Spec’s Leah Greenbaum gives you the lowdown on all the important things that important people talked about at yesterday’s University Senate meeting:

• The Executive Committee has decided to allow Color Guard—students who participate in off-campus ROTC groups—to raise and lower the flag at 5:30 a.m., provided they do not play music or make any noise. Color Guard made this request recently and will have to hash out the details with Facilities.
• PrezBo: “I think we are all aware that the ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ provision happily appears to be destined to go away. I think we have many members of our community who want to participate in activities on campus, and we should support them in doing so to the extent that it’s consistent with our University policies and values.” He added that any future decisions about ROTC or military presence on campus should come through the USenate Executive Committee and to expect news on that front.
• Revisions to the disciplinary procedures regarding sexual violence are being discussed. Karen Singleton announced that an unprecedented number of cases of sexual violence (five) were brought to the disciplinary council last spring. Even more disturbing is the most recent public safety report that says 14 sexual assaults occurred on campus last year, up from six the year before.

Full update after the jump.

• Singleton announced that the task force on sexual assault is at stage two of a four-stage process to reduce sexual violence on campus. The task force is working to revise the policy to maintain the “consistency of language” and make the disciplinary process clearer to students.
• PrezBo did some gushing about Manhattanville and his decision to stay at Columbia for five more years.
• Health care costs are rising for faculty and staff, a fact that seemed to surprise no one. Linda Nelson, VP of human resources, said this trend is not because of an aging staff, since the average age has remained constant over the years. So what is it that’s making staffers cost the system more than $50k/year for health care? Well, no one knows, so they’ve set up a task force to determine whatever is ailing our faculty. Looks like school makes faculty want to die sooner, too!
• Ienuso gave a fancy presentation on all of the facilities of the new science building. Not only did we learn that the physics faculty will begin occupying the building by the end of November, but we learned that the building is so massive that they also don’t have enough faculty to fill it! We should expect about 10 new hires in the physics department.
• Seven new senators were voted in, four of them students who mostly didn’t attend (30 senators were voted in last month).