Attendance: Caisse, Juhr, Holden, Coates, Roy, Segal, Jones, Cordisco, Mullin, Zaman, Ferreira, Troiano
ACADEMIC AFFAIRS
Caisse– Gabe held academic meeting today. Provost Advisory Council meeting tomorrow. Working on two academic complaints. Advising Steering Committee on my desk. Might write up a response to it. People on my committee are working on academic groups, free printing, working on Dean Richmond and Kim Washor about organizational credit. The current model is not going to work.
Jones– Can’t go to Faculty Senate meetings anymore, have class during that time.
CAMPUS AFFAIRS
Juhr– Planning the next Safety and Lighting walk. Almost everybody on my committee has area to check before walk. I will give them maps for them that they have to be checked. They are reporting back to me with their union. They all checked on different colleges. New policy at the gym- you cannot wear tanktops or cut off sleeve shirts. They haven’t said a notification. Working on campus parking complaint.
Coates– A student parked in handicap spot and then was about to get towed when he came out because he was allegedly going in for 20 minutes. He tried to ask to not be towed. This happened outside of Chafee. He was upset because of the $100 ticket on top of paying the tow truck ticket.
Zaman– He had the $100 because he paid in the handicap parking spot.
Juhr– Did the same police officer give him the ticket?
Coates– Pretty sure it was the same. I will be drafting a response saying that it is unfortunate that this happened, but he took the risk. I also understand that there is a pretty backlog at the Counseling Center. Can you just have someone within your committee or you about how they are managing the overflow? I heard it is like 2 weeks to get an appointment. So just try and follow up with them.
SOARC
Roy– I really want to go over a group that wants to be recognized by us. They are the URI Community Emergency Response Team. This may seem like a problem. Their mission is to “recruit and train volunteers in emergency preparedness related skills.” It does say that it is overseen by the office of Emergency Management and Homeland Security, who will contact this group before taking any action. If we were to recognize them, we can’t give them a budget. We should already have this. I do not have a group of people volunteering to get together to want to do that. I think it is fine to recognize a group like that, but I am not sold on it because I do not want something to ever happen. They are already an actual group, but it could be a problem.
Coates– This is a university burden to bear. There is no way that if something happened and there is an emergency response and someone got hurt, it goes on our insurance.
Zaman– I do not think they are saying that we want to be the service for the university. What they are saying is that we want to train other people. It is more about providing skills and training, not necessarily so that they can save people, but just so that they can have those skills.
Coates– That is not something that the Student Senate should be paying.
Zaman– They do not to get funding.
Holden– They would need to get a ride-along, clinical, or some other certification.
Caisse– If they already have an address, they are already essentially organized.
Coates– For high risk clubs like Sailing and Scuba, we have to take out an extra insurance policy.
Roy– We had a debate in SOARC about this for quite some time.
Coates– Have they expressed their reasoning for wanting to be senate recognized?
Roy– No, I just received this in the email. Other than that, I had my committee today look at my survey for the faculty and staff and got the okay from them. I have a few things to add to it. I have next week’s South Asian Student Association. They will be coming in next week for my group’s vote. I really hope we do not run into problems about already having ASA (Asian Students Association). They are two different organizations. Make It Bright is getting recognized this week. They are purely philanthropic. They are going to be here Wednesday night and are really excited.
VICE PRESIDENT
Holden– If anybody has food allergies for formal, let me know. I need to know other ones just in case. We will make an announcement. I need to know a definite yes or no by Wednesday. I need to know if you are going. We need the numbers. Committee assignments are all done. I will be sending an email out to the people who lost members. Please make sure you have started working on your transition binder.
Ferreira– Is there a minimum number of people you can get on the committees?
Holden– A lot of people dropped, so I had to shuffle around other people. There are some committees who are short on people. Not to get picky right now, a lot of you guys changed your meetings to Monday and a lot of people can’t make Mondays, so I am trying to work something out.
Coates– Somebody cannot meet on Mondays.
CULTURAL AFFAIRS
Ferreira– Have a new vice-chair because Longa can not make my meetings anymore. Our Ace of Cakes competition- committee has been contacting Safety and Risky and URI catering. Our potential date for that is February 13, at 7pm. It is when the president’s meeting would be but the week after.
Coates– I met with Annie Russell during a meet and greet with her. She is the new LGBITQPPAA. She seems awesome. Chairwoman Ferreira already met with her.
Ferreira– Had a training session with her. Cultural is going to be meeting with her. She will be coming to Public Forum.
Coates– CDO search committee still confidential but making progress (Chief Diversity Officer).
EXTERNAL AFFAIRS
Troiano– Had a committee meeting today. We started establishing our roles on the committee. We started talking about what specific roles should be on the committee. We are trying to have someone keep on top of town meetings, someone who would do off-campus living relations, a lot of things along those lines, so that will be established pretty soon. We will have a really efficient committee after that. We talked about putting up a website. It is a new idea, but do not know the details yet, something a little more expansive than the commuter housing website that exists.
Roy– I really love what you are doing in your committee with the focusing on roles. That is something that hasn’t been done on External. That is something you should transition to the next chair. That is something you should really keep.
Troiano– “The Road to the Protest” is being talked about and coordinated.
Coates– Whatever you guys plan for Welcome Days (DOM and DOC), we can use the same display for Road to the Statehouse. I also came across a complaint today that was sent to me. There was an ordinance passed over winter break about banned parking on Pier Road or Narragansett Ave near the Surf Shop? Some students had the permit and then they passed an ordinance over the break that non-permanent residents could not park there regardless. Even if you lived there, had a lease, and had a permit, you could still get tickets. The girls that got tickets lived there and went to the police station because the police had not been informed of the ordinance, the police officer ripped up the ticket and said it is okay to park there. They continued to park there and got ticketed again. The police then had found out about the ordinance and had to enforce them so they kept the ticket. I can’t see it being legal for the town to ban renters who live in the homes to ban parking on the street. Already told Kim that I am going to call our lawyer. I don’t know how they determine full-time residency.
Weinreich– The way they do it at beaches determining fulltime residency is by license plates, which can be discrimination.
Coates– I know conversations have already happened between the police and the university. It is absolutely ridiculous that they would even consider that to be the right thing to do. The other problem is that they rented a house with no adequate parking space for those that live in the home.
TREASURER
Segal– Stipends tomorrow. Paying the bills.
CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER
Zaman– The different bills in the agendas are not uniform and are not formatted the same. Some are indented and some are capslocks and fonts and things like that. I am going to make up a standard format and get that out to you guys.
SECRETARY
Jones– Not really much. I will try and set up with a meeting with the representative on campus who knows about the voting/polling technology in class used for voting for sometime next week and meet with her if she is available. Any suggestions for Kudos.
Coates– I have Kudos suggestions.
DIRECTOR OF MARKETING
Mullin– Gearing up for elections. Sent out first draft of marketing plan to Executive Committee that Tanya will send out. Heard some feedback about how people prepare for Senate, campaign for Senate, and all else about elections.
Roy– I did not get the survey from you.
Mullin– Seven emails were returned incorrectly to me.
DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS
Cordisco– The newsletter went out today. Working on elections.
Coates– Have the RFP for online voting that I will pass out. Set the deadline for February 13th. Gives them 14 business days to respond. Sent it to 8 companies already. Criteria included being able to hold 12,000-15,000 students, hold special elections, and we ask for a minimum for 3 privacy-seals and three recommendations from other universities. In the instructions for the application, they have to tell us how their product specifically meets our goals. The only other thing was that I made them detail in what ways what types of detail are available for elections.
Weinreich– How long is the data stored of the elections results?
Coates– That is part of the criteria.
PRESIDENT
Coates– I printed out a few copies of the University’s proposed handbook changes. Not a lot of departments have participated yet.
Zaman– Are there any changes to the option where you can retake the class? The Second Grade Option?
Coates– That would not be part of this.
Caisse– It is still in deliberation.
Coates– Grammatical changes in the first couple pages. Major changes are in the back. We are going to have to advertise booths. Trying to set up public information booths. Going to ask Kim to move the box on the website for the suggestion box. Student Life is going to pay for ads to go in the Cigar asking for input in the student handbook if any policies could be changed. We did really well last time around. There were only two suggestions that were made that did not get incorporated. There are three suggestions that they have made that I do not agree with, so it could be a fun year. They want to mandate that all students give their current mailing address, meaning you would have to disclose your residence in Narragansett to the university. If you plan to violate the rule in the handbook, you could be punished. The other one that I disagree with is that there is a clause that says these are meant to be broader policies, so even if it is not in the rules, they can punish you anyway.
Roy– Under academic honesty, students have an obligation to quote, paraphrase, and reference the work of others. Does that mean we do not have to quote, paraphrase, or reference ourselves? If you have anything you need to change.
Coates– Few other things. There are a number of core objectives that are going to be on the strategic plan. There are other areas of critical need for the Senate, things we need to work towards, and so we want to pass them to committee chairs. We want to talk about how your committee and your committee’s functions aligns with those goals, which will all be included. If you need more clarification on that, talk to me on an individual basis. I have a lot of thoughts for each committee already. Please think about that and talk about it with your committee. We will send you the goals that are mapped out. I am working with a student organization that wants to start a petition letter to the president. Exposure wants to have the big band until 3am because there is no such thing as a variance at URI anymore. The union events end when they are scheduled to end. EMA will also not be allowed to have Dance ‘Til Dawn. Made an announcement at the President’s meeting last year. I am going to write another document to accompany that because I think it is a little ridiculous that they restricted the hours because of an incident at a PINK woman event. Also, finance and I will be working on this. Police decided to hike their rates mid-year for details.
Holzman– They are trying to bring their numbers up to what the numbers are like for other departments. They are charging us for their overtime, basically.
Coates– They should fully expect to work details like that at a lower rate.
Holzman– We have a bidding requirement.
Coates– I have to change Exec next week. I am going to the Town Council meeting for recognition about our participation. Another thing, there is someone coming to speak. It’s an all day-event. It is a nationally renowned speaker on Diversity issues. I really want to make it something encouraged for people who intend to run for Exec. We may have to pay for it out of our budget. It’s about $40 per ticket on March 3rd in Edwards.
Ferreira– The name is Dr. Maura Cullen.
Coates– We will have to figure out what line to take the money out of.
Segal– Can we get contingency?
Holzman– We were going to talk about that in committee next week.
Coates– Student Alumni Association, even though they had their homecoming dilemma, has asked us to participate in the Nearly Naked Mile which is a community service event focused on clothing drive. They will take off and donate one coat or two articles of clothing and proceed to run a mile in the appropriate undergarments. We anticipate raising hundreds of pounds of clothing to support Rhode Island’s homeless population in need of clothing. They are donating it to the Johnnycakes Center and for the Welcome House. They are open to monetary donations, staffing. The date is March 1st on Thursday. One of the suggestions that was made was that we could do something like have people at the quarter mile and half-mile mark like glowsticks.
Caisse– I do not think we should sponsor monetarily. We should donate clothes through our own mini-drive for Senate.
FINANCE COMMITTEE
Holzman– We decided to approve several thousand dollars tonight. We are sending three college republicans to a convention in Washington, DC.
Zaman– Do we fund trips?
Coates– Yes, we do.
Holzman– Of up to half of six people.
Coates– They pay half the costs of half the 6 people, but we only pay half the costs of those half.
Holzman– Hillel is having a concert. They asked for contingency. They are bringing back the same guy they had last year. We had a little issue with one of the artists because their mission statement uses the word local ambiguously in reference to musicians and they are arguing that local is a level of music notoriety in the music world. We approved $400 for the other two acts and struck the local band act. Once they change their mission statement, they will come back for the local band request. NASO also wants to put on “how to make moccasins workshop” which we approved. They are coming back next week because once they have clarified their statement. Snowboarding is getting $1,840.
Roy– Recommendation on that?
Holzman– Recommendation on Railjam was 4-1-0, based on the fact that their quote was from last year and the quote requirement for the item is a verbal quote. Hillel’s concert was a 5-0-0.
Roy– I thought we agreed not to reward groups for missing re-recognition.
Holzman– Yes, I will bring that up to the Senate floor.
Caisse– IFC has come to you for money for another retreat?
Holzman– Yes, they have. IFC and Panhel still have a fair amount of money left in their line for a leadership summit because they did not get anywhere what was budgeted for the one they held at the beginning of the semester of the academic year. They asked if they could spend the remainder of that money on the leadership retreat because they changed their elections scheme. They have switched from calendar year to academic year.
Roy– Doesn’t their compact say only one retreat per year?
Holzman– Yes, so I will bring that up. We will be talking about capital improvements next week.
Coates– The purchase order is still on the desk.
ELECTIONS COMMITTEE
Mullin– We are meeting on Wednesday this week and from now on.
Adjourned 8:35pm