UMBC SGA Senate Agenda
Monday, October 20, 2008
Commons 318 5:30PM
I) Call to Order (5:32 pm)
II) Roll Call
A) Present:
1) Speaker Gabe Rettaliata
2) Assistant Speaker Jen Kent
3) Tasha Ebhomielen
4) Brian Frazee
5) Sunaina Khandelwal
6) Amber Spry
7) Aditi Srivastav
8) Rahilla Tarfa
9) Whitney Torchia
10) FYA Toby Le
11) FYA Matthew McNey
12) FYA Simmi Singh
B) Absent:
1) Neketa Kakar (excused)
2) Chidinma Ukonne (excused)
III) Approval of Minutes
A) Minutes approved by general consent
IV) Special Guest- Dr. Lee Calizo, Director of the Office of Student Life
A) Lee Calizo: Thank you for inviting me. I am excited about coming to this group and have been keeping in touch with Steve about what this group is doing. Thank you for your efforts on behalf of the students, it is appreciated and needed. Gabe asked me to give you a little information about student life. I wanted to tell you that we are a bit short staffed in the Office of Student Life. Our hope is that in the spring we will find one staff person. We are going full force of supporting students even without that one staff member. We have reshaped Erin Hundley- Carter’s role after she left and Erica’s new role is molded around student organizations. Over the course of this year, Erica will be spear-heading the programs of advisers for student organizations which is a huge priority. We are also trying to figure out how to keep supporting student organizations. The Event Planning and Conference Services has been a great help so that Office of Student Life focuses more on the missions, constitutions, and aid to organizations and not consumed by event planning. Our staff is committed to helping student organizations. CAS Review is another focus. A group of administrators across the country have set standards for universities. Leadership programs and event planning will be assessed and focused on this year for student life. My hope is that at some point during the process some of you will be interviewed and asked about the process. Another focus is leadership programs. The LATTE retreat for example is trying to pull leaders together. Leadershape is now the STRiVE retreat that has been developed by our own staff that will be in January. The last area I will mention today is reshaping the mission and focus of the Mosaic culture center. It is time for us to look to our partners and find the shape and purpose of center to make sure we are meeting the needs of our campus. The piece that remains the focus is supporting students.
1) Fouad Kanaan: What exactly do you guys have planned for the Mosaic space? I am a cultural peer.
a) Lee Calizo: I want that to be shaped by students and partners across campus, I do not have an exact plan at this time.
2) Jen Kent: I have a question about the retreat. What does it look like? Do we have an overview:
a) David Hoffman: It is going to be four days and three nights at Camp Letts. We are going to focus on using resources on and off campus to form the world in groups. The groups will focus on things they want to do and change. There will also be leadership simulations. We will be orienting people to recognize when leadership will be helpful. You are in a situation that is chaotic and you need to recognize when you need to step up as a leader. The students involved are Steve, Brian and Yasmin in this room.
3) Amber Spry: I know you gave a little bit of an overview about the CAS Review. What do you plan to do to meet those requirements?
a) Lee Calizo: The assessment is a checklist of must haves and things that would be good to have. We are trying to see where we stand on the standards and my guess is that we won’t quite meet what they say we have and we would hope to move in those directions. My guess is also that we have things that most schools don’t have. We are just hoping to set priorities for the next few years.
b) Amber Spry: Who reviews it?
c) Lee Calizo: Good question. Last week we had the assessment of the Greek Life, externally. For CAS Review there will be teams of 3 or 4. Each of those groups would contain one student life person and two external members outside of OSL.
4) Jen Kent: What kind of resource do you see yourself as to us?
a) Lee Calizo: Steve and I meet once a month to keep in touch. I have every Friday afternoon several hours blocked out for students so if anyone wants to meet I am absolutely welcome to meeting with you. I think I see my role with you as being a source of information and an access way to other information and resources. Whatever ways you can envision for me to being helpful, I am absolutely available.
b) David Hoffman: Lee is the point person for helping students outside of academic life. Lee is thinking about these things and she is also someone who other people turn to see with what is going on with students. So this is an opportunity for you to talk with her to say what you want other people to hear. Lee is someone who Dr. Hrabowski, for example, would turn to, to know what is going on with students.
c) Lee Calizo: Once a month I attend the meetings with a group of students and that is another place where students and administrators turn to me for what is the voice of what students would say. So I want to hear messages you want to get out.
5) Whitney Torchia: One of the main things we are working on right now is the transcript fee. We are trying to find out why it was implemented and trying to find alternate options of paying $8 for each transcript.
6) Brian Frazee: We are also working on 24 hour spaces and the only place is the atrium library and with over 4000 students living on campus we need more space that is open to all students to use 24 hours a day.
7) Gabe Rettaliata: Lee, I have a question. I was wondering if there has been any talk about changing the use of the Fireside Lounge? Students are not allowed to use that room, even though they paid for the Commons.
a) Lee Calizo: If there are students who want to take that on and look into it, I am welcome to meeting with students about it.
b) Steve Gilmore: I heard that students are welcome to the Fireside Lounge now.
c) Michael (UMBCtv): Simon says it is now able to be booked. So I don’t know what the changes are because he said it was.
8) Amber Spry: What is one of the biggest needs that you see on our campus that SGA might be able to address with you?
a) Lee Calizo: I think it is changing campus culture about what students say. We have the power to change messages such as there is nothing to do on campus and we can do that. We need to help students feel empowered to make change. There needs to be efforts to change things students do not like. Students have a whole lot of potential to make change so bring those frustrations forward and let’s do something about it.
9) Amber Spry: What is the main thing to do to change the culture of the school?
a) Lee: One thing I have been working on is marketing and we have hired students to be marketing interns. Hopefully some of their efforts to change word of mouth is changing the culture. I guess what I would offer is if there are things that you want me to be voicing opinions for students please come to me.
10) Jen Kent: I was an OPA this summer and a lot of the freshmen were extremely excited about coming here. People would say “I know there is nothing to do on campus,” I think there needs to be a change of what people say. There have been staff and administration who say such things and I think that needs to change.
a) Lee Calizo: There are people who talk about UMBC like that because they knew about twenty years ago. I absolutely agree that needs to change.
b) Aditi Srivastav: I was a woolie and students were really excited about the first few weeks of school. Students started going home after 3 weeks and things on campus shut down. SGA has been talking about students feeling like the campus shuts down and there is nothing to do. I think it would be helpful for students to move in a day early when the come in from winter break. Students move in on a Sunday and maybe it will be helpful to move in on that Saturday.
c) Lee Calizo: If any of you have ideas about the winter programs please come talk to me.
11) Jason Brand: What can RSA and ResLife do in conjunction with OSL and SGA to improve the quality of resident students’ experience?
a) Jen Kent: I know I have talked about this before, there are a lot of little things to do on the weekends and instead of spending of $500 on little programs lets combine the money and have a lot of larger programs. Condense things into big things.
b) Michael: I was a spring transfer and I did not think winter welcome week was nearly as informative as the fall welcome week. I pretty much asked other students and my roommates were a big help.
c) Amber Spry: About RSA, I think that one thing I have noticed that there are a lot of little events and we need to encourage student organizations to co-host events. Most students are a part of at least one organization, so organizations should join together.
d) Brian Frazee: I think big programming is a good idea and I think we need to gear programs towards students’ interests. For example computer games, we can do in the Commons instead of students being in their rooms.
e) Jen Kent: Things need to be open. It is not all about an event, everyone needs to eat food for example. So the Commons needs to be open.
f) Whitney Torchia: I want to Food Service Committee, they are moving the sub place to the Grill so they described it more like a Quizno’s so that will be open and students will have more options. They are going to look into who is closing early and making sure places staying open to at least 7:30.
g) Matt McNey: Why not just have a big huge blow out every other weekend? Like a giant pool party.
h) Aditi Srivastav: Things need to be visible.
i) Michael: There are a lot of students that are doing events by themselves such as Flag Football. OSL should be more proactive about finding these events and advertising.
j) Lee Calizo: Do you think that spontaneous student events carry more weight?
i. Michael: Yes. A lot of events seem like have to appeal to a broad amount of people so specializing events would appeal more to specific students.
ii. David Hoffman: That is the opposite point that Brian made.
k) Amber Spry: I just had another comment. I really feel like perception has a lot to do with culture. If we were walking down academic row and it looked more spirited people would feel that way. Where do you see yourself as a tool to making this place look more active? You cannot look at the school and tell what the mascot is.
i. Lee Calizo: Let’s talk about what it should be like.
ii. Aditi Srivastav: This is kind of like a plug. Me and Whitney are focusing on this, one of our main concerns was what are we going to get out hanging up banners that are spirited. Teachers could also be wearing UMBC colors and such. Would you be able to help us?
iii. Lee Calizo: Absolutely. I would agree there is great power within the students but it would also helpful to have faculty and staff to be spirited.
V) V. Open Discussion
A) Review of the past week
1) Sunaina Khandelwal: One of the representatives put out a proposal for an “On the Hills” program. RSA wants to host an event there and they are looking at Friday night. They are looking to have a maze and cider and such in Mid-November. There is only a proposal put in so far but it looks like it will past.
a) Amber Spry: I think they should find a location that will be a bit more central to campus.
i. Sunaina Khandelwal: They want to have it close to the apartments and residential halls.
ii. Michael: We are now looking at using the open space to Harbor where the dam is.
b) Whitney Torchia: Isn’t it going to be cold in November? Will they have a fire?
i. Sunaina Khandelwal: Everything is the planning stage.
c) Jason Brand: If anyone has suggestions, email them to me.
d) Amber Spry: What is the purpose of the event?
i. Jason Brand: It is a harvest fall themed festival. Mike and CJ are the people to talk to.
e) Brandon Cottom: I think RSA should put this out to more students and organizations rather than keeping it to itself.
f) Amber Spry: Involving many student organizations increases the amount of people that come out to events.
2) Toby Le: First Year Council met and there are about 15 students. We are reflecting on the first year experience.
3) Whitney Torchia: I have a lot of information about the UMBC food services meeting. I can directly contact Chartwells. There are open to suggestions. Next July will be Starbucks. There is going to be a revamping of the Dining Hall. You can see the cooks and interact with them and such. It will be completely different when we get back in the fall. They will provide me with the brochure next month. They’re changing Pizzarena. Higher quality. Trying to do meal plan stuff. Taco and quesadilla instead for meal plan. UC Express where Chick-fil-a will be… offer meal plans while they’re trying to get Chick-fil-a running. Join texting on campus. Go to their dining site. Sign up there. They give coupons out. They’re doing surveys in dining hall. You get free water as incentive. Recipe from home. Sub place is starting five dollar foot long. Fresh fusion place… Indian place. They can put anything you want in that spot. Anything cultural.
a) Amber Spry: for the Fresh Fushions, can they incorporate soul food? And maybe Thai Food. Also, were they working on diversity of meal options in the commons?
i. Whitney Torchia: Yea, like with the burrito thing. They’re trying to do it universally like the pizza place. They’re trying to have more than one meal option.
ii. Amber Spry: can they do a low carb meal options?
iii. Whitney Torchia: they’re actually doing wheat bagels
b) Jen Kent: I tried to get a grilled chicken sandwich with a drink and it was like $9. It was ridiculous. I think they should do something about it not being $9. It went up because it didn’t start with that. It was sandwich, fries and a drink. Maybe ask them why there was a price increase.
c) Fouad: The computer at the spot is stupid. I genuinely thing from my IT experiences, the computer yesterday night wasn’t working. I could swipe $100 and it’ll go through. It’s so retarded there and it keeps changing.
i. Simmi Singh: So I thought I had 4 meals left. Sunday night, I had to have food. This Saturday, I have to have at least 2 meals. I had 4 according online. Whoever was working there said I had no meals. I checked online yesterday night and it said I have 4 left. I just walked away
ii. Fouad: Basically, something is going there. Card services with that computer. There’s no coordination going on. Instead of talking to my boss, I’m talking to you.
iii. Whitney Torchia: That computer is the only one that’s messed up. It’s the only one that’s detached. Campus card actually comes to our meeting as well. I’ll send an email again saying there are a lot of issues. Address unlimited meal plan issues. The campus cash guy said that they were giving people a gift. They said it wasn’t Chartwell’s fault.
iv. Simmi Singh: if I’m eating in the dining hall, it’s $9? And when I get outtakes, it’s $5.
v. Whitney Torchia: You get a meal when you go to the dining hall. It’s the meal deal. You get one meal, and that’s what you get.
vi. Jason Brand: I think the reason of the way it works… I think they basically want you to eat at the dining hall.
vii. Whitney Torchia: commuters have an option to buy a meal plan.
viii. Aditi Srivastav: I remember last year when they were chosen, no more meal periods. You can swipe in whenever you want. That’s the impression I got.
d) Whitney Torchia: they’re actually proposing a plan. 200 meals, you can use it whenever you want. An athlete said that her practice schedule won’t allow her to eat on meal times. They’re working on proposing it for next semester or next fall for sure. That’s the option you’d choose.
i. Fouad: you can’t swipe 2 meals at the spot.
ii. Whitney Torchia: I was under the impression there isn’t at 200.
iii. Fouad: there is but it’s not working the way it should be.
iv. Simmi Singh: my friends have unlimited and they said they don’t have a 4th meal.
v. Fouad: it’s only that computer.
e) Whitney Torchia: re-name the dining hall. They want suggestions for that. Another input is tray-less day. That way you can get one plate… minimize having excess food. They’ve been weighing how much food we waste and it’s a lot.
f) Yasmin Karimian: I don’t really want renovations while I’m paying $10. I think they should prioritize. I think it’s clear that we want our students to eat Sunday nights so they need to fix that computer. That situation should not be happening with the register at the Spot. People that have 200 meals should get 200 meals. I’m saying that there needs to be something said that whatever you’re doing over the summer is great, but they should be prioritizing. There are situations that should not be happening.
i. Whitney Torchia: those situations are getting worked on.
ii. Yasmin Karimian: I don’t care if they are working on it, it should just not be happening.
iii. Fouad: they should have an emergency meal option.
iv. Whitney Torchia: if you have any more suggestions, please e-mail me.
4) Brian Frazee: I’ve been talking to USM council; Josh said there was going to be a bunch of budget cuts. I just supervised exact numbers. A lot of services are going to be cut. Write a letter to administration when the budget cuts are going to happen.
a) Gabe Rettaliata: This was talked about at the University Steering Committee on Friday. Lynne Schaefer was giving us overview of what happened with the budget. 1.3 million dollars is being taken out of base budget out of UMBC. To meet the cuts on the 1.3 million, so far we’re meeting that with our hiring freeze. Reducing facilities project. Cover the budget for this year…09. Fiscal year ’10 is a much tougher year. As far as the reserved funds, that’s going straight back to the state. She did forewarn that there could be more cuts.
5) Jen Kent: Gabe and I. Academic Conduct Committee. Conduct policy changes are done. We’ll bring it to the senate. McCauley and I are working on senior gift. We have been asking student organizations that are art based on feedback.
6) Rahilla Tarfa: update from the Commons Advisory Board. Social Justice Lounge. What they’re going to do is have shelves installed. Display educations pamphlets from educational programs on campus. They’re going to place frames on periodical rotations. They’re also going to keep reviewing the lounge to see how far it’s coming along when it comes to passive programming. The TV was removed because it was broken not because of the passive programming. They have a committee right now. This Friday, they will have the final proposal. They’re not going to put the TV back. When the TV was there, people just kept changing the channel to MTV. Also, the game is called Corn Wall. That’s the game they’re thinking about putting in the game room. They’re welcoming ideas that we want to see in the game room. I think that’s pretty much it.
7) Gabe Rettaliata: UMBC Steering Committee. Gave us number participation that happened last year in MD Charities Campaign. Increased in raising $120,000 to $122,000. SGA contributed a total of $40 from senate sponsored activities. They’re not pressuring us to give. Other than that, the budget thing was a big deal. Steve also talked about the security deal. Something that’s going to be coming up, PeopleSoft is going to be changing. Computer system used to do everything computer related here. It’s going to be kind of significant when it changes over. Changes from signing up classes, adding and changing classes, etc. everything is changing.
a) Jason Brand: I heard blackboard is going to be changing.
b) Gabe Rettaliata: there is a new version of blackboard coming up. They didn’t mention it then though.
B) Opening Res Hall Earlier for Spring Semester- Fouad Kanaan
1) Fouad: Last year first year council came up with what bothered about campus. One of the ideas that didn’t follow through is coming an extra day after winter break. It’s restricted to the academic year only resident halls. Idea behind this is come in on Saturday night. Something that will keep students out of their dorms or getting into trouble. I was talking about motivation with a lot of SGA members. What motivates students?
2) Yasmin Karimian: Basically residential life… budgets were already made. Res life would have to cut a couple of other events to help fund that day. It’s not just electricity. It’s also having the RA’s come back the day before. Basically she was saying it was a go if we could get RSA to do it. There was a little logistical stuff but res life would eat up the cost this year, and the following year, add it to the budget.
3) Fouad: I’m meeting up with RSA tomorrow night. The president and vice president are really excited about this idea. I haven’t heard a negative response about this idea. I hope this goes well. When it comes down to it, an event is going to occur and a cost is going to be made. I’m not quite sure how that’s going to work out. Res life might provide a majority of it. Ideal wise, we might have to come up with something. What are your thoughts?
4) Jason Brand: I think co-sponsor it with SGA and RSA would be perfect. Maybe something as big as a block party somewhere on campus. Maybe a second block party?
a) Jen Kent: Big crazy fun night, part 2. Seriously, I think it should be in the commons.
b) Aditi Srivastav: we feel like when it comes to co sponsoring this event, I feel like it’s more of res life’s responsibility. I think it’s something they should want to do. They should cultivate a good campus life. Whatever we do, I think we should just have one big thing. We shouldn’t try to do too many things at once.
c) Sunaina Khandelwal: Res life has the money right now to do just that.
d) Fouad: They will absorb the majority of the cost. I’m trying to get ideas from here. You guys have a lot of great ideas as well and it’d be nice to work together.
e) Michael: as far as RSA is concerned, I’ve seen their budget and I don’t think they’ll be able to fund this cost.
f) Fouad: Res life is funding it.
g) Michael: Unless the event we’re voting tomorrow does not go through, they will not have the money.
VI) Project Updates
A) Increased Library Hours
1) Sunaina Khandelwal: Matthew was supposed to figure out… how much it would cost to keep commons longer. They said they’re going to cc to acting director.
2) Matthew McNey: they haven’t sent me an email in a week now. I sent them another email.
3) Sunaina Khandelwal: emailed possibly looking dining hall as an option as quiet study area. He’s concerned like some food items are left out there overnight. As much as students say that they wont help themselves with food, they will. He was concerned about security. Perhaps looking at harbor café or multipurpose room. Talked to community director for harbor and she gave me a “this looks like a good proposal. Keep me updated.” It’s like she didn’t want to have anything to do with it. Toby researched our peer institutions. 7 out of 10 are open beyond 12am.
4) Rahilla Tarfa: how many are 24/7
a) Toby Le: University of Arkansas is open 24hrs.
5) Michael: as far as harbor multipurpose room, talk to harbor CAB.
6) Gabe Rettaliata: where do you guys see an end to this project and when do you see it happening?
a) Sunaina Khandelwal: I don’t see an end. We’re getting slowed down by people not replying to us. We’re trying to figure out a different approach to this. Maybe it’s through OSL. Or maybe harbor CAB.
7) Gabe Rettaliata: What would be one accomplishment out of this committee in the next month?
a) Sunaina Khandelwal: a proposal.
b) Brian Frazee: either a proposal or agreement between SGA or library to see if we could possibly fund some of the cost.
8) Rahilla Tarfa: would we realistically be willing to fund the cost?
a) Sunaina Khandelwal: Personally I don’t think so.
b) Jen Kent: I was in the committee last year… 55,000 was a number. I don’t think it’s opened for 24/7… I think it’s only until 2.
c) Brian Frazee: we talked about proposing a $2 library fee.
d) David Hoffman: All resources are at your disposal, you could find 55,000 that benefits student less than keeping library hours open. If you continue to get closed doors, I was just wondering what might happen if a list of 10 things that cost 55,000 that’s less used than library hours appeared on the Retriever.
B) Stress Free Zone Revamp
1) Jen Kent: We definitely want to expand out of student org space. We want to do paintball for sure. Car smashing… we can pretend we want to do it this semester to get permission but we’ll do it next semester. Less snack food. Breakfast give away thing. Lunch everyday. Schedule times to do this. We want breakfast from 9:30-10:45. We’re trying to hit peak times. Similar thing for lunch. While we’re doing lunch, we’re going to get music to play in the commons. We’re trying to get a capella groups to perform. We’re looking for the 4th band. It’s going to be in December during finals week. If anyone knows any on campus bands for free, email me. It’s going to be on main street so no drums. Food giveaways. Pizza. Chipotle, chick-fil-a, etc. we’re also going to be doing the free money thing. Throughout finals week, we’re going to have different fake money dollar bills hidden. At the end of the week, you can redeem them like free drink, free lunch at skylight lounge, etc. If you have ideas about that kind of stuff, email me with those. If you have connections, please have them donate.
2) Jason Brand: If anyone knows anyone from Starbucks, they get a pound of coffee a week.
3) Jen Kent: We’re also going to get stress balls. We want to do stuff like talking to professors and have them give stress balls before the students take the exam. We’re going to hit up the library. Midnight to 1am treats. We’re also going to have a nap zone. We’re debating where that’s going to be. We’re also going to have areas roped off that are stress free zone. We’re going to have finger painting. Decorate own coffee mugs. Another big change, usually we have someone staffing a table. We’re thinking about our t-shirt giveaway… get cheaper t-shirts, etc. it wont be in the student org space. We’re going to buy snacks that don’t need to be replenished. We’re going to staff the study place still. Gabe is looking into stress balls and donations.
4) Jason Brand: what about the place in the UC for the nap time?
a) Jen Kent: we were thinking about that too but it has the same creepy vibe.
5) Michael: throw t-shirts out of windows.
a) Jen Kent: I’m just going to drop money on people.
6) Aditi Srivastav: how much do you think all of this going to cost?
a) Jen Kent: it’s not going to be super cheap. We’re getting cheaper shirts. Bands are playing for free. Discount from a lot of places. Fact we’re not going to giant to buy 800$ worth of chips is going to be a lot of money. We’re trying to spend wisely.
C) Reaching out to International Students
1) Toby Le: I talked to Mosaic center and she said that there have been several international student outreach program that is also happening in the same slot as us.
2) Gabe Rettaliata: where do you guys see your end game happening and when?
a) Toby: if this November is packed, it is an international week or something, maybe we can push for next semester. I’m not sure yet.
3) Gabe Rettaliata: you see it as an event and it just needs to be planned.
4) Jen Kent: I’m taking David’s class… and there’s a group that wants to do what you guys are doing. I can give you their contact information.
D) Black and Gold Campus Signage
1) Whitney Torchia: Basically process of meeting people. We’re collecting and getting the art and picture on the signs. Information on companies that we’ve worked with before. We just need to get things done. Landscaping obstacles, try to figure out how to work around them.
2) Gabe: do you see it getting up by this semester? Can it happen?
a) Whitney: I think it’s possible.
**Quorum was lost at 7:15, so the meeting was ended. Minutes stopped being taken**.
Final Roll Call:
A. Present:
1. Speaker Gabe Rettaliata
2. Assistant Speaker Jen Kent
3. Sunaina Khandelwal
4. Whitney Torchia
5. FYA Toby Le
6. FYA Matthew McNey
7. FYA Simmi Singh
B. Absent
1. Tasha Ebhomielen
2. Brian Frazee
3. Neketa Kakar
4. Amber Spry
5. Aditi Srivastav
6. Rahilla Tarfa
7. Chidinma Ukonne