Call to Order: 5:00

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

Absent: Evers, Nelson

Business:

Wilding: Press release. Senate has seen a lot of bad press this semester, and I think we should respond so that the Student Body doesn’t lose faith in us.

Taylor: I don’t think this is the time to respond to bad press; that would have been when it came out. Further, that wasn’t bad press, it was informative, and I don’t think it was particularly bad. Bad implies that they are out to get us. Also, we’re invisible to most students, so it didn’t really cost us.

Howard: Perhaps we should be finding something good for them to write about instead. We’re doing better than we were at the start of the semester.

Straube proposes a correction to the release.

Gall: Why is this coming up right now?

Wilding: When I got the email about us not being a cohesive unit, it threw me for a loop. So far as I am aware, the people who do know that we exist are getting worried.

Morabito: I wasn’t fully aware about the impending article about lack of cohesion, but I’d like to echo Howard’s notion that we do good here.

Menard: Perhaps some of the bad press had to do with one of my statements, for which I apologize. I just got out of a payroll meeting, and we’re making serious progress. I’ll be submitting a report and possibly drafting a resolution regarding the student pay cap.

Taylor: I like the idea of boosting awareness of our projects, but this draft for a press release is just a bunch of hot air and won’t particularly help. This committee has the power to refer matters to committees, and we should be choosing priority projects and commanding action on them. A demonstration of our willingness to lead would be better than a statement of it.

St.Amand: This release was my idea, and we almost got sued for breaking the US Constitution. We need to respond. I think that it would show a great deal to apologize, and we need them to think that we’re working for them.

Menard: Not enough students know that we exist, and the people who do are either in Senate or don’t have the time to respond. We don’t communicate enough with students enough. None of them know what we do unless they come to us and try to find out. Perhaps we should try to live-stream or otherwise record our meetings. It might not be popular, but it’ll be informative. Minutes are boring as heck to read, and don’t really show what happened. We need the student body listserv to help get feedback.

Howard: We are more than capable of responding without writing a word. Also, we already wrote a press release saying almost exactly this a couple of months ago regarding FIRE. If we are continually promising to care about our constituents and then having to apologize for not doing so, why should they believe us now? At what point do we commit to doing what we say we will?

Taylor agrees.

Taylor moves to publish a press release, seconded by Gall.

Morabito: I want to know Wilding’s thoughts.

Wilding: I completely forgot that we did the FIRE release. An echo could be damaging among people who are paying attention. Let’s find a few good things and focus on those. It seems like all of our committees are doing good things, but all we hear about is failing.

Discussion devolves into one regarding FIRE, and is restored.

Gall: If this is going to be convincing, it needs to contain actual commitment and apologies for civic actions. It’ll get messy, so I’d rather not publish a letter at all.

St.Amand: Where was the last press release sent to?

Wilding: It was sent to the Cigar and various other student organizations.

Menard: What was the lack of cohesion thing about?

Howard: My guess is that it will depend on the content of the interviews, so stay hopeful.

Bagley: I have noticed issues with the Cigar’s Senate Reports. Remember that they are a resource, and they have a reporter in the room at all meetings who is not doing a particularly good job. They are not reporting our doings; they are reporting what sounds interesting. I think we should convince the Cigar to publish what we actually do, because if you just read the Senate report than it sounds like a dysfunctional pit of madness.

Morabito: I’ve seen a bunch of people in the corner; it’s not just one reporter. The report is getting smaller and pushed further back. It’s not a good sign.

The discussion continues to be off-topic, mostly concerning the usefulness of the Cigar.

Howard moves the previous question, seconded by Taylor. The motion passes (8-0-0).

Wilding puts the question of whether the Executive committee should publish a press release. The motion fails (0-8-0)

Taylor moves that the Executive Committee come up with a list of five priority projects to promote, under the advisement of the Presidents’ Agenda, to be developed over winter break and voted on at the second executive meeting in the spring semester. Seconded by Morabito.

St.Amand: Why can’t we do it on Wednesday?

Taylor: Because it’ll be good to have time over winter break.

Morabito: If we start the conversation at the next meeting, we’ll have all of winter break to perfect it.

St.Amand: As a feeler, can we get a short-list of sorts at the next meeting and then perfect it over winter break?

Menard: Whether of not the Cigar wants to publish, we can still take advantage of their advertising space.

The motion passes (8-0-0)

[5:34] Wilding moves to adjourn, seconded by Morabito. The motion passes (8-0-1)