I. Call to Order: Ben (9:33)
*Note from Exec: WE APPRECIATE YOU!*
II. Roll Call/Prayer: Janelle
Present: Benjamin Bergey, Janelle Freed, Sarah Beck, Brent Beachy, Giles Eanes, Will Morris, Drew Kirk, Karissa Sauder, Sara Derstine, Brendon Derstine, Peyton Erb, Darian Harnish, Hans Weaver, Katie Landis, Heidi Bauman, Larisa Zehr, Ken L. Nafziger, Vi Dutcher, Amy Springer
Absent: Gabe Brunk
III. Approval of Minutes
Motion 20091111-1 to approve the minutes: Darian
Second: Karissa
Motion passed unanimously
IV. Announcements
a. Lunch with the Board: Ben announced that SGA is invited to eat lunch with the Board of Trustees this Friday at noon in the west dining hall. It’s just a time to mingle with the board!
V. Committee Reporting
a. Peyton—Safety Committee: Peyton reported that the committee looked at injuries on campus over the past year and this year. There is also a new fire procedure for the buildings on campus.
VI. Old Business
a. Student Fees discussion/proposals:
i. CG history and dialogue: Doug Wandersee and Matt Ropp came in to talk to us. Doug shared the history of Common Grounds, which originally was thought to be a money-making entity of the University. It was always very clearly a place for people to come together and have dialogue. Common Grounds has made great efforts to be as sustainable as possible while still providing the services it is asked for on campus. Matt Ropp shared that from the managers side, they are all taking it very seriously and are excited about the possibilities to make CG better. They talked about the proposed $7500 from SGA and a match of $7500 from President’s Cabinet. The managers feel that this is a number that they can work with and that will be very helpful. They are exploring all the different ideas and appreciate SGA’s help!
ii. Shen and CAC discussion: Ben shared that Andrew Jenner gave us some numbers with regard to Yearbook prices. For the Shen to be independent of SGA, each student, even seniors, would have to pay a $50 fee in addition to student fees with the option to opt out if the student doesn’t want the book. However, if too many students opt out, SGA may still need to subsidize the rest. SGA Exec discussed having all students pay $40 and then SGA still subsidizes it a little.
Hans reported back that we can definitely look into hosting a concert here but we would need to seriously look into the cost. For example, Jars of Clay would cost anywhere from $25-30,000. This would be doable if we are sure that we would get a lot of response from students. If only 150-200 students come, it would not be worth the cost and effort which we could get from other concerts. If there is a lot of student interest in smaller concerts, and we make sure to find an artist to attract a lot of students, this is a very serious possibility. Tickets usually only make up about ½ to ¾ of the total amount that pays for the concert. After talking to many other schools, Hans believes the ticket cost would be $10-15 per student and $25-30 for community members, which is reasonable for concerts like this. As CAC rep, Doug also said that CAC does pay a portion of tickets for JMU concerts to EMU students and sell around 30 tickets. Hans also shared that many schools have benefited from the community coming to these events and is good for the University as a whole. To go through with this, they would need full commitment from SGA and CAC. He also shared that we would probably need to book the band 5-7 months in advance because it takes a lot of time to plan. Ben shared that because of the current budget, this concert would not be a possibility until next year.
iii. Motion for this year’s support
Motion 20091111-2 to give Common Grounds $7500 from our general rollover account for next semester and put in a request from SGA to Student Life to at least match that amount to give Common Grounds : Karissa
Second: Darian
Motion passed unanimously
Ben addressed the Senate and asked if there were addition questions/suggestions regarding the raising of student fees. Darian suggested raising the amount even more than $10 with the reasoning that this is a LONG process and if we would like to increase our support with Common Grounds, concerts, and additional costs on campus. Larisa also shared that students may be more supportive of the raise if it only happens ONCE rather than every year when we see more needs. It was suggested that we look at numbers on a sheet of paper: comparing what it looks like if we raise student fees $10, $20, or $25. Darian offered to put this sheet together and pass it out.
b. SLS names: This has been tabled due to the fact that Gabe isn’t here, but we will be discussing it next week.
VII. New Business: None this week!
VIII. Open Floor
– General discussion took place regarding the Tim Jost event tonight. The senators that attended felt it was very well attended and thought Tim was an excellent speaker. Larisa said that it was nice to have a publicly-recognized speaker who has credentials and is still local and knowledgeable.
-Peyton shared on the D.O.R.D. event tonight, which she also thought was excellent but attendance could have been better. This may have been a product of the Tim Jost event taking people away from D.O.R.D.
-Karissa shared that Mark Sawin, Peter Dula, and Ann Hershberger are lined up to speak at the student-faculty forum. She is still looking for a fourth person, but we may only have 3 for this semester.
IX. Adjournment
Motion 20091111-3 to adjourn: Katie
Second: Hans
Motion passed unanimously (10:26)
smb 11/11/09 J