generator, which can operate using electricity provided by the Sol-Train. Given the nature of the discussion and the little amount of time elapsed between Fan’s proposal and Robinson’s approval, it was literally the most efficient conversation the Senate has ever undergone.
FACE diPALMa
Junior Class President Drew DiPalma PO ’13 presented Senate with a proposal to post ASPC’s budget distribution on the ASPC website, but he ran into a couple hitches. After distributing the five double-sided copies of his pie chart and bar graph to Senate (instead of the ten single-sided copies he meant to print), DiPalma explained the relatively straight-forward layout of his design, which outlines how much of ASPC’s budget goes towards the many things it funds. The problem, however, was that the entire document was printed in black and white, which made it almost impossible to differentiate between the dozen or so shades of gray in the pie chart. OK, transparency, we got it—but come on senators: so close and yet so far away…