RSAT proposal causes uproar at SA Senate meeting

By Andrew Ta     11/28/12 6:00pm

 

In response to a presentation of the Rice Student Action Team at a Student Association Senate meeting, one Senate member walked out while others reacted with hesitation and concern. 

On Nov. 19, McMurtry College senior Henry Deng and Aakash Keswani (Lovett '12) presented RSAT as a group of eight to 12 selected students who would identify campus issues and work with the SA, members of the administration and relevant individuals to create long-lasting, feasible solutions to issues across campus. They said RSAT would also work with outside consultants, in particular Rice alumni working at consulting firms, to develop those solutions. They announced they had begun to accept applications for the team. 

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Liaisons from RSAT would report specifically to Dean of Undergraduates John Hutchinson, Vice President for Administration Kirby Kirby, SA President Sanjula Jain and SA External Vice President Yoonjin Min, Deng and Keswani said at the meeting. 

According to Deng and Keswani, RSAT, inspired by complaints of lack of practice rooms in Alice Pratt Brown Hall, would tackle projects like attendance at athletic events and how Rice online courses worked. 

Deng and Keswani said RSAT had spoken with and already gotten the approval of Jain, Min, Hutchinson and Kirby. 

"They agree RSAT fills a niche and also a role where [RSAT] can collaborate with the SA to understand which issues RSAT will work on and which issues the SA will work on," Keswani said at the SA meeting. 

Hutchinson said that although he had met with Deng and Keswani, he had not endorsed them. 

"Regarding RSAT, it was presented at the SA meeting that I supported the proposal to create RSAT, but this is not true," Hutchinson said. "I met briefly ... with the student and [alumnus] who proposed RSAT but agreed only that they could include me on the slide showing me as a point of contact for RSAT were it to be created by the SA. I did not endorse the proposal. To the contrary, I expressed reservations." 

Kirby said he met with Deng and Keswani before their presentation and supported their proposal, but that whether RSAT happened was up to the SA. 

"If students come to me and want to solve problems, my first thought is, 'how can I say yes?,'" Kirby said. "Am I supportive of the idea? Yes. Do I have the ability to approve it? No." 

Jain said she and Min had met with Deng and Keswani before their presentation to offer advice and ideas, but that she never green-lighted the project. 

"The message was miscommunicated on the part of the presenters," Jain said. "[Min] and I supported the idea, like we do with all student initiatives, of finding more ways to engage. However, we never gave any official approval to solicit for RSAT applications. The purpose of the Senate presentation was to have a transparent discussion with the student body." 

Min said although she saw merit in RSAT, but execution would be difficult. 

"They can fill a niche where the SA doesn't work," Min said. "The problem comes in the execution. We're struggling to see how they can keep it so pure and in that niche. In a university, everything's interconnected, so even when they try to be separate, it's not possible." 

According to Jain, RSAT as it was presented probably will not happen. 

 "The primary concern with RSAT is the infrastructure they're proposing," Jain said. "There is overlap with the organizational structure of the SA." 

Min said the SA represents undergraduates' interests even when they are unrealistic. She said RSAT was more focused on having undergraduates help the administration rather than voice student concerns. 

Deng later said that presenting RSAT at the SA meeting was not the best choice and that RSAT had not yet been finalized. 

"When we said we wanted applications, that was just to gauge interest," Deng said. "The presentation was just so that we could start a discussion." 

Deng said he planned to engage college presidents and senators in smaller meetings. 

"We still want discussions before RSAT moves on to the next stage," Deng said. 

According to Jain, college presidents had not yet accepted the invitation to meet privately with RSAT. 

"They don't see a need for them to have a separate meeting," Jain said. "That's just because that's not normally how these things are handled. It's kind of inefficient if the same presentation would be given to presidents and senators. That's why Senate meetings exist." 

Lovett College President Christian Neal said at the Senate meeting he felt that RSAT would fail to engage the student body or Faculty Senate. 

"I just don't know what roles you'd play in this university, with the SA or within college leadership," Neal said. "I, for one, do not think that RSAT should happen. I'm actually a little insulted that college leadership and the SA senators were not consulted about this before this meeting. It seems like it's just been thrown at us as something that's going to happen." 

Neal later walked out of the meeting as Deng and Keswani replied to his points. Later that night, Neal sent an email to SA senators, SA executives and college presidents apologizing for his actions. 

"I will say that I stand behind everything I said at the SA meeting, but I do have regrets about walking out of the meeting," Neal said in a personal interview. "I apologized for taking these issues too personally and stated that I would be working on improving my abilities to debate personal issues by focusing on principles rather than people." 

Min said she should have stepped in at the SA meeting to clarify that RSAT was only a proposal. Min said she wants to see the SA meetings become a place where ideas are introduced, as opposed to having college presidents or senators know about them beforehand, especially if the issue affected all students. 

Lovett Senator Min Ji Kim said she was dissatisfied that the SA meeting was the first time she had heard of RSAT. 

"I was surprised that RSAT was already asking for applications and resumes by Nov. 30," Kim said. "It seemed like they were announcing their project rather than discussing and listening to students' opinions. The presidents and senators were not informed about RSAT before the SA meeting. RSAT did not follow the process of seeking ... the student body's thoughts before [it] announced [its] plan at the meeting." 

Baker College freshman Nitin Agrawal said he understood the hesitation about RSAT but was surprised when Neal walked out of the Senate meeting. 

"I do understand [Neal's] anger toward the RSAT program in general because the way it was presented, it does seem like it basically took work away from the college senators and presidents," Agrawal said. 

Will Rice College freshman Erica Kim said she did not think RSAT would be able accomplish its goal of remaining objective. 

"I feel like the SA is effective," Kim said. "I don't see the point of RSAT because if it's going to be eight to 12 students, they're going to have a natural student bias. You're not going to have a completely objective group." 

Deng said he and Keswani wanted to address the concerns that had been raised and get started with RSAT in January. 

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