On Thursday, the Student Assembly passed Resolution 6, which allows the organization to send mass e-mails to the entire student body, pending final approval of each e-mail by Tommy Bruce, vice president of communications. The resolution passed by a 14-1-1 vote.
S.A. Vice President for Public Relations Natalie Raps ’12, who cosponsored the bill with S.A. Vice President for Internal Operations Adam Gitlin ’13 and Jonathan Weinberg ’13, who is a Sun columnist, said the resolution would encourage dialogues between the S.A. and the student body.
“It’s the Student Assembly’s job to reach the student body in the best way possible, and right now e-mail is the best way,” Raps said. “This will also allow us to ask the student body for feedback on pressing issues.”
Gitlin echoed Raps’ sentiments.
“This is not for publicity. The S.A. genuinely wants to communicate with the student body and encourages the student body to communicate with us,” Gitlin stated.
Jon Rau ’12, the lone member to vote against the resolution, said he feared these e-mails would agitate students who did not wish to be involved with the S.A. and would ultimately fail to create any additional student interest.
“In the past year, we’ve taken on multiple measures to increase student awareness and involvement in the S.A. There are plenty of ways for students to get involved,” Rau said. “What we’re effectively doing with this is spamming the student body. Even if 500 [students] want it, there’s still going to be 12,000 that don’t.”
Another concern came from Andrew Brokman ’11, who said that students should be allowed to opt out of the list serve if they do not wish to receive S.A.-related e-mails. The opt-out option was ultimately added as an amendment to the bill and approved.
“We would obviously respect students’ right to opt out of our listserv,” Raps said. “But we hope that the student body realizes that we sincerely want to collaborate with them throughout the student governance process.”
Original Author: Sun Staff