Attendance: Coates, Holden, Jones, Cordisco, Zaman, Holzman, Troiano, Juhr, Segal, Roy, Knight
VICE PRESIDENT
Holden- Good job on Saturday. What did everybody think of the retreat? I will be getting a thank you card down the hall and pass it around the meeting as a sign of gratitude. Scholarship committee is going to meet and put ads in the Cigar of the details. As a tentative date right now, the due date is going to be Fri 10/21.
Zaman- Deciding what?
Holden- Deciding at general senate meeting when we are going to have our first committee meeting. As far as Academic Affairs goes, Chris called the ProJo to apply credit to our account. Papers start on Wednesday. Called the library staff and USA Today to fix library box. Working on Cigar paper placement. Went to Faculty Senate last Thursday. Working on gen. ed improvements. We need to make sure we have representation at meetings. Chairman Caisse drafted a resolution for Opportunity RI. Criticisms and suggestions greatly appreciated. Advising Standing committee drafting first report which will be going to provost. Balentine Hall 10am-12pm. Chris Knight or I will be in attendance. He has not met with his committee yet, so direct all questions to me. Chairman Caisse said he wants to appoint Gabe as his vice-chair.
SECRETARY
Jones- Not too much for tonight. Went to the Faculty Senate meeting, as Caisse mentioned in his report. Not too much to add to it. They will be having a meeting at the U-Club open to students and faculty regarding the general education plan and revisions that Chairman Caisse had mentioned in his report. I have the flyer in my mailbox if you are interested. Sometime in October. Other than that, I can delegate liaison positions if you are really trying to get representatives to go to meetings. Committees, keep sending your reports. Give me ideas for Kudos this week if you have any.
DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS
Cordisco- In terms of the newsletter, I need contacts.
Coates- The first thing we can do is send it to the student org list-serv.
Roy- Send it to me and I can forward it.
Cordisco- I can send that tonight.
Roy- Ok.
Cordisco- I would mention that it is a PDF; some people cannot open PDF’s.
Roy- Ok.
Cordisco- What’s the status on the ZBT incident?
Coates- I was on the news on Friday night. South County Independent called me today. They were asking about the same thing. ZBT is not in trouble. They really did not do anything wrong. The people that were arrested- some were not members of the University. Keep reinforcing that all University protocols were followed by the fraternity and it was an unfortunate incident.
Segal- What about the charges being pressed?
Coates- There are no charges being pressed. I was thinking in the long-run, once elections are over, we can have booths to promote Senate and offer up information and see if students want to sign up for our mailing list. We can try and send out the newsletter to those students who request information.
Holden- You can put the link on our facebook page as well as our Twitter.
CHIEF INFORMATION OFFICER
Zaman- I talked to a programmer over the weekend about making the minutes searchable. I can contact Kim about making those changes on the Senate website, maybe in a week or so. Keep looking out for that.
Coates- Questions? When you are doing that, establish coding as well.
EXTERNAL
Troiano- Working on Commuter Appreciation Week. Have all the things we are going to get. We are getting this thing called the Boulder Dash- a giant moon bounce type thing. Extreme Combo-rockwall, a bungee, Laser Tag, the Adrenaline Extreme obstacle course. Hopefully we can get the Quad for it. If not, do it outside the Union. One of those days will be the Commuter Housing Fair. We can set up commuter information and we’re going to try and get the off-campus handbook for distribution at every event. Maybe get a DJ, probably get some food, fish and bowls, and lots of other fun stuff to be determined. 11am-2pm Monday-Friday, the week of October 24th.
Coates- DOC assist with marketing?
Troiano- I need advertisement, so I was wondering if I can come to you that. SEC is putting something on this week, so I am going to try and get involved with them for advertisement.
Coates- That is the week that leads into Homecoming.
Troianio- If not, would you be able to make some sort of flyer for mass distribution?
Coates- For the day of event, it would be cool to get a big corrugated poster with our logo to put out at the events.
Troiano- The company I am working for has some cool promotional ideas.
Coates- Questions? I am sure if some of you heard that tomorrow night there will be a closed session of Narragansett Town Council meeting regarding Grady Miller. I really do not know why they are firing him, but at least two of the council members would not vote to fire him based on comments they made in the press and to me. It is a five-member panel, so the other three I do not know anything about might make the decision. We will find out tomorrow night. We are going to have something to say about that as well. Any other questions?
Troiano- That’s all I have.
CAMPUS AFFAIRS
Troiano- Lauren Perry, from HigherOne. Met with HigherOne, Blue Lights-bill on floor, ice cream machine broken in Butterfield.
Coates- HigherOne has a Student Activities Fund, offered to pay for activities on campus on condition that they are open to all students on campus.
Knight- Typically, they like to pay for things regarding to finances- financial planning, managing budgets, etc.
Coates- We can pass that along to some “A” Category groups. Blue Lights thing I am guessing is the Safety and Lighting Walk. The bill about the recreation fee was not raised today at the SBPC. We can table that bill until we have the results from the survey.
TREASURER
Segal- Getting new chairs for the office. Kim got some quotes. The best one is the one from Staples, but only on sale until the 1st. W.B. Mason matched one of those prices. $99.00 each and we are getting eight chairs, so that is about $800. Stipends go out tomorrow after 2pm. Also, for Elections Committee, we have people in every position except for the College of Nursing. Elections are on Wednesday and Thursday. Nobody is signed up for the booth, so please sign up to run Elections. If you can do more than one, that would be really helpful since there is not enough people for every hour.
Segal- Accounts office. After 2pm.
Zaman- I have direct deposit set up on my e-campus, does it work for that?
Segal- No.
Coates- If you want convenience, you can always cash it down to the bank. Questions?
SOARC
Roy- Been going through orgs and their category and seeing where they would be better fitted. I moved a few and discussed them with my committee today. Have not come to a final decision, and I will bring to Executive Committee afterwards. Working on making categories a bit more clear. Also, re-recognition is Monday night. I am looking forward to it. Writeable PDF’s are done, which is awesome. That’s it.
Coates- Questions?
Troiano- If a student org applies before the winter, will they still get a budget for the spring?
Holzman- Not governed by the Finance handbook, but they can apply for a general contingency grant and we can give them half of the FBP.
Troiano- What is the absolute deadline for a budget within the academic year?
Holzman- Basically, the later they come, the smaller it’s going to get. I am not going to give anybody a contingency grant after Spring Break. If they come closer to Thanksgiving, we may be able to grant them closer to ¾ of contingency. My committee can decide.
Roy- Are you talking about a new group that wants to get recognized? Tell them to see me. I can put them in my “Interested in Recognition” folder.
PRESIDENT
Coates- The University announced today that we have a new foundation president. The foundation is the fundraising wing that is attached to the University. That is where we fund our alumni donations so that they become tax deductible. Michael Smith from Kansas State University. Has been apart of 3 major capital campaigns, so this is a major boost to our endowment and someone who should be successful in raising money. The FY ’13 budget does not look good. State appropriations are going to drop from $72 million to $58 million next year. Tentatively, depending on what the final appropriation is, we are going to look at around $12,000 in-state tuition. Right now, the total enrollment of the University is roughly 14,600 students, 59% in-state and 41% out-of-state students. Not much we can do about tuition at this point other than campaign for more money from the governor. I will be drafting a letter for the Chairman of the Board of Governors, telling them what a mistake they are making by cutting us back this much. I understood the state is in some murky waters financially. If you look on the Return on Investment we generate for the state, we should be putting money in rather than taking it out. I wish I had better news than that. That is approximately 3% out-of-state tuition raise and 9% in-state raise. The budget has been submitted to the board and has been moving along. Several unfunded mandates which have not been disclosed to SBPC, but the state is requiring us to do more things and giving us less money. They are going to move forward for the 2012 election to have the RIC-URI joint Nursing facility on the ballot. I have been told they are shifting plans to encouraging a private developer to construct the facility and leasing. The University is establishing a shared inventory exchange, so that they stop redundant purchases of equipment and supplies, which we already have, should result in some type of cost savings. I have a list of capital project priorities: renovation of historical buildings around the Quad, expect those renovations to last 50-75 years. They also have to make changes to Ranger Hall, where the Harrington School is going to be located. I was not aware they chose a location for that. Also, after the renovation of those buildings, a new engineering complex or an upgrade to the existing engineering complex. Burning down and rebuilding the Fine Arts building. The last one on the list is the GSO Bay Campus. Have not had a major construction project in years. Ballot campaign 2012 will happen. 2014-2016 will be on Pharmacy campaign. Also, I am in the rudimentary stages about making a proposal that I will come to you guys with next week about creating another position on Senate. I do not anticipate it being someone with voting power, either in Exec. or on the general floor. Have not formalized the proposal but I will have my salesman pants next week when I show up.
Jones- How much is the in-state tuition raise for next year?
Coates- $12,450 roughly. Only a projection.
Zaman- How much is the out-of state tuition raise?
Coates- $28,016. Do not want to announce them at the meeting. These are not actual amounts, they are just projections. It will not be higher than that and could come in lower.
FINANCE
Holzman- Committee approved $11k contingency for Surf Club’s Extreme Events Caravan. IFC, Outing Club passes, SSDP going to Nationals. Our committee wants to bring handbook approval back to committee. We might as well take a serious look at rewriting handbook, which I am on board with. We will be completing it in time for November President’s meeting. We were also talking about Crew. Going to be talking to them some more about that. Tax-grant for Inventory employee. I am thinking about $400-$600 in the 50-75 hour range. They would be capped at $8 an hour. The last thing we need to talk about is funding for Category A’s.
Coates- If you are tabling the handbook, talk about that more in committee. We need to look at it two ways- I don’t have problem with FBP. Will they be eligible for contingency?
Holzman- Yes. I really do not think there is harm in giving organizations that are getting departmental support around $160 a year. I think it’s reasonable for a group to say that we are a student org just like every other student org.
Knight- If you don’t want them to get an FBP because they receiving funding, you can put something into it for a subclass.
Roy- Category A’s that do not get funding from the University like to be recognized at Category “R”.
Holzman- Contingency becomes a slippery slope for them to get money for things that may or may not be appropriate.
Coates- For anyone that is not aware, we had academic groups that were basically used to funnel money to departments that were being used to purchase equipment.
Holzman- Turf-grass Department tried to embezzle money from Turf-Grass Club.
Coates- The benefit being that they are on our insurance, able to book space, etc. I think as far as contingency, we have also made a commitment that there are certain things that should be inherent in the cost of your tuition that are academic-related programs, events, activities that should be provided by the University as part of what you are paying already. That is why I would not be okay with contingency. I think FBP is fair concession to make.
Holzman- I was debating giving them access to Program Contingency, but then we would always be fighting about whether the program they are trying to put on is appealing to enough of the campus population for it to be using student activities tax.
Coates- I do not think that you can say our policy has been a failure. Our goal was to ensure that the University is paying for the things they should be paying for. We have a longer way to go.
Roy- Now this contradicts the category “A” problem when a group says that our academic college won’t give us funding and we should switch to an “R.”
Coates- Questions?
Holzman- I really like the idea of giving “A’s” an FBP. For ones who don’t get funding, they will have access to recruitment and funding.
Coates- Assuming this passes through committee, I want a letter to the editor prepared to go out. It is something that will be well-received by a lot of people. I really want to make sure people catch wind of this when it happens. Other questions?
Knight- For the CIO, since we are going to be essentially working on the handbook, I was thinking we could develop a standard operating procedure or format for any publications coming out of Senate should have the same font, typeface?
Coates- Sounds like a good idea.
Zaman- You want a format for all documents coming out of Senate?
Holden- May I ask what the vote was for the Surf Club?
Holzman- (4-1-0).
Adjourned 7:43pm