FINANCE COMMITTEE
Coates– I vetoed the finance handbook. I explained in my email. The only copy made available to the senate is the one on the table right now. That is not acceptable. That explains the lack of discussion on the floor because nobody read outside the closed joint finance-executive meeting. It still has not been distributed by email even though I informed Chairman Holzman of my decision. I don’t want to speak for him, but he respectfully descents my decision. He thought he sent it to the list-serv, but it did not get sent to the list-serv. The only version others had the opportunity to see was the version created November 6th, to which we made a vast number of changes. The veto is going to be overridden because there will be a finance handbook, but I thought it was absolutely necessary that people knew what they were voting on.
Segal– Are we going through revisions again?
Coates– It has to be the same handbook.
Roy– Unless he amends it on the floor.
Coates– Between now and when it is voted on, it cannot be changed.
Caisse– Did you know it hadn’t been distributed before it went to the floor to be voted on?
Coates– I did not know. I went back to my email and checked with members of the finance committee who said they did not see the most revised version. We talked about our changes that happened during the meeting, but nobody ever saw a final product and that can make a big difference. I should have caught it sooner. I checked with Chairman Holzman, Kim, Senator Stewart, Senator Weinreich and nobody had seen the updated changes. I think what we will do is what it says in the by-laws to “reintroduce,” which means treating like a new bill to be introduced this week and voted on the first meeting when we get back. If it does wait until the next meeting, we won’t miss it at the upcoming presidents meeting anyway because it is tonight. It is already three months late, so waiting until January won’t hurt us anymore.
Segal– Because it is so late, it is a bit awkward to transition roles halfway through the year. It has to be approved, but I feel it is strange.
Coates– I don’t necessarily disagree with that. I like the way it is re-organized.
Juhr– Will the new groups have this handbook to look over during break?
Coates– No. Groups do not generally make their new transition to a new executive board until April. It will only impact those who try to operate their group the beginning of the next semester. I generally agree that, at this point, it is still a problem that it is this far in the semester. I don’t know what else we can do. That is up to executive. I can imagine most of the changes will stand. It does look good, so I can imagine that most of the changes will stay in effect until next year. I don’t see a major overhaul happening until quite sometime. Chairman Holzman and I did discuss an amendment to the category “A” thing that even he is second-guessing.
ACADEMIC AFFAIRS
Caisse– Exam Rights is going pretty well. Talked to Hillary from the Cigar. Sending her stuff tonight, so she can print an article on it for tomorrow or sometime this week. JCAP meeting tomorrow, meeting with Peter and Nancy from Faculty Senate at the library. There is also Provost Advisory Council meeting on Thursday night. Sakai tab is moving through. Talked to Donna Williams about the Dean’s Council. She can’t fit me in for presentation, so I am going to put up a proposal on Student Senate letterhead using the new style guide. It will be a pitch to the deans about the sakai tab. Have some good suggestions that will be presented next week to them. I have to have it in by the 12th. Did you get my email about the bookstore project?
Juhr– I got Coates’s email but I did not get yours.
Caisse– Emily Dionne is willing to work on that for my committee.
Coates– I emailed Paul. I will forward you his response. I basically just told him that I was waiting for both representatives to set up a common meeting time. Told him we would be able to work with both sides of the issue.
Caisse– My committee is doing research on academic integrity stuff, academic printing (free).
Segal– Honors gets free printing too.
Lamoureux– I heard Nursing gets it too.
Segal– Did Alexa tell you about that credit for exec positions?
Caisse– She mentioned it but I have not looked into anything yet.
SECRETARY
Jones– Not much going on this week. Left a message for the online voting systems for campus-wide elections on the voicemail and emails to the providers Dave asked me to look into. Contacting the representative on campus for general meeting voting systems this week, probably on Thursday.
Caisse– There were some things wrong with the newsletter. Can we put it under a review process before it is submitted?
Coates– I can talk to Ashley.
Segal– There was a second one that went out.
Caisse– It had said that we took a vote on the recreation fee, but we didn’t. We just tabled it.
CULTURAL AFFAIRS
Ferreira– I emailed the enhancing campus culture survey results. We will be talking about it in committee tomorrow. There is a lot of debate about re-doing the survey of our own. The results that the six graduate students received were only from 180 students, which I don’t believe is an accurate representation. We are also wrapping up some planning for next semester events.
Coates– The CDO search committee meets again next week (Chief Diversity Officer). I was not aware until recently that Katherine Friedman has already left. She has already accepted a position elsewhere. The position is currently vacant.
Zaman– I thought they already had interviews
Ferreira– For GLBTQ candidates.
Coates– I have a meeting with the person filling in while she is gone. I will touch base with him about what’s going on as far as CDO business. I am hoping that after this Wednesday that Scott will be in the fold, the new Director of Marketing. Scott is extremely intelligent. Has hands-on experience doing web page analytics, far more experience than we have ever had. I am hoping a concerted effort to do a survey, that is all-encompassing of Student Life issues in general. I am hoping he can come up with something like that and have a campaign going for that type of survey.
Ferreira– It said 80% of the students were involved, even though I don’t think that many were involved.
Coates– If you have anything going on in committee you would like to talk about to students in a survey and ask, please let me know.
CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER
Zaman– Got a lot of good feedback on the voting. I emailed so many people. The few people that did reply gave me detailed responses. I have to also be at the President’s meeting. I will be sending out the style guide tonight or sometime this week.
VICE PRESIDENT
Holden– These brown boxes are on your desks for your stuff to be put in them. If you value the stuff in the desk, I would take it with you because it will be left unattended in here for a period of time. Try to make an arrangement for committee times for next semester. Committees are required to meet that week. Try to have an arranged meeting time for next semester. Have your stuff tomorrow night for secret snowmen. That is basically it for me.
Caisse– When does everything have to be out of here?
Holden– Friday afternoon.
Ferreira– Did you have that meeting yet?
Holden– Wednesday night at 6pm.
TREASURER
Segal– Stipends for December will be available next Tuesday. Basketball tickets for student orgs were picked up on Friday. I only got 15 because of the usage that it went down. I got an email yesterday that said they reduced the amount of tickets. I could not argue because of the usage of tickets. He also wants to know who wants to go to the PC game. There is a game on Wednesday. Aside from that, I wrote down a list of inventory things as everybody said. Please pack up everything. I am not going to be inventory-ing binders or anything like that.
Coates– Tonight is board of governors meeting. They will be beginning review phase for President’s Dooley contract, which may fall under External.
Troiano– I don’t think enough people have an opinion on them.
Coates– I am pretty confident that are going to rehire him. Only had about a two-year contract.
EXTERNAL AFFAIRS
Troiano– The petition is coming out tomorrow ideally. In that event, my committee has been working on securing places to have it advertised. One issue that came up in committee was how would we go about setting up a booth not in a building?
Coates– To get a booth for the quad, you want to call Lands and Grounds. When you get the quad, you usually take it out of Edwards. You can reserve a table in Edwards. I would ask Sheri to be honest. We were talking about creating a spreadsheet with all the names from the petition to ensure there were no repeats. That might be a waste of effort.
Segal- What happened to the petition?
Troiano– It’s in Ron’s office in Room 203.
Holden– Should there be a meeting for the Coalition of it being disbanded.
Troiano– I got an email with the minutes summarizing what we all decided.
Coates– It has been decided. There is another partnership that you can work with.
Troiano– Had a meeting with Nancy Devaney. She is not doing anything really and she told me she is heading in a “different direction.”
Coates– One idea is that one of the real issues is in terms of bringing out students back, our students off-campus feel that when they are off-campus, they are not apart of the university because they are not here. I think we should use the athletes to do more visible community service projects so we can build positive local support. If we do things such as more concentrated local partnering for charities and stuff, not specifically Senate. We need to have local communities involved. If we can infiltrate the community with our image of the university, when students live off-campus, communities can’t avoid the fact that they are apart of the University.
Troiano– On Wednesday, Molly Smith is the new off-campus liaison. That is it for me.
CAMPUS AFFAIRS
Juhr– Nothing much going on. Coates wants me to have someone appointed from my committee to work with the bookstore along with the representative from Academic. We will talk about the Union expansion tomorrow. Before break, I would like to meet up with Coates to discuss the FAC parking lot and the single-semester parking passes and the higher one passes.
Ferreira– How is the RIPTA app coming along?
Juhr– It’s not really. I have an email. Erica is the one that contracts Graham Bell. They have this time line set up.
Caisse– Are you still looking into the signs and maps for the bulletin boards?
Juhr– I would start with that next semester.
Caisse– I think Senate should throw money towards it. It would be great for advertising. We should really push it.
Coates– Are you suggesting an electronic one?
Caisse– I am picturing a ticker one. I work in Facilities services, and we always talk about fliers all over the campus.
Coates– They might force people to use a calendar. Instead of putting up fliers, student groups would want to put events on that type of calendar. I also suggested last year putting a ticker on the front of the Union.
PRESIDENT
Coates– Speaking of spending Senate money, I had a meeting today regarding our ongoing projects- lighting of the field and the rock gym. Since, as you might assume, these projects have taken 3 years; the estimates are off since prices have changed on things. The lights are going to be more expensive, but we are not paying the difference. They are running the wiring underground. I have been assured that the field would be done this spring. The field has been acquired, turf has been purchased, ready for play. It was used this past fall for intramurals already. Just does not have lights yet. The lights are going to be more like a little bit over $150,000.
Juhr– Is this the field that we are supposed to be thinking of a name for?
Coates– Yes. The rock gym building- they finally agreed on the location for the building. It is the first place we suggested- The North Woods. The total estimate came in at $900,000 for the building and wall, which is about $400,000 more than it should be. They are going to locate it right where the zip line ends and the building would begin. I had a meeting with Tom Dougan, and I informed him of our plan to start a capital campaign for a new student union. He received it well. He does not know where the money is coming from, but that is not the point. We want to formalize an effort to get the money. I was not really asking for anything, but I was just telling him. Didn’t want to surprise him. I have set up a meeting with the President for next Thursday.
Jones– Is President Dooley coming to a general meeting?
Coates– I am hoping to get him for next semester. December 16th, he is having an event for student Presidents and Treasurers. Still working on online elections. All the information necessary is finalized except what we need legally to do. Apparently, something is going on in terms of the University that I hope to find out about more. This year, 200-300 seniors disappeared, as in they did not return to school.
Holden– Wasn’t the sophomore retention rate at its highest?
Caisse– They talked about it at Faculty Senate. They want to find out if it was about money issues, class issues.
Coates– They are literally calling everyone.
Holden– The people who just became seniors were also freshmen when the economy went south.
Coates– The financial aid budget has been increasing drastically, but has not affected anyone except the freshmen and sophomores. Any questions for me? I will let you know as soon as possible what is going on with SBPC.