EMU SGA

Eastern Mennonite University

 

Student Government Association

 

Senate Agenda

 

28th of March 2012

 

A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.

 

-Dwight D. Eisenhower

 

 

 

1. Call to Order
2. Roll Call/Prayer
3. Approval of Minutes
4. Announcements
5. Committee Reporting

 

i.     Faculty Coffeehouse 8 pm Monday April 16^th

 

1. Bruce Emmerson, Luke Hartman, Chad and Cathy Smeltzer-Erb will be part of the panel.  Cyndi Gusler may join too. Brandon needs some help thinking of questions, making sure that note cards/pens are out and ready. Alli volunteered to be there to help.
2. First Annual Faculty Appreciation Day/Week Planning

 

                                              i.     Tentative date/s: April 16th-20

 

                                            ii.     Don’t want it to be ‘suck up to teachers day’; Very dependent on faculty to make this institution – and pay is below regular

 

                                          iii.     Maybe mon-tues or later in the week too; Tuesday: tables for each department, giant poster cards to keep things general, not specific

 

                                            iv.     Ideas for themes:

 

1. 1.    Sit-with-a-professor day in the caf
2. 2.    Bringing flowers or something to a class – getting classes to participate as a group. Hard to coordinate which person from a class does that.
3. 3.    Dress up like your faculty day
4. 4.    Have a parade
5. Strategic Planning Council- Erika
   1.                                               i.     The first portion covered how to compare EMU to peer groups with their faculty to student ratio/what EMU’s target will be moving forward. Clear decision was not made. Right now the ration is about 10 to 1. The other half went over the fundraising they do.
   2. Old Business

 

i.     Executive Elections

 

1. 1.     Petitions were due yesterday at midnight. There are two people running for the president role (James and Nels as well as Erika, Becca and Hannah). Jacob is running for vice-president and Julia Schmidt, Zach Zook and Molly Kraybill were nominated for secretary, treasurer and VP of Marketing, respectively. Taylor said that it would be good if there were at least two people running for each exec position so that the student body cares more. Rebecca said that that isn’t really fair to the nominees because they may not win after we tapped them on the shoulder. The general consensus was that we just leave it as is and just have one person run in each position.

 

ii.     (EMSWA Constitution)

 

1. New Business

 

i.     Preliminary Budget

 

1. The budget allocations were passed around and senators shared comments and questions. Erika explained that with budget allocations there are several things we don’t fund in the yearly allocation (it must be a separate funding request): meals, operational equipment/one time costs, stipends, trip expenses. Rebecca explained that the Shen allocation will go up $300 because of the permanent faculty member next year. Carissa asked why we gave Earthkeepers more than they asked for—they just rounded up $40 (they requested $960 and we gave them $1000). Erika explained that as this is the preliminary budget we will look over it, make changes and pass it. Then the clubs will be notified of our decisions and will have a week and a half to petition if they do not like the allocation. After that it will be finalized. Elias and several other senators said they are pleased with the budget—they can tell a lot of careful thought went into it. Erika asked if people were OK with the amount allocated to Peace Fellowship (they asked for $1000 and are being given $300) and most senators said yes, they felt it was a valid amount. Senators discussed the ISO allocation—Hannah felt that they should come to SGA for a funding request for their big events instead of having it as part of their yearly budget. Jacob asked about CAC’s budget—he asked why there is such an increase in their allocation ($26,000 to $35,000). Ken explained that the senators a couple years ago voted to increase student fees so that bigger concerts could be funded at EMU (such as Joshua Radin). CAC kept the high allocation after the Joshua Radin concert and tried bringing in a number of smaller artists/acts to see if students were interested. Tyler asked if the smaller acts were comparable to the Joshua Radin concert. Hannah and Erika are not sure, but have info from CAC that has the attendance numbers that they can send out. Erika said that CAC could have done a better job this year at polling students to find out where interests lay since some acts were popular, but others were not. Brandon said that he talked to the head of CAC at one point and he said that movies bring in the most money, and he wondered if that earned money goes back to their budget. Erika said yes. Brandon moved to approve the preliminary budget for the 2012-2013 school year. Jacob seconded the motion. Motion passed unanimously.

 

ii.     Funding Request- Michael Bodner

 

1. 1.     Some students at EMU have written a musical, which has never been done before. There are currently 37 students involved. A couple weeks ago they decided they wanted to charge admittance and give all of the proceeds to RISE, an organization in the area. Since it is a charity event, they are trying to do lots of advertising so that lots of people attend (they are shooting for 200). They money they are requesting from SGA would go towards advertising and a small portion of it would go towards costumes and such. They are not getting any funding from the theater dept or anywhere else—this is entirely student run. The show is opening on the 13^th of April and there will be 3 shows.

2.     The senate discussed the funding request. Becca said that it seemed like a good project and the amount they were requesting was low compared to other funding requests so she supports it. Brandon said that a lot of work is going into this project/there is a lot of talent being showcased—he supports it too. Becca and Brandon both think they should give more than $100. Katie said she was concerned about giving money to something that would directly fund an outside organization. She is not sure if that is in line what what SGA normally does. Erika said that she views it as supporting a group of students and the activity they are doing. She said there is a difference between a direct giveaway and an amount that is allocated for students to advertise, etc. for an event. Hannah asked if Katie would feel better if we asked them to have a suggested donation of $2 for admission, rather than requiring a $2 charge. James said that most of the money that we would allocate would go to the directors so they do not have to pay out of pocket. Taylor asked if SGA’s name would be on the posters if we allocate this money. Sam, who is helping to write the show, said yes. Taylor asked if it is precedent to raise the amount we give to a funding request, and Ken said yes. Sam said that he thinks the cast would be open to having a suggested donation at the door, instead of a required amount. Several senators said they liked that many students are involved. Ken suggested asking for an expense report to hold them accountable for the money they are allocated. Jacob made a motion to allocate a budget of $200 with a stipulation that all expenditures be recorded. Andrew seconded the motion. We will also unofficially suggest that Sam talk to them about the possibility of suggested donation of $2. Motion passed. 

1. Open Floor
   1. Sam said that “Idea Ernest Youth” still needs people to be involved so talk to Michael Bodner or Sam if you are interested.
   2. Rebecca explained the surplus at the bottom of the budget sheet. There are about $12,960, which is about an 11% margin (typically a 10% margin is normal).
   3. Go to the Walk for Hope this Saturday.
   4. Vi reminded us about the Writing Conference this weekend. Students are free to go to seminars that have room if they aren’t signed up ahead of time.
   5. Adjournment James moved to adjourn the meeting. Taylor seconded.

 

 

Eastern Mennonite University

Student Government Association

Senate Agenda

21st of March 2012

A good head and a good heart are

always a formidable combination.

-Nelson Mandela

 

I.Call to Order

II.Roll Call/Prayer

III.Approval of Minutes lock down drill over the summer and next year with student body passed with changes

IV.Announcements

V.Committee Reporting

A. Elias- QEP

1. Talked about David Kline’s event—was pretty successful.

Jonathan Lance-Trissel talked about Creation Care Council- campus-

wide meeting. Talked about whether it was worth getting “star”

ranking (it’s a lot of paper work, but it would look really good for

us/good marketing tool). Freshmen and seniors are writing articles

on sustainability (both environmental and social)—apparently

students are not meeting the prompt/just focusing on environmental

sustainability. Talked about student/SGA feedback on the QEP—

seems like a lot of students feel like sustainability is being tacked on

unnaturally in classes/teachers feel tired of talking about it.

B. Carissa- Library Task Force

1. The library is trying to become more user friendly. Today Randy

Seitz from Blue Ridge Architecture came in/they discussed short-

term and long-term goals from previous meeting. Randy was helping

them to make sure their short-term goals lined up with their long-

term goals.

VI.Old Business

a.Sub Committee-Verbal Reporting

1. Some of the sub-committees need to add more to the report.

VII.New Business

b.Exec Elections

1. Exec elections have to be held before April 1^st, according to the

constitution, so an all student email was sent out encouraging

people to run. Hannah encouraged all senators to consider running.

Elections will be March 29^th.

c.EMSWA constitution- SGA reviewed the EMSWA (Eastern Mennonite Student Women’s Association) constitution and asked questions of Mila Litchfield, one of the leaders. Mila briefly talked about what EMSWA does. EMSWA was in existence before last year, but died out for a while/was revived last year. It is a very relationship-based group. Mila mentioned that she made the constitution purposefully ambiguous because she wanted future leaders to feel the flexibility to make changes without having to amend the constitution. Kari asked what kinds of events EMSWA may plan—Mila answered that up until now they haven’t done many events since they didn’t yet have funding (they weren’t an official club yet). She said that they may do another poetry slam next year (they did one last spring) and would like to explore bringing a female singer/songwriter to campus in the future. They would be events for both men and women. Taylor asked about the voting process since it doesn’t clarify how a vote will pass (i.e consensus, 2/3rds vote, etc). Mila said that they had talked about having a unanimous vote (and she will add that to the constitution). Ken said that in the membership section it says meetings are open “to all members of the community” and so he wondered if that meant just the EMU community or the wider Harrisonburg community. Mila said that the club wants to use the resources of the community, but generally the meetings will just be for members of the EMU community (though if a person from Harrisonburg would come to a meeting, they would be welcome). Ken suggested that they clarify what a “voting member” is (whether they want that to be open to just EMU people or the wider community). Jacob asked if there were EMU guidelines about having or not having a president of a club (i.e having or not having a hierarchical structure—EMSWA does not want to have a president. They want to just have a leadership committee.)—Ken said there must be a contact person, but there does not need to be a president. Erika asked if having “women only” events would affect funding from SGA. Ken said no. Carissa asked if the term “leadership committee” under the “officers” heading needed to be further clarified (if roles needed to be further clarified or the number of people in the leadership committee). Mila said that they wanted to leave the constitution open so that future leaders do not feel restrained. Ken suggested adding, “the leadership committee will consist of at least two people.”

VIII.Open Floor

A. If we want to bring in a speaker for next year under SLS, we need to

decide some people now so that we can work on contacting them now/over

the summer. Alli suggested bell hooks, Mila suggested Loretta Ross,

Taylor suggested Chris Haw.

IX.Adjournment James made a motion to adjourn the meeting. Laci seconded. Passed unanimously.

 

Eastern Mennonite University

Student Government Association

Senate Agenda

14th of March 2012

The best mirror is an old friend -George Herbert

1. Call to Order
   1. Roll Call/Prayer
   2. Approval of Minutes passed
   3. Announcements
   4. Committee Reporting
      1. Undergraduate Council- James

i.     Talked about the early graded experience, which will replace midterm reports for 1^st and 2^nd years. It will give students a heads up on their progress early on in the semester so they can make changes if necessary. They also decided that in classes over 50 students there will be a student to help the faculty member, as a work study position. A course called “Sociology of Health” will be added. They also provisionally passed the updated honors curriculum, which will allow students to enter the Honors Program after their first year if they have a 3.7 GPA or above.

1. Safety-Andrew

i.     They covered reporting of incidents—things are not being reported as much as they should. They also discussed 15 passenger vans—they are going to get rid of all of those vans and only use 12 passenger vans or small 14 passenger buses. Tornado warning drills will be a new addition.

1. Camus Ministries- Kari

i.     Screen Free Sabbath was discussed—they are not sure how many students did it because no one wrote about their experience. They discussed Spiritual Life Week and Shaun Groves—they are hoping that the discussions about it will continue and they may bring him back next fall. They reported that the Y-trips went well—they were all well attended. There is a mentoring opportunity being offered for students (between students and faculty), but only 2 students have signed up. Feedback from chapels—they want to do more department chapels next year. There is a new spiritual life survey that they will distribute to students—one question will be about possibly requiring 12-15 chapels/semester or making them worth a credit.

1. Intellectual Life Committee- Becca

i.     They want to have an entire book for the campus to read (not manadatory) that can be a point of discussion. Faculty may try to tie it into classes. One idea for a book is “The Gift”. They discussed potential speakers to bring in—they suggested bringing in Barbara Kingsolver and Malcolm Gladwell.

1. Old Business
   1. Sub-Committee Reports!

i.     These are due today! Turn them in if you have not.

1. New Business
   1. Eric Codding- Residence Life

i.     Eric introduced himself and explained how he began working in Student Life. He then gave some updates: Roselawn—for now some renovations are being done and the IEP is moving into the second floor. The top floor will remain to be residential. They are also hoping to make some improvements to Northlawn including new paint and magnetic door openers (which will create more community because people will be able to keep their doors open). One problem right now is that incoming students who get their deposits in early get first pick of housing, which often means the Mennonite kids live down in the Woods and others live in Northlawn. Senators took time to ask him questions:

1. James asked if there is more talk of on campus intentional community houses. Eric said there is a lot of talk about it, but right now nothing in being planned. One option is as the IEP moves to Roselawn, their house will be freed up. Eric addressed the tendency for many seniors to live off campus—he felt that one big reason why seniors move off campus is because there isn’t adequate housing for them on campus. He believes that having seniors living on campus and engaged in campus life is really essential to building community. If many upperclassmen are off campus, this will happen less. Right now Res Life is brainstorming about some creative ways to make on campus housing more attractive for seniors. He told us about “theme housing” at Taber College, where he previously worked. One idea is to have a “senior square” by the Mt. Clinton apartments—have the houses around the parking lot, as well as the Mt. Clinton apartments, be sr housing and put a garden or green space where the parking lot is.
2. Erika asked what other ideas are up and coming. Eric replied that other schools he’s worked at have mostly jr and sr CA’s, while at EMU it’s mostly sophomores. So he said that another potential idea would be to find a way to have more upperclassmen be CA’s, since there would be more of an age gap/they could be more of a mentor since they have more experience. Jacob commented that he’s noticed that there is more engagement/better interaction between sophomore CA’s and freshmen, more so than upperclassmen CA’s and freshmen.
3. Becca asked how decisions become finalized in Res Life. Eric said that there would probably be lots of opportunity for conversation about anything that may be finalized, before it goes to the President’s Cabinet.
4. Carissa asked what Eric thought some of the strengths of Res Life are: He said that the focus on community and engagement between staff and students.
5. Eric said that if anyone wants to give him further feedback he is always glad to sit down in his office or over lunch to talk more.
6. T-shirts

i.     T-shirts are here! Thanks to Katie for designing them and getting the design to the print shop!

1. Open Floor
   1. Carissa and Jacob attended the Leadership Conference that is happening in the fall. They discussed the logistics of who should be invited/ ideas were thrown out—they suggested opening it up to more students beyond the CA’s/MA’s, etc, especially encouraging freshmen to go. Right now they have asked Luke Hartman to be the keynote speaker. Next week they will be deciding which workshops to include—if anyone has ideas let them know. The date is tentatively set for Sept. 29^th, but that is the same day as the Internat’l Festival, so it may be a week earlier. Becca suggested having a conflict de-escalation workshop.
   2. James said he thought Eric’s idea about upperclassmen themed housing at Taber was neat, especially to create interaction between freshmen and seniors.
2. Adjournment Alli moved to adjourn, Becca seconded.

 

Eastern Mennonite University

Student Government Association

Senate Agenda

29th of February 2012

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.

-Ralph Waldo Emerson

i.Call to Order

ii.Roll Call/Prayer

iii.Approval of Minutes passed unanimously

iv.Announcements

v.Committee Reporting

i.Blene & Ruhama- Enrollment

A. They spoke to Dorca Ressler in Res Life and asked some questions specifically pertaining to enrollment with international students. Dorca is focusing on recruiting international students, but EMU doesn’t have enough funding to have someone travel around and recruit students in different parts of the world, so they’re fairly limited. Marketing is also developing a new part of the website dedicated solely to international students—shows how welcoming EMU is. Dorca also talked about scholarships for internat’l students—there isn’t much money given out because of a lack of funding. She said they also want to connect with people outside of the church (which is how they get the majority of their internat’l students right now). They would like to work through international high schools to recruit more students from abroad.

ii.Justin & Elias- Website Enhancements

A. Elias met with the website manager—they talked about some goals for the SGA website: updates, forums for students to post opinions, add a tab for SGA on the EMU homepage. The manager will talk with IS about the forums (it is something new and may take longer). Justin now has access to the SGA website so he can make changes. He needs to get bios from the exec, but hopes that once he has everything he can have basic info and pictures for everyone in the SGA up on the SGA site.

vi.Old Business

i.Sexuality Coffeehouse- Tomorrow

A. The Sexuality coffeehouse is tomorrow, March 1^st at 9 p.m. The coffeehouse will be a “fishbowl” format. Senators made suggestions for questions to be asked, such as “What is the goal for the class?” and “What format should the class take?” Everyone in SGA should make an effort to come!

vii.New Business

i.Submit Written Report

A. Hannah and Erika would like every sub-committee to write up a summary of what they have accomplished and plans for the second half of the semester. This will also help the sub-committee to transition successfully from this semester to next fall if it continues after this year. (Just half a page)

ii.Mid-semester Email to All Students

A. Hannah and Erika plan to send out an update email to all students, telling what SGA has accomplished so far this semester and hopes for the rest of the semester. They are looking for feedbacks from senators about what should be included: sexuality coffeehouse, sponsoring the Writing Conference, conversations with Res Life (about the future), the encouragement corner is fully functional, potential talks about the changing location for our meetings/snack time. For the future: updates will be made to the website, conversations will continue with Res Life, hopefully EMU will be officially recognized as a “bike friendly university.”

viii.Open Floor

i. Erika said that we are thinking of starting a half hour “campus wide snack” prior to meetings outside of the President’s Room, so she is sending around a sign-up sheet for people to bring snack.

ii. Tyler went to the IS committee meeting and they were discussing their budget. They reported that Admissions is getting a big screen to list campus events/announcements (IS had been thinking about putting up similar screens all over campus) and IS is going to get more and put them up in other places on campus/install a management system. They will also be adding wireless and smart boards to some more classrooms.

ix.Adjournment Sam moved to adjourn the meeting. Alli seconded. Motion passed unanimously.