MEETING START TIME:

6:30 PM

ATTENDANCE:

Committee: President BUCK, Vice President DONNELLY, Treasurer PERCY, Chief Information Officer TAYLOR, Finance Committee Chairwoman KING, SOARC Chairman BACHILAS, Academic Committee Chairman TEMPLE, Campus Affairs Committee Chairwoman TATE, Cultural Affairs Committee Chairwoman ST. AMAND, External Affairs Committee Chairman BERTEL, Speaker WATKA

Absent: Director of Communications WILDING

Non-Committee: Sen. Howard, Sen. Gall

 

COMMITTEE DISCUSSION:

 

• President
  • I need you all to read the CED Strategic Plan and provide feedback as soon as you can.
  • Naomi Thompson would like to have a face-to-face discussion session if it is possible. If this does happen, it will happen in a few weeks from now, since we have a limited window of time to talk with her as the year comes to an end.
  • I will let the general Senate know when they have a good opportunity to meet with her.
  • There is a lot of material to provide feedback on that they may not have talked about yet, so read closely.
  • It is good to see that we are all very active in preparing for the various events coming up.
  • Let’s talk Exec Retreat. The Escape Room will cost us $35 per person, which is quite pricy. We might want to consider bowling instead. We may wait until the day after finals to do our retreat. Or, perhaps, the weekend after finals end. We could also go have Brickley’s or pizza after bowling.
  • We can try to go bowling instead of having an Executive meeting next week. I am creating a tentative bowling plan.
• Vice President
  • Welcome Day on the 22^nd went really well. We collected forty names and emails, more than ever in the past. Our coordinator sent an email out to them. We can still contact them again in the fall.
  • We have officially registered a Senate booth at First Night. I plan on talking about this at the next general Senate meeting. As a reminder, September 4^th of 2017 is First Night.
• Treasurer
  • I signed stuff this week.
  • I have also been talking with Cheryl about the history of our budget and what to expect for next year.
  • There have also been discussions about the SOLC Budget concerns.

 

• Chief Information Officer
  • I like kudos.
  • You like kudos.
  • We all like kudos.
  • Do a kudos.
• Directors of Communications:
  • It is Sexual Assault Awareness Week. So far, so good. I have been sending out photos to those who took them so that they may upload them to their social media.
  • Peer pong was awesome!
  • Kennedy went to Masculinity Monday with me. BOND did not show up to Masculinity Monday
  • T-shirt orders are in. We want to get them in before reading days, this will hopefully go a lot faster than the sweatshirts.
  • During this week, so many events will happen.
  • I will be making a post to Gavel Gang to encourage senators to wear denim this Wednesday at the general Senate meeting since it will be Denim Day.
• Finance Committee
  • We have finished Finance Handbook revisions last Friday. And there were not many big changes.
  • We focused much of our attention on formatting.
  • I would like to send it out by tomorrow morning.
  • We will vote on the revisions on the first full day of classes.
  • We are also redoing the online Finance Handbook Quiz. We are trying to make it more accessible by using google docs.
  • There are many issues groups are facing and they have been going to Cheryl’s office.
  • Summer budgets are due by next Monday.
• SOARC
  • The Committee had many guests when we held discussions on how to define Academic Student Organization.
  • There were many helpful and productive ideas.
  • Allow me to introduce the proposed changes.
  • We are thinking of simply extending the unfunded category to cover what an academic club is.
  • We are hoping to help educate organizations on how to request funding from Senate while being an unfunded student organization.
  • King: The original bill shared with the Committee was posted and discussed with specific attention on the resolutions. We talked about the line which was too confusing and also Ro brought up that there is still much in co-sponsorship. It is quite difficult for the Finance Committee to determine what is ‘open-programming’.
  • The Committee would like to bring this in as soon as possible. We would like to have it in before SOARC starts taking considerable moves on re-recognition.
  • We would like to provide constructive feedback, and not complaints alone, while also giving concrete solutions to student organizations during re-rec.
  • We are assigning Liaisons to student organizations over the summer in preparation for re-rec.
  • We have been providing stipend feedback by emailing groups about Senate’s stipend review process.
  • I will be discussing this in detail during the first President’s meeting next year.
• Academic Affairs Committee
  • We are working on Final Exam rights by sending flyers around campus. We have also shared them with Ro to hand over to Resident Advisors. We are also getting them displayed on the Memorial Unions display boards.
  • Are there any other suggestions for additional places we might put these?
  • -URI Communications (through email)
  • -Emailing to academic departments
  • -Using College Liaisons as a resource
  • I am meeting with the Dean of Libraries
  • I will give the Dean Final Exam Rights
  • The Academic Calendar Committee is meeting on Thursday and they will be discussing elections day and how to decide which days will be Academic break days. There, I will be presenting data to them.
  • I am creating an OER questionnaire. I was sent an article to get questions on textbook prices. Having data would be beneficial in the future. I am organizing a plan to do something like it.
  • The meeting for Indigenous People’s day I attended was somewhat helpful, but not necessarily helpful for the bill.
• Campus Affairs Committee
  • Sexual Assault Awareness Week is happening.
  • In regard to Masculinity Monday, PLEASE changed their program at the last minute. They did not show ‘The Mask You Live In’ and there was no popcorn. They instead showed various clips. And while these clips had the same conclusions as ‘The Mask You Live In’, there was poor communication about these changes.
  • Afterwards, we were told that they changed the program because of ‘attendance’.
  • There was some student organization of men discussing toxic masculinity, however, BOND and IFC did not show up.
  • There is some concern about how the rest of the week will go and whether the schedule will be followed.
  • Rachel Dunham oversaw the event.
  • Please see the advertisement for the rest of this week’s schedule.
• Cultural Affairs Committee
  • I am meeting with Naomi Thompson.
  • We discussed future ideas.
  • We specifically discussed doing Safe Zone Training.
  • We came to the conclusion that if the Senate as a whole does not get Safe Zone training, the Executive Committee definitely should.
  • I am doing research on it.
  • There are certain courses associated with Safe Zone training we may choose on certain days. We should pick and choose courses that really pertain to our jobs on Senate.
  • I wrote down personal suggestions I had on the CED Plan.
  • I ask that you all please provide suggestions on it as well.
  • Riley and I met with Christian Gonzalez who teaches courses on Native American culture. We received good feedback on the bill itself for Indigenous Peoples day.
  • We are looking to put on talks and programming that involves lecturers and scholars who are Native American.
  • We are also looking to connect with Indigenous youth.
  • DRIVE did a multicultural overnight program and showed them around campus.
  • We are looking to incorporate something similar.
  • Vanessa and Brittany created a poll for students and whether they really wanted the change in the name. Many said no which suggests a lack of knowledge is present about this issue.
  • The bill focuses on history, but also on current issues regarding Indigenous peoples.
• External Affairs Committee
  • Hello everybody
  • The Clean-Up went well, but not too many people attended. For those who did show up, it was great.
  • I had a conversation with the President of the 2100 in which we discussed potential collaborations in the future and establishing stronger communication.
  • They are looking for someone to organize their social media, if you are interested, please see me.
  • The 4-person town ordinance is coming out soon as well as some ruling on it. There is some confidence that it will be rejected as being unconstitutional.
  • The Committee is using the majority of summer to plan projects which should serve the external community more efficiently, whether through outreach or programming.
  • I am afraid there might be some disinterest in serving on the committee
    • What can we do about this?
    • We are working on developing ideas on hands-on stuff over the summer.
    • Spring is difficult, but we can bring in more interesting events in the Fall which might spark some interest in serving on the committee. This strategy has worked historically.
    • We are considering attending Town Council meeting instead attending committee sometimes as a common group activity.
    • Brittany made Ace of Cakes a group activity and there was much more interest.
    • We are developing a list and deciding on what to prioritize in committee to involve committee members
    • It is important to put yourself in their shoes in deciding what we want to do in committee

 

• New Business
  • Campus Labs will be coming to the University soon. It is a way to centralize the technology of student organizations. This will take place from 9-10 AM in the Senate Chambers. It is a way to update technology at URI, especially Sakai and student involvement. We are going to evaluate the pluses and minuses.
  • Bylaws Committee Bill
  • Debate on the Bill
    • King: “Amanda Rode confirmed that it is not a recurring thing every four-year thing. It is more like a two-year thing.”
    • Buck: “There is a question of whether we should have freshman senators on this committee. We should look to pass this sooner rather than later.”

 

SS-17/18-XX BILL CALLING FOR THE CREATION OF THE BYLAWS COMMITTEE

 

Whereas, Article VI., Section B., Part 3., of the Senate Bylaws states that “The Senate may, through legislation, create any special committees which it deems necessary or advantageous, provided that no special committee shall be created whose charge interferes with that of any other Senate committee. Such legislation must specify the charge and term of the committee, and may specify the members of the committee and the manner in which it will be discharged or the manner in which members are to be chosen, provided that the Executive Committee shall appoint the members unless another method is explicitly stated in the legislation. One representative from each special committee must sit on the Executive Committee, as a non-voting member, for the duration of the committee’s existence.”, and

Whereas, it occasionally becomes necessary to review and amend the Bylaws, and

Whereas, it would be convenient and efficient for the Senate to establish a Bylaws committee, therefore be it

Resolved, that Senate shall create a Bylaws Committee, whose purpose shall be to create legislation with the intent to make necessary amendments to the Senate’s Bylaws and to promote general Bylaws literacy, and be it further

Resolved, that the Bylaws Committee may be discharged through legislation, or, in the absence of the passage of such legislation, shall be discharged on the last meeting of March, 2018, and be it further

Resolved, that the Bylaws Committee shall be composed of five undergraduate students, a majority of whom shall be Senators, none of whom may be members of the Rules and Ethics Committee, all of whom shall be internally elected by the Senate, and be it further

Resolved, that the Bylaws Committee shall select from its members a Speaker, whose duties shall be to attend each meeting of the Executive Committee as a non-voting member and to act as the Moderator of meetings of the Bylaws Committee, and be it further

Resolved, that the Speaker of the Bylaws Committee shall select from its members a Secretary, whose nomination must be confirmed by a majority vote of the Bylaws Committee, and whose duty it shall be to record the minutes of the committee’s meetings and to submit them, within three business days, to the CIO.  In the event that the Speaker is unable to attend a committee meeting, the Secretary shall serve as the moderator of the Bylaws Committee.

 

SPONSOR:                                               Executive Committee

BILL HANDLER:                                   Senator Howard

DATE:                                                      4/26/2017

RECOMMENDATION:                          (9 – 0 – 1)

EXPIRATION:                                        March 28, 2018

ACTION:                                                  Vote Next Meeting

 

• Buck: “I will outline the goals and responsibilities of Summer Senate before the elections take place.”

 

MEETING ADJOURNMENT TIME:

 

8:13 PM