Senate Meeting Minutes 2/10/09

Hi everyone! These minutes are long (so was our meeting!), but there are some very interesting points in them!


Student Government Association
Senate Meeting Minutes for February 10, 2009
7:30pm, Mabee Ballroom A
Call to Order President Lytle
Roll Call of Members Executive Secretary Holdsworth
Approval of Minutes
Approved
Approval of Agenda
Approved
Community Announcements
Guest Speaker – Associate Vice President of Financial Affairs, Patrick Kirby
Auxiliary services is guided by the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO)
Services are provided almost 95% by what students buy
Things that happen in the economy grateful affects auxiliary services
Evolves over time
Made some choices and changes in 2006 about the direction of services
Diversity, variety, and choices are main focus
Auxiliary services "pays it’s own way"
Earn cost of inflation as reflected by CPI to break even, and then an additional CPI rate for profit
Business approach: listen to students and vendors, engineer a win-win approach, operate vendors on a profit & loss basis, share risk and reward, review best practices, benchmark, understand the economics
Auxiliary services pays a commission of 10%, which encourages them to listen to students
Doyle Hall will become offices and a psychology lab, also Doyle Café to resemble the coffee shop (not sure on specific details yet)
Overall have had positive response to coffee shop change to Texenza
New venues:
The Huddle, featuring burritos and tacos
M-TH 7:30am-12am
F 7:30am-10pm
S 11am-10pm
Hunt Café, featuring multiple stations – coffee bar/bakery with Starbucks coffee
Texas Book Company has committed to $275,000 renovation of the bookstore in summer 2009
A preliminary floor plan will be available in 1-2 weeks
New furniture for Jones Lobby coming around March 1
Renovated Ragsdale offices with new carpet and paint
Current dining situation:
Working with Bon Appetit for long term contact – they will be onsite February 9, 2009
Bon Appetit has contributed $1 million with the promise of an additional million for capital investment
Several non standing practices that we allow at SEU has limited dining revenue income:
Allowing students to remit meal plan dollars in the Meadows resulted in problematic for Bon Appetit. This practice is rare and typically not practices unless the venue is operated by the primary vendor.
The current practice of allowing students to continue to roll over meal plan dollars as long as they are enrolled is also a nonstandard practiced.
SEU has one of the lowest priced meal plans as compared to benchmark institutions
Increasing the price of meal plans for next year – highest will be $1,800 with average of 19 meals a week to buy
South Congress Market will be closed for evening meals once the new dining facilities open
Will be terminating meal plan roll over, but legacy meal plan holders have until June 30, 2010 to spend their money
Demand has to be sufficient enough to pay for the cost of operation
QUESTIONS:
What is considered a sufficient amount of people to extend hours?
Specific number not available
Could you talk more about the convenience store?
Called "Outtakes" and will be similar to a typical convenience store
Designed so that each new dining facility can be operated independent of each other
Possible movement of Auxiliary Services to Ragsdale – has a shift of the "hub" been considered?
Lose money everyday opening early in South Congress Market
Will the old furniture be available for students to purchase?
Haven’t considered that
E-mail patrickk@stedwards.edu with questions such as this
Career Planning Events:
Feb 14 10:30am – Interview Strategies
Feb 24 5:30pm – personal statement and CV workshop
Feb 25 5:30pm – internship workshop
Internship information available online
Counseling Center and Health Services opening, Feb 17 4:30-7pm
Dr. Crahan with the Kozmetsky would like to think SGA for all it’s help
If you missed some of the events, DVDs will be available
IT will do last server update over Spring Break
Officer Reports
President President Lytle
Remember that laptops are not allowed in Senate
If you sign-up for an event under SGA’s name, please show up
Cabinet Appointment – Krista Heiden for Chief of Staff
Will be promoted from former position of Associate Director
Approved
Intergovernmental Affairs Vice President Cromack
IGA meetings have been very productive
Will be discussing School Election Senator Timeline
Committee meetings on Wednesdays at 7PM
Legislative Initiatives Vice President Kuentz
Will be discussing S.R. 104 – Grotto Glorification
LI committee meetings are Wednesdays at 8PM
Student Representation Vice President Carroll
Moving away from Monthly Reports to a blog via Collegiate Link website
Log-in with your SEU username
Click on Student Government, then Discussions
You will see the committees you sit on – click on it and post
This needs to be updated once a month
Urgent information needs to be posted by 5pm on Mondays
SR meetings will be from 6:50-7:20PM on Tuesdays
Special Orders – Cross Country Letter
Has to be approved by 2/3
No discussion, just an up-or-down vote
Passes 20 to 0
Chair to entertain a motion to add all association members’ signatures if they so wish
If individuals do not wish to be on it, they may talk to Executive Senator Bencivengo after the meeting
Approved
Senior Class Executive Senator Bustos
SGA social on Sunday was a success
Junior Class Executive Senator Bencivengo
Class meeting on Thursday to finalize social
Approval of Senator Marcos Soto
Approved
Sophomore Class Executive Senator Martin
Approval of Senator Nathan Neighbors
Approved
Freshman Class Executive Senator Peal
Nothing new at this time
Schools Represented Executive Senator Duke
Approval of Humanities Senator Kelly O’Donnel
Approved
Approval of Behavioral & Social Sciences Senator Lee Fitzgerald
Approved

Cabinet Report
Director of Public Relations
Ordered some cozies for BIG Event
Working on work order to move the comment boxes
Remember to pay for your polo
Director of Association Events
SGA Alumni Event at Homecoming – send ideas to cwhite6@stedwards.edu
Director of Finance
Leave receipts in his box
Nothing should be purchased with tax
Director of Member Development and Training
Big Topper/Little Topper event on Sunday at 5pm – Wii Tournament and Board-games
Director of Service
Picking up sponsors for BIG Event
Director of Involvement
T-shirts coming in soon
Getting participants for SoCo decoration event
Chief of Staff
Nothing new to report
Unfinished Business
S.R. 101 – Topper Tender Transfers (Final Passage)
Have spoken with Patrick Kirby extensively and successfully got approval
New convenient store will accept meal plans
DISCUSSION:
None at this time
***Motion to roll call vote
Passes 27 to 0
S.B. 05 – CFL Rebate (Final Passage)
Rebate option won’t work here, because too many options
Instead, SGA will buy them and sell them at a reduced cost
1 pack of 14 watt for $1.00 incurring a cost of $0.73
1 pack of 18 watt for $2.00 incurring a cost of $0.47
DICUSSION:
Was original cost more than $400?
No, it has not changed
What will be the exact method of selling them?
Hoping to start the sale next week and have it last 3 weeks
Not sure how responsive people will be
Hoping to have sale in bottom floor of Ragsdale
Working with PR to announce this
Cards on clips outside apartments is counter-intuitive to our green initiatives
Working to remedy situation with Physical Plant
Have already worked out the conversion of wattage and light
Size is the same as a normal 75 watt incandescent bulb
Lifetime is 5-11 times longer than an incandescent bulb
Save about $5 for each replaced bulb
Amount actually spent would be $115.20 once they are sold
***Motion to roll call vote
Passes 27 to 0
S.B. 07 – Concerning Presidential Term Limits (Final Passage)
2 term limit with a term being defined as a full academic year
DISCUSSION:
Friendly Amendment by Senator Dains to change "of served" to "not of served"
Accepted
If the student body thinks that 2 terms have been good, why couldn’t the president run a 3rd time?
Align with the national government
Term limits are general good
Does not mean he/she couldn’t be involved in another capacity
***Motion to roll call vote
Passes 19 to 5
S.B. 08 – Selection of Executive Senators (Final Passage)
Leadership should be picked by those who can best judge
DISCUSSION:
Method was used by the Schools to choose their Executive
Disagreement and feel that the students should be able to choose
Is it fair to reject someone who was voted in over someone who showed more interest?
In favor of better educating voters
Isn’t taking away ability to vote in senators, students still do that
Emphasis should be on being effective leaders by compromising
Concern with how this affects freshmen class, as they may not always know each other that well beforehand
Currently there is no separate box to choose Executive Senators on the ballot, so students essential have no control anyway
Executive Senators have resigned several times, because they didn’t want to responsibility
Consistency between academic schools and classes
Friendly Amendment by VP Cromack to have the selection process moderated by the President
What about the Elections Committee? Or the Chair of it?
Yes, the Chair
Accepted
***Motion to roll call vote
Passes 16 to 8
New Business
S.B. 12 – Concerning Presidential and Vice Presidential Candidate Qualifications
10 MINUTE DISCUSSION:
Feel that requirements are important in giving candidates necessary experience, for example with parliamentary procedure
If anybody is allowed to run, it might limit competency towards the job – VP jobs require a vast amount of knowledge
These positions offer scholarship and concerned with people running simply to get them
It is a tremendous commitment to be a VP and President – those within the association know this better than those outside – don’t feel a year is that long to serve before being allowed to run
Just because someone doesn’t have the experience, it doesn’t mean they aren’t competent – need to branch out
If someone is incompetent, it should come out in the campaign
Sometimes when new leaders come in, the foundation can fall out of the bottom of an organization if they aren’t prepared
Important to learn lessons from the past by being in the organization before running
Good idea to research what other schools and organizations do
Find middle ground between no limits and strict limits
Concern with the overall image of Student Life being click-ish
***Motion to send to IGA
Division called
Passes 18 to 9
Gallery Comments
SGA will be taking a "Read" picture, so everyone needs to bring a book
Advisors Comments Advisor Walden
Upcoming Events:
2/9-2/13: 11am-2pm: "I’ve Got a Crush on You" by Hispanic Student Association
2/9-2/13: 11am-2pm: Kiss n Rose by Ballet Folklorico
2/11-4/29: 9pm: Spring FCA Meetings TBA by FCA
2/13: 11am-2pm: Valentine’s Bake Sale by Communication Society
2/10-2/24: Posada Esperanza Donation Drive by Hilltop Leaders
2/12: 10:30am-12:45pm: Lunar New Year Bake Sale by Asian American Association
2/14 : 7pm-11pm: Fundraiser for Student Scholarships by Alpha Sigma Lambda
2/15: 1pm-3pm: Valentine’s Dance by Best Buddies
2/16: 7pm: Whole foods dinner meet up by Hilltop Herbivores
2/16: 5:30pm-6:30pm: Conscious Heart Integration by Student Society for the Masters of Arts in Counseling
HillRaisers are selling Candy Grams this week
Student Life is working on a marketing initiative – would like input with "carewords" exercise
Will come to Senate early next week at 7pm to explain Collegiate Link
Final Comments
XIII. Roll Call & Adjournment