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 (gilmore2@umbc.edu), in advance so you can be added to the agenda.
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SENATE MEETING- October 22, 2007
Meeting called to order at 5:33 pm
All Senators/FYA’s present except for Rahilla and Natasha (both 5-10 min late)
Week in Review:
1) Steve: Homecoming=Awesome!
2) Jen: Library policy- changing rules about cell phones talked about, not happening. Budget- need money
3) Josh: Governor O’Malley visit, talked about budget for next year, several SGA members attended- tax free textbooks coming up? We’ll see
4) Jake: All homecoming sports games were won!
5) Michael: Food Services consultant presented and it went well- there will be a bidding process. SGA blog is up and running sga.blogspot.com
New Business:
1) JL03-0708- GL expenditure for Student Orgs dinner ($6657.00)
a. Chris Najmi presenting-
b. Was supposed to be a Finance board expenditure but they were confused about statutes and made it a JL.
c. Dinner for presidents and treasurers for all clubs on campus- unveiling new student orgs handbook and other new initiatives
d. Budgeted for up to 250 students
e. Steve- food details? Sit down dinner, a few food options, buffet, catered by Sodexho.
f. Mike- advertising? Already started and is underway
g. David H- Explained that Stu Org Advocates were supposed to go to Finance Board in budget statutes since they represent stu orgs. Won’t happen like this in the future.
h. Discussion about whether or not FB can support these kinds of expenditures- it is expected that they can, but can go to GL if they need it. Concerns about use of GL for stu orgs. Finance board just worried about having enough money at the end of the year. Is this good ammo for a fee increase? Steve concerned that FB not aware of the statutes and that communication between branches is lacking.
i. Vote: 7 For, 0 Opposed, 1 Abstaining, 0 Absent
2) JL 04-0708- GL expenditure for Student Orgs winners for event usage in handbook ($300)
a. Chris Najmi presenting-
b. Using events that happened in the past as examples for clubs to do or not do for their events to make all events as successful as possible. This money is a reward to those clubs for use as example.
c. Submission deadline- 10/31
d. Steve- Advertising? Personal contacts with orgs that we know have held good events.
e. Jake- How many awards? Between 4 and 6 to be split
f. Ben- Is this open to all orgs? It was pinpoint targeting at certain clubs.
g. Vote: 7 For, 0 Opposed, 1 Abstaining, 0 Absent
3) JL06-0708- GL expenditure for tailgate party by Black&Gold commission ($5,300)
a. Jake Steel presenting-
b. First tailgate in Oct drew over 400 students- giveaways, music, food, Trudy grit, pep band- big success
c. Basketball is best attended sport and we want people excited for this season.
d. Women’s team giving away lots of shirts, hanging of a banner in the RAC for going to NCAA tournament. Excitement for this could carryover to men’s game on Sat.
e. DJ will be at this one because it is late on Friday, advertising will be same as last time, food will be same, or possibly increased after near runout last time
f. Mike- Will there be more throughout the year? Yes but co-sponsorships will increase in the future- ResLife, RSA, Athletics
g. Steve- how much did we spend from last time? 8 dollars charged so far, but 2550 from Sodexho will come and 130 from advertising.
h. Steve- will Athletics start being more cooperative or start money hunting? We don’t want this to be a prybar for athletics to get into the GL. Our relationship is improving. This is a student event for students, just getting students excited about an athletic event. They will start being more receptive to putting money into this to get students out.
i. David H- We’re assuming athletics is responsible for sports games. A better relationship with them involves students getting benefit of things like this without spending Stu. Activity fee.
j. Jake- this helps build our partnership with them. We should not hurt student life by relying on athletics to fund things right now.
k. Mike- We need to be sure this relationship becomes a two way open street. We pay a lot into Athletics fee, so we should get something from that.
l. Jake- Good points but this event is not about Athletics funding, it is an SGA event we are trying to hold to increase spirit.
m. Mike- Athletics is currently separate from student life and we should encourage them to spend money on things like this.
n. Jake- There will be no tailgate if we don’t do it. We are leading the charge for school spirit.
o. Josh- Athletics is under funded and it is their primary responsibility to take care of athletics. We should compare their spending to ours. College park has strong boosters and support in state government. They might see it as our event.
p. Sameera- Can we get money from the co sponsorships? Yes we will but this is to ensure the event happens and we can’t wait for everyone to commit.
q. Ben- this is an event that students like and it is advertised as us doing it.
r. Jen- RSA has different process for getting money- we could be getting money from them as of next week.
s. Josh- we should look at setting guidelines for what we will spend in regards to events with athletics.
t. Steve- miscommunication between us and athletics as well as within the SGA.
u. Jake- he will be getting a good look at their budget next week and will be reporting the findings back to the Senate. It is clear that there are a lot of concerns that will be addressed.
v. Rahilla- How much is coming from RSA? We’re asking them to cover advertising and setup costs. Also- we are trying to get Sodexho price down.
w. Natasha- How are we approaching these clubs? At first we advertised it as a novel, new event. Now we can say it is a successful event with a big audience of students.
x. Mike- Concerned about making sure SGA is fully behind this event. Jake says that is not a problem. We can do lots of SGA support for this. The “old red and gold” will be in full force
y. Vote: 7 For, 0 Opposed, 1 Abstaining, 0 Absent
4) JL05-06-07- GL expenditure for JSU debt relief ($2557)
a. David H presenting
b. We are not sure how this situation got to the way it is. They have been operating with a debt for a long time, to their detriment. This is a fair compromise between SGA and JSU. They will fundraise $500 on their own and SGA will bail them out the remaining money.
c. Mike- Remembers giving JSU lots of money when he was in the House, why? We have been ignoring their debt for some time. We have been inconsistent in how we handled it
d. Mike- Where will money go? Unsure- individual accounts are sort of fictional. For sure- the account where debt is will grow and GL will shrink.
e. Natochia- Is there penalties for JSU? We have better control now than when this happened. It is harder for this to happen now.
f. Rahilla- We don’t know why this happened or where it is going? Yes, we don’t know who is at fault but they probably aren’t here now. It is going to a UMBC account.
g. Natasha- What have they been doing to survive? University initially paid the bill. Can they keep doing it? No. Did they know JSU was in debt? Yes.
h. Mike- So debt is in Business services? Yes.
i. Ben- Motion to table. Agreed. Tabled until more info is provided.
Executive Reports:
1) Elani- Turn in your weekly reports. “Improve It” is gaining ground- watch out for committees forming about it. Asking for ideas about how to market it and make it more accessible to students. Will be using advertising we have never seen before. Looking to SEB for support.
2) Josh- we received news that Sorrento’s will now accept campus cash from red cards and you will get a 10% discount. It’s legit. We’ll use this to get others.
3) Gabe- ACC meeting coming up- will be looking at Academic code of conduct. Formed a study group on the fly last week. Will be getting to ITA stuff soon.
4) SEB- Thanks for the help with Homecoming
Announcements
1) Monster Bash at Sonar on Thurs.
Adjourned at 6:49 pm