March 17 Minutes

I. Call to Order Michael (9:10)

II. Roll Call/Prayer Sarah prayed

Present: Michael Spory, Sarah Beck, Brent Beachy, Giles Eanes, Alli Eanes, Hans Weaver, Katie Landis, Brendon Derstine, Darian Harnish, Sara Derstine, Peyton Erb, Heidi Bauman, Gabe Brunk, Brandon Habron, James Souder, Amy Springer, Ken L. Nafziger

Absent: Karissa Sauder, Brook Mussleman, Vi Dutcher

III. Approval of Minutes

Motion 17032010-1 to approve the minutes: Katie

Second: Gabe

Motion approved unanimously

IV. Announcements

a. Writing Committee Report-Darian: Darian shared that the committee talked about a potential faculty writing retreat and holding writing workshops for transfer students or first-year students who aren’t taking college writing.  These workshops would inform these students of EMU’s writing policy and would most likely take place during orientation week or in Transitions.

b. Dinner Invitation at Loren’s house: Every year, Pat and Loren Swartzendruber host the SGA at their house as a thank you.  A sheet was sent around with two potential dates for senators to indicate which date will most likely work better for them.

c. Budget Requests going out: In the next few weeks, budget requests will be going out to all the student clubs.  The club leaders will submit their requests and Ken and the exec will meet and draw up a potential budget.  This will be approved by the senate and a preliminary budget will go out to the clubs.  Club leaders then have an option to appeal their budget allocations and the senate will then determine a final budget.  Be prepared to discuss this in future meetings!

d. SGA Exec elections: Elections will be starting up soon so think about running if you’re interested!

V. Old Business

-Nothing to report.

VI. New Business

a. Common Grounds Renovation Event: Michael shared that Mark Fenton asked if SGA has any ideas for how to help plan/sponsor/be a part of this event since SGA is now pretty heavily involved with Common Grounds due to the fact that we now help fund it.  The event will take place next September as a sort of kick-off of the newly-renovated Common Grounds, so this may be a task better suited for next year’s event.  There was general agreement that the senate didn’t want to commit to anything because if will affect next year’s senate more.

b. Housing Brainstorm: Michael shared that since we are having a slight housing crisis as far as space for students, it might be a good idea for SGA to brainstorm some potential options to suggest to Res Life.  Hans stated that he has heard a lot of students interested in replacing Martin House since it will no longer be an option after this year.  Martin House will be taken off line for one year and Student/Res Life will look into options: can it be renovated or does it need to be taken down?  Ken shared that EMU is looking to get more campus housing for intentional communities; the problem with this is that most houses are zoned so that no more than 3 unrelated people can live in one house at one time.  These zoning laws will only change if the entire neighborhood agrees to it, and many of the neighbors are unwilling to do this.  Another option is to have a classroom building which would include offices for those departments that currently are in houses and those houses could be renovated for students.  This can only happen after the Science Center is complete though, so it may be several years.  Sarah suggested that EMU could buy houses close by (since one is for sale across from Hillside!) for seniors to live in, but this may end up costing the students more.  Many students felt that if Roselawn was knocked down and intentional community houses built in their place; at this point no students want to live in Roselawn and houses would be a much more appealing option.  This wouldn’t significantly alter the amount of space for students though.

VII. Open Floor

-Hans shared that he met with Information Systems this week.  Next year IS is replacing ALL of the lab computers, meaning almost everyone gets an upgrade! Awesome!  They are also reconsidering the format for Webmail since there have been many complaints; however, this won’t happen until 2011-2012.  They also discussed the vast amount of papers being printed out; this is a problem because IS pays for all the ink.  They are discussing possible options, such as students paying for printing.  We’ll hear more of this in the future.

VIII. Adjournment

Motion 17032010-2 to adjourn: Hans

Second: Giles

Motion passed unanimously

Meeting adjourned (9:46)

smb 03/17/10