Last Thursday, Student Senate confronted the printer quotas, elected a new Funding and Recognition (F&R) Committee chairperson, and announced the undergraduate student representation for the commission working to reform Carnegie Mellon's controversial speaker policy.

Senators discussed the printer policy at length, arguing that the newly introduced quota is too low for many humanities majors.

"The 800-page per semester system needs to be retooled," claimed one senator, pressing for a major-based quota system.

Senators seemed unsure of how to approach the problem, as confusion about who exactly was responsible for the policy slowed the process. Some senators noted the largely unadvertised exceptions to the quota: unlimited printing for RAs, unlimited printing in departmental clusters, and the mostly unused class-specific increase in student quotas which can be issued by professors. After 30 minutes of discussion, the Senate adjourned to discuss the issue in further detail at the next meeting.

MCS junior Kirk Higgins was elected by the Senate as the new F&R chairperson, after some discussion of his lack of experience and questions about his consistency.

Student Body Vice President Nicolette Louissaint voiced concerns about Higgins's ability, stating, "The F&R chair is responsible for allocating $40,000... If you have a chair with little experience, there could be trouble."

Ultimately, Higgins was passed as the new F&R chair, with 11 votes for his appointment and eight abstentions. Several senators noted that Higgins may not have been the perfect choice, but being the only eligible person with any experience on the F&R committee, he was the "only man for the job."

In addition, Student Body President Thomas Sabram announced that he had assigned Vice President for Finance Nicholas Scocozzo and Louissaint to be the two undergraduate representatives on a commission to reexamine the controversial speaker policy organized by President Jared Cohon. The reviewers of the policy will include the two aforementioned undergraduates, two graduate students, and permanent members of the faculty and staff.

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