Critics of student government, take note. If student body president Dave Baron has it his way, the Council of Representatives' keyword will be "efficiency."
"COR is the centerpiece of the student union," Baron told representatives Monday. "This is an entirely open agenda sort of meeting. If you guys don't have stuff to talk about, we won't meet."
The group, which brings together the leaders of different organizations on campus, kicked off its year by bringing new members into the discussion.
Senior Katie Crossin was approved without opposition as the Mendoza College of Business' Student Representative on the Academic Council.
Baron explained that four students, one from each college, form the Academic Council. One is designated as the Academic Delegate and has voting rights, while the other three are restricted to speaking. Vijay Ramanan, the Arts and Letters representative, is the current Academic Delegate.
Crossin, whom Baron described as "excited and enthused," is a marketing major who headed The Shirt project in 2003-04 and served on the Academic Council last fall.
"The Academic Council needs to make students more aware of what it does - a back and forth exchange, not just reporting," Crossin said.
Delegates from the schools of engineering and science will be chosen as soon as the college deans submit nominations.
Judicial Council president James Leito introduced sophomore Peter Van Loon as the nominee for vice president of elections.
"He was a great help to [former Judicial Council president] Brin [Anderson] in last year's elections," Leito said of Van Loon, who previously served on Judicial Board.
Van Loon said he would work to ensure greater attendance at Judicial Board meetings during student government elections.
"I think there's a real problem there," he said, noting that key votes could not be taken due to inadequate attendance.
Although Van Loon's nomination met no spoken opposition, the vote was postponed until next week due to a formality.
In other COR news:
u Chief executive assistant Liz Kozlow said she met with Matt Adams, manager of the Student Business Board, to discuss the ownership of the NDBay Web site, run last year by recent graduates.
Kozlow said the "kinks with the AFS ID" were being fixed, and Baron mentioned the possibility of online ticket sharing.
COR voted 8-7 to buy NDBay last spring. The Web site cost student government $5,000, $1,000 of it for a consulting contract.
