The Student Lounge sits on the fourth floor of the Wheatley Building, down at the end of the hall, past the Student Life Office and the Graduate Student Assembly’s room. Many students take time out their day to relax or read a book in there. The lounge is also where the Undergraduate Student Senate meets every other Wednesday, rain or shine, sleet or snow, in executive session or public session.

The Student Senate has faced a tumultuous fall semester, one marked by internal conflicts over interpretations of the Senate’s Constitution, Bylaws, and Robert’s Rules of Order (a book of parliamentary procedure used by governing bodies), an attempt at creating an ombudsperson, and capped off by charges of possible misconduct by the Student Trustee. Meetings would frequently stretch into the evening as the Senate struggled to get through the agenda, granting money in between the spats over rules and regulations.

For the most part, the Senate has acted as a treasury, so far handing out a nearly $94,000, out of the Student Activities Trust Fund’s half a million dollars, to various student events and organizations, ranging from the Asian Center’s Stress Relief Week to The Watermark, UMass Boston’s literary magazine. This is according to tabulations of money approved in the minutes of the meetings.

It isn’t, however, without a legislative side. The Campus Community Affairs Committee is directing the research and creation of an ombudsperson position, and has been since September. CCA succeeded in getting Toni Robinson, the ombudsperson for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to come to UMass Boston to answer any questions about the position in November.

Vice President Tuan Pham has been working on a number of initiatives as well, like publishing the results of teacher evaluations, and student ID numbers being changed to random ones, instead of the Social Security number the school uses now. Senator Jesse Solomon is investigating the air quality in campus buildings.

Current membership stands at twenty-one, far below the thirty preferred by Senate’s Bylaws. Several senators have resigned, and others just stopped showing up to meetings. By the third meeting of the semester, the Vice President filed a report stating that three senators were dismissed from the Senate for missing two consecutive meetings, and two had tendered their resignations before the first meeting in September. Senator H. Todd Babbitt tendered his resignation around the third meeting, citing “family reasons.” In an interview shortly thereafter, former Senator Babbitt stated that he felt the problem with the Senate was that it doesn’t represent the students. Robert’s Rules of Order were for facilitating communications, he said, and that had not happened.

Babbitt’s departure left vacancy the CCA Chairmanship, which Senator Stone Laraway assumed as Acting Chair. A vote was held within the committee sometime later in November, and Senator Fritz Hyppolite won. Afterwards, Senator Laraway questioned the legality of the vote, and brought it before the Senate. In what was a hallmark of Senate meetings, President Panciotti and Senator Laraway clashed on various rules and regulations.

“I believe wholeheartedly that Senator Fritz Hyppolite is quite capable of being our chair, but the main issue for me as a senator is to bring up the bylaws and the constitution that we need to follow. That way, everything can be done more concisely and more orderly,” Senator Laraway had said.

“I don’t mind so much being questioned about procedure, or about the Constitution, or the bylaws, or Robert’s Rules,” said President Panciotti. “But when you’re told three times that this is what it means, and you keep on saying, ‘point of order,’ that is not a point of order. That is a parliamentary question. It’s not even a parliamentary procedure at all.”

The election was declared null and void, and the issue was sent to the Steering Committee, made up of the President, Vice President, the Student Trustee, the Representative to the Faculty Council, and the Chairpersons of all committees. The Steering Committee consulted a parliamentarian and, realizing they were in error in bringing it to the Steering Committee, brought the matter back before the Senate, where Senator Hyppolite won in a vote of 8-3, defeating Senator Robert Comerford.

December became a swirl of activity, when sexual harassment charges against the Student Trustee, Heather Dawood, came out during a Senate meeting. While in Open Forum, Senator Laraway brought up the topic.

“Issues having nothing to do with the Senate, anything that’s happening on a personal nature, are absolutely out of order, and will not be discussed in the Senate,” responded President Panciotti. “And anyone who does not observe that requirement of parliamentary procedure, covered by any document, does so at their own peril.”

The charges were brought forth by Christopher Garner, an editor on the school’s yearbook, and a frequent critic of the Senate in the early meetings, often setting off tensions through points of clarification and outbursts from where he sat in the audience. Garner had also brought the issue of creating an ombudsperson before the Senate. The matter of the alleged misconduct and subsequent charges was detailed in a 2500-word article which was published in the December 12th edition of The Mass Media.

Relations between the student press and student government have shown signs of strain since the article was printed, with various student officials stepping up their criticism in questioning the newspaper’s objectivity. Copies of the newspaper disappeared shortly after they were distributed around campus, and one reporter for The Mass Media stated that Trustee Dawood had approached her, and allegedly said that she and the entire Mass Media staff would be called before the Chancellor and Dean of Student Affairs and fired.

With all of the above in mind, the Student Senate enters a new semester, with the ombudsperson issue simmering on the backburner, other student initiatives, a vote of no confidence on Senator Laraway on the plate, and eventually, spring elections. The learning experience for all occurs twice a month, every other Wednesday in the Wheatley Student Lounge, at 2:30 pm.