STUDENT BAR ASSOCIATION American University
Washington College of Law
Amanda Molina, President
Jaime Garcia De Paredes III, Vice President
December 1, 2015
______________________________________________________________________________
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
CALL TO ORDER
ROLL CALL
APPROVAL OF MINUTES
-Approved by ayes
APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA
- Approved by ayes after creating new section for finance committee report prior to
GANDO report and moving brief and comet kickback party request underneath
NEW APPOINTMENTS
PRESIDENT’S REPORT
-Speaking as the executive and as a person the SBA and student body is a family because
our goals are the same, to serve the student body, and that though we have disagreements
about how to do that we should maintain that as a priority. Within a week, the Dean’s
Search Committee will be narrowed down to 18. Then it will be narrowed down to 11
and will be made public and students will have opportunities to meet with the 11
candidates. Student input is highly regarded by the dean’s search committee. Then
candidates will be reduced to 5 or 6 and will be sent to main campus.
VICE PRESIDENT- regarding the recent legislation that was proposed there has been
some misinterpretation about its purpose. It was not meant to disparage the efforts of the
Senate. I do however think we have a problem. We need to promulgate legislation to
increase efforts to the student body. Youm- I think as a family we were caught off guard
by the lack of communication regarding the legislation. I would like specific examples of
where we are feeling because I feel like this is coming out of nowhere. VP- this is the
conversation. The legislation was created to start this discussion. There is no increase in
Senators and simply asks that the Senate checks in with student groups at the semester.
Molina- The morning after the last senate meeting the executive received many emails
from Senators stating that they felt the Senate was failing in that the passing legislation
was internal. Youm- I understand but why couldn’t we have an informal conversation
beforehand. There is no reason that this legislation would be helpful beforehand. VP- this
is the conversation so that we can all talk together. Dunham- I think the issue is that there
are students working. My committee has met with a number of deans over the year.
However, I have never seen an executive at my meeting and to have a piece of legislation
that does not reflect that when a conversation could have done the same thing to pull us
all together. VP- unfortunately nothing has been promulgated. Name something. I can’t
think of anything. We have discussions about where we should go but we haven’t
addressed the issues with employment and networking and issues etc. Youm- I think we
have done a lot what can we do? VP- find out from OCPD where placement with 1L and
2L placement can go. Farhan- I never received my committee placement. Motion to table
17-0-0. President pro temp yields back to the executive VP.
VII.
STANDING COMMITTEES
a. Finance
i. Resolution to fund briefs (4)
1. Criminal law practitioner-6500 approved by the finance committee
that has been accepted by the brief. Trevor Addy, Due to the issue
with getting price quotes we work within a budget due to the many
different selections within printing. All money would go directly to
HPB for the purposes of publication. The crim law practitioner is
the only criminal publication at WCL and we have worked on
publication with the ABA as well as creating networking events.
We aim to publish twice a year and have transitioned to a teambased approach to the publication. Aim for a December 20th
publication date that is a little late but we were having issues
getting article submissions from authors. Generally we order over
1000 copies and it seems that the cost varies from 6500 to 7500 for
that amount in years past. This is just for the current issue. LevyNACDL? National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers
which we worked with in the past. PASSED BY AYES
2. Health Law and Policy Brief- 2000 for publication. Mohammed
Mespahi -We publish 2 issues per year. The Health Law program
at WCL is relatively new (2007). The past two years we have
grown significantly in terms of interest in the field and the first
place prize we won in the spring. We started a competition for
health law articles for all schools so we are increasing our article
count to allow for growth of this publication. We used to print and
our publication was over 7000 dollars but we have since gone
digital to reduce costs. We got a lot of push back on this but we are
dedicated to continuing these declining costs. PASSED BY AYES
3. National Security Brief- 4489 as consistent with their request. We
received a quote and estimate the costs will be as requested. It is
broken down into formatting costs and printing costs for 450
briefs. We estimated high on the formatting costs but don’t believe
it will be that high. This publication is important in that we hand
deliver them to key policy players on the hill to ensure that they
have access to the most up to date legal articles. PASSED BY
AYES
4. Environmental Law Society and Law and Policy Brief- Funds to
attend Paris conference on climate talks 4242. Kaitlin Buchanan.
COP21 is the largest climate talk in recent history with over 190
heads of state discussing climate change. The conference goes until
Dec 11. We have been discussing this event for several months
now through publishing on our blog and other accounts. We have
seen a large increase of the blog’s coverage. While we are unable
to get tickets to the main event as security is a problem. We have 2
students already covering the conference with funds we already
had. Looking to send another 3 more. This is huge for the students
interested in this event and international environmental regulations.
We already have access to several side events and have also gone
through significant safety planning. Cherry- So what things will
you be going to? There is a civil society event happening at the
same time. Benjamin- what was last minute about it? We usually
had open delegate seats that we received and because of the
increased interest we were not given the seats but we were able to
go to these side events. Why do you need so many people to go?
Because there are so many events that are occurring at the same
time. Levy? What is the benefit of a student being there for this
event? Besides the interests the students have, the US, China, and
other countries are all present and the tone of the discussion is
incredibly different in that they are setting concrete pledges and
funding. Catalan- is there any live streaming of these events? No
there are no civil center events that will be seen live. How do you
select students? We opened this up to the environmental law
society, ELS listserv, etc. with the opportunity to submit a guest
blog for us and then a letter of interest and how it would help the
society and WCL as a whole. Levy- can you talk about
networking? There will be thousands of organizations and lawyers
presenting at this conference covering a range of issues including
activists and attorneys and will help WCL create an amazing
network across the globe. We also are giving out additional copies
of our brief at the party. Patel- I don’t see the point and I found the
webcast live and on demand for the conference. I went to the COP
in Cancun but they wont get any job out of this. The main 2 days
have been on the last 2 days. They aren’t going to the main event
and instead through other means. Levy- this is what these people
who are extremely excited for this event who are we to stop them.
Patel- I just don’t understand why they are applying so late in the
process. Dunham- I want to caution about the Senate trying to get
in the heads of student organizations for when they chose to file.
We don’t have any standards about what is timely. We should not
make an example out of any student group especially this one in
this instance. Meister- Well the conference is right now so I think
it is really late and I’m not sure how this is going to help WCL. I
didn’t see any advertisement so I don’t get it. Stressenger- There
are good arguments- you can see it remotely. But at the same time
if you are in the middle it makes it look good to have WCL
represented and promoted at the event. Youm- I thought it was
clearly but just that the listservs where addressed and targeted
because they are the ones blogging and writing about the subject.
Cherry- they do have experience within this area and that this is an
experience for the these students to get exposure. They were
passing out copies of the brief, networking, etc. Dunham- In
addition we have sent these people to past events, WE the SBA.
Maybe they were more forward thinking on the last ones but I’d
hate to break their thoughts about these conferences and set
precedence for simply to have requests come in earlier. 11-6-3
PASSED
ii. Comet Kickback party request- Finance denied this request of 1000 at last
meeting and it is being appealed. We the evening student senators met to
think of an event targeting evening student networking and tapping into
those resources. For procedural issues, we went through the sponsorship of
the Veterans Law Society. We don’t believe that the level of scrutiny
given to this request is fair in fact we find it discriminatory. We believe
their recommendation goes in the face of bad faith. Youm- my
understanding was that this was for evening students? The intent was
originally for a social with the evening sections but all students would be
welcome. Cherry- explains the costs? Comet Ping-Pong gave us a good
deal so we aren’t sure if the 1000 is still accurate. There would be food
and space provided. Youm- how much would 500 covers in terms of foodlike how many people? Expecting 50. Stressenger- the veteran’s student’s
organization is sponsoring why? Because I am a founding member of the
society. So essentially this is a request by a budget that does not exist? No
we did it through the veteran’s law society and they asked us to resubmit
through another organization. Youm- Im still confused. Since it will not be
over this semester why not resurrect this evening student society to request
this? We really think it crosses a line because it directs so much how they
hold funds. These are student activity funds/ Liu- You spoke about the
finance committee requesting a defunct organization as being in bad faith?
The first framework we have for this request was that no members of the
organization were there for answering questions about the request so it
seemed like bad faith on your part. Basically just that the veterans law
society was a proxy so why wasn’t anyone there? We weren’t aware.
Stressenger- I am concerned with the precedent this would set for getting
proxy organizations being used to fund other events. We’ve had plenty of
organizations who have come to GANDO who can show that they existed
and then get a full budget through the proper channels. Youm- I agree,
these students could simply start the organization again or get the Veteran
Law Society group come together. White- I think it’s a great point to show
that other organizations have gone through GANDO instead of precluding
them from getting a feel for the interest that may be there. I think it is
crazy that you must be a student group in order to get funding for such an
event. I agree that setting precendent however it does seem fair to force
evening students to have to reform a student group to get funding as they
are already so thin. 6-7-3
MOTION TO ALLOCATE 1000 to EXECUTIVE BRANCH FOR
EVENING REPRESENATIVE TO THROWING AN EVENING
STUDENT NETWORKING EVENT PASSED BY AYES
b. GANDO
i. Arab Student Association
1. Mission is to bring cultural awareness and tolerance and provide
academic, social, and professional support
2. Creating partnerships with various DC organizations and providing
scholarship, fellowship, and job opportunities for students
3. We are a very diverse school and we have a lot of student groups
based on cultural heritage and we would like to promote such for
Arab students at WCL along with students who are interested in
the legal atmosphere in the middle east
4. We want to represent a large number of students, Arab students,
Arab-American students, and those interested in Arab legal
structures.
5. We already have a leadership board which is diverse.
6. Have you had any meetings yet? Certainly we have connected with
tons of students earlier and the interest in collecting students
signatures. Most of our efforts have been grassroots. What kind of
events would you like to hold? One on anticorruption in the middle
east, a senior fellow from a think tank here to discuss one of the
reports on human rights, and finally we would try to collect alumni
working in the middle east with current students. Levy- what
would be the efforts for dissolving Islamaphobia? We wanted to
bring to light a lot of the positive events that are occurring the
promote a balanced discussion on the issues. Having these
meetings would also allow students who have concerns about the
region to have a place to talk to arab students and break the ice on
the subject to provide a balanced discussion. PASSED BY AYES
VIII.
IX.
SPECIAL COMMITTEES
a. Diversity Committee Update
NEW BUSINESS
a. A Resolution to Push for Diversity and Inclusion at American University
i. Senators DUNHAM, CHERRY, CATALAN, ROSS, DANIEL, OJO-UYI,
AND YOUM
b. A Resolution To Require Course Descriptions And Syllabi In The Course Catalog
i. Div. Committee
ii. This is a student issue from the entire time we’ve been here about not
having accurate descriptions of courses and you chose not on the syllabi or
description but rather the name. because you don’t have an accurate idea it
makes it more hectic during the add drop period. This would make
professors give syllabi by a week before registration. PASSED BY AYES
X.
XI.
SPECIAL ORDERS
ADJOURNMENT