UA debates ties to Ivy Council

and GABRIELE MARCOTTI The Undergraduate Assembly wrestled with Ivy Council and its implications for a good part of its two hour meeting Sunday night. When the smoke cleared, the fate of the fledgling body coordinating Ivy League student governments and its relationship with the UA was still unclear. UA Chairperson Seth Hamalian said Ivy Council has an "identity problem" and debating Ivy Council resolutions would "lend credibility to the notion that Ivy Council can speak for all the schools". Each Ivy League University sends four representatives to Ivy Council meetings every semester. At the meetings, resolutions on league-wide issues are introduced and voted on. Debate centered around whether it is legitimate to discuss resolutions after they have been passed by Ivy Council. Hamalian argued that since the Ivy Council charter is unclear, the UA should not lend legitimacy to resolutions passed at Ivy Council by voting on them again. UA representative Jessica Pollock disagreed with Hamalian's decision, saying the rest of the UA should decide whether or not to debate them. In response to Hamalian, UA member and Ivy Council treasurer Lance Rogers said he would be calling a constitutional convention to clarify the situation. "I don't agree with Seth because I think it would've been a nice precedent to?show Ivy Council that we support them as a University," he said yesterday. "There's been some apathy and general feeling of noncommitment towards Ivy Council – I'm not sure where his feelings came from, I don't know if he had reservations before the weekend [Ivy Council meeting]." UA representative Kirsten Bartok said she felt all this discussion might have been unnecessary. "I think it's valid to question Ivy Council," she said. "But that's different than tying up the UA and discussing whether or not we're going to debate the resolutions." The first of the three Ivy Council resolutions in question urged the universities to "resolve conflicts involving free speech issues through voluntary mediation, counseling and community debate rather than punitive measures." It was introduced by UA representative Dan Schorr. The other resolutions revolved around community notification of disciplinary code violations by students and administration attitudes toward issues of sexual discrimination. In other business Sunday night, an academic integrity bill introduced by UA member Kirsten Bartok was unanimously passed by acclamation. The bill calls for a complete reform of the way the University's judicial system deals with issues of academic integrity. It calls for more student involvement and would require all incoming students to sign a pledge affirming their academic integrity. "It's the first step in a long, arduous process in bringing student reform," she said. "Students need a larger investment in the system."