former ASG President's Blog

Hey ASG, what are you up to this week? Shit.

Tue, 01 Feb 2011 12:20:00 -0600

Check out this misleading editorial from the daily: http://www.dailynorthwestern.com/forum/editorial-asg-must-fill-agenda-with-substantive-items-1.2453647

Did anyone from “The Daily” take the time to find out whether there were substantive items that could have been discussed?

Hmm, apparently there was an exchange and debate on an email thread of the ASG exec board that on the issue. Apparently they had discussed the Senate agenda the Sunday before the Senate that takes place on Wednesdays.

Is ASG once again deteriorating into a spineless, lazy, and underachieving collection of passive people pleasers who aren’t worth their salt?

Read the words and tell me how you really feel.

On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 12:13 PM, Tyris Jones <tyris.jones@gmail.com> wrote:

Hey guys,

Tonights Senate is very much so a stretch. Rules doesn’t really have quorum and outside of exec reports, priorities, and the unveiling of the email template it’s going to be maybe 20 minutes. I’m not sure if I want to bring everyone out for this. Thoughts asap?

Tyris R. Jones

Northwestern University

FMO ASG Senator ‘09-‘10

Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.

c.2603481718

TyrisJones2012@u.northwestern.edu

From: Elizabeth Broder <elizabethdbroder@GMAIL.COM>

Sender: ASG-EXECBOARD <ASG-EXECBOARD@LISTSERV.IT.NORTHWESTERN.EDU>

Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2011 12:23:35 -0600

To: <ASG-EXECBOARD@LISTSERV.IT.NORTHWESTERN.EDU>

ReplyTo: Elizabeth Broder <elizabethdbroder@GMAIL.COM>

Subject: Re: To senate or not

While it definitely is not good to just not have senate, I also don’t think it makes total sense to have senate just for the sake of having senate…

On Jan 12, 2011, at 12:37 PM, Pei Chen <peichen2007@U.NORTHWESTERN.EDU> wrote:

Hear hear. Nothing seems pressing tonight; it’s not something we can’t wait till next week to bring up.

On Jan 12, 2011, at 1:05 PM, Claire Lew <clew23@GMAIL.COM> wrote:

What about the Dorm election reform legislation I wrote? Remember how Wilson was cool with me passing it through Exec as emergency since Rules doesn’t have quorum? And if Gabby has something to bring up, so that too.

But beyond that I think we need to step back and look at the situation for what it is. We are faced with the problem of not having enough on the agenda. However, instead of resorting to canceling the meeting itself, we should first try to solve the problem itself: why is it that we don’t have more on the agenda? What can we do to put important topics on the agenda? How can we motivate senators to engage in senate and write legislation?

In other words, senate not having enough to do reflects the root problem that Senate is not doing it’s job. For instance, imagine if we decided we didn’t have a lot of stuff to go over in Exec - that would clearly signal to me that we are not doing enough and we could be doing our jobs better. We would never contemplate cancelling Exec the second week of winter quarter. Same thing with any committee. The same thing with senate. Canceling senate should never be an option.

So what I challenge you guys to do moving forward is reflect on how the role of our leadership in making sure we are giving senate things to do and ensuring we are fully serving NU. Last week I came up with the focus group format; this week I wrote legislation. We need to shift our attitude about how to greater empower Senate - afterall, the senators WANT to be there. They want to participate, and feel they are making a valuable contribution. And we as leaders need to enable that.

We will briefly talk more about it tonight. I’ll forward everyone the legislation.

Sent from my iPhone

On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 1:26 PM, Tyris Jones <tyris.jones@gmail.com> wrote:

I understand your point and I am working to come up with more topics for Senators to write legislation on and to discuss, but Senators themselves need to be motivated to bring forth topic of importance. One piece of emergency legislation, which isn’t all that pressing, is not enough to bring together the full body. Although I do agree that we, mainly myself, need to come up with more things for Senators to do. Whether it’s committees submitting legislation or bringing forth problems that need to be solved, something needs to happen. I am not comfortable with having Senate tonight given the circumstances.

Tyris R. Jones

Northwestern University

FMO ASG Senator ‘09-‘10

Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.

c.2603481718

TyrisJones2012@u.northwestern.edu

On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 2:02 PM, Wilson Funkhouser <wilsonfunkhouser2012@u.northwestern.edu>wrote:

as claire pointed out- I am fine having senate tonight, but if you ask my opinion I feel like maybe it wouldn’t be productive. I’m more than happy to have senate, since I’m into that kind of thing.

Although I don’t necessarily agree that senate should never not meet, but in this instance I don’t think we have enough time to come up with enough stuff. Then again I have class until 530 so I’m stuffed

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

On Wed, Jan 12, 2011 at 2:28 PM, Tyris Jones <tyris.jones@gmail.com> wrote:

Hey guys,

We can talk about this more in exec but I am moving forward with canceling senate. I will give you all time to add anything you want to your exec board reports if need be and I’ll send that out later tonight, but there will be no Senate tonight.

Tyris R. Jones

Northwestern University

FMO ASG Senator ‘09-‘10

Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc.

c.2603481718

TyrisJones2012@u.northwestern.edu

On Jan 12, 2011, at 2:40 PM, Claire Lew wrote:

Tyris - I completely disagree. Senate should absolutely happen tonight. We have more than enough material to have a productive Senate:

Exec Board reports - an opportunity for Senators to ask what we’ve been doing and get an idea of all the work they could get involved with to.

2. Special Order: ASG Top Priorities - outline the top projects we are all working on, and then ask Senate for their input. Is this what they want ASG to accomplish by the end of Winter Quarter? We can show the ppt I presented to Exec on Sunday.

3. Emergency Legislation as Old Business: Dorm Senator Election Reform - It is an important piece of legislation, and the earlier that people consider it and implement it, the more time that can be put into implementing the things the reform calls for (transition packet, greater communication with RHA + RCB). The only reason this is “emergency” is because Rules didn’t have quorum. And so, imagine if this had gone through Rules and would be Old Business, we would never contemplate pushing it and then not holding Senate.

4. Caucus - If you wanted, you could even break into caucuses, outline the purpose of caucus, get each caucus to reschedule their meeting times, and spend like 10 min. brainstorming legislation.

There’s clearly enough valuable stuff to do. Does the preparation feel slightly rushed? Sure - but that should never be an excuse to not hold senate, since it’s our fault for the lack of preparation. Will it be a shorter than typical Senate? Perhaps - but again, it would be lazy for us to cancel senate for this reason.

We can’t take the easy way out and adopt a “let’s push it to next week” attitude. If we do, we are settling for something less. We are failing the people who elected us. We are essentially saying “there’s nothing important to talk about in Senate” aka “there’s nothing going on in ASG” aka “ASG doesn’t do anything” - which obviously is not true.

Maybe historically this time of Senate is always thin, but the great thing about ASG is that we choose to improve year-to-year. We want this year to be ASG’s best year yet. I know each of you who got elected/appointed are in this position because you told other people you would work to improve Senate and ASG in serving NU. And if we can’t even manage to hold the meetings to get that done, we are failing at our jobs miserably.

We have things to get done, and we should do them. Let’s get this show on the road.

From: Tyris Jones <tyris.jones@gmail.com>

Date: January 12, 2011 3:20:47 PM CST

To: Claire Lew <clew23@gmail.com>

Cc: ASG-EXECBOARD@listserv.it.northwestern.edu

Subject: Re: To senate or not

The material that we have for the tonight is fairly last minute and not enough to bring all the Senators together especially when they have other things that they could potentially be doing with the extra time. We are essentially having Senate for the sake of having Senate, which doesn’t necessarily mean that we are improving upon past years and it has the potential to turn Senators off from future meetings.

If we look at the current climate amongst the Senators, the exec board reports and special order would take at max 10 minutes. Historically this group has not had a lot of questions after reports. Throwing in another 10 minute discussion about caucus doesn’t make it worthwhile either. We would essentially be spending a third to almost half our time in Senate doing attendance and announcements.

If we were to move forward with passing the piece of legislation as emergency that would defeat the purpose because it would be placed on the agenda as old business and have to be voted on today. That leaves little to no room for discussion or time for the Senators, mainly RHA and RCB, to take it back to their constituents.

We are not failing by canceling Senate, but we are realizing that Senators time is precious and if we can refrain from wasting it then we should do so. We are not failing, but we do need to do a better job with motivating them to bring more issues forward and committees should bring forward legislation or topics of discussion as well. They will understand that as elected representatives we are representing their interests and that includes time.

I do understand your position but there will not be a meeting of the Senate tonight.

On Jan 12, 2011, at 5:27 PM, Claire Lew wrote:

I know Senate is cancelled tonight. But just to clarify a few points:

How is the material “fairly last minute” when we discussed what would be happening in Senate on Sunday? Then, I clearly said I would write legislation (which I did) and present the top priorities (which is ready to be presented). Didn’t we agree those were substantial enough items on Sunday?

We are not “having Senate for the sake of having Senate.” These are clearly valuable items that should be addressed sooner rather than later. Senate needs to know the top priorities we’re working on asap. Senate needs to approve the improvement of the Dorm Election Process so the implementation can begin as soon as possible. Why push them back a week when we are ready to present? How are going over these important items now “wasting Senator’s time”? (Also, as a side note, it was a typo when I wrote that the legislation would be “old business” - I intended to pass it through Exec as New Business to give people time to consult their constituents).

And just because we surmise that Senate may be shorter than usual- but how is that a sufficient justification for canceling Senate all together? As I said before, we are selling ourselves short by using that as an excuse - it’s lazy of us to do so, knowing of course it’s easier to just not have Senate altogether, then genuinely try and dig deep to produce meaningful dialogue that Northwestern can benefit from. We saw the beneficial results from last week in choosing the latter, and yet we are choosing the former.

Lastly, not having Senate tonight is indeed hurting us. This is our responsibility - to hold a forum, once a week, that represents all of NU’s interests - and we are failing to do that. It’s very clear we’re not doing our job.

As I stated before, we have things to get done. And doing something is better than doing nothing. Action is better than inaction. And it’s clear that the action would be productive and valuable.

Also, even though we don’t have Senate tonight, I’ll be hanging out in the Northwestern room at the same time and invite anyone to show up, if they wanted just to talk about whatever issues are on their minds.

See everyone at Exec tonight.

So since Claire and Mike aren't saying anything on here

Tue, 01 Feb 2011 12:06:58 -0600

I guess I’ll add some posts as I see fit…

- NSG

The Daily Northwestern - Northwestern administrators approve UBPC funding proposal

Tue, 18 May 2010 09:58:49 -0500

The Daily Northwestern - Northwestern administrators approve UBPC funding proposal:

BAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLINNNNNNNNN’

Excited to call Claire Lew Northwestern's next student body president!

Wed, 21 Apr 2010 22:48:35 -0500

Tracy Morgan takes over Northwestern tonight!!!

Sat, 06 Feb 2010 11:10:13 -0600

Tracy Morgan takes over Northwestern tonight!!!

Huge win for the Wildcats!!!

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 22:30:29 -0600

Huge win for the Wildcats!!!

HUGE WIN NORTHWESTERN!!!!

Sat, 16 Jan 2010 19:32:14 -0600

HUGE WIN NORTHWESTERN!!!!

ASG addresses Haiti earthquake, classroom Wi-Fi

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 02:39:26 -0600

ASG addresses Haiti earthquake, classroom Wi-Fi:

The Associated Student Government Senate passed emergency legislation in response to the recent earthquake in Haiti at its Wednesday night meeting.

The senators voted to create an ASG ad-hoc committee to raise awareness on the issue and coordinate fundraising on campus, said David Chase, residential college board district four senator.

The legislation was approved in the Executive Board meeting held prior to Senate. Chase, a Weinberg freshman, introduced the bill in Senate and will head the committee. The bill passed unanimously.

Chase said he hopes to organize committee meetings in the next few days and accomplish “something big” on campus by Feb. 1.

“We need to use ASG resources to reach out to NU and find people who are willing to help out and donate,” he said, adding that he was looking for about 15 people to join the committee.

The effort could include a clothing drive and will involve students outside of ASG, Chase said.

“I hope the whole campus will be aware and empathetic,” he said.

Senators also discussed a bill to enable wireless Internet in all classrooms.

While the majority of Northwestern classrooms have wireless Internet access, there are certain places on campus, most notably in Fisk Hall and the Technological Institute, which lack wireless capabilities, according to ASG members.

Chase, who introduced the bill, said the reason some locations still don’t have wireless is that some instructors prefer to teach where students can’t get on Facebook or check e-mail during class.

ASG members said they want to enable wireless access in all classrooms because it offers more benefits for instructors and students, such as opportunities to research online and access Blackboard during class.

BIG WIN NORTHWESTERN!!!

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 15:34:19 -0600

BIG WIN NORTHWESTERN!!!

ASG enters new quarter ‘crunch time’

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 09:41:07 -0600

ASG enters new quarter ‘crunch time’:

Associated Student Government senators and executive board members are entering “crunch time” if they want to make a lasting impact on Northwestern, said Speaker of the Senate Samir Pendse at the first ASG Senate meeting of the quarter.

“Fall Quarter is a quarter of transition, the Weinberg senior said. “Most people are new, and everyone is getting adjusted. Winter Quarter has to be the time every year where stuff gets done.”

At the meeting, executive board members reported on the progress of their projects, informed senators of plans for the quarter and discussed ways to ensure their initiatives will have a lasting impact.

“All of the things I am working on are things that will be continued to be worked on after I am gone,” ASG President Mike McGee said. “If that takes a month, if it takes a year, if it takes 10 years, I want to make sure that students are continuing to work on these and make sure we keep these projects sustainable.”

McGee, a Communication senior, and Tommy Smithburg, the executive vice president, plan to work on an official proposal for a new student center. The proposal could involve remodeling Norris University Center, moving the student center to a more central location or building an entirely new structure.

Smithburg, a Weinberg Senior, said his top priority was to gain official University approval for the new center.

“For 15 years now, it has been confirmed that Norris doesn’t meet the needs of the student body,” he said. “By the time I graduate or by next fall, if this could be approved by the University, that would be a huge milestone.”

korut: ethel-baraona: “Often space is controlled in a subtle...

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 07:35:58 -0600

korut:

ethel-baraona:

“Often space is controlled in a subtle way: for example, the idea of ‘walkways’ popularised by university architects in the 1960s. Walkways were meant to join areas together and encourage students to ‘bump into each other’.”

Via particulations

See that guy in the purple hat behind #5? That’s our...

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 22:24:22 -0600

See that guy in the purple hat behind #5?

That’s our University president Morty Schapiro.

He’s a baller.

2010 Outback Bowl Records

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 20:28:16 -0600

Jan. 1, 2010

There were 18 Outback Bowl Records broken and 10 records tied in today’s game

INDIVIDUAL RECORDS

PASSING

Most Yards: Mike Kafka, Northwestern, 532; Previous record was 378 yards by Drew Brees, Purdue, 2000

Most Interceptions Thrown: Mike Kafka, Northwestern, 5; Previous record was 4 by Spence Fisher, Duke, 1995

Most Attempts: Mike Kafka, Northwestern, 78; Previous record was 60 by Drew Brees, Purdue, 2000

Most Completions: Mike Kafka, Northwestern, 47; Previous record was 36 by Drew Brees, Purdue, 2000

Most Touchdowns: Mike Kafka, Northwestern, 4; Tied with Drew Brees, Purdue, 2000 & Wally Richardson, Penn State, 1996

TOTAL OFFENSE

Most Plays: 98-Mike Kafka, Northwestern; Previous record was 69 by Drew Brees, Purdue, 2000

Most Yards: 566-Mike Kafka, Northwestern; Previous record was 374 by Drew Brees, Purdue, 2000

PASS RECEIVING

Most Touchdowns: Andrew Brewer, Northwestern, 2; Tied with 8 other players

Most Catches: Darvin Adams, Auburn, 12; Zeke Markshausen, Northwestern, 12; Tied with Chris Daniels, Purdue, 2000; Hines Ward, Georgia, 1998

KICKOFF RETURNS

Most Returns: Stephen Simmons, Northwestern, 5; Tied with 4 other players

SCORING

Most Points by both Teams: 73 - Auburn (38), Northwestern (35); Previous record was 68 by Michigan & Florida

Most TDs by both Teams: 10 - Auburn (5), Northwestern (5); Previous record was 9 by Michigan & Florida, 2003

TOTAL OFFENSE

Most Yards: 625 - Northwestern; Previous record was 528 by Purdue, 2000

Most Plays: 115 - Northwestern; Previous record was 89 by Purdue, 2000 & Alabama, 1988

Most Yards by Both Teams: 1050 - Auburn (425) vs. Northwestern (625); Previous record was 929 by Florida & Michigan, 2003

Most Plays by Both Teams: 187 - Auburn (72) vs. Northwestern (115); Previous record was 159 by Florida & Michigan, 2003

FIRST DOWNS

Most First Downs: 33 - Northwestern; Previous record was 30 by Purdue, 2000

Most by Penalty: 4 - Northwestern; Tied with Penn State, 1999

PASSING

Most Attempts: 78 - Northwestern; previous record was 60 by Purdue, 2000

Most Completions: 47 - Northwestern; previous record was 36 by Purdue, 2000

Most Yards: 532 - Northwestern: previous record was 378 by Purdue, 2000

Most TDs: 4, Northwestern; tied with Purdue, 2000 & Penn State, 1996

After months of developing, NUIT in collaboration with...

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 17:36:00 -0600

After months of developing, NUIT in collaboration with Blackboard has created the first official iPhone app for Northwestern University.

The end of the first half was heartbreaking.

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 14:53:55 -0600

The end of the first half was heartbreaking.

Ahhhhhhhhhh soooooooooooooo close!!!!!!!!!

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 14:23:13 -0600

Ahhhhhhhhhh soooooooooooooo close!!!!!!!!!

We are oNe Northwestern.

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 01:49:27 -0600

We are oNe Northwestern.

NCAA women’s champions win online vote for team of...

Thu, 31 Dec 2009 00:26:00 -0600

NCAA women’s champions win online vote for team of decade

Kelly Amonte Hiller needed just one word to describe what she felt about her Northwestern women’s lacrosse team’s having won the Tribune online vote for Team of the Decade:

“Awesome,” she said.

Few teams in any sport have been as awesome as the Wildcats since Amonte Hiller turned what had been a club team from 1993-2001 into the winner of the last five NCAA Division I titles.

And if it took a little Chicago-style ballot stuffing to turn those achievements into a poll victory by a whopping margin (57 percent of the vote, to 36 percent for the 2005 World Series champion White Sox)?

NU BASKETBALL IS RANKED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 40 YEARS!!!!...

Mon, 28 Dec 2009 12:22:44 -0600

NU BASKETBALL IS RANKED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 40 YEARS!!!! Excuse me, the #25 WILDCATS ARE RANKED FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 40 YEARS!!!

108 days left.

Sun, 27 Dec 2009 23:50:04 -0600