MEETING START TIME: 6:00 pm

 

ATTENDANCE:

Committee: Wilding, McWeeney, Taylor, Howard, Blewitt, Sardinha, Straube, Kohl, Morabito, Evers, Gall, Nelson

Absent: Barnes

Non-Committee: Blanchflower

 

COMMITTEE DSICUSSION:

 

• SOARC
  • Evers: Hello everyone. Carl gave me the schedule for recognition for this year; we will only introduce recognition bills once per month.

 

Morabito: Does that start this week?

 

Evers: Yes.

 

External

 

Straube: Not much, just commuter appreciation day on the quad next Wednesday. I reached out to some people, some answered some didn’t. 2100 did answer.

 

Howard: Hi, can you please repeat the day?

 

Straube: Next Wednesday, the 19^th.

 

• Cultural
  • Kohl: Hi, we are postponing the suicide prevention program because it is supposed to rain heavy tomorrow and thunder. It is a very important issue and I know that our student body cares about it. Also, on cultural we are doing a drug and alcohol prevention program. Our idea right now is to attain some drunk goggles and maybe get some hoola hoops. We are having a hard time though, because health services won’t give out their drunk googles. My last thing, which I will bring up in general tomorrow, is that it is getting hard to get people to go to things. It has started recently, and I feel that if you are on Senate you should want to go and support these programs.

 

Taylor: Discouragement is something we need to think about. We have lost many members, and I felt that during my few days on senate this year I felt discouraged. If people see others dropping, it makes them feel like this org is not worth participating in. I think we need to try and figure out some ways to get our membership back up. I tried reaching out to see if we could do a dodgeball game. If we can do something like that, I think it would really help us stay together as an org. We are the leaders, and we must lead and not follow.

 

• Vice President
  • Howard: This term I will be cracking down on attendance and office hours. If anyone is trying to drop your committee, please direct them to me. I am responsible for assigning and unassigning committees. Also, you can contact me through the VP email which I will only check when I’m in the office. You also all have my phone number, which I ask you to please only use in cases of an emergency. The last thing is the scholarship committee, which we have enough funds for. I will be asking for four people to be on the scholarship committee.

 

Taylor: I have at least two questions. I am confused, who did sign us up for those election booths?

 

Howard: I have not asked.

 

Gall: Are those booths currently booked?

 

Howard: Yes, so we should go or else it will look bad. I have one final point. Someone recently approached me saying they were bullied in senate. If anyone tells you about an issue, please kindly direct them to me.

 

• Director Of Communications
  • Sardinha: There are just a couple of things I was working on over the summer. One is Canva, which I will start using for DOC stuff. Also, we in Senate use google docs for a lot of things, however, SurveyMonkey may be better for certain things. Also, over the summer I updated the newsletter. Also, group of the month advice I am open to. Maybe we could do a box for advice? We have so many groups and I cannot keep track of them all myself. Finally, elections are coming up. I encourage everyone to take and distribute flyers. Perhaps I can meet with some of the RAs to distribute flyers to their halls. Perhaps setting up something in the lobby of Butterfield would be a good idea?

 

Blewitt: In addition to the dining halls, maybe put something in CBLS or that side of campus.

 

Kohl: Also, I think we should start encouraging people to campaign more so that people can actually know who they are voting for rather than simply having it be a popularity contest.

 

Taylor: Senator Feeney and I will be heading down to the Gender and Sexuality center to spread the word, and also hopefully the women’s center and college of business. We should be looking to increase our diversity on senate, because as Carl said at the retreat senate is very heavily white. We need to create a culture of respect on this organization.

 

Morabito: Just as another place to go to, we do need a college of health sciences rep.

 

Taylor: And engineering.

Morabito: Yes. And those reps cover a very wide area of campus and student life.

 

Blanchflower: In regard to the popularity contest. Perhaps we can take the face off of elections and have people base decisions solely on platforms. 

 

Morabito: The problem with that is the many voters choose people based on the name they were told.

 

Blanchflower: I agree, but I feel like the only way to make it not a popularity contest is to take the name off of it.

 

Nelson: I can go to the gender and sexuality center so that Zach doesn’t have to.

 

Taylor: Also, one quick comment. I think we should go to these clubs’ meetings and announce ourselves to the members of those clubs and student orgs.

 

Morabito: I like the idea, but I do not think that our organization has the people to volunteer to go to club meetings.

 

Taylor: We have the numbers. People need to be willing to volunteer.

 

Gall: Also, committee chairs do have the authority to ask people to go to events.

 

Kohl: I think that in order for this to physically work, we need more people. Committee chairs cannot force a person to attend an event, it has to be a choice. We need to increase the morale of senate.

 

Taylor: Those are very valid points. However, I think that over the past few years we have become uncomfortable as committee chairs to direct our committee members to do things. I think that once we have the numbers and morale, we need to be more willing to direct our committees to do things.

 

Blanchflower: We need to be more direct. If people don’t want to take on the responsibility of attending events, then they can resign.

 

Taylor: Yes, but this is part of our job as senators. If you signed up and won, it is your responsibility to take on these duties.

 

Evers: First thing is that I am trying to reflect back on why I am studying what I am studying. We need to build a better community. Perhaps we can do pass the gavel later in this semester, because that is the only time we get to be a unified organization.

 

Blanchflower: I think we need to do a better job of not “selling” senate, but being truthful about the duties and responsibilities.

 

Nelson: When we actually elect people, the training needs to be a little more in depth. As of right now, people just vote aye and do not understand that they can abstain.

 

Evers: I want to echo those concerns. Also, I think if we are going to uphold vice chairs we need to be clearer in the future about what their duties are.

 

Morabito: Congrats Senator Sardinha for being the new student aide to the umbud.

 

• Academic
  • Morabito: Indigenous people’s day is still happening. I will be meeting with people to go through the bill. Also, the affordable course material initiative is kind of up in the air. I don’t want a one at a time thing, I want a permanent solution. Lastly, I reached out to my connection at UConn to ask about their donations for school supplies, but they did not get back to me. So, I will probably be doing my own thing.

 

Evers: Are there any resources currently for students who are struggling to pay for books and access codes?

 

Morabito: Yes. In addition to financial aid, the library offers laptops to borrow and can assist in other ways. Also, I just want to say that we have received a lot of messages in the committee mailbox.

 

Blanchflower: My dad works pretty high up at Walgreen’s, maybe I could ask him what he can do?

 

Sardinha: Also, Rhody Outpost is coming up. I don’t expect external to handle it all. But, we should definitely volunteer again.

 

Kohl: You could reach out to Jacqui Tisdale?

 

Morabito: Also, on the theme of giving more responsibility to committee members. I want to have my committee go out to different places like we do for ace of cakes to receive school supply donations.

 

Howard: I find it surreal that we simultaneously wonder why general senators don’t care about Senate while making all our decisions behind a closed door. This is a conversation for academic committee; we should spend more time in committees rather than at executive meetings.

 

• Campus
  • Gall: Right now, our most pressing issue is the lack of screens in Quinn hall. Bees are flying in and it is too hot to close the windows. I emailed Abigail Rider asking for an update but received no response. If I do not hear a response, then I will sit down with my committee tomorrow and discuss what to do because I do not want to wait a whole semester and send out a ton of emails.

 

Evers: The same issue with bees is happening in Pastore.

 

Morabito: I am against the sleeping pods.

 

Howard: I move to refer the matter of sleeping pods to the campus committee.

 

Taylor: Second. This is a conversation for the campus committee. The Executive Committee is not the place to discuss sleeping pods.

 

Gall: This is a time sensitive issue, and I feel like it is advantageous to have this conversation in a small group.

 

Approved. (9-0-2)

 

• Finance
  • Taylor: The bylaws require us to take in re-rec applications in October; however, we do not have to act on those applications right away. It is tradition to do it in the fall, but we do not have to. Also, I’m trying to get last semester’s minutes from a resigned vice-chair, but it doesn’t seem to be working. I am very happy with my current committee and think that if we keep on working well together then we’re going to do great things. Taylor proceeded to launch into a lengthy discussion about how he is enabling his committee to be more effective. It was extremely insightful. ASGA is fairly cheap, we should join, they have lots of useful resources for student governments. Finance is working on bills 8 and 9.

 

Evers: Could we send out our committee reports before the general meeting, so people know what’s up?

 

• President
  • Wilding: Please fill out the Doodle so we can know when we’re meeting. We need to treat each other with more respect and be more aware of the people around us. FIRE sent another letter, and it’s unhappy. They sent it to Dooley, though, instead of us. They’re mad.

 

Howard paraphrases the letter.

 

Howard: The solution is in the FHB revisions and associated Bylaws revisions in the Finance Committee.

 

Taylor: I will not and should not rush the revisions because of these letters.

 

Morabito: Is there a reason that their last letter wasn’t responded to?

 

Wilding: No.

 

Blanchflower: What is the actual problem here? What do they want? How can we work with them to solve this instead of just fighting them?

 

Evers: This problem exists because we have historically erred on the side of caution with funding, thus denying funding to any group that could be political. This has led to some extreme practices in terms of unfunding organizations. We absolutely should be funding them, though, because they aren’t breaking any rules. Bottom line: We are not being fair to the students by not funding these groups.

 

Taylor: the specific legal term is viewpoint discrimination. From a governing perspective, there is nothing different between any of our organizations.

 

Gall: Could these letters be sent to the rest of Senate?

 

Taylor: I would love to have the letters, but it’s not something that the whole Senate needs to be actively think about.

 

A lengthy discussion ensued.

 

Evers: If you want to get the information, ask Sam; He’ll probably tell you all about the problem. A problem is what to do with immediate recognitions in light of potential policy changes.

 

Howard: There’s a difference between being transparent and not wearing clothes. We don’t need to release the letter, we need to address the letter. For immediate recognitions, just follow our written policies.

 

Blanchflower: How to we respond to this?

 

Wilding: We respond by changing policies and writing letters.

 

Evers: [to Howard] The written policies are specific except where they need to be; it’s hard to follow them.

 

Howard: Acknowledged.

 

Wilding: Anything else for FIRE?

 

Taylor: What do we do with all of the ‘false categories?’

 

Evers: The last chair left me a complete mess to work with. He was apprehensive about completely giving over to the Finance Committee on funding advice, but I find myself disagreeing. This will need to change on the Rerecognition form, even though it’s very late to change the form for the fall. We also need to keep the complaining orgs in the loop.

 

Taylor: It might be worth managing our committee selection by putting more experienced people in SOARC and Finance.

 

Nelson: Could SOARC and Finance discuss this in their own time and not use ours?

 

Morabito disagrees with Taylor’s point. Taylor acknowledges.

 

Evers: I’d love to give you all concrete information, but there isn’t any.

 

EXTRA

MEETING ADJOURNMENT TIME:  8:08pm