Call to Order: 8:50

Attendance: Evers, Gall, Howard, Kohl, McWeeney, Morabito, Nelson, Straube, Taylor, Wilding (Committee); Menard, St.Amand (Non-committee)

Absent: Blewitt (Excused)

Business:

Evers appoints Senator Tavio George to the Vice Chair of the SOARC.

Evers: Neither of the veteran members want to be Vice Chair, and he’s willing to ask questions and doing well. He has the drive to get it done.

The Committee votes to approve the appointment (8-0-0)

Wilding: President Dooley will be coming to public forum to talk about the University’s budget. He is very excited.

Menard: They think that we don’t know where the University gets its money.

Wilding agrees.

Morabito: Is there something weird going on with the faculty? A lot of the higher-ups are actually trying to talk to us, and it’s a little unnerving. I think it’s because Dooley is very excited. Past presidents of the student body have not met regularly with him.

Wilding: Communication is very open and honest this year, with the President, the Provost, and various administrators.

Nelson: Why was Carl Stiles not at the regular meeting tonight?

Wilding: He was otherwise engaged.

McWeeney: He sent out an email about it earlier today.

Wilding: The President of the Rhode Island School of Design student government cancelled their meeting with me for next week.

Morabito: Are there required office hours next week?

Howard: Since next week is only two days, office hours are not required. Kudos if you do them.

Taylor: Do committees have to meet next week?

Howard: They are not required to, because there is no regular meeting.

Wilding: The Executive Committee will not be meeting next week.

Kohl: Cultural Affairs is working on a bill, based loosely on the DACA bill from Cody’s term, addressing transgender rights. Since it wasn’t introduced today, and we still have to meet with the Gender and Sexuality Center, we hope to immediately consider it on the 28th. We’ll send it out as soon as possible.

Menard: Aren’t we supposed to be apolitical, and wouldn’t it be a resolution and not a bill? What are we asking for?

Morabito: This is simply our own stance on the issue. We would be stating our support for gender rights.

Howard: I strongly recommend that it not be immediately considered.

Kohl: The event this responds to happened in October, so the longer we wait the more it looks like we don’t care. Hopefully the text will be in mailboxes on Tuesday.

Nelson: This will be fairly simple; it’s just supporting human rights. I take issue with policies that attack people based on gender.

Kohl: [the memo] said Title IX only applies to sex at birth, not identifying gender. This would be an acknowledgement of rights.

Gall: This is a political statement because people take political stances. The important question would be whether or not it is partisan.

Morabito: I believe the DACA bill was passed in early 2017

Taylor: The IRS isn’t going to come after us because we support Trans people. We can make it so that it’s not about politics. Rights are not by nature political.

Gall: [to Taylor] That is correct, so long as it’s not partisan.

Nelson: Can we work genderqueer into it as well, not just transgender?

Kohl: Absolutely. I’m trying to make the resolution as ‘correct’ as possible.

St.Amand: The elections bill is already written, and needs to be on the floor on the 28th.

Howard, Taylor speak regarding Bylaws. Menard asks a question, to which Morabito responds.

Taylor: We could always make it a permanent committee and reelect people as necessary. It could, for example, have one person to just hold the fort in while elections are not happening.

Menard: They could also work internal elections.

Howard: Elections Committee does not require a bill to create. The committee is preemptively defined to be created for the Spring and Fall elections.

Kohl: Bystander awareness training is tomorrow.

Wilding: How has behavior been in the office in the past week?

Morabito: It seems pretty good, with a solid question mark after that.

Nelson: There was a lot of discussion about the Vice President’s action, and a lot of gossip besides.

St.Amand: They’re happier, I think.

Conversation segues into the term’s resignations.

Nelson: This term has just been a lot. Lots of good has happened, but lots of bad things have also happened.

St.Amand: I think that a lot of people who held the Senate together graduated, and that’s why it disintegrated.

Howard: This is why it’s important that you aren’t doing all of the committee’s work. If nobody knows how to do work, then the successors to our offices will almost necessarily be weak.

Wilding: The last thing that President Buck said to me was that he hoped I didn’t see a lot of turnover. [sarcastically] That went well.

Kohl: Let’s not corrupt the new people with all the old badness.

Wilding: We have found a house to host Soiree.

Taylor: [to Kohl] If this committee and the other committees are not going to act, then we have no alternative but to complain. If you want us to stop complaining, then act.

St.Amand: Why is there no agenda for Executive Committee meetings anymore?

Howard: That’s just for this week. I didn’t make one.

Wilding: We are going to have a Housing and Residential Life style conversation about how to rework Senate’s culture. We can start from the bottom up or go from the top down. I may be wrong, but I don’t feel the divide between this committee and the Senate that has existed previously.

Morabito: This is my first year on this committee, and from the perspective of a senator I don’t think that whether there is a divide is for us to judge. When I talk to senators, they seem happy. I don’t know if they’re just saying that to my face or if they really mean it.

Nelson: Can we get a big poster for how we want to treat people in the office, where everybody can see it? I think that’d be a grand idea.

St.Amand: I can make one of those. I know that we shouldn’t be talking about fault, but the way people address each other is important here. Don’t be rude, but please point out people’s behavior because that is important.

Menard: As someone who just joined a month or so ago, I find that the Executive Committee has been very helpful, and no so much the “boss.” I find that the committee is welcoming, and orientation, while brief, was a pretty good introduction. As people get their bearings, they will become more comfortable.

Evers: Sounds like we need an SOLC retreat.

Morabito: If we’re pointing out people’s conduct, could it be in person and not public? We don’t want to be oppressive.

Taylor: The disconnect that I observe is not what it used to be. In past years, you had no opportunity to do anything in or with Exec. The disconnect now is that we don’t know what the senators are here for, and whether they are supported. This is the best Exec that I think anybody here has seen, but that’s not to say we can’t be better. We need to sit down with members to find out what they are doing and why they are here. We need to give some sort of quasi-priority to their ideas.

Nelson: Most of the time when somebody is being a little snarky they don’t notice it, because we’re all human. Please pull people aside and talk to them. Also, I give kudos to VP Howard for the orientations.

Howard: I am required to meet one on one with every member of this organization. I fully intend to request that the chairs meet with senators not from their and send me brief notes to alleviate some of the pressure.

St.Amand: I am not sure that I am okay with all of that delegating.

Howard: The responsibilities of the Vice President literally cannot be reasonably fulfilled without delegating some of the work.

Menard: For attendance and such, look for a clock-in, clock-out type thing.

St.Amand: [to Howard] I recommend that you talk to your predecessors about how to do your job.

Howard speaks briefly about his predecessors to the office of the Vice President.

Gall: What is new with Campus Labs?

Wilding: In the IT Governance Committee, we’ve been talking about Campus Labs since I joined two years ago. We’d have to make sure that it works between the Senate and the various departments of URI. I know a lot about IT, but I’m graduating. We’d need somebody to take care of campus labs once I’m gone.

Taylor: We can find people to take care of it. If we’re spending $40k on this every year, we can find somebody to maintain it.

9:33 Morabito moves to adjourn, seconded by Taylor. The motion passes (8-0-1).