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SGA minutes from February 1, 2012

Minutes

Eastern Mennonite University

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. 20th.
  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. 20th

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.

 

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