EMU SGA

I. Call to Order Ben (9:05)

II. Roll Call/Prayer Amin prayed

Present: Michael Spory, Benjamin Bergey, Sarah Beck, Janelle Freed, Will Morris, Darian Harnish, Peyton Erb, Katie Landis, Matt Dean, Todd Hooley, Hannah Wenger, Nels Akerson, Heidi Bauman, James Souder, Gabriel Brunk, Amin Laboriel, Dan Sigmans, Vi Dutcher

Absent: Mariah Elliott, Amy Springer, Ken L. Nafziger

III. Approval of Minutes

Motion 201010-1 to approve the minutes: Janelle

Second: Hannah

Motion passed unanimously

IV. Announcements

a. Pep band meeting, Thurs 9pm- The meeting will take place in UC 124 for anyone interested in the start-up of a pep band.

b. Birthday party, Sat 9pm- Amin shared that the first birthday party will be this Saturday, October 23 to celebrate September and October birthdays.  This will take place in the Campus Center main hall.

c. Kiernan Event, Nov 10- Michael shared that Kiernan, an author who speaks on alternate peace, is coming to speak in the area and there may be a possibility of getting him to come to EMU in addition to his original speaking location.  There are already people willing to pay for him to come to EMU so SGA will not have to worry about funding that.

V. Committee Reporting

a. SPC—Benjamin & Michael- Michael shared that today the SPC talked about points under enrollment; a fairly major shift in progress is our enrollment strategy.  At this point, our current undergraduate population is about 50% Mennonite and their goal is to reach out to more non-Mennonite students still affiliated with the church to reach EMU’s goal of 1,000 undergraduate students.  They are looking to decrease the student-faculty ratio by increasing the amount of students.

VI. Old Business

a. Fitness Center Tax- Ben shared that some EMU faculty opt-out of the fitness center use because as a benefit given by the university, they can be taxed on it.  Some other universities do not require this benefit to be taxed because it qualifies as a health benefit.  As part of our hospitality-mission to the greater EMU community, he believes the SGA should give our support to lift this tax.  A copy of a proposed memorandum to Student Life was passed around for senators to read and think about.  This memo basically states that we as an SGA encourage the lifting of the tax on the fitness center benefit to faculty members.  SGA will not be paying the tax for the faculty members; we are just supporting the idea of having a tax-free fitness center benefit for our faculty. There was general agreement that this statement helps show that the students care about the well-being of our faculty and we think it’s a good idea. We love our faculty!

Motion 201010-2 to approve this memorandum with a few grammatical changes: Gabe

Second: Peyton

Motion passed unanimously

b. Sub-committee check-in- Various sub-committees checked in with SGA. Peyton shared that Common Grounds is booked for November 16 from 9-10 p.m. for our faculty forum.  She also shared that there was no response from senators who could work this Saturday for the Pioneer catering but she still offered to help Bruce and is waiting to hear back from him.  Regarding the Student Lecture Series, Gabe shared that the main focus right now is on the Attachment conference coming up and they are in the process of discussing options for next year’s speakers.  Nels shared that he is e-mailing various people regarding the fundraising for the Science Center.  Heidi shared that the Hospitality committee is working on showing gratitude to members of the SGA.  There are going to be “clippies” in the SGA office where people can attach notes to each other and clip them under the clothespin with that senator’s name.  Send people notes—this is exciting!  Katie shared that Marketing is still available and willing to help with promotion; Peyton eagerly asked for help with the Faculty Forum. Yay for teamwork!  Ben shared that the tree house possibility on campus is still on the table and is being discussed with Eldon Kurtz and others who would make this decision ultimately. James brought up the discussion about adding more seating on the hill; Janelle shared that this was actually the class gift from last year’s class.

VII. Open Floor

-Janelle shared that an e-mail will be coming to the senators with the final results from the idea drive.

-Keep thinking about coming to executive meetings if you are interested in running in the future!

VIII. Adjournment

Motion 201010-3 to adjourn: Janelle

Second: Matt

Motion passed unanimously

Meeting adjourned (9:42)

I. Call to Order Michael (9:07)

II. Roll Call/Prayer Michael prayed

Present: Michael Spory, Benjamin Bergey, Sarah Beck, Janelle Freed, Will Morris, Darian Harnish, Peyton Erb, Katie Landis, Matt Dean, Todd Hooley, Hannah Wenger, Nels Akerson, Mariah Elliott, Heidi Bauman, James Souder, Dan Sigmans, Vi Dutcher, Ken L. Nafziger

Absent: Amin Laboriel, Gabe Brunk, Amy Springer

III. Approval of Minutes

Motion 13102010-1 to approve the minutes: Janelle

Second: Heidi

Motion approved unanimously

IV. Committee Reporting:

a. Cross Cultural—Will and Nels: Nels shared the committee shared about the current cross-culturals (the Spain cross-cultural is doing very well!) and how the QEP is working with the CC program and looking into how the program can be more sustainable.  They’re looking at how to buy out carbon footprints and discussed the Mennonite Travel Aide service.  Some cross-culturals use it and others don’t and they are going to look into whether or not we should use the same travel agent with each cross-cultural.

b.      Information Systems—Darian: Darian shared that they talked about the switch from Blackboard to Moodle, e-mail and whether to provide each student with an EMU domain web address or let students choose their own domain.  This would probably only be an option for graduate and seminary students.  They also talked about printing and looking into providing more printing stations around campus.  They won’t implement this until they have a more accurate way of taking account of who is printing what.  Next semester, they will look at which students have been printing what to see if there are groups of students who print off more than others and how many sheets are used per student.

V. Old Business

a. Idea Drive Responses—Janelle: Janelle shared most of the ideas given at the Idea Drive, which ranged from playing the National Anthem to an outside sitting area for the cafeteria.  She will send an e-mail to all the senators with places that she is going to pass on the suggestions to (Campus Ministries, Library, etc.) and anyone super passionate about an idea or two can e-mail her back and work to see what we can do about these ideas.

b. Committee switch—Katie: Katie is on the Safety Committee and is unable to attend their meetings on Thursday mornings.  Senators will go home and check their schedules to see if they can switch with her.

VI. New Business

a.       Commuter/Transfer Students Space: Mitch Stutzman, Lindsey Lehman, and Boris Ozuna came in to share about how they have heard from many transfer and commuter students about needing a space on campus.  Mitch shared that many students have told him they need a physical space on campus to feel comfortable and like part of the EMU community.  Lindsey shared that she is a commuter student who has found it a bit challenging to get to know others on campus due to a lack of space.  When there is a large gap of space between classes and there is nowhere to go, she feels left out of campus life.  There is also no place for students to keep lunches if they bring them from home in the morning.  Having a space would be a great way to get to know other commuter students as well.  Boris shared that sometimes he just has to go to his house because he has nowhere on campus and then he’s isolated from the EMU community.  Mitch shared that one potential they thought of is enhancing the lounge area outside of Strite Auditorium in the Campus Center.  There is already a small kitchenette area for students to store food and there is a lot of space that could be made more comfortable for these students.  There is also more traffic there by the EMU community to interact with the commuters.  The current “commuter” lounge is on the other side of the post office but it only has a few small tables and vending machines.  In other words, it’s boring and uncomfortable.

Motion 13102010-2 to support the commuter lounge idea: Nels

Second: Matt

Motion passed

b. Funding Request—MRI: Jessica Sarriot brought a funding request from Students for Morally Responsible Investment in Israel and Palestine (MRI).  They are requesting $300 for buying, shipping, and selling fifty keffiyehs from a women’s co-op in Hebron.  The keffiyehs will be purchased by EMU students so a lot of this money will come back.  This demonstrates positive investment in Israel/Palestine and is a good demonstration on campus.  This also gives students the opportunity to purchase something from Hebron and show their support to these women; it will also enable EMU to have a more significant solidarity movement in the future (where women wear them around campus, as was done by some during Spirit Week). After Jess left, there was a concern with some students on how much money MRI has already requested this year.  There was another concern with them making the money back and using it properly.  There would need to be a good way to keep track of the money they make back on these keffiyehs.  There was also a concern with using student activities fees to fund an opportunity for students to buy money.  The “pay-money-for-students-to-buy-stuff” does not quite sit well with some.  There was a suggestion that they may be able to find another way to fund this without coming to SGA.  Senators suggested that it does not seem right to make a profit, but a loan (where the $300 comes back to SGA) sounds more in line with what we want to do as an SGA.

Motion 13102010-3 to approve a loan of $300 with the understanding that SGA will get the full $300 back by the end of the fiscal year.  There is also an understanding that a business account will be put in place for MRI to collect any additional profits made for future MRI endeavors: Janelle

Second: Will

Motion passed (11-0-3)

VII. Open Floor

-Thanks to all who helped with Spirit Week!

-Peyton shared that there is another catering opportunity on October 23 from 3-8 if SGA would like to fundraise for this. She will send an e-mail for senators to sign up.

-Ben shared that there has been interest in a pep band, which Dave King is fully in support of.  Michael Swartzendruber will be heading this up and there will be a meeting next Thursday for all who are interested.  This will be advertised through an all-student e-mail.

VIII. Adjournment

Motion 13102010-4 to adjourn: Darian

Second: Hannah

Motion approved

Meeting adjourned (10:37)

smb 10/13/10

I. Call to Order Ben (9:04)

II. Roll Call/Prayer

Present: Michael Spory, Benjamin Bergey, Sarah Beck, Janelle Freed, Will Morris, Darian Harnish, Peyton Erb, Katie Landis, Matt Dean, Todd Hooley, Hannah Wenger, Nels Akerson, Mariah Elliott, Dan Sigmans, Amin Laboriel, James Souder, Vi Dutcher, Amy Springer, Ken L. Nafziger

Absent: Heidi Bauman, Gabe Brunk

III. Approval of Minutes

Motion 06102010-1 to approve the minutes: Janelle

Second: Will

Motion approved unanimously

IV. Announcements

a. Office hours- Michael shared that the office hours are posted now so anyone forgetting what time they signed up for can now check.  Feel free to bring in anything decorative you find to spruce up the office!  Also, in an unrelated note, we have our SGA t-shirts and they look pretty sweet. Yay! In yet another unrelated note, Ben asked for the number of senators who will be gone next semester for cross-cultural and there are five going. You will be missed.

b. Senators coming to Exec meetings- Michael shared that the current Exec is composed entirely of seniors so we would like to extend an invitation to anyone who might be interested in running for exec next year.  This way, you can get a feel for how the exec works and know whether or not it’s something you’d want to consider!

c. Spirit week check in- Ben shared that while our participation might not seem super high, we are getting higher numbers than last year so Spirit Week seems to be going well.  Perhaps next year we should consider weather-related activities and alternatives for when the weather is not good…

V. Committee Reporting:

a. USO—Benjamin, Michael- Michael shared that the USO is trying to start club binders for use each year so there is more continuity between years.  They also talked about how clubs can get funding from the USO.

b. UGC—Janelle- Janelle shared that the Undergraduate Council talked about a new student leadership class in the WCSC program and restructuring the undergraduate department to make EMU more uniform. They also talked about bridging the gap between departments, since some depts. are isolated from others (i.e. the music dept.)

c. Writing Committee—Peyton- Peyton shared that one topic discussed was online tutoring, where a student would send a paper to a “tutor” who would edit the paper and send it back with feedback.  In addition, they talked about an online calendar so students can see when a writing tutor would be available and schedule online without having to walk to the third floor office just to schedule an appointment. They also talked about “Turn It In” which is a plagiarism-detection device where teachers could put in papers to check for plagiarism. They are looking for feedback on how students might respond to this.  Most senators seemed like this would be a good way for students to check to make sure they aren’t plagiarizing another’s work before turning in their work.

d. Bookstore Committee- Sarah- Sarah shared that the bookstore committee met Tuesday and mostly talked about the new Textbook Rental program.  They sold almost $20,000 in rentable text at a savings of almost $24,000 to students.  Whoohoo! The committee also talked about professors getting adoptions (book requests for next semester) in by October 15 so there is time for the books to get in before students need them.

e. IRB- Hannah- Hannah shared that the IRB committee went over seven proposals for research.  They critiqued the proposals and offered suggestions for the researchers to include in their proposals.  They also talked about submitting the proposals online in a way that the proposal will get sent to their professor FIRST and the IRB after the professor.  They’re open to suggestions from any of us on how this could be done.

VI. Old Business

a. Sub-committee budgets- Will shared that each club has a summary sheet in a spreadsheet so he will add everyone to the access list so we can all see this.  They shared the approved budgets as well.  Make sure you send Will any receipts from items purchased so he can update the spreadsheet.

VII. New Business

a. Monthly e-mail- Ben shared that President Loren sends out update e-mails to the EMU community and someone suggested in the USO meeting that SGA should do the same.  SGA could send a monthly e-mail telling students what we are doing and could also include what other clubs are doing.  This way, the student population would be more informed about SGA’s doings (just in case there is anyone out there not reading these minutes).  Senators shared that this might also be a good way to get ideas from other students on what SGA could do.  Janelle shared that we could also include what we have for snacks in case anyone’s wondering.  Darian suggested that an alternative could be to see if the WeatherVane would want to cover our meetings and add a tid-bit in their paper about what we’re doing.

b. SFI Club approval- A group of students is requesting approval of the Sustainable Food Initiative (SFI), a club that will advocate for and live into a new food system that is more sustainable.  They would like to create a more sustainable food system at EMU by caring for the campus garden to provide local food to the caf, promote local eating through monthly local meals, and develop a way to use the caf leftovers. We have been sent their constitution to approve.  A few questions were raised about small items in the constitution such as affiliation of the club with Earthkeepers, what would happen over the summer, and small grammatical errors.  There was also a little confusion with Article V dealing with elections; a little clarification might be needed there. There was also some clarification needed in the article on amendments.  Ben made note of all the changes we would like to suggest to SFI in order for them to be approved as a club.

Motion 06102010-2 to approve the SFI club constitution with noted changes: Will

Second: Nels

Motion approved unanimously

VIII. Open Floor

-Janelle asked for every senator wearing a t-shirt for the Idea Drive to e-mail her the ideas that were written on the shirt.  Feel free to keep your shirt. On that note, we gave a round of applause to Janelle and Mariah for all the work they put into the Idea Drive.  We should have a compilation of the ideas by next week.

-Reminder for the s’mores on the hill at 7:00 tomorrow!

-Reminder to make your status something about Royal Pride Day on Friday.

-Good work jammin’ on the plaza!

-Ben shared that the first birthday celebration will be October 23 at 9:00 with pin the tail on the donkey, etc. in the Campus Center before the Campus movie.  This is to celebrate September, October birthdays but all are welcome!

IX. Adjournment

Motion 06102010-3 to adjourn: Matt

Second: Janelle

Motion approved unanimously

Meeting adjourned (9:56)

smb 10/06/10

I. Call to Order Michael (9:04)

II. Roll Call/Prayer Sarah prayed

Present: Michael Spory, Benjamin Bergey, Janelle Freed, Sarah Beck, Will Morris, James Souder, Dan Sigmans, Darian Harnish, Peyton Erb, Hannah Wenger, Matt Dean, Gabe Brunk, Katie Landis, Mariah Elliott, Nels Akerson, Heidi Bauman, Amin Laboriel, Vi Dutcher, Amy Springer, Ken L. Nafziger

Absent: Todd Hooley

III. Minutes

Motion 290910-1 to approve the minutes: Gabe

Second: James

Motion passed unanimously

IV. Announcements

a. Idea Drive T-shirts: Janelle passed out white t-shirts for the students who signed up to wear them for the Idea Drive.  The senators will wear these shirts tomorrow and will need to carry around a permanent marker for students to write their ideas on the shirts. Encourage people to be creative!

b. The Office – hours begin next week: Ben shared that the key will be in the lock

box on the left of the door frame.  He told us the combination for the lock box . . . which we can’t tell you.  Office hours will begin next week so make sure to be present in the office during the time you signed up for! The sign-up sheet will be posted on the door.

V. Old Business

a. Spirit Week Friday Announcement: The SGA will be making a short

announcement during Friday Announcements after Chapel which we need 5 senators to help act out all the activities that will happen during Spirit Week. Hannah, Gabe, Amin, James, and Sarah all volunteered to help out. YAY SPIRIT!

b. Spirit Week Ideas – Marketing Team: Katie shared that marketing is doing a poster for the week to post around campus. There is also going to be a “Facebook Status Friday” where all the senators change their status to something about wearing Royal Pride on Friday, October 8.  This Friday they will make signs for people to wear on their back talking about the upcoming Spirit Week.  They will need help from senators on Monday morning to write on the boards in classrooms about Spirit Week and the events happening. Good work marketing committee; this work is awesome! We also discussed a few details for Spirit Week such as logistics for the water balloon fight (hoses, helps, etc.), roasting sticks for the campfire, people to man the “Jam” session, etc. Amin suggested that Marvin Lorenzana may be a good person to ask if we need extra helpers for anything.

c. $1 Lunches—update and idea: Peyton shared that she met with Bruce about adding $1 lunches on Thursdays to be supportive of those who do not have meal plans. The last time they had the $1 lunch, they had 87 participants, which adds up to over $250.  A problem with Thursdays is that it is one of the biggest days and there are many graduate and seminary students who also come and reap the benefits of this lunch which ups the cost greatly.  Bruce suggested changing the day to Fridays because the caf is not as busy and it allows nursing students to be there more frequently.  She also shared that a way SGA can earn money for this is by working for the caf over Homecoming Weekend where we can earn a lot of money for SGA.  If we switch days to Friday, Peyton believes it would be more convenient to wait until next semester; this also makes more sense because it gives us more of an opportunity to look at the budget and see how much we can afford to subsidize for this.  Regarding working for the caf, senators seemed interested but Homecoming weekend was not very convenient due to the business of everyone’s schedules around that time. There may be future times that are more convenient for SGA to help out with this.

VI. New Business

a. Committee Budgets – Ben and Will: Will shared that for budgeting purposes, we need to know approximately what committees are expected to spend this year so that the sub-committees don’t have to bring every request before the whole senate.  We went down the list of committees to get an idea of what each one was expecting to need to spend.

VII. Open Floor

-Amin shared that he met with CAC who is excited to work with SGA for our “birthday party” ideas.  The first party will be at the end of October and will include birthdays in September and October.  Summer birthdays will have a party right before everyone leaves for the summer.

-Mariah passed around a card to send to IS this week.

-Amin suggested that the shirts worn for the Idea Drive may not be legible so we should make sure that what everyone writes is neat enough to read later!

-Janelle asked that everyone who was going to help with chapel to meet with each other and talk about what they wanted to do.

VIII. Adjournment

Motion 290910-2 to adjourn: Peyton

Second: Darian

Motion passed unanimously

Meeting adjourned (9:53)

smb 09/29/10

Next Meeting: Wed. October 6 at 9 p.m. in UC 211/212