Examining the “IPAC” Proposal

By Dan Evans | April 18, 2010 at 12:10 am | News | 24 comments | |

 

Ben Kraus and Eric Scott have a vision.  It’s a vision for the future of our school – one that the two members of the Class of 2011 have been dreaming up for some time now. Perhaps like many students preparing to depart from Claremont McKenna College, the two have the desire to leave a lasting legacy upon classes of CMCers to come.

Their vision, which was presented at the Forum’s Idea Night earlier this semester, involves the creation of a new student committee to aid in facilitating student ideas for campus changes. The Improvements and Projects Action Committee (IPAC) would be comprised of as many as 15 students and capable of reaching a variety of groups on campus, opening up a new system of bidirectional communication between student representatives and the student body.  Members would be chosen through an application process, ideally in cooperation with the Dean of Students Office and ASCMC members.

“This plan was born out of the idea that sometimes there are only a finite number of positions at the school for a vast number of people who are interested in helping the community,” said Kraus, who ran unsuccessfully for ASCMC President in the most recent round of student body elections.

Eric Scott '11 and Ben Kraus '11 presented their proposal for IPAC to a captivated audience at Idea Night in March.

Such projects would range in size and scale, but Kraus stressed that the goal of the committee would be to give the student body incentives to submit ideas for changes on campus.  Via a portal posted on an independent website (perhaps on the Forum itself, said Kraus), all members of the student body would be able to submit proposals to the committee, which would in turn take steps to implement the good ideas with funding from DOS or ASCMC.  According to Kraus and Scott, such ideas include high pressure shower heads in all the dorms and coffee in study lounges.

“Ben lobbied to get new TVs in the Hub, and there’s nothing stopping [these changes] from occurring, but [we want] something institutionalized to make sure there’s that type of change happening at all times,” said Scott.

But several obstacles remain between their idea and the committee’s implementation.  For IPAC to become a part of the existing ASCMC institution, the ASCMC Constitution needs to be amended.  Additionally, Kraus and Scott admit there are potential overlaps with the duties of the ASCMC Senate, but they believe this problem would be fixed by having either the ASCMC Vice President or President pro tempore sit on the committee.

Kraus and Scott have met repeatedly with ASCMC President Tammy Phan and Vice President Chris Jones to flesh out their plan and work towards its implementation.  Ideally the committee would be situated under the Dean of Students Office and would not function as a direct part of ASCMC, making it free from constitutional issues and other ASCMC limitations.

The student government has yet to form a cohesive position on the proposal, and has withheld from giving a full-fledged endorsement. ASCMC Vice President Chris Jones stated that the issue was being discussed by ASCMC, and offered some insight into its future:  “One of the things we thought was crucial was making sure someone who was a representative with a connection to Senate would be on board,” said Jones.  “[We want to] figure out where situations overlap, working together and combining forces when applicable.”

ASCMC President Tammy Phan said of IPAC, “I support student efforts to improve our campus and I look forward to what will come from the committee. It’s important for CMCers to work together in order to change our school for the better.”

More posts by Dan Evans »
Dan Evans

Dan Evans currently holds the high score on a Tekken 3 arcade machine at the Fuddruckers in Missoula, Montana (the one on Reserve Street, not the one in the mall). While not busy with very important and top-secret things, he writes Thom Yorke fanfiction and promotes his musical project Daniel and the Dragon. The last album from Evans received 6 stars out of five in an email from Evans's mother.

 
 
 
 
  • Laura Sucheski

    Dan:
    Thanks for working on this. I love your ideas to get some Senate interviews as well as the Kraus/Scott and ASCMC (Tammy? Chris?) interviews. Keep me posted on their cooperation.

  • DOMO DOMO

    you could slice bread on the angle of eric scott’s jawline

    AND STUFF

  • DOMO DOMO

    you could slice bread on the angle of eric scott’s jawline

    AND STUFF

  • ?

    Pretty vague “examination.”

    What does this even mean:
    “making it free from constitutional issues and other ASCMC limitations.”

    What issues and limitations?

  • ?

    Pretty vague “examination.”

    What does this even mean:
    “making it free from constitutional issues and other ASCMC limitations.”

    What issues and limitations?

  • What has Tammy done to make th

    Yeah, she has done next to nothing since she became president. Where’s the kitchen? The network?

    She lied her way to the presidency in more ways then one.

    • hahahaa

      Yup. CJ’s counter on the Claremont Conservative is about the only thing I enjoy on that site. The ASCMC presidency is about as worthless as being the student body president in high school. You don’t do jack.

    • Oh, come on…

      She’s been on the job for a month. Give the woman some time.

      In other news: if you think the prez doesn’t do anything, try sitting in on a Board meeting on Sunday; they’re open to all CMCers and will give you a good sense of the volume of work that goes into keeping life at CMC fun. Better yet, ask any past prez about 5-C budgeting, the Council of Presidents, tax-filing season, check-cutting, or any of the other tasks that the ASCMC President is overseeing and completing personally to ensure that CMCers get their clubs and parties and that they do so free of too much interference from the administration and/or the other schools’ student governments.

      I doubt there’s a college student government in the country in which a president takes so much direct responsibility for the day-to-day operation of the organization and the school. You know why? Because ASCMC is actually a separate corporation, which means that the president’s ass in the on the line for everything that happens under his or her watch. There’s no legal protection, and the buck doesn’t stop elsewhere.

      Tammy took on a lot of responsibility to ensure that you get to have a good time in college. Give her some time to do an awesome job, as I am confident she will.

      • lolz

        Haha, you “doubt there’s a student government anywhere else in the country?..”

        Get over yourself. Yes, we’re CMC. Ditch your elitist attitude. I can guarantee other student bodies are similar.

        • Oh, come on…

          Re-read the statement. It’s the opposite of elitist. I did not write that the ASCMC President does more work than anyone else; I was remarking on the fact that the President is more directly involved in the nitty-gritty, day-to-day matters than is true at any other school I know. As a result, a president has less of an ability to immediately instate major policy changes.

          If you want your clubs to have money, if you want your full representation to the trustees, if you want your reimbursement checks, and if you want ASCMC’s taxes to be done in a timely and appropriate manner, then you should back off of Tammy. These are just a few of the tasks and procedures she’s had to oversee or personally complete in just her first month on the job.

          At other schools, it’s an administration employee who takes care of this, but at CMC, our independence prevents that luxury. It’s all on Tammy, Chris, and Andrew.

    • Realist

      Ok, let’s play a game called Let’s Make a Kitchen.

      I’d presume that Tammy would not only have to get a fixed budget to install a kitchen somewhere, she would also have to present a proposal as to where said hypothetical kitchen would be (because CMC wouldn’t take putting a potential safety hazard in some random student space very lightly. Remember, the goal is an open and ACCESSIBLE kitchen, not some half-assed cooking space in a dark corner), find and hire a contractor, negotiate labor and material costs, go over proposed design layouts, get permits for certain pieces of equipment, determine if and/or how to stock the kitchen with cooking equipment, drafting safety regulations, etc.

      Note how a kitchen is a much more complex piece of building infrastructure to install than a bunch of new TV fixtures you can screw into the ceiling. I’d be shocked if the administration were right now seriously debating the merits of Tammy’s proposal.

      If you think that anyone, let alone Tammy, can accomplish something like this less than a month after entering office, you should probably get out of the magical world where you can buy a pony whenever you bloody want.

      • Josh Siegel

        i want to know who these anono-rando-nut(s) are who care this much about ASCMC (and kitchens). But I think we all know who at least one of them is.

        As for the actual content of the article, I’ll have to agree with the first commenter on this post.

  • What has Tammy done to make the school better?

    Yeah, she has done next to nothing since she became president. Where’s the kitchen? The network?

    She lied her way to the presidency in more ways then one.

    • hahahaa

      Yup. CJ’s counter on the Claremont Conservative is about the only thing I enjoy on that site. The ASCMC presidency is about as worthless as being the student body president in high school. You don’t do jack.

    • Oh, come on…

      She’s been on the job for a month. Give the woman some time.

      In other news: if you think the prez doesn’t do anything, try sitting in on a Board meeting on Sunday; they’re open to all CMCers and will give you a good sense of the volume of work that goes into keeping life at CMC fun. Better yet, ask any past prez about 5-C budgeting, the Council of Presidents, tax-filing season, check-cutting, or any of the other tasks that the ASCMC President is overseeing and completing personally to ensure that CMCers get their clubs and parties and that they do so free of too much interference from the administration and/or the other schools’ student governments.

      I doubt there’s a college student government in the country in which a president takes so much direct responsibility for the day-to-day operation of the organization and the school. You know why? Because ASCMC is actually a separate corporation, which means that the president’s ass in the on the line for everything that happens under his or her watch. There’s no legal protection, and the buck doesn’t stop elsewhere.

      Tammy took on a lot of responsibility to ensure that you get to have a good time in college. Give her some time to do an awesome job, as I am confident she will.

      • lolz

        Haha, you “doubt there’s a student government anywhere else in the country?..”

        Get over yourself. Yes, we’re CMC. Ditch your elitist attitude. I can guarantee other student bodies are similar.

        • Oh, come on…

          Re-read the statement. It’s the opposite of elitist. I did not write that the ASCMC President does more work than anyone else; I was remarking on the fact that the President is more directly involved in the nitty-gritty, day-to-day matters than is true at any other school I know. As a result, a president has less of an ability to immediately instate major policy changes.

          If you want your clubs to have money, if you want your full representation to the trustees, if you want your reimbursement checks, and if you want ASCMC’s taxes to be done in a timely and appropriate manner, then you should back off of Tammy. These are just a few of the tasks and procedures she’s had to oversee or personally complete in just her first month on the job.

          At other schools, it’s an administration employee who takes care of this, but at CMC, our independence prevents that luxury. It’s all on Tammy, Chris, and Andrew.

    • Realist

      Ok, let’s play a game called Let’s Make a Kitchen.

      I’d presume that Tammy would not only have to get a fixed budget to install a kitchen somewhere, she would also have to present a proposal as to where said hypothetical kitchen would be (because CMC wouldn’t take putting a potential safety hazard in some random student space very lightly. Remember, the goal is an open and ACCESSIBLE kitchen, not some half-assed cooking space in a dark corner), find and hire a contractor, negotiate labor and material costs, go over proposed design layouts, get permits for certain pieces of equipment, determine if and/or how to stock the kitchen with cooking equipment, drafting safety regulations, etc.

      Note how a kitchen is a much more complex piece of building infrastructure to install than a bunch of new TV fixtures you can screw into the ceiling. I’d be shocked if the administration were right now seriously debating the merits of Tammy’s proposal.

      If you think that anyone, let alone Tammy, can accomplish something like this less than a month after entering office, you should probably get out of the magical world where you can buy a pony whenever you bloody want.

      • Josh Siegel

        i want to know who these anono-rando-nut(s) are who care this much about ASCMC (and kitchens). But I think we all know who at least one of them is.

        As for the actual content of the article, I’ll have to agree with the first commenter on this post.

  • Nothing to add

    Just wanted to say nice picture. Very artistic.

  • Nothing to add

    Just wanted to say nice picture. Very artistic.