October 13 Minutes

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