I. Call to Order Michael (9:05)
II. Roll Call/Prayer Sarah prayed
Present: Benjamin Bergey, Michael Spory, Will Morris, Janelle Freed, Sarah, Beck, Hannah Wenger, Dan Sigmans, Todd Hooley, Alli Eanes, Erica Babikow, Heidi Bauman, Nels Akerson, Courtney Walker, Hannah Schrock, Matt Dean, Brittney Wenger, Laci Gautsche, Amin Laboriel, Vi Dutcher, Amy Springer
Absent: Ken L. Nafziger
III. Approval of Minutes
Motion 02022011-1 to approve the minutes: Heidi
Second: Nels
Motion approved
IV. Announcements
a. Food Drive – Feb. 12: Michael shared that former SGA senator Peyton Erb is heading this up and SGA will help put it all together. The marketing committee will meet after our meeting tonight to discuss ways to advertise this.
b. Spirit Day: Dress up on Saturday at the basketball games!!!
c. Joshua Radin – Feb. 13: GET EXCITED!
V. Committee Reporting
a. Cross-Cultural Committee: Nels shared that the committee met today and received updates from all the groups currently on cross-cultural (the Middle East group is safe despite the current unrest in Egypt). They also talked about an overview of the Sesotho language course being given by Harlan de Brun this semester, the Kiwi coffee house in CG discussing the New Zealand Cross-Cultural. In addition, semester proposals for 2013-2014 were discussed and they talked about the logistics between two Spanish professors being gone on cross-culturals in the same year.
b. Concert Committee : Heidi shared that the concert is NEXT Sunday; a big thank you to everyone who helped sell tickets for the concert this past week in the Student Life Suite. There are still some slots available, Hannah W. offered to take the 11:00-11:30 slot on Friday and Michael will take the 11:30-12:00 slot. Ben offered to take the 10:00-10:30 slot tomorrow and Todd took the 10:30-11:00 slot. Good work volunteers! For next week, the ticket booth will be moved to the Campus Center. As of right now, there are over 60 tickets sold so far. SGA senators will also have to buy a ticket if they would like to attend. Nels passed around a sign-up sheet for senators to sign up for a position to help with hospitality during the concert.
c. Campus Ministries: Heidi shared that the committee met last Monday and met Dawn Monger, the interim campus pastor this semester. They also reviewed the MA/PA program; it was brought up that it would be nice to connect transfer students and students who have taken a year off (before or during college) to each other. Students shared about FCA and Multicultural Services and what is going on with their meetings. In addition, the chapel format (Wednesday=praise worship; Friday=speaker) was discussed.
d. Commons Council: Matt shared that the committee talked about security, safety, and storage. The hallway on the North End behind the gym is currently used to store soccer goals and the mats for indoor track mats; this has come up as a fire hazard and new ways to store them need to be discussed. Regarding security, they discussed lock-up schedules; right now there is an access hallway from Common Grounds to the gym side of the Commons and the lock-up schedule needs to be addressed with CG and security. Also, on snow days school children have started coming into the gym and using our facility, which is not allowed without parental supervision. They are looking into ways of preventing this from happening when snow days occur. They also discussed bike racks and places to add them around the Commons.
VI. Old Business
VII. New Business
a. Campus Security: Michael shared that the Exec would like to talk about ways to make students, particularly students, feel safer around campus. One possibility would be to propose a “buddy system” where if someone was feeling unsafe at night they could call a specific number and someone would come walk with them to their destination. Another suggestion would be to involve the campus security guards who are more than willing to walk students back to the dorms. General senator feedback was that it might be better to just create more awareness (i.e. sending out the number to call security via e-mail and encourage students to program it into their phones) at this point in time. Hannah S. is going to brainstorm ways to work with CAs to talk about raising awareness.
b. Funding Request – CAC: Kirk Shenk-Zehr came in to talk to SGA about Anais Mitchell, a singer-songwriter who performs “folk-opera,” and is touring with her six-piece orchestra Virginia in February. EMU has the opportunity to host Anais and her orchestra on Saturday, February 19 at 9:30 p.m. Anais would also present a workshop for the VACA and Theater Departments in the afternoon of the 19th; however, this may be made available to other EMU students outside those departments. Originally, this was thought to take place in the newly-opened Mainstage Theater; however, there is a possibility it will not be ready by this time. Another possibility would be to host this at EMHS or somewhere else on campus. Kirk knows Anais personally and believes many students at EMU would be interested in attending this concert. He brought the idea to Doug Wandersee, who was very intrigued by the idea of hosting such a unique concert. Because CAC is hosting Joshua Radin the weekend before, Doug suggested a coalition of campus groups to help support this show. Kirk has spent the last few weeks gathering support and so far has received very encouraging feedback from various departments. He has collected $500 from Student Programs and $200 each from Bible and Religion, Visual & Communication Arts, Theater, Language & Lit Departments, and CJP, totaling $1500. He is coming to SGA in hopes of gaining additional funds ($200-500) to further entice Anais to come to EMU. She originally asked for $3500 but decided to be flexible in order to make EMU a stop on her tour; the bare minimum necessary would be $1500 but this does not include accommodations, lodging and renting a venue (if necessary). One concern of senators was that it’s happening at a time when a LOT is happening around campus and it’s coming right on the heels of the Joshua Radin concert. We listened to a short clip of her music and she definitely has an interesting sound that would draw a certain crowd of EMU students. Generally, senators were excited about the chance to host a different type of concert. We felt that $200 was appropriate to give since there is already a lot of funding coming in from other EMU departments and they have already raised the minimum $1500 and anything else at this point is gravy.
Motion 02022011-2 to approve giving $200 for Anais Mitchell to come to EMU on February 19: Dan
Second: Alli
Motion passed
c. Funding Request – Peace Fellowship: Kaitlin Heatwole came in to talk about the Annual Intercollegiate Peace Conference which is being held in Bluffton, OH on February 18-20. They have 12 students who want to go (not all of whom are in Peace Fellowship). Peace Fellowship is covering the cost of registration; however, they still need funds for transportation. Because the cost of renting an EMU van was so high, they are looking to take 3 private cars. They have worked out the details of transportation costs to be $490, which they are requesting from SGA. They are planning on sharing about this conference when they get back in the form of a forum. Senators were very supportive of this; one senator brought up that peace is a huge part of EMU’s mission statement so this is a great way to discuss peace with others from different Mennonite schools.
Motion 02022011-3 to approve giving Peace Fellowship $490 as requested to cover the cost of transportation to attend this conference: Janelle
Second: Hannah W.
Motion passed unanimously
d. Calling and Career Day : Amy shared that the second-annual Career Day will be happening in the Commons on February 16. This is an opportunity for students to attend workshops on budgeting, portfolios, interviews, etc. Everyone is encouraged to attend a seminar or two and it was very well received last year. There will also be a fair around the track from 1:00-4:00. Amy needs people to sign-up to man the welcome table and is passing around a sign-up sheet for senators to sign-up to help.
VIII. Open Floor
-Erica shared that she and Amin met with the Information Systems committee where the biggest thing discussed was the switchover to Moodle from BlackBoard. In addition, they talked about looking at potential distance learning (video conferencing, online courses) that may be implemented in the future at EMU. They also talked about ways to change the computer labs around to make them more user-friendly for a more laptop-toting student population.
-Hannah shared that the Block Party is now taking place on the day that freshman are moving into EMU so no one from EMU will be able to attend; therefore, EMU will no longer have representatives there for the Block Party.
-Courtney shared that the moving date for Maplewood is February 25 (Friday) and the helping-to-move hours are from 1:00-7:00, which is slightly inconvenient for people with classes. Michael agreed to discuss this with Housing and Res Life to see if this could be extended. Food will be provided for people who come to help!!!
IX. Adjournment
Motion 02022011-4 to adjourn: Janelle
Second: Amin
Motion passed
Meeting adjourned (10:34)
smb 02/02/11