As many students express opinions about changes to be effected by the Undergraduate Council of Students via this week's WebCT poll, others have voiced their complaints against UCS through threads on the Daily Jolt.
UCS President Joel Payne '05 told The Herald that complaints targeted at individual members of UCS "put the burdens (of UCS) on one person." Payne encouraged members of the executive board "not to post a response and not to dignify those posts," he said.
Payne acknowledged the Jolt's attempts to prevent the occurrence of unkind, largely anonymous threads like those created Tuesday and said he understands that "it's a freedom of speech issue."
He reiterated UCS's willingness to listen to all suggestions and concerns, encouraging students to attend the open council meetings. "If the criticism is that real, we can take it," he said.
"I trust the students to see through people who make it their issue to disrupt student government," Payne said. "(This week) I also saw a lot of conversations being sparked by instant runoff voting and other campus issues people want us to pursue."
By the time Wednesday's UCS meeting began, the WebCT referendum had already generated over 1,700 votes. UCS information has also been readily available and heavily accessed through the council's new Web site, updated by Mike Morgenstern '08. One thousand unique visitors have viewed the site over 2,500 times in the past week.
Former associate members Vance Hynes '05 and Sara Damiano '08 were elected to representative positions to replace resigned members at Wednesday's meeting, allowing them to vote on two resolutions expected to be presented next week.
One resolution, from the Brown Environmental Action Network, calls for the University to step up to become part of an "Energy Challenge."
"We're trying to get Brown to commit to a certain percentage of renewable energy," said Emily McAteer '07, a member of BEAN who presented to the council.
The resolution to bring back kegs on campus will also come to a vote next week, pending a favorable response to the poll on WebCT.
Student Activities Committee Chair Sarah Saxton-Frump '07 told the council that there will be no University events the night of Saturday, April 23 in deference to those celebrating Passover. Events typically held Saturday will be moved to Friday, and the Saturday afternoon Ben Folds concert will be over by 5, she said.
