SBA Board Meeting Minutes

November 18, 2003

S301

8PM

 

I.                   Attendance and Approval of Minutes from November 4, 2003.

 

II.                President’s Report: Thanks for being on SBA

 

Alumni Board of Directors meeting: 2 location, near SBA office, or parking lot across the street. Also this Board of dir is putting together a planning committee and they are looking for student input. They want to open up their meetings to more students and SBA may get involved in spring.

 

III.             Professor Schechter to discuss school joining law suit: things are out of date on the resolution b/c things have moved so quickly.

Congress passed Solomon Amendment which says if Universities act on non-discrimination policies vis-a-vis military they lose all federal funds (if law school says it then WHOLE GW loses federal funds). This loss of federal funds includes financial aid so no schools were able to keep military recruiters off campus.

This fall law professors decided Solomon Amendment should be tested in court – did it violate schools 1st Amendment rights? Group called FAIR, was going to party plaintiff in the suit. They solicited membership by sending out emails to individuals in faculty. Prof Scaffner took the email to the faculty meeting. Faculty said needed data – formed a committee to gather data. Checked out FAIR itself and also how the school would join it (or if it could). The faculty then had a debate about whether to join and by secret ballot they voted to join the organization.

Now there are 2 recent developments:

            (1) Dean accepted faculty recommendation and has taken steps to make GW a member. FAIR doesn’t make its list public and it is up to school to disseminate this info. At this point we are members.

            (2) The law suit moved very quickly and the preliminary injunction was denied. So at this point FAIR is planning an appeal. But we have an opinion holding that Solomon Amendment doesn’t infringe on 1st Amendment right. Ct did find that FAIR had standing.

Newspaper article: apparently many people in US army think that uniformed lawyers are not needed anymore. There seems to be some sentiment to shift these jobs into civilian jobs. Civilian employees of all types are not discriminated on based on sexual orientation. So this may not effect our students as much as previously thought.

Completely independent of FAIR process the American Association of Law Schools that schools who let military on campus must engage in ameliorative actions. GW doesn’t really comply with that organization. Lambda Law is in process of putting together document to suggest to administration that there might be better and more effective ameliorative activities (i.e. offsetting job opportunities, educational programs). This must not be seen as an attack on the military.

            2 schools have filed own law suits including Yale.

Future: who knows – Don’t ask don’t tell is going through military courts right now based on Lawrence v. Texas. If FAIR loses the suit we continue as we are.

 

Arguments against FAIR:

(1) concern about FAIR itself as an organization because it has confidential membership policy. FAIR has not yet promulgated formal by-laws. Dean Young expressed concerns about this.

            (2) Joining FAIR was an empty gesture (Prof. Banzaf). Lawsuit was going to go forward with or without us. He suggested we file our own lawsuit on a different theory under DC human rights law.

            (3) The whole debate over the military and military recruiting really traced itself back to an anti-military view that came out of Vietnam. (Prof Morgan). The time has come to bury the hatched and stop the tit for tat battle between law schools and the military.

            (4) Unfair for law school to join and in that way obligate those faculty members who disagree (Prof Turley). Alienates those who agree with don’t ask don’t tell OR people who feel that the Solomon Amendment doesn’t violated the 1st Amendment.

 

IV.              VP Reports

1.      Day VP

2.      Evening VP

 

V.                 Secretary Report

 

VI.              Treasurer Report

 

VII.           Class Representative Reports

1.      3L Reps: inquired about old exams – they apologize for delay but they are trying to scan all of them for both semesters and then they will up permanently.

Outline Bank: drafted letter to alumni soliciting outlines. Also drafter ltr that will go out end of week that will go out to 2L, 3L & 4L to SBA email address. The goal is to have a limited operation outline bank at the end of this month. We know it is late but by next semester we will have a full outline bank.

Clerkship: ad hoc committee has been formed to work with the CDO to work on reforms and streamlining the process and they will be meeting before end of this semester to work on new policy. The second thing that professors had earlier promised an official apology as well as a memo outlining what went on. Professor Clark will mention it at the clerkship meeting this week. The memo will outline what they are doing to change the policies; hopefully will contain a policy.

2.      2L Reps

3.      1L Reps

4.      LLM Rep

 

VIII.        Committee Reports

1.      Academic Affairs

2.      Alumni Relations

3.      Budget & Finance

4.      Community Service:

(1) Thursday there is going to be a canned food drive. Please sign up to sit at the table.

(2) Angel Tree program: 1L reps are soliciting their sections; also going to do a bake sale. It will buy presents for the children of prisoners. Bake Sale Nov 24th.

5.      Commencement: no word about speaker.

6.      Constitutional Committee: done the draft. Will be writing a report. Also will be proposed legislation for transition issues.

7.      Elections

8.      First Year Programs

9.      Graduate Affairs: Having problems getting responses from Medical school or school of public health. Can you send her an email with their names.

10.  Interviews

11.  Judiciary

12.  Minority Affairs: Voices for the Voiceless. All other organization to do a coffee house open-mike session. Also working with BLSA for 50 year Brown v Board of Edu. Wanted to work with community service.

13.  Pro Bono Programs

14.  Program Board

-  Dec 19th end of semester party. Look for flyers.

-  Barrister’s Ball: Janet Canon: Barristers is Jan 31st. Looking at the Ritz but the only problem is that it is not impressive. The food options are not as good as last year and the open bar is not as long. Four Seasons will give the same deal as last year except a little better. They are increasing ticket prices a little bit because they think we need more food.

15.  Public Relations

16.  Student Services

17.  ABA

 

IX.              Old Business

 

X.                 New Business

1.      FAIR legislation: Eric Koester: feels that faculty should look for student input. Wants to say we support this so that they will look to students. Perhaps we should also look into talking to Lambda Law about their proposal. Perhaps we should re-word some things. Mike would like to add a resolution to make this binding on future SBAs.

2.      13 vs 14 week: Corrie Westbrook: Dean Young and Transgrud. Deans want to revisit it only if there is student support. All classes will run 60 minutes. For evening students classes will start at 5:45 and they will have a one week break. Deans want something from SBA. Both scheduled are inadequate b/c there is only one reading day. Keep reading days. Passed a resolution that the president should tell the administration that there is student support.

3.      Ad Hoc: American Constitutional Society

a.       We are broke. ACS is a budgeted student group and are very active.

b.      We have spent 65% of “C” fund.

c.       Recommendation is to fundraise

d.      Budgeted $350, had a general meeting, and several speakers

e.       Theses events they are co-sponsoring with other groups.

                                                                                                  i.      Same sex marriage speaker: Jan 15th

                                                                                                ii.      DC vote event

f.       $150 for 1st event approved

 

XI.              Kudos

 

XII.           Adjournment