Senate Agenda

18th of April 2012

“It ain’t over till it’s over”

- Yogi Berra

1. Call to Order
2. Roll Call/Prayer
3. Approval of Minutes- “Motion passed” was added to the end of the budget discussion. James moved to approve the revised minutes. Brandon seconded. Motion passed unanimously.
4. Announcements
   1. Collect Senate Binders- give to Hannah
   2. YPCA
      1. Brian Martin Burkholder presented the funding request. YPCA has a deficit of $5,000 (maybe $5,200—they are not sure yet). Last year they had a deficit of $2,000 and SGA voted to give them the money to balance the budget, but the business office was not notified—the money was not given to YPCA. YPCA did Y-trips this year that were closer to save money, but they still had to spend lots on trips. Also, students were originally supposed to pay $150 for Y-trips to help YPCA cover the cost, but in the end they only paid $110 (because that cost was not told up front), so YPCA ended up paying more than intended. Also, this year the spring service day did not happen for a number of reasons, so the money that normally comes in from that was lost. Brian is requesting that SGA give them $5,000 (or whatever the cost ends up being—it could be more than $5,000) to cover the deficit/balance the budget for next year. Brian was asked if they have a plan for next year to avoid having another deficit—he answered that the spring fundraiser will happen, also students will raise more money/pay more for Y-trips so that YPCA does not have to cover as much. Ken clarified that YPCA historically is great at raising money and does not usually have a deficit. Brian said that if SGA does not allocate enough to cover the deficit they would have to/be able to fundraise next year.
      2. Senators were hesitant to give them the full amount. It was suggested that they do a service day in the fall (to replace this year’s spring service day) to try and close the gap. Some senators suggested $3,500 (especially since the last SGA supposedly promised them $2,000). Andrew made a motion to approve giving YPCA $3,700. Blene seconded the motion. Motion passed unanimously.
5. Committee Reporting
   1. UG Council: James
      1. Talked about faith outcomes/development from each dept. Talked about having a unified EMU arts theology statement and dept. chapels this fall. Discussed possibly getting retention software to log attendance, behavioral reports, etc. all in one place.
   2. ISPC: Tyler
      1.  Talked about their strategic plan and a policy review. Notable changes in policy: personal wireless printers (they are not allowed on campus), IS will be in charge of all domain names on campus (so student clubs cannot have their own websites—should it be included in club handbooks?)
   3. QEP- Elias
      1. They discussed ways to get students to care more about sustainability.
   4. Campus Ministries: Kari, Blene
      1. Discussed YPCA funding, Augsberger Lecture Series (reviewing feedback), how to get undergrads to attend seminary chapels
6. Old Business
   1. Late Night Pancakes- be sure to wear SGA shirts and come on time
7. New Business
   1. Ultimate Frisbee Constitution
      1. They originally submitted their constitution in the fall and were asked to make some changes. The changes were made. Tyler moved to approve the Ultimate Frisbee constitution. Brandon seconded the motion. Motion passed unanimously.
   2. Reviewing Accomplishments
      1. Hannah and Erika will be sending out an all student email including SGA accomplishments from this semester: feedback for the sexuality course, faculty/staff appreciation day, adding funds to the student endowed scholarship fund, funds for the musical, passed constitutions, cosponsored the writing conference, moved to new spaces, changes to the constitution.
   3. Strategic Plan
   4. Student Endowed Scholarship
      1. This is a fund SGA started several years ago to help students who cannot afford to pay all of their tuition. SGA has not given funds to this endowment in a while and we have quite a bit of money sitting in our back account (about $15,000). The exec suggested giving around $5,000. Some senators suggested giving the full $5,000 and others were hesitant and felt more comfortable giving about $2,000 now/giving more later. Ken said that we could add more money through fundraising later if we choose. Senators liked the idea of doing more fundraising next year (and giving less now). James moved to allocate $3,000 to the Student Endowed Scholarship and set aside $2,000 for a potential fundraising event next year. Katie seconded the motion. Motion passed unanimously.
   5. Phoenix Funding Request
      1. This year the printing costs of the Phoenix has gone up so they are not able to print as many copies this year as they have in the past. They distribute it for free and want to print more for next year so they can hand them out to first years, the VACA dept., etc. to make it more visible. They are requesting $800 in order to cover the cost.
      2. It was clarified that next year we allocated them $1,200—also it is supported by the Lang & Lit Dept, but is a separate entity. Senators wondered if giving them $800 to print more was the best way to gain more publicity (perhaps they should explore other options?). They also paid more this year because they expanded the size of the Phoenix so perhaps they should print fewer copies to balance that out? Taylor suggested giving them $400. Carissa made a motion to allot the Phoenix $400 to cover their unexpected printing costs. Taylor seconded the motion. Motion passed.
8. Open Floor
   1. Carissa and Jacob have been attending meetings for the Student Leadership Conference. It will be the last Saturday of Sept. and will be free for all students.
   2. Jacob will pursue the Beehive Collective next fall as it is too last minute to try and get them to come this spring.
9. Adjournment Carissa made a motion to adjourn. Laci seconded the motion. Motion passed unanimously.

Student Government Association

Senate Agenda

4th of April 2012

“Because, after all, a person’s a person, no matter how small.”

-Dr. Seuss “Horton Hears a Who”

1. Call to Order
2. Roll Call/Prayer
3. Approval of Minutes passed with changes (Cyndi Gusler will be a maybe, Cathy is a definite)
4. Announcements
   1. Executive Elections
      1. New exec members for next year, Julia Schmidt and Zach Zook are here to observe. Molly Kraybill will join late.
   2. Budgeting Timeline
      1. Next week we will be hearing some petitions from people who want more than they were allocated for next year’s budget. After all of the petitions are presented, we will approve the final budget for next year.
5. Committee Reporting
6. Old Business
   1. EMSWA Constitution
      1. The EMSWA constitution was reviewed with changes Mila made. Becca had a concern about the wording in Article III—it says to be a voting member you must have attended 3 or more meetings. She thinks it’s a bit vague—3 meetings over the course of 4 years? Katie said that the “unanimous vote” could be problematic. Jacob said that while it could be problematic, they intentionally chose that model because they really value the importance of consensus. Erika said that clubs can make amendments—they could change it if it becomes a problem. Taylor moved to approve the EMSWA constitution and Andrew seconded the motion. Motion passed.
   2. Faculty and Staff Appreciation Day
      1. The schedule: Monday, April 16^th—faculty forum and large poster cards (from 11-1) out on Thomas Plaza for students to sign/in each building will be a bowl of carnations and smarties that students can pick up and give to professors on their way to class. Tuesday, April 17^th—sit with faculty in caf and dress up like your professor day. There will be pictures taken outside the caf.
7. New Business
   1. ACM Constitution: Mark Harder
      1. ACM is the Association of Computing Machinery club. Mark came to share—he is the current President. Mainly for computer science majors, but also interdisciplinary. Rebecca asked for “his” in the last sentence in article 3 to be changed to “them” or “his or her’s”. Jacob asked Ken if authorizations of funding proposals always go through the advisor, Ken said yes. Taylor asked what the National Association of Computing Machinery does: Mark said that it is an organization that supports computer science. Provides resources for people in computing profession/if you are a member you have access to a library and other resources. Membership of the national chapter is not required for EMU members. Ken asked if they have an advisor—they do. Jacob moved to approve the constitution with the proposed change. Taylor seconded the motion. Motion passed unanimously.
   2. CAC Petition for Funding- Doran Stucky
      1. Doran presented the petition on behalf of CAC. Their official request is to be allocated the original $40,000 that they asked for. Their reasons: CAC is planning to do another Performing Arts series next year (with the plan of doing a big concert every 3 years). With the current allocation of $26,000 they would only be able to do 4 events instead of 7 (like this year). Becca asked when CAC sets up the schedule for the coming year. Doran said that they normally plan at the beginning of each semester (but the first couple weeks of the year are planned at the end of summer). They had to plan the big concerts/performing arts series way in advance (the previous year). Erika asked how the performers for the performing arts series selected: Doran said that they chose a diverse group of performers—they weren’t sure this year what students would like, but they did a survey this spring and know that for next year students primarily want bands/music groups and folk is the most popular request. Erika asked who actually makes the decision for who is brought in—Doran said that a separate subcommittee is created to make decisions. Ideas are brought in front of entire CAC. Hannah encouraged CAC to do a survey every semester like the one this spring. Erika asked what CAC did before the $40,000 budget (last year)—Doran said that they just brought in small, random bands (usually local, cost about $500). The petition will be reviewed next week.
   3. Julia Schmidt- Peace Fellowship
      1. Julia feels that the cut in budget is a pretty drastic change ($1000 to $300) from this year to next year. She is requesting at least $200 more ($500). Julia hopes that if the funding really will be cut to $300, they will get the funding they need next year when they come in to request funds for big trips (they take several big trips throughout the year). The small budget allocation makes them feel a little insecure about having enough for trips. Rebecca said they would have liked to have seen more reporting back to the student body—Julia said they have reported on everything (with articles in Weather Vane, an open pot luck that was advertised in the Weather Vane, etc.) Hannah said that if the $200 they are requesting is going to strictly go to conferences/travel expenses, they should bring in funding requests/the $200 will not be enough anyways to completely fund trips. Julia said that it’s nice to have the extra funds in case there’s a last minute conference that people decide to go to (which happened a few weeks ago) and there isn’t time for a funding request. It’s nice for security. Rebecca asked if they have weekly meetings—Julia said yes. The petition will be reviewed next week.
8. Open Floor
   1. Freethought Coalition Constitution
      1. Andrew was concerned about specifying what an “active member” is in order to vote—it was decided that we would strongly recommend that they specify that, but will not require it. Tyler moved to approve the Freethought Coalition Constitution. James seconded the motion. Motion passed unanimously.
   2. If anyone has ideas for topics on the opinion board, email James. Becca suggested listing all of the subcommittees on the board and having students comment on them.
   3. Tyler said that IS is considering imposing printing fees with a standard credit on everyone’s account. With the new computers next year, they will keep track of how many print jobs students do—there will be $20-$25 on each student account/if students spend over that it will go to a student’s misc. account. The current cost is 4.5 cents/side. Tyler encourages everyone to talk to people around campus and see what they think/give him feedback. The idea is to try and discourage so much printing. There will also be an option of printing in color, for a higher price. Vi said that it would make everyone on campus—faculty and students—be more aware of how much they’re printing/people can find more creative ways to send/receive documents.
   4. d.    Last week, Jacob mentioned bringing in the Beehive Collective using some of our SLS funds—they would appeal to a large range of students. They are coming to JMU on April 19^th and it may be possible to bring them to EMU afterwards. They usually cost about $1000-$1500 (but they work on a sliding scale). Erika said that a venue would need to be figured out and a funding request would have to be presented. Taylor suggested getting several clubs on board to help sponsor the event. Jacob said he would write up a proposal and bring it next week.
9. Adjournment Becca made a motion to adjourn. Katie seconded.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Student Government Association Senate

Agenda

22nd of February 2012

You may never know what results come of your action,

but if you do nothing there will be no result.-Mahatma Gandhi

1. Call to Order

II.             Roll Call/Prayer

III.             Approval of Minutes passed unanimously.

IV.             Announcements

V.            Committee Reporting

a. Erika: Strategic Planning Council

1. 1.    They approved items on the university’s strategic plan. The second half of the meeting luke Hartman presented his plan with enrollment/talked about retention (retention rate is about 78%/graduation rate is about 62%)—patterns, etc. IS also presented some new ideas.

b. Alli & Tyler: Cross Cultural Committee

1. Members voted on the new proposals for fall 2014/spring 2015. Fall- phillipines and balkans. Spring- middle east and Guatemala. There were changes made to the Korea and Ecuador cross culturals for summer 2013. There are leadership changes that will happen for the Ecuador cross cultural, as the previous leader is no longer teaching at EMU, but right now they want to preserve the trip.

c. Katie: SLS

1. Originally, we wanted to bring in local speakers for the SLS, but recently an idea was proposed to bring in Bell Hooks—an author/philosopher. Katie is in contact with Deanna, trying to get Bell to come to Harrisonburg—perhaps collaborate with JMU to bring her? If that works out, it will use all funds in the SLS fund.

d. Sam & Carissa: Transitions

1. Carissa has been talking with Mark Sawin about including transfer students in the Honors Program. There are some issues with GPA’s that need to be worked out. They are talking about changing the program so that students can apply at the end of their freshman year to enter the Honors Program.

VI.            Old Business

VII.   New Business

a. Jim Yoder: Green Fatigue

1. Jim is the chair of the Making Peace with Creation committee (known on campus as “QEP”). They want to get feedback from SGA to see how we think this is going/what students perceptions are of how well they think this theme is being integrated into the classroom. The freshman college writing course last year was centered on sustainability and they also added an outcome to one class in each discipline to have sustainability integrated into that course. Sam shared that he felt (as a computer science major) that sometimes sustainability is forced into the classroom in ways that are not helpful/relevant. Alli and Becca shared that because sometimes “sustainability” is forced into contexts where it is not natural or relevant, students have become tired of the concept and others have to apologize for talking about it. It has become overused, which is sad because it is such a critical concept/issue. Taylor shared that sometimes the word is used in shallow contexts and therefore students grow tired of it. James wished that there were other ways to create a practical application of “sustainability”—have it be more personally applied to each student, rather than a vague learning outcome. Alli shared that paper waste is really common—are there practical ways to cut down on consumption as part of our pledge to sustainability? Jim asked how students would define “sustainability”—many senators said that students primarily see it as solely environmental sustainability—i.e hand dryers, composting, recycling, etc. Jim asked if any of us have had professors address the issue of sustainability in any other context besides the environment. Alli said that in her linguistics class they discussed the sustainability of dying languages, Sam reminded us about the campus ministries theme “Sustain You”. Some senators shared that the word sustainability has lost its meaning to many—it just goes in one ear and out the other. The Peace With Creation team put together a framework for sustainability on campus, trying to convey that sustainability goes beyond the environment—making connections with social, economic, spiritual sustainability. Jim is concerned that students are not hearing that message. Carissa said that in Transitions class, they asked students to define “sustainability” but then didn’t address it after that, which seemed unhelpful. She said that freshmen need to be told why sustainability is important to EMU/they need some background. Jim asked juniors and seniors what their perceptions “sustainability” since they were around when the QEP campaign/implementation happened. Brandon shared that when the QEP implementation happened many students knew it went beyond environmental sustainability, but Katie disagreed. She said that because of the title (Making Peace with Creation) many students didn’t know. She shared Brandon’s sentiments, however, that the parts of sustainability that is about sustaining oneself and social sustainability, etc. are really important. Jim said that they had to be careful how they conveyed the “Sustainability” accreditation to students (especially freshmen and sophomores). Ken said that it was important that students know that sustainability affects their lives in whatever career they choose/it affects students in every academic context. Jim said that he would love to hear further feedback from students if they have more to share.

b. The Freethought Coalition Constitution

1. Vi suggested that in Article II: Membership, they change the wording to “people of any religious affiliation are encouraged to come and” as opposed to “but”. Brandon suggested that they define “active member” under Article IX. They should change the spelling of “adviser” to “advisor.” James proposed that in Article III: Elections, they clarify how a president is voted in—i.e by a 2/3rds vote, etc. Carissa and Becca voiced concern about the wording of “should be prepared to potentially have their views respectfully challenged” in Article II: Membership. Elias said that he felt it should stay because they may expect members to have a more secular mindset. Vi suggested ending the sentence after “discussion”—“people of any religious affiliation are encouraged to come participate in the discussion.” Ken said that one question that would come up in the President’s Cabinet would be the nature of the Secular Student Alliance that they want to affiliate themselves with. He said that they should clarify what it means to be an affiliate of the Secular Student Alliance (what do they require? Will they have to pay dues?)—what do they stand for that makes it beneficial for EMU to be affiliated with them or would it be a risky organization to be connected to? Vi said they should change the wording of “between” in line two of Article 1 to “among.” Vi also suggested that they add in some more welcoming language.

            c. USO Meeting Summary

1. Erika and Hannah met with the USO and talked a lot about budgeting—they told all club leaders what they need to turn in, in order to apply for funding for next year.

VIII.  Open Floor

1. Carissa shared that it was difficult to hear each other in the President’s Room (where we met tonight). Tyler said that if we advertised the meetings and had a presence before the meeting (like a snack time outside the President’s Room) may welcome more students to sit in on the meeting. We will meet here again next week and may try the pre-meeting snack time.

IX.            Adjournment Tyler moved to adjourn. Taylor seconded.

Student Government Association

Senate Agenda

15th of February 2012

“A loving heart is the beginning of all knowledge.”

-Thomas Carlyle

1. Call to Order

II. Roll Call/Prayer

III. Approval of Minutes passed unanimously

IV. Announcements

a. SGA Dinner: Monday Feb 20^th starting at 5:30. Meet in front of Commons at 5:15.

V. Committee Reporting

a. Subcommittees

i. Res Life—Tyler emailed Eric and set up a time to meet with him next week. He will be talking to him specifically about senior housing—what Res Life is considering/ideas, etc, share thoughts and feedback that he has gotten from others with Eric.

ii. Sexuality Coffeehouse There are two dates set for student coffeehouses—March 1^st and 19^th. Brandon is going to talk to CA’s to ask them to start talking to their halls/encourage them to attend coffeehouse. Brandon is also going to talk to speech professors so they can tell their students to attend. The first faculty luncheon is being postponed to give us more time to send out the faculty survey (which should be sent out in the next day or so).

b. Cross Cultural- Laci Laci asked someone to take her place at the CC meeting on February 20^th. Tyler volunteered.

c. Library Task Force- Carissa Members of this commitee want the library to be a more welcoming place for students. They broke down goals—what they want to do next year and then long-term goals. See Carissa if you want to know more info.

VI. Old Business

VII. New Business

a. Funding Request- TCK Club Senators generally responded very positively about this event/funding request. They expressed excitement about the nature of the forum. Becca moved that we approve the funding request for $75 for this event in Common Grounds. Motion passed unanimously.

VIII. Open Floor

1. Amy reminded us that Career and Service Day is next Wednesday. She asked for one more volunteer for the 4-5 slot.
2. Rebecca gave a budget update: we have less money than was originally estimated—we brought in about $4,000 less than what we expected. We currently have $3,100 for the rest of the semester. We still have money in the roll over fund as well.
3. Brandon is starting to plan the faculty forum and he would love to have someone else help him. Bruce Emerson, from the caf, has already volunteered to be one of the people on the forum.
4. Taylor and Jacob have been meeting with the Creation Care Council. They have picked out a date: Thurs 23rd, 4:00-5:30 in CG.
5. The Book Store committee still needs a representative—they meet Mondays at 11:30 a.m. 
6. Erika and Hannah are looking into using the President’s Room for our meeting in two weeks.

IX. Adjournment Alli Eanes moved to adjourn. Becca seconded. Motion passed unanimously. 

Student Government Association

Senate Agenda

8th of February 2012

“When he took time to help the man up the mountain, lo, he scaled it himself.”

-Tibetan Proverb

I.             Call to Order

II.             Roll Call/Prayer

III.             Approval of Minutes

a. passed unanimously

IV.             Announcements

V.            Committee Reporting

Subcommittees

a. Encouragement Committee- encouragement corner still seems to get a lot of use.

b. Mayterm-

Kari will get the survey results (from the Mayterm survey) from Erika and Hannah and report more later.

c. Common Grounds

VI.            Old Business

VII.   New Business

a. Amy- Career and Service Fair-

Amy talked about the Career and Service Fair (Feb. 22) –it is an opportunity for students to do mock interviews (as well as real interviews for certain businesses), work on resumes and pick up applications/ look at post-college options (jobs and service/volunteer opportunities). They are changing the time from previous years—from 3-6 so that more students can attend. They will not be offering workshops this year, but will have a social media corner (help people use LinkedIN and talk about your professional image online). She is asking for SGA to help at the check-in/info table/help with iPad drawing. There are 3 one-hour time slots and she needs two people per shift.

b. Alli- Sexuality Coffeehouse

Alli described the purpose of the faculty survey as trying to get an idea of what faculty’s interest in a course for sexuality is. She asked for feedback from the senate about the specific document and the broader feeling about sending out a survey like this. Sam suggested including more about who will be there and what will happen- more specifics. Vi talked about making sure these times don’t overlap with faculty lunches. Ken suggested on formerly identifying Hannah and Erika as SGA co-presidents. Carissa clarified if the survey is going out to faculty or staff? Alli said Deanna recommended both. Alli asked Ken if the survey should go out through IRB or through a personal email. Ken recommended using Survey Monkey or GoogleForums. Jacob and Taylor volunteered to help set up the survey if necessary. Alli asked for further questions, there were none.

c. James- Constitutional Amendments

The Exec proposed a constitutional amendment (and James wrote up the proposed change) for Article III, Section 2, E, 2, b. The current wording is confusing and seems to require that there be more people running for senate positions than number of positions open. A similar amendment used to be in place for exec positions, but was revised (so that now only one person has to run for each exec position) and so the current exec suggests that the case be the same for senate positions. The current constitution wording is “The Executive Committee must ensure nomination of at least one more candidate than possible conditions for each resident constituency by nominating additional names if necessary.” The new proposed amendment reads, “The Executive Committee will ensure the nomination of at least one candidate for each Senate position but nominating one or more names if necessary.”

1. Open Floor
2. A.        Taylor Weidman voiced his concern and the reason he ran for Senate. He wishes students knew what EMU’s SGA did, and would like to see the student body become a more active part of decision making processes. He asked for feedback about ways to make senate meetings more accessible to students and proposed hosting a snack time modeled after Conrad-Grebel. The senate body also discussed changing the location of weekly meeting places to be more accessible. Hannah and Erika will look into using the President’s room.
3. Adjournment Alli Eanes adjourned

Student Government Association

Senate Agenda

1st of February 2012

As busy as I claim to be, I’ve still got the greatest job in the world.

-Peter Criss

1. Call to Order
2. Roll Call/Prayer
3. Approval of Minutes passed unanimously with change (to the portion about IS that Sam presented)
4. Announcements The SGA dinner will be on Feb. 20^th.
5. Committee Reporting
6. Blene and Kari- Campus Ministries—Talked about Y-Trips. They are thinking of adding another trip since they were so popular and there was a wait-list. Options: a local trip or doing a trip to West Virginia—they wanted feedback about those ideas. Talked about the upcoming Spiritual Life Week—which will include two days of “random acts of kindness”. Talked about a mentoring program for non-CA’s. Talked about Res Life idea for “screen free Sabbath.”
7. James- Undergraduate Council—Talked about faith formation goals of each dept/departmental chapel (which they want to have every year). Mark Sawin brought an Honors Curriculum proposal—he wants to change it so that people can apply after their freshman year of college (it would include a number of classes with an equivalent number of credits to a minor). Discussed a different format for midterms. Also, a new Kinesiology major has been added and changes have been made to history courses.

1. Carissa- Library Task Force—They want to make the library a more welcoming place for students to hang out. Are considering a number of changes/discussed budget. Discussed classrooms in the library/new chairs.

1. Becca- Campus Improvements—Becca inquired about the Redbox on campus that was discussed last semester. She got in contact with people in the business office—the RedBox must be connected to a business. She also talked to the secretary of Phys Plant about the water tower issue.

1. Jacob- Writing Committee—They will be sending out an assessment to faculty/students to ask about the writing webpage—see if improvements can be made. There is a writing retreat in May (Cairo’s Place) and details about space for students are being ironed out. Assessments for writing intensive courses are being changed.
   1. Old Business
   2. New Business
   3. Jonathan Lantz-Trissel- Creation Care Council Meeting—Jonathan is the Sustainability Coordinator at EMU. The Creation Care Council (which is made up of reps from all over campus) would like to have a campus-wide meeting. He would like to see student representatives take part in the planning/structure of the meeting and is wondering if SGA might be open to cosponsor the event. They are not sure about the date yet, but are considering having it in the next two or three weeks. Senators generally were supportive of cosponsoring the meeting. Tyler moved to cosponsor the meeting. Taylor seconded the motion. Motion passed unanimously.

1. Darian Harnish- Weather Vane Funds—Darian presented a proposal to the senate about funds for the Weather Vane. He is requesting that funds for Weather Vane roll over from year to year. The campus newspaper is supposed to be a roll over account, but in the past two years money has not been returned to the account and has now disappeared. So he is requesting that the money from the past two years be put back into their account. All together he is requesting $2,304.39 for the Weather Vane (they will use this money to make some improvements including a bigger newspaper size, better paper quality, a new printer, etc). Specifically, the money for this would come from the rollover fund, not the general fund. Jacob moved to allocate the $2304.39 to Weather Vane that they are requesting. Tyler Groff seconded the motion. Passed unanimously.

1. Alli- Human Sexuality Events—Alli and Brandon Habron met with Deanna Durham to discuss her ideas surrounding the conversation surrounding sexuality on campus. They proposed two student coffeehouses in February and March and two faculty luncheons corresponding to those dates. These conversations will be informal and used as a way to collect information about the conversations that our campus is having surrounding sexuality. Deanna has suggested a facilitator who is willing to attend these sessions. Moving forward the senate needs to decide 1) if there is support of this from the senate 2) a motion to hire a facilitator. Sam asked to clarify what the lunch conversations would consist of. Alli explained that these luncheons are to serve as a way for faculty to share their thoughts on the conversations of sexuality that are happening in their classrooms. Alli also explained that bringing in a facilitator who is not from EMU is a very important asset to the conversation as they will be a neutral presence. Vi inquired if administration was aware of this proposal and Alli and Brandon clarified that Deanna has been in conversation with Nancy Heisey. James moved to fund a facilitator for the faculty luncheons around sexuality, which would be a $100 allocation from the SGA. Carissa Seconded. Motion passed unanimously.

1. Erika- Funding Request—This funding request comes from Student Life (Laurie Miller) for the Leadership Conference. It is open to any student, but is targeted particularly at CA’s, MA’s and other student leaders. The total amount requested is $1200 from SGA. Sam asked what portion of the total cost the $1200 is and Erika said that it is half. Andrew asked about how many students have attended in the past and Hannah and Erika thought it was around 50 or 100. Some of the money could potentially come from the Union of Student Organizations. Brandon stressed the importance of leadership events, such as this. Several people who attended last year said what a wonderful event it was. Tyler Groff moved to approve the funding for the Student Leadership Conference and Brandon seconded. Motion passed unanimously.
2. SGA Dinner- Monday Feb. 20^th

VIII. Open Floor

1. Tyler Groff mentioned the North End Greenway—a bike path connecting EMU/Parkview to downtown. He’s hoping that down the line SGA could support it to a small degree financially and also endorse it officially to show that EMU is in support of the project.
2. Tyler also said he is thinking about applying for recognition from the Bicycle League of America (?) to get EMU certified as a bike friendly campus.
   1. Adjournment Sam moved to adjourn the meeting, Andrew Kniss seconded the motion.

1. Photos