UC Amends Constitution, Encourages Inter-Ivy Collaboration

Undergraduate Council representatives heard from Cornell Student Assembly president-elect Juliana Batista and amended the UC Constitution at their general meeting on Sunday evening.

Batista, who was invited to speak to the Council during its allotted “Community Time,” spoke to the Council about collaboration amongst Ivy League schools and about Cornell Student Assembly accomplishments. Batista said that Cornell’s student government was able to provide town halls and other resources for the 49 percent of Cornell undergraduates who live off campus and gather general feedback with “upper-level” Cornell administrators.

Batista also expressed her frustration with parliamentary procedure and Robert’s Rules of Order, which the Student Assembly, like the UC, uses to structure their meetings.

President-elect of the Cornell Student Assembly Juliana Batista speaks to members of the Undergraduate Council about student concerns on her campus. She visited Sunday night to talk to UC members about the relevance of university student government and the potential for inter-ivy collaboration on student government projects that advance student interests. By Sidni M. Frederick

The constitutional amendment, proposed by Winthrop House Representative and Crimson news writer Daniel R. Levine ’17, opted to clarify Robert's Rules regarding tabling legislation so that “motions to table docketed business may only occur during the period of debate” and “motions to table new business may only occur after its sponsor has presented the legislation for the prescribed one-minute time period.”

The amendment passed with three votes cast in opposition, one of them by Council Parliamentarian Jacob R. Steinberg-Otter ’16.

The clarification comes as Council members have complained about the UC’s use of parliamentary procedure, attributing the long length of its general meetings to the parliamentary rules.

The Council also voted to allot $10,500 to student groups looking to hold “large-venue events.” Organizers of the Identities fashion show and organizers of Ghungroo asked for $3,500 and $2,734, respectively, but only received $1,000 for each event. According to UC Finance Committee Chair Riya N. Patel ’17, the Council this year decided to allot no more than $1,000 to annually occurring events such as Identities and Ghungroo.

Also during the meeting, UC Vice President Dhruv P. Goyal ’16 said the Council’s student ID-CharlieCard pilot program will debut later this week, giving integrated cards to 100 undergraduates. The initiative was first discussed in an earlier general meeting on March 1.

—Staff writer Jalin P. Cunningham can be reached at jalincunningham@college.harvard.edu. Follow her on Twitter @JalinCunningham.