ASCSM Approves GSA Joint Operating Agreement

This year’s student government election committee was approved as the first order of business at last Thursday’s ASCSM meeting. Student government elections will open on March 28 and will run until the end of March 31, with campaigning allowed on or after the 21st.

The ASCSM Senate also approved version 7.1 of the ASCSM-GSA Joint Operating Agreement, which includes provisions to redistribute student activity fees away from graduate students due to their lower participation level in activities that the fee funds. The motion to approve the JOA passed 15-1-4; Board of Student Organizations members abstained because they felt they did not have enough information to vote for or against the agreement.

ASCSM President Alec Westerman announced that the Maple Street pedestrian corridor addition discussed at ASCSM’s last meeting had been approved by a vote of the ASCSM Executive Committee. A 3/4 majority vote would be required to reverse the motion. None was offered.

Board of Trustees Representative John Bristow then recounted his conversation with Peter Han, a congressional representative contact for the campus. He explained that, in addition to Mines’ current practice of sending student government officers to the Colorado capital to discuss student issues with Colorado state officials (dubbed L-Day), a community outreach event on campus, or C-Day, will commence in the future. Bristow called for committee members to organize each event.

At-Large Institutional Representative Tarryn Miller noted that Facilities Management, in cooperation with the Student Activities office, had recently removed the Mines Park frisbee golf course without permission from or notice to the student body. Vandalism by people outside the Mines student body was cited as a reason for decommissioning the course, which will tentatively be replaced with a volleyball court. Miller, Westerman and Graduate Student Association president Zach Aman concurred that such an action should not have been taken without notifying the student government, nor should such actions be taken without first collecting data on use of such facilities by students, though no definitive action was decided upon to reverse the facility removal.

Board of Student Organizations Treasurer Brendan Casias announced that he was investigating complaints by students and campus staff about data loss, downtime and system slowness with Mines’s Banner system, computer lab PCs and other resources administered by CCIT. As the issue stands currently, CCIT is aware of these issues and will use Technology Fee funds to rectify the issues.