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Two Resolutions Passed at 2014 Fall Plenary

Photos by Ryan Gooding ’16.

Haverford’s Fall 2014 Plenary came to a swift resolution Sunday night, lasting less than two hours and reaching quorum within 20 minutes.

Just two resolutions and the ratification of the Alcohol Policy were up for consideration, all of which passed with a majority vote.

#1: Honor Council Procedure Modifications

The first resolution was split into five parts designed to increase the Honor Council (HC)’s efficiency.DSC_4673

“It’s a series of minor modifications to ensure there’s flexibility for scheduling, and to get rid of meetings that waste people’s time,” said one of the resolution’s authors, Jeremy Steinberg ’16.

One part of the resolution allowed for certain Honor Code violations to be settled by the involved parties outside of a trial, as long as the HC saw that its main goals of education, accountability and restoration were all addressed.

Former HC member Damon Motz-Storey ‘16 praised the resolution.

“I wish this had been in place when I was on HC,” he said during the Pro-Con debate. “Now the council will be freed up to do a lot more, I enthusiastically support it.”

However, former jury member Ope Martin ’15 had a problem with the resolution’s first part, which proposed to eliminate the 24-48 hour period required for the jury to reflect on tentative resolutions made during the first session of an HC trial. According to the resolution handout, this time period had been largely ignored due to the difficulty of scheduling later meetings between jurors and party members.

“It makes sense to take time to contemplate,” said Martin. “Having those 24 hours when I served on the jury very much helped us come to a consensus. It’s good to cut down on time but not on corners.”

Former HC member Melissa Lee-Litowitz echoed Martin’s opinion. “I support the resolution overall, but it’s crucial to separate from the talking in the room and figure out how you as a jury member feel about the case.”DSC_4717

Shortly thereafter, a friendly amendment including a 20 to 96 hour time period for the jury to “think privately…and to rest,” was proposed and passed along with the rest of the resolution.

#2: Updates to Students’ Council Officer Responsibilities

The second resolution of the night dealt mostly with revising the Constitution to ensure that Students’ Council officers were fully aware of their job descriptions.

“Officers spent way too much time figuring out their responsibilities, and due to a lack of understanding some of them would deny their responsibilities,” said one of the resolution’s authors, Maria Bojorques-Gomez ‘16.

The resolution also proposed to make the Student Council positions of President, Vice-President, Treasurer, and Secretary were shared between two officers each.

“We’re also adding in Co- positions to make sure nobody’s weighed down with an unrealistic workload,” added Bojorques-Gomez.

The resolution was passed overwhelmingly with no amendments.

The Alcohol Policy

With no more resolutions left, a few students discussed the need to keep questioning the Alcohol Policy before its vote to be ratified.

DSC_4680“‘I was drunk’ should not be an excuse for people not respecting each other,” said Steinberg. “I’ve been pressured to drink and made fun of for my decision not to… either we need to start following the Honor Code and the Alcohol Policy, or we need to have a discussion as to why we can’t.”

“[The Alcohol Policy] is an ideal, but we need to acknowledge it’s an ideal and keep discussing it on a ground-up level,” added David Cookmeyer ’16.

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