11/11/08 Senate Minutes

Here is some old and new legislation from our last meeting:

I. Unfinished Business
S.B. 04 – Festival of Lights Appropriations Bill
o For the past 4 years, SGA has contributed money to purchase refreshments (hot chocolate and another weather-appropriate drink) from Bon Appetit
o There have been no major changes to this bill in committee
o Comes out of the secondary account,
o Friendly Amendment – to indicate that any appropriations not spent will be returned to the account
· Accepted
o Motion for final passage of S.B. 04
§ Passes

II. New Business
S.R. 104 – No More Ghetto Grotto
o The grotto represents the history of the campus and it has been neglected
o It points to our sister school Notre Dame
o Deserves greater recognition
o 10 Minute Discussion
§ Commending Senator Harrison for writing this legislation
§ There is a gentleman who periodically checks up on the grotto, so the author may want to speak with him
§ Concerns with the name of the legislation – may not reflect well on the association
§ The grotto was built around the turn of the century by a dedicated Brother who did so with his own hands
§ What did the author invasion with the restoration?
· Grooming the trees and adding lighting to them to help make the area not so dark at night
§ Research for putting athletic lights around this area found problems with electrical surging, so consider that
§ Perhaps a police call box in this area
o **Sent to LI with unanimous consent

S.R. 105 – SEU ACT Now
o Continuing the work on a previous piece of legislation
o St. Edward’s has continued to increase 8.25-8.5% each year
o Other schools have decided to cap the rate of tuition
o This is important with the current economic down-turn and decreased availability of loans
o 10 Minute Discussion
§ The more the expensive that degrees become, they consequently increase their value
§ Accounting for professor salaries and other spending (technology fee) may become more of an issue
§ The state of Texas deregulated the rate of tuition several years ago, usually 4% or less increase each year
§ Concerns with the effect on our quality of education
§ There is no single ideal in mind for this, just want to research
§ Don’t agree that value of degree is correlated to tuition (look at UT)
§ May look at “lock-in” tuition for incoming students
§ Most benchmark universities have seen a lower increase in tuition compared to us
§ How is tuition capped?
· There are several ways – Overall rate of increase, freeze for several years, lock-in rates when you enter
§ Consider the other great programs that have benefited from increased funding (CaboLead, Hilltop Leaders, our own Association retreat off campus) – may call for a sacrifice
o **Sent to LI with unanimous consent

S.R. 106 – Reinstate of Pass/No Pass Options for Science in Perspective and Science in Depth
o This policy changed over the summer with no notice to the students
o Many students are in favor of Pass/No Pass for the sciences
o 10 Minute Discussion
o Are you looking at a “grandfather” type policy or making this permanent?
§ Want to see what kind of support it gains from students
o The School of Humanities was surprised that this change took place, as it went against the grandfather clause
o What is the reason this was changed in the first place?
§ Is one of the core requirements, usually all of which must be taken for a grade
o ***Sent to LI with unanimous consent

S.R. 107 – Health Education & Labeling Process (H.E.L.P.)
o Since the summer of 2005, the Balance of Life campaign has been initiated
o Judges snacks on various levels, not just calories
o Use of colored dots to indicate levels of health
o One study by Uni of Virginia, found that after adopting the program there was a 30% increase purchase in yellow and 15% in green labeled items
o 10 Minute Discussion
o Look into this labeling for the coffee shop, too
o Who decides that food gets what label?
§ Not sure, would assume it is done according to the information on the labels
o Will an extensive list be available to students?
§ Not sure, will look into it
o ***Sent to LI with unanimous consent

S.R. 108 – Athletic Registration
o Going on the heels of what President of SAAC, Taylor Land, spoke about at the last meeting
o This is a great concern to student athletes, and feel their needs should be considered
o Simply wanting to collect appropriate data
o 10 Minute Discussion
o Not sure why athletes are getting priority over student workers or students who are heavily involved in other ways, suggest that athletes should take advantage of overloading process
o Do we know how many of our benchmark schools in Division II allow preference registration?
§ No, research will be done
o Is it true that athletes currently have priority when overloading?
§ Author believes so
o Do they generally get their overload?
§ Not sure
o Athletes make up 7% of population, only 3% of those athletes would be affected by this
o Is it known why this policy was taken away, as it used to be in place years ago?
§ That is unknown
o Right now, this would only be available to charted athletics
o Motion to override unanimous consent
§ Roll Call Vote – S.R. 108 is sent to LI with a vote of 16 to 9

S.R. 109 – Call Box Awareness
o Want to research ways to increase awareness of call boxes
o 10 Minute Discussion
o As a senate, we need to keep better track of previously legislation, because this has been brought up before and researched heavily
o Location is determined by proximity to other boxes and surrounding doors
o Not seen as that important since most students carry cell phones now
o UPD does ask students to save their phone number in their cell phones at orientation
o There are no call boxes walking from Ragsdale to the parking garage – an issue for off campus students
o Issue with bad cell phone reception
o Clarification that this resolution is to market the current boxes better than increasing the number of them
o When this legislation came up in the past, UPD argument was that increasing the number of boxes and better advertising makes the campus look unsafe
o ***Sent to LI with unanimous consent

S.R. 110 – Bike Rack Covers
o Simply wanting to protect current bike racks – not looking to fund more
o 10 Minute Discussion
o What does a bike rack cover look like?
-Has 4 legs and a table, probably high enough to cover a bicycle (about 6 feet)
o Estimated cost of 1 bike rack cover?
-Tried to research online and couldn’t find anything, so want to speak with the
people who installed the racks to work with them
o Concern that it doesn’t rain enough in Austin to warrant this expense
o ***Sent to LI with unanimous consent

S.R. 111 – Color Me Bright! Color Me Right!
o There are no places for students to make color copies on campus
o Would be a beneficial tool for students making presentations or running for positions in SGA
o ***Sent to LI with unanimous consent