ASB Senate working for more legislation

Joanna Holbert
DM Staff writer

While no legislation was passed this week, the Associated Student Body senate did approve junior Lance Mohamed as deputy attorney general for ASB codes Tuesday evening.

Mohamed is one of four deputies to ASB Attorney General Andrew Laws. Mohammed and Laws will be working together to revise ASB elections policies.

"We're going to work through some of the bylaws," Mohammed said. "We're going to deal with the elections part of it to make sure the punishments are clearly stated."

Mohammed said the elections revisions were not motivated by the large numbers of elections violations reported after October's Homecoming elections.

The ASB collected more than $1300 in fines for elections violations after the Homecoming elections.

Mohammed also said the ASB has plans to post the ASB code on the Internet "for all students to see."

The senate also talked about new task forces that will be formed to look more closely at the idea of a fall break and peer advising. The possibility of a fall break was discussed on Monday at the ASB cabinet meeting with Provost Dr. Carolyn Staton.

Staton told the cabinet that she would be interested in having a fall break if it was needed, but she didn't want to further the reputation of Ole Miss as a "party school".

"A fall break would be very good for those students who have been studying hard and truly need a break during the month of October, but then there are those students who do not need a break that early in the year," Staton said during Monday's cabinet meeting.

Staton also said a fall break would require adjustments in the fall calendar and Rush schedules.

"Obviously Rush will not be before school anymore," Staton told the cabinet Monday, "but that raises the problem of where Rush would be set in the calendar.

Peer advising would help students with the decisions of what classes to take and choosing a major. Through peer advising, students would be able to talk to other students who could help them by telling them about their experiences in that particular area.

Staton discussed both the positive and negative sides to the peer advising system with the cabinet this week, and told them that by forming a task force they would be able to further investigate what the possibility of peer advising would do for students at Ole Miss.

The ASB is currently sponsoring a "change drop" for the United Way in the Union. They are asking people to give the loose change they have to the United Way. The change colleted will be donated in full to the United Way Fund.

The ASB is also working on a Village Clean-Up day to be held Nov. 12 and 13. A task force of ASB members and volunteers will work together to clean-up the Village area of campus on the 12th and 13th.