I. Call to Order: Ben (9:05)
II. Roll Call/Prayer: Brent prayed
Present: Benjamin Bergey, Janelle Freed, Sarah Beck, Brent Beachey, Drew Kirk, Giles Eanes, Will Morris, Heidi Bauman, Brendon Derstine, Larisa Zehr, Peyton Erb, Darian Harnish, Sara Derstine, Hans Weaver, Gabe Brunk, Katie Landis, Karissa Sauder, Ken A. Nafziger, Vi Dutcher, Amy Springer
Absent: No one.
III. Approval of Minutes
Motion 20091007-1 (Will): Approval of minutes
Second (Heidi)
Motion passed unanimously
IV. Announcements
a. 3 Musketeers in office Ben shared that MANY 3 Musketeers are being eaten. Just a reminder that we are trying to keep them for students who pop into the SGA office to talk to senators, NOT for senators themselves! Try to limit intake to one candy bar per time you work in the office.
b. Shirt sizes Katie designed our new SGA shirt logo. We passed around a sign-up sheet and Ben will order the shirts tomorrow morning.
V. Committee Reporting
a. Brendon-Bookstore Committee Brendon shared that the Bookstore is most concerned with buying back books. Brendon shared that students are selling back books outside of the bookstore, which is hurting the business a little. Is there interest in selling books and having a type of “buyback” that we help with? The bookstore is also looking into buying online books that are digital (through Café Scribe) and you can keep them permanently. They would like student feedback on this matter. Another idea was to have a book “rental” instead of actually buying the books permanently if students don’t think they’ll keep them forever. Students would pay a fee much smaller than what the book originally cost and could give the book back provided proper care was taken. Students may save up to 50% of what they would originally cost. There was general discussion about possibilities and opinions on this matter.
VI. Old Business
a. MRI Club updated, on to Pres Cab MRI updated their constitution to meet all the requirements and we have sent the recommendation to approve them as a club to the President’s Cabinet.
b. Keep encouraging spirit week Spirit week is still going so keep encouraging people to dress up and show their EMU support!
VII. New Business
a. Tim Jost event date Karissa shared that we are planning on hosting this event in Common Grounds to the first week in November.
b. Caf lockers Ben shared that there are still thefts taking place outside the cafeteria where people are leaving their bags outside to go eat. Ken shared that some ideas are to put cubbies inside the caf or have lockers outside the caf. One issue with this is we lose our “trustworthy” campus look if we have lockers outside. We talked about various reasons why people would want lockers and where to put them. There might not be any space inside the caf to add cubbies and there might not be enough lockers outside the caf for everyone. Another suggestion was to possibly put up a security camera outside the caf; however, that might present certain privacy issues. Cost is also a big issue that we need to be aware of; this may ultimately be the deciding factor.
Motion 20091007-2 (Will): Motion to acknowledge that there are thefts outside the cafeteria and we recommend that the administration look into a possible solution for this problem, whether it be a security camera, lockers, or a combination of both.
Second (Giles)
c. Motion passed unanimously.
d. Chapel time change Ben shared that the proposal is to move the chapel time to 11:00 instead of 10:30 and switch 3rd and 4th period. Discussion on this issue included the implications for the caf, having more 8:00 classes, and how to continue to spread out classes evenly. It was also questions whether this change will actually affect chapel attendance. We also need to be very careful to think about possible repercussions such as caf overflow and other consequences that are not immediately seen. We also need to take the student survey with a grain of salt, because voluntary surveys are not always reliable surveys of student opinion.
Motion 20091007-3 (Drew): Motion to acknowledge that we are open to this possibility, but have issues with cafeteria times, additional classes early in the morning and the fact that this might not improve chapel attendance.
Second (Will)
Motion passed unanimously
VIII. Open Floor
-Janelle shared that on October 22, there will be a Women’s empowerment webinar. Men are also invited and she will bring more information next Wednesday.
-Will shared that he and Giles talked with Peter Dula about CSA in regards to the EMU garden. At this point, to expand the garden, we need to look into finding someone who is neither EMU faculty nor a student in order to coordinate work-study and such. The part-time garden coordinator job would be paid for by the profits from the garden.
-Giles met with Doug Wandersee about his ideas for Common Grounds and generating funds. Currently, Common Grounds is losing money and does not have enough to pay for all the operating costs. This will be put on the agenda later for full discussion.
-Will met with Marvin Lorenzana about cooperation with SGA and multicultural services. This may include co-sponsoring and helping each other with events.
IX. Adjournment
Motion 20091007-4 (Darian)
Second (Sara)
Motion passed unanimously (10:06)