Student Government Association

Do you like football? Do you like parties? Maybe you hate football but you like a building full of people to have fun with, good food, and a mechanical bull-style football to ride? Well come to The Commons to watch the Superbowl in the Sports Zone, the Game Room, the Pub, and on Main Street! Just some of the things to do during the game include:

• The Superbowl on all screens in the building, viewable in HDTV in The Sports Zone,


• Free Play in the Gameroom,


• Ellicott City Beers on Tap in Flat Tuesday's (Must be 21+),


• Mechanical Football Rides on Main Street,


• $1 sodas (free refills), hot dogs, pizza slices, and wings


• and much, much more!

See you there, the party starts at 5 PM!

The following are meeting minutes from the House of Organizations meeting. The House meets every Tuesday at 5:30 PM in Room 318 on the third floor of The Commons. These meetings are open to all students to listen to discussion. If you would like to present an issue, please contact the Speaker of the House, Nayana Davis, in advance so you can be added to the agenda.

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Call to Order
8:05
Roll Call
Absent: Ozell, Archiana, Joy
Approval of Minutes
Ross said something he didn’t say.
New Business
A. General Ledger Allocation for Super Bowl Party
Jay- Super Bowl parties are thrown by many student orgs. Student Affairs, OSL, SEB and other are putting up volunteers to ‘rock the commons’. The commons will be open, free game room, tvs will have games showing.
Ross- What is the $500 for?
Jay- it is going to sent to OSL and if there is any left, I think it will be divided.
VOTE For 4 Opposed 0 Abstaining 1
B. Confirmation of Shane Spencer as SGA Justice
Nayana- this was tabled last semester because she wasn’t here, and she isn’t here again.
TABLE IT (Group)
David- Have you been in touch with her?
Nayana- yes.
Ross- If this doesn’t pass, it would have to be completely reworked. How would that work with Jordan stepping down.
David- If the appoint
Committee Reports
A. Student Life
Danielle- I have a commitment at 9:00 so I will have to resign my position.
Nayana- Will this be your last meeting?
Danielle- Yes.
Nayana- Could we work at 7?
Ozell- that won’t work for me?
Nayana- how about we push the meeting back 15 meetings?
General Consensus.
Nayana- Now on we will be meeting at 8:15. We need to appoint a new head of SLC. Because we have grown large enough so that everyone doesn’t have to be in both, we have decided to split the meetings. Ross will be in charge of that.
Ross- Everyone needs to get into Corps time. Email me and let me know which committee you are interested in.
.
B. Finance
Nayana- Joy wanted to have the finance committee meeting at 7 but that may be too late.
David- I have 4 applications for recognition. They need to be done by the 4th week if it is to be for this semester
General Discussion
A. In House Elections
Ross- How do we want to do it for this semester?
Nayana- I think we should send it out to student orgs list proc and leadershape graduates.
Ozell- I think we should look into the new transfer student.
Carrie- Becky Pawn should have a list.
Nayana- do we want the candidates to attend a meeting?
Yes.
Nayana- When should we have the elections.
Ozell- 2 weeks from now.
Ross- we should have a lot of advertising for next week.
Nayana- do you want to add another week onto it, so they have time to adjust their schedules?
Ross- are we going to put something in the retriever.
Ozell- Can we have it as a weekly announcement.
Phil- He can put it right when you log into myUMBC.
B. Other
Nayana- open discussion
Phil- We do need to set sometime because there are about six additional allocations that need to be looked over. You need to set a time for next week anyway.
Alex- Joy said that 7 is the best time. I can’t do it before 7 on T/Thr.
Nayana- You can pick any day. How about Monday at 5:30? Just for next week it will be Monday at 5:30. Phil, are you contacting the student orgs?
Phil- I will let them know.
David- Can we finish the process of picking the dates? At least times that you can propose to the two other members.
Ozell- Joy is the head of the committee and she isn’t here.
Nayana- and we don’t have a head for SLC.
David- Should we talk about that now?
Ross- Where are we leaving off?
Danielle. Delta phi is working on new constitution. The other organization is dissolving. There are several orgs violating the 5 member rule. We need ot get an updated list from her. All the orgs need to be contacted because they are in 2nd semester violation.
Ozell- For the Greek groups, a lot of the groups that were in violation last semester are good this semester. They have until may before any action can be taken. We are trying to set up a new policy on how orgs can form but we haven’t set a date.
Nayana- I asked anyone to email me and apply. Danielle if you can meet with the new head.
Danielle- There was quite a bit of interest in the mock trial. The professor is back on campus. Just a reminder.
Ex-Officio Reports
A. David Hoffman
-One thing that is in the process of happening, extending the study place hours. OSL hopes to extend them MTWR, and later on Friday as well.
Danielle- who would staff it?
-David- that is what we are working on.
Ross- people have come to me and told me they would use it more if it were open when they weren’t in class.
B. Carrie Mann
-There are a number of interesting things in different committees. We won’t be doing any reports this week.
C. Nayana- Jordan is resigning. Does anyone have any questions?
Ozell- What is the direction you see SGA going in now? What do you think that Jordan overlooked.
Carrie- Most of the things that are happening now, we were both in support of. Everyone is doing excellent work and I like the projects. There are some minor things, keeping the office clean. I think we have done an excellent job dealing with administrators. I want to involve students that aren’t in SGA. I want to thing about how we can get them involved. If we can make ourselves more visible. I have all the confidence in you guys. I won’t be too many changes felt.
Nayana- Tomorrow at 1 Carrie will be sworn in and Jordan will be de-inaugurated.
Ross- Is there a time morning when we can talk about student life.
Danielle- I’m in SIC TWR mornings. Email me if you need to.

Announcements
The retreat is this week. Everyone is expected to be there, from 10 -5. We worked hard on planning it.
Ross- Next week is involvement fest.
Carrie- there are sign up sheets to work at the table during the week. There are tables for elections and for money and finance. It would be great for House members to work at the finance desk.
Nayana- and the sign up sheet is downstairs.
Roll Call
Absent: Archiana
Adjournment
8:33
Pass the Gavel

To all UMBC Undergraduates,

The House of Organizations is looking to increase its membership and will be conducting In-House elections. Please let your respective organizations know about this. Prior to the elections, each prospective representative will be expected to attend a general House meeting. The House of Organizations meets Thursdays at 8:00 PM in Commons 318. Please get your members out there and gain recognition in the SGA. We are looking for individuals that are passionate about student organizations. Thanks for your time. If you have any questions please contact me, Nayana Davis, at ndavis3@umbc.edu or Assistant Speaker Ross Dixon at drl@umbc.edu. Just a reminder, even if you are not interested in being a representative, our meetings are open to everyone and we would love to see you there.

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Nayana Davis
Speaker of the House of Organizations
President of First Year Council

The following are meeting minutes from the Senate meeting. The Senate meets every Monday at 5:30 PM in Room 318 on the third floor of The Commons. These meetings are open to all students to listen to discussion. If you would like to present an issue, please contact the Speaker of the Senate, Steve Gilmore, in advance so you can be added to the agenda.

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5:34
Everyone here except Brittany and Danielle.
No objections to minutes.

Weekly minutes:
Elani –
• Commons advisory comm..
• Art week – tell friends (in March)
• Emphasis on referendum questions for elections –
• UMBC of decades room redecorations

Enter Danielle, dramatically.

Gabe
• Campus connect, Philly’s program. Trying to target rising sophomores, mentor mentee program. Older students would be mentors, as well as faculty. Gala for mentor prospect in beginning of April, then do more events to try to recruit.
• Alumni raised questions, such as whether or not Seniors will be involved.
• Backbacks to briefcases – what alumni association boards are looking for in mentor programs.
• Hoping to start up next year.

Elani –
• Update corp time schedule

Danielle
• Met with woman from readership program representative
• Doesn’t serve 11,000 students; that’s just how many people we have on campus (as Dr. Fey previously said)
• Actually cost 25 grand a year, as opposed to what Dr. Fey said of 18 grand a year
• Most schools use GSA
• Depends on how much $ we get from Dr. Fey, as well as departments.
• OSL paying for it this semester. One year contract.
Thaddeus – would have to be built into SGA budget at the end of the year to continue. If no support, SGA can’t contribute to this on a yearly basis.
Adrienne – if people find out there are no more newspapers, and SGA tied to it, could be bad. If it’s a one time expense, might not be so bad.
Avi – SGA wasn’t the ones to come up with the program – great program, but not right that it’s been dropped in our laps. Would like to see more numbers.
Danielle – surveys from stress free zone? Steve – basically, if people read Retriever, they are reading papers. 1/3 of students aren’t reading Readership papers.
Thaddeus – SGA could put forth the last little bit to do this, but SGA doesn’t have a lot a lot of money to do this program
Steve is not environmentally conscious because, get this, he’s a music major.
Adrienne – sign petition to get Dr. Fey to one of these meetings.

Steve
• Retention committee
• If you come to umbc, leave, come back 5+ years later, you can have up to 15 credits removed.
• If you come to umbc, with certain major, and do poorly first semester, then change majors and don’t so well, you can have that first semester erased
• Someone wants to reduce the 5 years to 2-3 years.
• Graduation fee ($100) – turn that into a fee that you pay when you enter. Have to make sure that money gets used for what it should be used for.
• Changing advising to more than just getting permission to register

Thaddeus –
• Super bowl party, 20 cent wings, travesty in terms of wings.
• Reagan Sidney proposed that RA’s could get students to commons – takes so long for information to pass through everyone.
• Nothing mentioned from Reagan’s end to RA’s – that never happened
• Thaddeus ruined the Super Bowl. That’s why the Bears lost.

New Business

Steve – house did not pass legislation about Shane, had to be rewritten with Carrie as President.
In favor: 9
Opposed: 0
Abstain: 0
Absent: 1

The Retreat
Gabe – excellent change to refocus on goals. Reoriented self on projects that have been going for months or years. People bonded.
Jordan Hadfield resigned as President, PS.
Steve – good experience, thought it might be bad with Jordan resigning, but went well.

Weekly reports
Will resume this week. To Kristina, by Friday.
Legislation, by Friday, midnight, to Steve.
Make sure you log your office hours.

Formal dance
May 5th.
More legislation will most likely come soon.
If you plan to go to, need to purchase tickets. No tickets will be reserved.

Executive Reports

Gabe –
New pamphlets for study groups program, giving out at involvement this week

Narmin
Faculty forum

Jay
Nothing new to report this week

Announcements
• UMBC Paint ball team – Thaddeus
• Advising working group – Steve
• ecoFest – Danielle

Roll Call: everyone here except for Brittany (feel better!)

6:16 pm meeting adjourned.

    The SGA will be supporting the students involved in the recent situation concerning the affected by the flood in Walker Avenue. To this end, various resources have been provided for their use. We would like the displaced students to know that the SGA is doing its best while an imminent solution is being worked on. In the mean time, below is a list of places where resources are available:

Food:

Computers:

• OIT Computer Labs, including the 24-Hour Computer Lab.


• If you have water damage or questions about how you can replace water-logged peripherals, contact Jay Lagorio or stop by the SGA office, 2nd floor of the Commons.

    Regarding academics, the SGA invites these students to make adequate use of the library atrium which is open 24-hours a day every day. The Student Organization Space, located on the second floor of the commons is also available with a convenient atmosphere to wind down, relax or study. Lastly, the newly opened Study Place on the first floor of the University Center is can be used as a quiet location to study. As for concerns pertaining to faculty, the Vice President of Student Affairs has written a letter to faculty members explaining the current situation.

    Concerned students should note that a few personal services have also been taken care of by the SGA. Items like toilet paper can be retrieved from the front desk of any residence hall. Care packages containing essentials like soap, toothbrush, toothpaste, deodorant and the like can be obtained at the SGA office. For dry-cleaning needs, please contact the Capstone Leasing Office for more information on how to have your clothes cleaned.

    We understand that pressing concerns and needs may need to be addressed. Students should feel free to obtain more information at the Commons Information Desk all of next week. Information will also be available at Main Street in The Commons on Friday. In addition to that, e-mails and updates will be posted on the Walker Avenue website and an E-Mail list has been setup for the Stack 9 students for information as we get it.

    While everything possible is being done to make the situation better, any concerns with regards to specific needs can be directed to the SGA office or to sga@umbc.edu. Be sure to let us know how we can better assist you during this incident.

The following are meeting minutes from the Senate meeting. The Senate meets every Monday at 5:30 PM in Room 318 on the third floor of The Commons. These meetings are open to all students to listen to discussion. If you would like to present an issue, please contact the Speaker of the Senate, Steve Gilmore, in advance so you can be added to the agenda.

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5:36 pm (February 12, 2007)

Danielle and Mike not here.
Minutes approved.

USA Today representatives:
• 10th year of program
• on over 450 campuses nationwide
• Convenience, choice, cost = s-u-c-c-e-s-s
• Free to students (because shared between students)
• EBI Survey surveyed 11,000 students. Students who read newspaper are more likely to be informed on national and global issues, as well as being more likely to express own views.
• www.usatodaycollege.com
• important to work with student leaders to tie in student initiatives with newspaper
• RA’s can use newspapers for programming and bulletin boards
• Reaches over 90% of student body over course of one week (based on surveys across nation)
• In past have worked with SGA’s that have put forth a referendum question (passed on all campuses)

Specific to UMBC
• Sept 11 – Oct 6 (4 week pilot)
• Baltimore Sun, USA Today, Washington Post
• Fall consumption (avg. copies a day): 646 newspapers a day
• Pass-along ration of 4 (reaching approximately 2,400 students)
• 79% of students surveyed believe reading newspaper is important to education
• on campus availability of newspapers was most important factor for people reading
• surveyed approximately 300 students
• before pilot, 15% reading 3-4 days a week; after pilot, 25% reading 3-4 days week
• 44% said would pay $4-7 a semester (60% would actually pay)
• cost is based on per-copy consumption, so we only pay for what we use – delivery, displays, recycling, marketing and programming support are complimentary.
• Each newspaper offered at a discounted education rate.
• 14/20 top 20 collegiate readership program are paid for through student fees
• The schools that paid for program through SGA pulled money together from administration and SGA.
• Average copies (Sun – 192, TODAY – 217, Post – 237). 646 Total.
• If consumption remained same, cost would be $2.70 per student, per year, based on 11,900 students, or approximately $32,000/year
• Cost to get swipe access to restrict to just under grads – free.
• If Readership program doesn’t get picked up, probably will be dropped. (Although there is the possibility to wheel and deal some in the future)
• Reps meeting next week with RSA, GSA and House

Week in Review
Elani-
• Turns out, in the future every class must have a part of it that is writing intensive.
• SGA met for referendum brain storming party. Hoping to get questions written for next week to have them out for elections.

Adrienne –
• Met with Jennifer-White Torres (SEB) about flyer (how many quarter cards/banners/etc)

Thaddeus –
• Frequent Fan Club
• Program should be happening soon, would be nice if SGA could fund

Steve –
• Stress free planning

Tabassum new Vice President!!! WOOOOOO!

Thaddeus – how are you going to integrate old tasks with new VP tasks.?
Can put old tasks into sub-category of VP-cy

Alex – pros and cons of being first year student?
Can get advice from older students.
Favor: 8
Opposed: 0
Abstain: 0
Absent: 2

________________________________________

Thaddeus – came into as if we didn’t think the program was good, and needed to be convinced.
Adrienne – could we please get a meeting with Dr. Fey?
Avi – didn’t come here with any expectation, liked that.
Alex – responding to Adrienne, we have to detach it from Dr. Fey at some point. Up to us at this point. Things we could go to Dr. Fey for help, but our awkward situation now.
David – if you invite him to a Senate meeting, he’ll come (to Adrienne).
Thaddeus – would really like to hear what Dr. Fey has to say.
Elani – don’t know who we could appeal to get money. Who else could we go to?
David – office of institutional advancement, maybe?
Elani – I thought we said it wouldn’t be an issue if faculty and grad students benefited, but should contribute money. What is most amount of funding we could get from other sources?
David – I have no way to estimate that; I think more in terms of how much work you’d have to do to get money.
Elani – GSA?
David – there are enough resources to do this on this campus.
Alex – think it should only be for under grad students, with card access only. See a lot less papers taken, therefore would need to buy less. If we’re funding, should only be for under grad. There are lots of kinds of people taking these papers now. Would see much different numbers if you had to actually take your card out to get it.
Terrance – do a survey during SGA elections to ask student body what they actually want. Think best to just add in onto student fees.
Jen – I thought they said it wouldn’t work with our card system?
Jay – our system would have to totally change (pessimistically, $3,000 per box). No designation about under grad or grad student on magnetic strip on red id.
Gabe – referendum on ballot about student fee increase?
Thaddeus – lots of people won’t be in the SGA by the time this gets going with a fee increase. Will have a much different SGA by that time, and new fees (that were meant for this) may be used for other things.
Alex – have to decide is this something that is worth all this money and trouble. Not sure it is worth a fee increase.
James – have it so put in reduced amount to get paper.
Steve – to vote yes for this, what needs to happen?
Thaddeus – Can’t fund program out of General Ledger.
Elani – can just look at it online.
Steve – put $8,000 towards Study Space. Funding could be pulled in future.
Adrienne – if SGA has resources, should do this. What makes me nervous is how unstable future is. People will say, “SGA didn’t fund program” and looks bad. Should be added into budget and maybe OSL or someone else so we’re not hurting for money. $32,000 a lot of money to put in. Want this, but would hate for it to stop abruptly in future.
Thaddeus – House would have to pass money being put towards this for Fall. Don’t have enough money for this with student fee as is.
David – each future SGA could choose not to do it in future, but have to look at this point in time, and what is most important now in comparison to other things.
Adrienne – still scared.
Elani – even though we’re still in support of program, this is not SGA’s baby. Can find other things that touch whole campus that don’t have same financial circumstances.
Thaddeus – it’s easy to go online and find article. Not guaranteed to be funding later.
Alex – students talked to now like it, but don’t LOVE it. Will read the paper because it’s there, but aren’t obsessed with the program.
Elani – how can we quell idea that SGA discontinued program because didn’t want to pay for it.
Thaddeus – no “brought to you by SGA” on papers now. People might assume, but probably wouldn’t come to that. They included 11,900 in their figure, when it’s really more like 8,000.
Elani – anyone still in support of funding this program?
Jen K. – they are still asking other people (RSA, GSA, etc)
Avi – too many uncertainties as of right now.
Thaddeus – is this something we absolutely want on our campus? This will take lots of SGA’s time. Are we willing to commit money for next year? We can’t get a student fee to cover this for next year, so would have to come out of SGA’s pot (at least partially). Can we negotiate a fee increase?
Elani – can we go to different papers, or a different program?
Steve – I don’t think there’s another program like this. The only reason that USA Today’s are here.
Carrie – had meeting with Dr. Fey Thursday. He said that he had funding from “departments” lined up. Will ask again on Thursday. Told him he needed to meet with Senate and House.
Brittany – have companies contacted schools or is there a way we can contact school to see how they are paying to guarantee?
Steve – reps said if we wanted to contact other schools, we could do that.
Brittany – were they faced with same situation?
Thaddeus – 14 of top 20 programs funded by student fee. Goal would be to get financial commitments from departments, but can’t guarantee that.
Steve – need more input from Dr. Fey. Will email Dr. Fey if he will come to next meeting to talk about the program.
Adrienne – point Alex brought up should be kept in mind. Need to recognize that we need to commit to program at some point, and disconnect issue from Dr. Fey.

________________________________________

Projects
Try to meet with respective project groups.
Some kind of timeline, within next 2 weeks, send to Brady

________________________________________

Executive Reports

Carrie –
• Thank you to everyone that helped out with displaced Walker students; half or more are back in rooms now.
• Let’s get going on our projects and stuff and try to make progress in next 2 weeks. Hope is to not start anything new to try to finish up some old stuff.
• If there is an issue you’d like me to bring up, I meet with Dr. Fey once a week.
• Brady and I are working to revamp leadership awards. Student Life creating own. If you have ideas, please contact me.

Tabassum –
• Slacking so far as VP.
• Just kidding. Congrats.

James –
• Considering rounding off student fee to $100 – referendum proposing several different amounts.
• Can’t stress what we’d do with that extra money unless we have proposed use for it.
• Had meeting with Dr. Fey today too. Athletics came up. Apparently, we can pass legislation to increase money that goes to club sports. (Club sports hasn’t had increase in 6 years) David – probably good to look further into what exactly he meant by this.

Gabe –
• 13 students signed up for study ad right now
• ad on spotlight in my umbc
• 10 students in bio; other 3 in different classes

David –
• OSL and off campus student services looking into extending hours in study space
• 9:30-10pm

Nayana –
• stepped down as FYC President
• meetings starting up again

________________________________________

Paintball club has meeting Friday in student orgs space, free hour.
Formal dance
Steve, Mike, Danielle and Terrance not here.
7:15 meeting adjourned.

The following are meeting minutes from the House of Organizations meeting. The House meets every Tuesday at 5:30 PM in Room 318 on the third floor of The Commons. These meetings are open to all students to listen to discussion. If you would like to present an issue, please contact the Speaker of the House, Nayana Davis, in advance so you can be added to the agenda.

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Call to Order
8:16
Roll Call
Absent: Archiana
Approval of Minutes
Approved
New Business
A. HL62-0607-Additional Allocation for Habitat for Humanity’s “Collegiate Challenge”
Ozell- HFH are trying to go down to FL. Normally we don’t like to approve money for gas, but this is the cheapest way to get them down there.
Nayana- They also asked for 1000, and we thought to cut them down to 500, this is a weeklong trip for their big event in FL. They are driving 4 mini vans.
Joy- How many people?
Nayana- twenty. They have 4 vans.
David- Why doesn’t the house fund gas?
Ozell- if it is gas that isn’t really going to help student life, then we aren’t going to fund it.
Ross- A lot of gas goes into personal cars, but we can’t guarantee that all of the money is going to the gas directly to the event.
Nayana- We turned down a request for hotel fair
VOTE For 4 Abstaining 1 Opposed
B. HL63-0607- Additional Allocation for Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s “King of the Ring”
Nayana- We decided that we would only fund the jousting equipment.
Ozell- The only issue that came up, it will be open for the whole community but it is taking place during rush week, it may be possible that they are using the event to attract the issue to rush week.
Dustin- It is rush week and it won’t be on main street cause we are.
Phil- Narmin has had that date reserved since November, she isn’t moving her event. They will have to have it at a different time.
Ross- What is the date?
Nayana- The 21st
David- Open to all students?
Nayana- Yes.
Dustin- Free?
Nayana- yes
Joy- what will they do with the equipment?
Nayana- they rented it. We decided not to fund the food. I think we should table this since we can’t fund it for this date.
Ozell- Why don’t we try and get it for a different week?
Dustin- they are probably trying get it in during rush week.
Nayana- I sent him to Narmin and she said that she isn’t budging and he didn’t come and see me after that.
Phil- I know Tues and Wednesday, but if the general opinion is not to fund it we should vote, but if we table it they won’t be able to do it this week.
Ross- If it can’t be pushed back to another week because we can’t push it through.
Ozell- I think that we should just table it.
Nayana- It is tabled
REVISITED
Colles- It is the 20th now. There is nothing really big that happens in February. Our fraternity is trying to do things on campus. We have never really worked with SGA. There are going to be live fees. There are going to be raffles. We’ll have food.
Ross- So the book scholarship, is that just a raffle?
Colles- There is an application, then we will just be pulling out names.
Ross- Is this a rush event?
Colles- No, our rush events are at night.
Ross- My only concern is the large amount of money.
Nayana- can you push the event back at all?
Colles- No because there are many national events coming up.
Dustin- You mentioned co-sponsored with SEB, are they helping with funding?
Colles- No, they will help with advertising, popcorn.
Phil- SEB never helps co sponsors with money.
Colles- we have tried to get some other co sponsors but nobody has wanted to help.
Nayana- Other questions?
VOTE For 4 Opposed 0 Abstaining 1
Colles- a bunch of student leaders wanted to sit down and talk with SGA.
Ross- I like talking about things.
Phil- I think we should all of SGA involved.
Colles- it is really hard going up to people to ask questions. People are having trouble with communicating their problems. Many people have issues but they can’t convey their emotions. Maybe send out a survey.
Dustin- Have you tried to talk to your house representative?
Colles- I didn’t know who my representatives were.
David- will someone here take responsibility for getting this meeting together.
Nayana- I want everyone to help out.
C. HL64-0607- Additional Allocation for Sigma Alpha Epsilon’s “king of the Ring”
Ozell- This group is planning to meet at College park, they initially asked for a hotel but since college park is so close, we said no. 140 is the cost of registration for the members of the group.
Nayana- I would like to friendly amend this for the total to be $140.
Vote For 4 Opposed 0 Abstaining 1
D. HL65-0607- Additional Allocation for Taiwanese Student Association of “A.S.I.A with ASC”
Stan- ASIA is the big event for all the big Asian student organizations. We decided to fund everything and they said that they would use the clothes for other events and the food is for 50.
David- If the event is co-sponsored, why are they asking for money themselves? You don’t know how much the total request will be.
Ross- When is the Asia event?
Phil- I think that it is near the end of March.
Ross- I agree with David. Suddenly you have 7 or 8 groups asking us for money separately and it could add up to be more than we think. And I think that more than 50 people will be coming.
Nayana- This is food only for the 50 people that the Taiwanese students will be serving.
VOTE For 3 Opposed 1 Abstaining 1
E. HL66-0607- Additional Allocation for Interdisciplinary Studies Council of Majors “Petronich Lecture”
Nayana- Asking for audio/visual support. This event has been successful in the past.
Stan- I think that we gave them all they asked for.
Joy- How many people.
Nayana- 75-100
Ross- Last year was really well attended and put together.
VOTE For 4 Opposed 0 Abstaining 1
F. JL08-0607 Confirmation of Shane Spencer
Shane Spencer- I am a poli sci major. I did this last year but we didn’t have any election disputes. If I were confirmed, I would be asked to decide who is right in a dispute situation. I think that I can do that fairly, I think that people who are running for office to be subjective in my position.
Ross- There is a lot of interpreting the constitution, whether between an org and us, and if someone was to be impeached. How familiar are you with the SGA constitution?
Shane- I have read it a few time but I would definitely reread it.
Nayana- do you think that you show preference or prejudice over one member to the other.
Shane- I am relatively uninvolved in SGA so I don’t think that that would be much of a problem.
Shane Spencer is sworn in.
G. HL67-0607
Nayana- They are going to have some sort of presentation, this is something they hope to do every month and it has been successful every month.
- How are the mics different from the audio/visual?
Ozell- they are wireless and they aren’t included in the av equipment.
Nayana- I would like to friendly amend the to $195.
Dustin- where does the food go? Because it has to be on the bottom floor or else it is exclusive to students over 21.
Ross- I thought they were in conjunction with a larger group. They are doing a whole bunch of these?
Nayana- didn’t they say that they wanted to do a whole bunch of these?
Phil- this is for one Thursday and they usually get about 40 people.
VOTE For 4 Opposed 0 Abstaining 1
H. HL68-0607 Acceptance of Arab Student Union
Ross- let’s table this one.
I. HL69-0607 Acceptance of Migraine Help Club
Ross- their purpose is to help people deal with migraines without the use of drugs.
Nayana- they aren’t providing pills or anything.
Stan- I met with the person who wants to be the president. She showed me the web site. i thought it was a really good idea.
Nayana- what is their mission statement?
Ross- Education. They go by MHC.
VOTE For 4 Opposed 0 Abstaining 1
J. HL70-0607 Acceptance of Orthodox Christian Fellowship
Ross- Christian Fellowship
Phil- is this for eastern or Greek orthodox?
Ross- I can’t remember.
VOTE For 4 Opposed 0 Abstaining 1
K. HL71-0607 Acceptance of Pre-Nursing Society
Ross- Earlier, I thought there was a problem with their constitution. There is no pre nursing major so they formed and org to help people follow the right path for pre nursing.
VOTE For 4 Opposed 0 Abstaining 1
L. HL53-0607
M. HL54-0607
N. HL55-0607

Special Projects
A. Share Objectives for “Spotlight on Organizations”
Finance Committee
Nayana- Joy will be responsible for the finance committee report.
Phil- I will make appointments for the student orgs.

Ross- We have a couple more constitution coming up. Is anyone interested (Ozell)? Good, there is a lot of Greek life stuff coming up. If anyone comes up to you and has questions about recognition, tell them to shoot me an email and tell them not to panic.
Nayana- Ross is the new head of the student life committee.
General Discussion
A. House Structure
Nayana- We have 17 seats that we can fill and there is 5 of us. We want to change it so we can have a constructive house.
Ross- when the house was created 6 years ago, it was created with the intention to deal with the funding and student organization stuff. As time has gone by, our body has worn itself out because we try to do to many things. We all want to help organization but we spend our time looking at money and making sure things follow the rule. The idea is to create a new structure that allows the house to be efficient: money and rules. And create something else that deals with projects. We haven’t really had the opportunity to have the time to do anything but to enforce our own rules. The idea is to change our entire structure.
Ozell- how would we go about changing the body?
Nayana- We want to have a finance board with 6 members with some ex officio boards.
Ross- The short answer is we are going to have to change the constitution.
Nayana- we want to be able to address the student life part of our job. It isn’t fair to the student orgs for us not to help them out. These changes might come into effect next year.
Dustin- What happened to the treasurer hiring assistants?
David- I think that that has happened, but since there are fewer and fewer members. It has allowed the house to do its job to do it well.
Joy- I think we have a problem getting people into the house. It seems many people do not run because they do not want to be in a specific chair. If there is some way that, it could be more general.
Ozell- There aren’t many people who want to be involved. Maybe if we don’t have specific seats, we could join the house as groups- finance, social- then that would break out into the seats.
David- What would they do?
Ozell- If you had a group that was cultural- religion, etc. Sports- recreation, athletic few. Just 3 or 4 groups that encompass the seats. It would take less pressure off people.
Nayana- How would you deal with those groups that aren’t represented?
Ozell- I think it would be hard for a group not to be a part of a larger group. Maybe if we looked at the seats and found a way to fit all the seats in those groups.
Ross- 2 groups- one with money and one with projects doing things for groups and not just giving them money.
Ozell- Have the people just choose a group and not a seat.
Dustin- The purpose of the seats is so every type of group is equally represented. People get an idea in their head that the seats limit their jobs.
Nayana- Why did you guys decide to join the house?
Joy- I joined it because this is the place where you could represent my organization.
Ozell- I joined because I wanted to find a way to affect the decisions about Greek life. I looked up the information about Greek Life.
Stan- I joined because Toks encouraged me. I ran with the idea that maybe this year there would be two people. I had a preconceived notion of what SGA was. When I saw the decision-making that goes on here, I wanted to be part of that decision-making.
Ross- I joined for the comrades. Jordan convinced me that I wasn’t involved in the SGA. I got an email from the radio guy saying that there were in house elections and I went to check it out, and I’m still here.
Nayana- If we advertised as the house as it is, do you think that we could get more people.
Joy- I don’t think that we should completely do away with the seats. People should have an idea of what they want to represent.
David- could you accomplish this with the way that you campaigned.
Joy- I think that is something that would be important in each individuals campaign. If we just have the senate and house, but if we say what you can represent in the house.
Ross- I have been a long time opponent of dropping the seat names. My major fear is that one organization would fill the house. If that happened, next year’s election would be really really competitive, maybe we need that. I think that we should drop the seats. We have the power to define what the new house would be and how to define it. We are here to represent something much larger than ourselves.
Macaulay- Combining it into broader categories but instead of having people run under a category, but after you are elected you become part of a committee.
David- I think the word government is very misleading but I think it is more of a union. I think the house has been a governing organization but it hasn’t been a union rep. The house hasn’t been able to track newly recognized organization. It hasn’t been very consistent. We now have our 3rd chair of the student life committee. How do you get the work done without coming across any problems and still representing the student orgs? I think that is why Ross wants to separate groups (money and student Life). If you have people running for jobs that they want to do and they know what they are getting into.
Dustin- what about recognizing and derecognizing?
Ross- It is very mechanical. We could debate whether we want to hand it over to OSL.
Dustin-I am sure Jay can come up with a list about the information about orgs.
Ross- OSL came up with a list already and it has helped a lot.
Nayana- we will be continuing this. The house applications are the same. And we need to change that.
Ross- It would be great if we could get some legislation out there, talk to your groups.
STRESS FREE ZONE Nayana- I want us as a whole house to make this transition. If there is no more discussion on the structure, I want to talk about the stress free zone. They want to take that out of the senate and make it a whole house project. And take the money out of the GL.
Phil- There should be operating funds, so we don’t need money out of the GL.
Nayana- The big thing is if you want it to be a whole house project.
Stan- A lot of people expected to have massages. Maybe it is something that we could add.
Joy- I like the idea of having a big project but I don’t like getting it out of the general ledger.
Phil- There should be money that it is budgeted for.
Nayana- I am getting the impression that you would be ok to make it a gnereal SGA projects if the money comes out of the operating budget.
Phil- I think you guy should be a part of it, wherever the money comes from.
Ross- Let’s talk about fees. WE have talked about referendum questions; we are talking about increasing the student activity fees. The idea is to put this question on the referendum, but we need to educate people what it does. We only want to put things on the referendum only if we can educate them. This is the pot that all the money comes from for the orgs. Are we all for pushing this question and making sure everyone is educated?
Ozell- I am definitely all for it. We should tell people what their money is going for.
Ross- We talked about tee- shirts that said something about ask me about referendum question. We talked about having a town hall meeting set up. It would be cool if we could get a panel of people who would sit there. If anyone can thing of something extravagant, let me know.
David- last year, everybody like the idea of the question, but no one wanted to educate people.
Nayana- There has a referendum committee that has been formed.
Ozell- how hard would it be to create a commercial? It could be played everywhere.
Dustin- Jordan Eberline actually tries to get student programming on channel 3 and we could play them on the commons TV.
Ross- The TV studio on campus is no longer being used by students; it is being used by Erickson retirement home. It only effects if we will have our own studio.
- How does that stuff slip under the radar?
Ross- money.
-To make something you want happen, it seems so difficult.
Dustin- is there a student advocate?
David- there isn’t a student advocate. There needs to be a student union rep.
Dustin- Should the athletics teams take sponsorships? It would cut costs.
David- donors aren’t drawn toward athletics.
Phil- I have heard that UMBC is trying to raise so many dollars, and there is a list of places where they can donate, and athletics isn’t on there.
Michael-Athletics does have sponsors; they sponsor UMBC as a whole because teams can’t sponsor a specific team. Athletes has been forced to raise their own money through fundraisers.
Macaulay- The question should be more targeted to administration, Should administration support something like athletics but not exactly. Phil was talking about so many millions in ten years. Administrations doesn’t want athletics being messed up. The problem is much deeper.
David- Referendum questions- what should students vote for that will actually be able to change? If you know that is something that will make a difference that is something, you should vote.
Macaulay- Student recreation fee question.
Ross- Are you talking about a question like should students have a say in how the recreation fee is spent?
Macaulay- There isn’t anyone to ask Charlie Brown the question.
Dustin- I just remember a tour of the athletics. I think with student support it might make administration make another look.
Macaulay- That is pretty much what I was trying to say. Student fees aren’t going to help build a new RAC. Corporate sponsorships are what we need.
Ross- I don’t know when the referendum group is getting together but I will make sure everyone knows when it is.
B. Updates on First Year Ambassadors
C. Others
Ex officio-
Carrie- thanks for helping the displaced walker students. We have managed to get them food. We will send thank you to those who have helped us out. With the executives, I went over the stuff that needs to be reported. I don’t want to stop helping the walker students but lets make sure we refocus in on the immediate stuff that is affecting the SGA. Question about the budget will be able to be answered.

Ex-Officio Reports
Macaulay- There are always many people dealing with different issues dealing with athletics. I want to get all of those people together. So, we don’t have 20 different people having different meetings.

Announcements
Nayana- A USA Today rep has come to me and Steve wanting to come to the meetings to talk to us about the readership program. I am sure that everyone knows what happened in Walker. Carrie Mann called an emergency meeting to talk about donations, care packages, etc. Just contact people to see who else is working on what.
Dustin- There have been a lot of talking about people pulling down other people’s flyers.
Ross- Any events this week?
Dustin- IFC rush week
Roll Call
Absent: Archiana
Adjournment
9:55
Pass the Gavel

The following are meeting minutes from the Senate meeting. The Senate meets every Monday at 5:30 PM in Room 318 on the third floor of The Commons. These meetings are open to all students to listen to discussion. If you would like to present an issue, please contact the Speaker of the Senate, Steve Gilmore, in advance so you can be added to the agenda.

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February 19, 2007

Exceptional by Example - UMBC’s SGA Senate

5:33
Everyone here.
Minutes good
Week in review
Adrienne
• Specs to SEB – advertising soon
• Liability forms good
• Went to open house where ch3 runs. Approved certain majors.

Thaddeus
• It steering committee meeting (Security) dealing with sensitive DATA
• Should be behind firewalls
• Teaching, learning, technology action plan committee is reviewing technology in classroom – what level classes are out, and which ones we should be upgrading.

Avi
• Off campus living task force
• Added more business to red card program
• Umbc.edu/discounts
• Good neighbor service project – last year project was with South West ? Services (Homeless shelter in Arbutus) – any ideas? Check corp. time!

Steve
• Lynn Schaefer talking about the budget
• 2% budget cut all around University (2 million $ shortage) due to lower enrollment than expected
• short about 100 students
• shortage of out of state students and also credit hour requirements have been changed to dissertation (didn’t add tuition #’s)
• also a hiring freeze (not faculty)

Have built a lot of new academic buildings, and with Humanities building just over horizon, money issues come into question. Humanities building would cost approximately 250 million, and other recent buildings didn’t get full funding when they were built.

Dr. Fey coming to this meeting in 2 weeks.

College Readership Program –
Need to come to understanding as a Senate what our stance is.

Alex – can’t pick up a program and fund it every year. More money out of SGA’s pockets every year, and will have a different sga every year. If we want this, need to ensure its longevity; only way to do that is to have more constant people funding it. If we start, people will expect us to continue – people look at the SGA and think money.

Thaddeus – don’t have the money for this, so we shouldn’t do it.
Danielle – how much is budget each year? Roughly $200,000. $150,000 goes to student orgs. GL has $350,000. If this is something that students want, why not use students money to get it for them?
Brittany – Is the SGA committed to do this every year, or can we just do this one year? Technically, we can, but ethically, we probably shouldn’t. Before Dr. Fey comes, can we put a questionnaire on myUMBC?
Mike – informal, can I ask the class before class poll. Could get some decent informal data through that. Secondly, depending on how survey goes, know if people would be upset or not.
Jay – we talk about what we want to institutionalize in the SGA, the stress free zone an example. We could use the rollover money from each year, put it in an account, and have money for this program every year.
Adrienne – to average student, looks suspicious. Readershape is a great idea, as Alex pointed out weeks ago. Shouldn’t just drop program on our laps.
Elani – is there anything else we could do with all that money? (Elani likes Readershape too!)
Terrance – what are we trying to do with this, we’ve been talking for 2 weeks and aren’t getting anywhere.
Steve – don’t want to sit here and wait for him to come to us, but am hoping maybe we could come up with a game plan of something to do before he gets here.
Thaddeus – Elani, the GPS. We could definitely use the money for that.
Alex – propose make a committee for surveying and asking students about how they feel about program.
Brittany – contact different organizations to give money.
Adrienne – set list of questions to give to Dr. Fey.
Alex – I hate the program, but I will head the committee. If I head it can we stop talking about it?

Gabe –
Study groups on spotlight

Jay –
No report

Thaddeus –
March 9th and 10th: if anyone on campus, Debate team needs judges
Mike –
Guitar hero 2 tournament
Tuesday, 8pm
Adrienne –
We still have ad section in Retriever? Yup.
Danielle –
High way clean up on March 3rd (Wilkens Avenue)
Elani –
Email Jen Kent list of orgs involved with or would be willing to approach (referendum questions/candidates/etc)

Roll call: everyone here
6:31

Are you interested in running for a position in the Student Government Association? Download this application for more information about the requirements, job descriptions, and regulations. The application is due by March 9, 2007 to the location specified in the document. If you have other questions, please contact David Hoffman.