I. Call to Order 5:33PM
II. Roll Call
A. Present
1. Speaker Gabe Rettaliata
2. Assistant Speaker Jen Kent
3. Sunaina Khandelwal
4. Whitney Torchia
5. Neketa Kakar
6. Brian Frazee
7. Amber Spry
8. Rahilla Tarfa
B. Absent
1. Tascha Ebhomielen
2. Chidinma Ukonne
3. Aditi Srivastav
III. Approval of Minutes
A. Minutes approved by general consent
IV. Open Discussion
A. Review of the past week
1. RSA
a. Sunaina Khandelwal: RSA is planning the block party. They’re doing a lot of advertisement. They approved a new constitution for the honorary RSA. They also did a new budget.
2. Gabe Rettaliata: Anybody else do anything this week?
a. Rahilla Tarfa: Commons Advisory Board Meeting. Renovate art on the 3rd floor. Pamphlet about recycling in the commons. You can recycle glass, plastic, etc. They want to work with residential halls with that project as well
b. Jen Kent: The new student book experience last week. There were 50 nominations. We knocked off half already. Our goal is 150 nominations and we had 134 last year. If you know anybody who wants to nominate a book, go to the office of undergrad.
i. Sunaina Khandelwal: What’s the decision process?
ii. Jen Kent: There’s a criteria. It has to be no more than 125 pages. Stay away from a memoir because it’s been like that for the past 2 years. Supposed to be something a lot of people can relate to and hasn’t been read in high school. No recent movie about it. Those are the basic things. Then after that, it’s just an open discussion.
c. Aditi Srivastav: We’re getting an alumni magazine. Sending it to alumni 2009. We are the only university that offers PhD that doesn’t have a magazine. Talked about different things that we want and don’t want to see. Alumni scholarship. See what recipients are doing. Video montage… this is what I’m doing, my major, etc. I’m going to be working closely with the community president and want to speak with us on a Monday. I’m trying to coordinate that right now.
V. Project Updates
A. Increased Library Hours
1. Neketa Kakar: We’re meeting Friday.
2. Sunaina Khandelwal: We’re trying to figure out what’s already been done.
B. Stress Free Zone Revamp
1. Jen Kent: Meeting this Thursday. I sent an email about it. That’s pretty much just to see what ideas people have.
C. Reaching out to International Students
1. Chidi Ukonne: I spoke to the International Education Advisor. They have the international event coming up. They’re supposed to send me an email of what they need help with. They’re going to have a fair in the commons main street in November. I let them know that SGA can help them out with it
D. Digital Campus Sign
1. Whitney Torchia: I had done a lot of research on it previously. Basically from all that we’ve found, we’ve seen other people doing it. You need 3 proposals, and I called 3 places. Average is $25,000. For only 2 people, landscaping, etc. there’s not really a place we can put up where it’s good for all the entrances. Gabe was at the meeting, and we thought we could redirect our project to the colors and the signage on campus. Plain welcome sign, etc. without the digital sign for events and do something more doable for us.
a. Gabe Rettaliata: Do you have a meeting set up?
b. Whitney Torchia: We just met last Thursday so we’re setting up another meeting sometime soon.
VI. Special Guest- Josh Michael, Student Regent
1. Josh Michael: What I’m trying to do is to come to each SGA in the system. Basically what I’ve been doing in other institutions is talk about my role and the relationship I want to have with them. Statewide issues and trends that we’re going to see. And then open it up to see how better I can serve you. I’m here at UMBC at the state level. Also, let me know what I’m using and where I’m not hitting home. Overview of the system. There are 13 institutions in MD that’s part of USM. 11 of those give degrees, 2 researched based. Concept of system is that we have a bunch of needs in the state. Focus areas in different school. Then they do a good job serving the state. For example, we’re a STEM school. We serve a lot of minorities in our school. My role in that is that I serve on the board of 17 people. Set tuition. Reviews policies for the different school. What I’m trying to do: attend meetings and represent you all. Second thing, advocate students outside of those meetings. Third, serve as a resource to you as an access to administrators that you may struggle to get to otherwise. Statewide issues: I think there are 3 major areas that are going to dominate Maryland in the next 3 years. Budget. The budget is not good. Mid year cuts that were announce on Friday for this fiscal year. Dim fiscal outlook in the next fiscal year. Not exactly sure how that’s going to pan out for students. Maybe increase of tuition, or cutting resources, etc. These are some things we might see in higher education. We play an important role in setting that trend. Second: workforce system. Look at STEM schools. Right now it’s $9000 per student. We produce twice as many people in these stem programs. We’re doing what state is doing but we’re not getting as much money. Third: environmentally sustainability. My projects: I’m working on looking at a possible student fee in all schools for $1-5 for carbon offsets or a green fund. Something similar to Prove it but for a green project. One of the two. Be interested in your feedback. Second thing: Textbooks. Textbook manufacturers have to tell professors what they’re changing in each edition. Retail price. Feds have taken care of our issues. It’s not going into effect until July 1st 2010. One of my other projects, leveraging my vote in finance committee so there’s a student representation in all student fees. I’m going to be working with different campus for that. One of the other things I’m doing is broaden communication in the campuses. My goal is by December is to meet with SGA presidents of different campuses. I’ve also got a blog about system issues. The last issue that I talked about earlier is the budget. We have to make a conscious decision of what we’re going to do. What do you think about the quality at UMBC? Are you willing to pay more or do you prefer tuition to be frozen?
a. Sunaina Khandelwal: what’s “more”
b. Josh Michael: Cost of education. What’s important?
c. Sunaina Khandelwal: What do you mean?
d. Josh Michael: To me, my general approach is cost is important but predictability is just as important. 2003-2004 we saw 15% increases each year. To me, inflation is only 3% so we should only be seeing that. Where do you guys feel on that?
e. Chidi Ukonne: You don’t mind seeing increase? What would be the incentive if it’s increased? Better services? Where would the additional money be going to
f. Josh Michael: I think the first thing, certain level inflation sets in. Gas goes up. Maintenance and construction. That goes up each year. The question is what percent is that each year? Do you want less or more of that? Are you willing to have less money and services go down? Do you want to pay more for a better education or maintain the level we have now?
g. Amber Spry: We don’t necessarily get better services. It just covers inflation. To get better service, you have to double it. That’s obnoxious. I want to see the state give us more money. If we have to pay, I’d want it to rise if that means maintaining what we do get now.
h. Sunaina Khandelwal: I don’t want to see 15% if inflation is only 3%.
i. Josh Michael: I read the retriever from 2003 to see what happened. Library closed early. Other services closed early to see how this campus handles campus cuts.
j. Brian Frazee: I’d rather pay for more services. It should be a gradual increase. In years past, there’s been a tuition freeze and all of a sudden tuition skyrockets. I think rather than have tuition freeze, why don’t we increase it gradually with inflation unless we don’t have to.
k. Josh Michael: The tuition freeze has been funded. 16 million dollars. Funded tuition for us. Mid year they dropped 10 million. So this is the first time we’ve had unfunded tuition freeze.
l. Steve Gilmore: I think that if we support tuition freeze, it’d make our job harder. With student activity fee, whether to approve freeze, it’s hard to sell it with tuition increase. Less chance of student activity fee increasing.
m. Gabe Rettaliata: How do slots play in all of this?
n. Josh: Early September we voted to endorse slots. Slots can earn 300-700 million a year. If slots pass then that money would be dedicated to the k12 budget. That would give us new money. If it doesn’t pass, it will put the fine arts building at risk. That’s the implication in terms of slots. We’d also see a delay on operating budget because k12 will take more of a share from the state budget that otherwise would come to us.
o. Rahilla Tarfa: Is there a lot of opposition in passing the slots?
p. Josh Michael: A lot of people think it’s a way to go and vice versa.
q. Sunaina Khandelwal: Where will this be in the process?
r. Josh Michael: It will be in the ballot. I will also highlight for you… the higher ed 60 million chunks are strictly dedicated to higher education. That will be an unrestricted fund if slots do not pass. The higher ed fund is discretionary fund that can be used in the state.
s. Brian Frazee: What do you plan to do as student regent for UMBC?
i. Josh Michael: Student fee review. Looking at environment sustainability or if it comes in a form of a student fee. My other big issue is money. Affordability. Essence of what goes on. Money is everything in terms of higher ed like textbooks. Try not to put our future in the hands of politicians. I’m trying to get attention to UMBC. Smaller meetings with regents out to UMBC. Meeting UMBC students. Try to get them out to basketball games. Hopefully we can make some things happen there. Particularly, expanding residential housing in a few years. One more question. How would you respond if we have an 8% increase, and a tuition freeze in other schools?
ii. Amber Spry: What determines freeze?
iii. Josh Michael: demand. Not a good one?
iv. Aditi Srivastav: If less people want to go to Bowie, etc. and they don’t need the money, I don’t really know what we’re losing.
v. Jen Kent: I think it’s fair.
vi. Aditi Srivastav: If more kids want to go here, we have to pay more.
vii. Sunaina Khandelwal: if it’s a tuition freeze because the government is giving the money, then that’s not fair.
viii. Josh Michael: That may happen
ix. Sunaina Khandelwal: Well then that’s not fair.
t. Chidi Ukonne: Are you in any way… can you be a catalyst for getting funded for getting international or out of state students? It’s limited at UMBC. Since UMBC is a state school, they have little funding. Can you in any way to be a catalyst to get some kind of funding, scholarship, etc. kind of incentive to get out of state or international students to come here.
i. Josh Michael: I can look into that. What does everyone think?
ii. Sunaina Khandelwal: I agree
iii. Rahilla Tarfa: I agree too. We have a lot percentage of international students here. I also had a question, how does financial aid change when tuition increases?
iv. Josh Michael: It can stay where it was before. It can be increased same as tuition so it’d be match. It can be increased above. It is not tied to it in any way. In the past in Maryland it stayed even with tuition. That’s something to be paid attention to. I don’t know, it’s a tough place for me. I don’t know where I’d stand on that. My general inclination is that it is a state school. Financial goes to state students.
v. Chidi Ukonne: Other schools get more. You can’t apply for scholarships because you’re not a US citizen. There’s nothing designed because they’re not US citizens.
vi. Josh Michael: Where have you heard this?
vii. Chidi Ukonne: I think College Park has it.
viii. Josh Michael: We can look into that.
ix. Sunaina Khandelwal: Where does the money go if it goes anywhere to international students?
x. Josh Michael: What’s the focus? International or out of state?
xi. Chidi Ukonne: Both. I feel like there should be some kind of incentive. There’s a large population at UMBC. Why can’t we cater to some of their needs?
xii. Josh Michael: In terms of out of state, CP is different. They’re trying to bring in the best students to set the quality up. Let’s look into that.
u. Dave Hoffman: Roughly speaking, what’s the budget of USM, budget of UMBC?
i. Josh Michael: 2.4 billion. UMBC is 10% of the system.
ii. Dave Hoffman: Possibility of using a 60 million pot. 60 million out of 2.4 billion. It is an important fraction.
iii. Josh Michael: We could look at a net loss 210 million dollars a year.
iv. Dave Hoffman: This is huge.
v. Josh Michael: Budget I gave you. 2.4 billion is tuition, other funds and state dollars combined. State funds are 1.1 billion.
vi. Dave Hoffman: For the cuts that were announced on Friday, what’s UMBC’s share
vii. Josh Michael: 10%. 10 million dollar cut from base budget. Take 10 million from operating expenditures and expect 10 million in less. Take 20 million from savings. We use savings to get loans, etc. it’s an interesting mix. Not a straight budget. For us, it’s just over 1 million dollars for UMBC. Other schools have been talking about it since Friday afternoon. If you didn’t know about that, it’s something we’d have to address.
v. Dave Hoffman: For members of UMBC SGA senate Josh’s blog is a must read. These issues are really important. It can affect the well being of the students at UMBC.
i. Josh Michael: and please comment. I try and talk issues… for instance, if something happens on campus… we broke ground of the pharmacy at UMB. Talk about capital budgets in MD.
ii. Sunaina Khandelwal: I heard they’re going to cut the schedule. 3 rounds in the morning, 3 rounds in the afternoon.
iii. Josh Michael: We also have to see who’s riding these buses. A lot of UMB employees are using UMBC buses. They’re also your student fees. It isn’t for them.
VII. New Business
A. SR02-0809- Resolution to Support the Creation of a Studio for UMBCtv
1. Gabe Rettaliata: Mike here from UMBCtv.
2. Mike: We’ve been trying to find UMBCtv to semi permanent be. Bottom of Susquehanna is free. She showed me the space, size of a regular dorm room. It used to be an old staff lounge. No longer used. She said absolutely no plans to use this old staff lounge. She told me to talk to residential life for acquiring it. I talked to the head of residential life. She said to write a proposal to get as many organizations behind it. What I’m asking is a letter of support UMBCtv to use unused space to throw up a studio.
3. Gabe Rettaliata: What have you guys been up to?
a. Mike: To get more students involved. I’ve devoted most of my time to record events and getting them online. It’s not sustainable. We haven’t been getting new members. Scaling back. Get new students. Talked to The Retriever about doing a new show. Temporary on a monthly basis. Hopefully weekly basis soon. News around campus. Opinions. What’s happening this week, etc. I’m also talking with Chartwells about doing a cooking show. I’ve actually have 2 pilots of cooking show of people that flaked out during the last minute. Chartwell said they’d provide the cook. Or do our own cook and they’d be assisting. Or they can provide the cook and we ca provide people that he’s teaching. Interesting prospect: they’ll also put it on the main chartwell’s website so anybody that goes to their site can see this. That would be a good prospect for UMBCtv and UMBC. That obviously has nothing to do with the studio because we’d need a kitchen.
4. Brian Frazee: do you have any plans to advertise UMBCtv?
a. Mike: working with the website right now. I just threw up a UMBCtv for Prove it real quick. Then I uploaded some but it doesn’t mesh. I’m trying to find a web designer. As soon as I feel the website is presentable, I’m going to try to get Commonvision advertisement. In theory, just posters to advertise meetings and not a website right now.
b. Brian Frazee: Is it on channel 2?
c. Mike: We’re just online right now. We’ve been talking to OIT for a channel. We can’t unless we have content to justify it. We can’t get content until we get advertisement. I said forget it and do online videos for now. Once interest is built, we’ll look into it again.
d. Brian Frazee: I thought there was an actual TV channel… 2 or 3.
e. Mike: That’s the common vision feed. I know that WMBC is trying get audio on it. I talked to OIT: instead of having my own channel, cut into like a time at 7 and cut back. They said that’s not feasible because they go to a server and they hit play. If we did it that way, they’d have to go at 7 to stop start and play. They didn’t want to do that.
5. Sunaina Khandelwal: what’s the current workspace for UMBCtv? Where do you guys meet?
a. Mike: we meet at student orgs on Fridays at 3pm. Eventually we’ll get a space somewhere in the commons. It’s going to adjust based upon the availability of people.
6. Chidi Ukonne: Post videos online. What’s the website? Umbctv.com How do people know about this website? I never knew about it.
a. Mike: I’d been advertising it around. UMBC underground. Word of mouth. In theory, once we get Retriever show up, they’ll be advertising us.
7. Chidi Ukonne: Do you have a team working with you?
a. Mike: kind of, not really. I found out before classes that half of my team decided to transfer to other schools. Put the team to just me. Then recruited more people. Fouad is our treasurer. He’s one of the members. We have a couple more from the media communications department. We’re building it back up.
8. Chidi Ukonne: do you have a timeline?
a. Mike: For what? We have several projects. Chartwell hasn’t started up yet. Retriever show, we’re meeting up next week. I’m getting videos from last semester edited and put up online. I recorded the hypnotist and I have to wait to post it because I have to edit someone out. Technical difficulties. I’m trying to get as many of it up. And I’m doing the website. And I’m advertising. Fouad is taking care of the other stuff.
9. Rahilla Tarfa: Are you guys a club?
a. Mike: we’re a recognized organization
b. Rahilla Tarfa: do you have a faculty mentor
c. Mike: our mentor also left. I have a meeting tomorrow from someone from media communication department. He’s the advisor for WMBC.
10. Rahilla Tarfa: Are you guys the one that put up the YouTube videos on the spotlight?
a. Mike: that’s OIT. That’s completely separate. Problem is: it’s a giant bin of videos you have to dig through in order to find anything. I want to shoot our original content. I’m trying to cater more to the students instead of just basketball games and a lecture.
11. Whitney Torchia: where do you keep your equipment
a. Mike: my apartment
b. Whitney Torchia: If you get this space, are you going to keep equipment there? Open certain times of the day?
c. Mike: We want to set up equipment there so it’s ready whenever we need to shoot. I don’t know how open it can be because it’s in Susquehanna hall. I want to have it in the commons but I’ve been shut down. It’s the only used place I can find. Original space is use the UC right next the radio station but apparently it’s used for storage now or additional space just incase they need something
12. Dave Hoffman: Is there any danger that’ it’s going to be to other residents like noise?
a. Mike: We’re in the basement where nothing is. It’s an old storage room. The only inconvenience would be non Susquehanna people walking downstairs. One suggestion to legislation itself. I suggest last line of “whereas” be stricken.
13. Rahilla Tarfa: You just need student support, apart from SGA, are you going to other organizations? RSA is presenting and voting on Tuesday. Retrievers support it. Media and communications, I’ll talk to them.
a. Whitney Torchia: Do you have any other organizations that support you as of yet?
b. Mike: Retrievers support it already. Media is in support of me. Official one is Retriever. You guys will be the second.
c. Rahilla Tarfa: I think you guys should still meet with other student organizations.
d. Mike: We’re just trying to find someone that are similar to us
e. Jen Kent: Different student organization that you’ve filmed or going to film.
f. Chidi Ukonne: I also want to suggest new freshmen that are looking for stuff to do, very positive that you’ll find a lot of people. UMBCtv sounds like a cool stuff, more hands on so it’s more feasible.
g. Mike: Outside of this proposal, overall goal, different disciplines together, actors from theatre, media communication, writers for scripts. Anyone and everyone we can find. Elaborate on website, the new website is still under construction.
14. Motion by Brian Frazee to approve SR02-0809
a. Seconded by Sunaina Khandelwhal
b. VOTE: 9 for, 0 opposed, 1 abstained (Gabe), 1 absent (Tascha)
B. SL06-0809- Confirmation of Executive Cabinet Directors and Assistant Directors
1. Gabe Rettaliata: Tabled last week. We want to talk about Ozell with student outreach.
2. Steve Gilmore: He’ll be working with Jake Steele. Ozell is very involved in Greek life and athletic. Also involved in finance board. Experience in SGA.
3. Ozell: I was intrigued with the work Jake was doing around campus. I’m in support with athletics and club teams. I applied my networks and knowledge around campus. I think that would help me in this particular department.
4. Aditi Srivastav: What do you see your role as? What do you plan to do as assistant director? Do you have goals in mind that you want accomplished?
a. Ozell: Most goals are tailored around Jake Steel. Involvement, athletics. Work with some of the club teams and organizations. Outside of that, develop better programs can be excited for and appreciate.
5. Steve Gilmore: About Anna, she’s a senior this year. IS major. Appointing her for communications. Pretty unique. Worked off campus student services for a couple of years. Just became an RA. Wanted to be involved in SGA since it’s her senior year. She wants to play an active role before she graduates. SGA is a great outlet. She wanted to do it last year but it didn’t work out. Experience design fliers and web design. First goal, helping with the website. Design for newsletter. If you want to ask me questions about her.
a. Aditi Srivastav: Why isn’t she here tonight?
b. Steve Gilmore: she has class.
6. Motion by Aditi Srivastav to approve SL06-0809
a. Seconded by Neketa Kakar
b. VOTE: 9 for, 0 opposed, 1 abstains (Gabe), 1 absent
C. JL02-0809- Election Night Extravaganza
1. Gabe Rettaliata: This is legislation for a GL expenditure for Election Night Extravaganza. Attached is the budget. Everyone is aware of the GL. What’s left of it?
2. Rahilla Tarfa: what’s in it now?
a. Gabe: around $280,000
3. Steve Gilmore: Attached is the budget drawn out. Specific things are the inflatables. Four man jousting. 24x17 feet. And also for a small moon bounce. That’s a quote for $1500. Masks, Obama and McCain mask for a dollar each. For food, $1500 there just because we haven’t heard from Chartwells. We don’t want to spend an extreme amount of money. That right now that can be a good deal. Pizza, nachos, wings, etc. commons facility, 250 for a room set up. Decorations: SEB is helping us to come up with a logo. We can use the logo for myUMBC for fliers, banners, etc. advertising would be a banner and fliers. We’d also be advertising online. Decorations, balloon drop. Net on a roof where main street is.
4. Brian Frazee: Steve pretty much summed it up. Exciting event. We want this event to be something that everyone talks about. this is a lot more exciting so we’re getting a lot more young people. cool things like Obama and McCain jousting.
5. Steve Gilmore: Debates. We’re going to be hosting, next week 2nd. Vice pres debate. 7 and 15th are last two presidential debates. Hosting in the commons in the sports zone. Providing ice cream. Available for students. Serve ice cream. Watch. Discussion and feedback after. That money is going to come out of the exec fund.
6. Jen Kent: couple of things. This is on main street?
a. Steve Gilmore: Main part is main street. Food in student org. There’s still going to be something going on in the pub. Bottom of flat Tuesdays, coffee.
b. Jen Kent: Can we get an inflatable on main street?
c. Steve Gilmore: we can look into it. Probably not on main street.
d. Jen Kent: side note. When are the masks coming in? for advertising, we can get them to do it during free hour. Boxing and masks. Creative things the week before to get people to come in. You should find a political science professor to do it.
7. Whitney Torchia: for ordering things, what’s your estimate how many you’re going to order?
a. Steve Gilmore: For food, I asked for 600 people. The course of the night, 7-past midnight, 1000 people in that space. For food, we’re trying to calculate, we can’t feed every single person. 600 were what were agreed on. Not a 1000 masks but definitely at least 600. It’s what people want. It’s going to be interesting how we’re going to divide it. Part of decorations, big cut outs of Palin, Biden, McCain and Obama. People can get pictures with them and post it online for people.
8. Sunaina Khandelwal: Are we involving the college republican and democratic club?
a. Brian Frazee: They’re going to be involved, more with debate parties. Representative for both clubs. Talk about issues that are pertinent for their own parties.
b. Sunaina Khandelwal: Are they doing anything special we can merge with?
c. Steve Gilmore: Small events that they want to partner with. Clubs have been finding out and been contacting us and see how they can get involved.
9. Chidi Ukonne: A lot of people get sensitive with politics. Intolerance. Are there going to be ground rules that are going to be said in the discussion period? To do and what to do. People may try to deface the other masks.
a. Steve Gilmore: We’ll have moderators during the debates.
b. Brian Frazee: we expect students not to act immaturely.
c. Steve Gilmore: inflatable’s. They’ll be the stress relievers.
10. Jen Kent: Pin the tail on the donkey and the elephant. Little games like that.
11. Mike: Is the commons going to be staying open late that night?
a. Steve Gilmore: 2am. Students are going to be there working for at least an hour after the event is done.
12. Dave Hoffman: working a shuttle to get people to Catonsville high school. Continuous loop during election day.
13. Mike: if you’re looking for a place close to main street, commuter lounge.
14. Dave Hoffman: the more we spend this year, less that they’re going to spend in the future. Make sure expenditures are good ones.
15. Aditi Srivastav: Why can’t we use the college democrat/republicans money?
a. Dave Hoffman: not a terrible outcome at all. If you spend less…
16. Jen Kent: Last idea. Republican or a rapper. You should do a trivia thing. Something fun trivia game.
17. Aditi Srivastav: Can we ask student life to help us with this. This only happens once every 4 years. It’s student life and they have money. I feel like we’re running out. I feel like 100000 won’t even suffice. I think we need to look at it more closely.
a. Brian Frazee: We’re trying to get as much money in other organizations, at least have 6000 to fall back on.
b. Whitney Torchia: It’s something we can get a lot of support. It’s a really good expenditure. I think it’s worth it even though I agree that we should be careful.
c. Jen Kent: I was going to say that. We don’t have as much money as we’d like. Spending 6000 that’s going to affect a lot more people is definitely worth it.
d. Steve Gilmore: I will not be up for other organizations wanting to do something and ask for it. We don’t have a lot of money but we do have money.
e. Rahilla Tarfa: I still think if possible, we should stress the fact that SGA is in support of election night.
f. Dave Hoffman: Office of student life budget. Vast budget is salaries and supplies. Big picture is a good thing. We provide infrastructure, advisor SEB.
18. Motion by Whitney Torchia to approve JL02-0809
a. Second by Neketa Kakar
b. VOTE: 8 for, 1 opposed (Aditi), 1 abstain (Gabe), 1 absent
VIII. Executive/ Ex-officio Report
A. Steve Gilmore: Last time, I said asking everybody to schedule a meeting. 6 of you did. Please do that tonight. It’s not that hard to do. Just do it. Homecoming update. We picked our theme for homecoming. Since we’re watching Dark Knight that Thursday. Homecoming is batman theme. T-shirts in the front say “why so serious?” in the back it says “it’s homecoming.” In the front, retriever is dressed as a joker. Back would be retriever in batman. Someone from SEB is designing it.
a. Whitney Torchia: what’s the date?
b. Steve Gilmore: Oct 23-25. Lot 17 to map out the tailgating event for the soccer game. We’re trying to get a huge inflatable moon bounce thing. We’re going to reserve a spot for organizations bring a car to tailgate with. We’re going to have a community grill. People bring their own food to cook it. Contest every hour. Best batman costume. etc. Office hours. Nayana, sending email for office hours. I know people’s schedules don’t always work that way. I want to stress to you if you can do it an hr that week, we would really appreciate it if you could. It doesn’t look good if exec members and finance members are the only ones doing it. It can be a good unity. Last thing I want to do is, talking about accountability. There are a lot of projects going on and not everyone knows what everyone’s doing. For the retreat project groups, what are people doing those? Let me see who’s in each. Also, I’ve met with Nancy Young. We just got new numbers for people returning to freshman to sophomore, 90%. Retention. Amazing to what we used to be.
B. Dave Hoffman: I want to talk to Brian and Steve after the meeting. One thing I want to add, UMBC got an award for being college of the year from Red Cross. Donated the most blood than anyone in the state.
IX. Announcements
A. Rahilla Tarfa: Forgot to meet this earlier. Commons. Want to vote more art or photographs. What do you guys think?
1. Amber Spry: I want to see current things. It’s about students. I want to see more of us.
2. Rahilla Tarfa: more current stuff, got it.
B. Brian Frazee: Commons advisory board. Pub rumors. Pub is not closing. Nothing is closing the pub. They are not making any profit of the pub. It’s from transportation increase. They’re not making any money from it and no one’s trying to shut it down.
C. Gabe Rettaliata: Halfway through first year ambassador reviews. We could be having legislation about them next Monday. Not promising anything. There are two in my mind right now. We’ll see how the rest goes
X. Roll Call
A. Present
1. Speaker Gabe Rettaliata
2. Assistant Speaker Jen Kent
3. Sunaina Khandelwal
4. Whitney Torchia
5. Neketa Kakar
6. Brian Frazee
7. Amber Spry
8. Rahilla Tarfa
9. Chidinma Ukonne
10. Aditi Srivastav
B. Absent
1. Tascha Ebhomielen
XI. Adjournment 7:12PM
XII. Pass the Gavel