Eastern Mennonite University
Student Government Association Senate
Agenda
24th of September, 2014
Call to Order
Beccas call the meeting to order at 9:03pm.
Roll Call
| Sarah Marie Longenecker | x |
| Taylor Esau | x |
| Kaltuma Noorow | x |
| Alicia Ygarza | abs |
| Jasmine Miller | abs |
| Matej Gligorevic | x |
| Kate Weaver | x |
| Kat Lehman | x |
| Mario Valladares | x |
| Emma King | x |
| Hans Bontrager Singer | x |
| Roberto Wingfield | x |
| Isaiah Williams | x |
| Ryan Swartz | x |
| Charlie Good | x |
| Becca Jo Longenecker | x |
| Becca Martin | x |
| Erin Nafziger | x |
| Kyle Storc | x |
| Ken Nafziger | x |
| Amy Springer | x |
| Jane Wenger-Clemens | abs |
Approval of Minutes
No changes or corrections to minutes; minutes passed.
Announcements
Institutional committees
Becca M explains that this week every senator should be in contact with his or her respective institutional committee.
Becca Jo will be sending out copies of the committee proposals that were formed during Fall retreat.
Old Business
Overview of budget
Majority of our funds come from the discretionary fund. Student lecture series category funds speakers coming to campus. USO category provides funds for proposals involving three or more student organizations. We also have accumulated rollover funds in each category.
New Business
New election for open senate position
Senator was elected, but then realized that she has to resign due to a class conflict.
Resignation approval passed unanimously.
International Student Organization Funding Request
Two representatives are requesting funds for the international food festival. During this food festival, the organizations funded ingredients and supplies for the food. ISO is requesting $1500.00.
Ken asked if the organization is asking from the USO fund or the general fund. Representative responds by saying that it doesn’t matter.
Kyle asked if the students were charged to attend the food festival. The representative responds by saying that community members were charged, while students were not.
Charlie asked if each organization helped with funding. Representative responds by saying each organization helped, but majority of the funding came from ISO.
Becca M asks how much money was spent on food and how much was spent on t-shirts. Representative is not certain how much money was allocated towards t-shirts, but the majority was spent on food.
Becca M asks how much money was funded to LSA and TCK in beginning. Ryan says that TCK has 450 and LSA has 900.
Hans asked how much was the anticipated amount. Representative says that they anticipated spending 800 and ended up spending 1100
Becca Jo asked how many students they were anticipating. ISO was anticipating 200-250, but 300 students came.
Becca Jo comments on how well the event went. Hans adds that he really enjoyed the event, and would like to see it happen again. Becca M adds saying that it would be nice to have a breakdown of how much money was spent on food and how much was money was spent of t-shirts
Kat asks about the upcoming LSA banquet. Mario responds by saying that it is a large event, where students dress up, have dinner, and then dance.
Kaltuma comments on motive behind the tshirts: tshirts were to make the cooks stand out and as an incentive to encourage participation.
Charlie asked if ISO came to SGA for funding request before, and they did last year.
Kyle makes a motion to grant ISO the allocated money. Charlie seconds it.
Kat suggests putting a stipulation on the t-shirts, requesting a response of exactly how much money was spent on t-shirts. Kat would like ISO to have clarification on where the money is spending. Charlie suggests that we could comment on this, although it would not be appropriate as a stipulation.
In favor of granting ISO allocated money: 13
Abstaining 2
Opposed 0
Motion passed.
SGA ad in WeatherVane
Beccas have been brainstorming to put a small add in the weathervane about what is currently happening in SGA. One of the co-editors asked to charge the price of $27 per week. Beccas thought this was a little steep for a weekly charge.
Kaltuma suggests putting this ad in Faces of EMU on Facebook. Becca M comments on how this will contribute to one of our goals to increase student awareness of SGA.Kat suggests utilizing the bulletin board outside the cafeteria.
Kyle suggests putting the SGA weekly blurb on the bulliten board .
Becca M gathers that we will find an alternative to paying for an ad in the Weathervane.
Listening Process reflection Q&A
Nearly all of last year, the board and EMU community was going through a listening process. Ken comments that the board decided not to make a final decision on the process, but decided to wait in the interest of the broader church.
Brian Martin Burkholder suggested (via email) that we hold some sort of Q & A surrounding the listening process. The executive SGA members suggested Lori Lehman and perhaps another person to answer questions from students.
Ken clarifies that the board has designated Loren to be the spokesperson. Students receive equal opportunity to hear from Loren; he would be available.
Multiple senators agree that this is something that will benefit the student body. Becca M shares that we were envisioning a online poll to collect questions anonymously, as well as some question and answer time at the event.
Isaiah asks for clarification on the Listening process. Becca explains that the CLC says that people of the EMU community must abstain from premarital sex. And the hiring policy states that marriage is between man and wife. Therefore no one in a same-sex committed relationship can be hired at EMU
Senate concludes that asking Loren to participate would be beneficial to the student body.
Idea Drive
Idea drive is to generate student ideas that they want to see happen on campus. These will be distributed across campus.
Kate asks how often these ideas will be collected. We leave the boxes out for a week, and then collect them.
Open Floor
Mario heard from some of his friends asking to extend the hours of the cafeteria. Mario also suggested to offer boxes that students can fill and take out of the cafeteria.
Isaiah suggests to decorate the boxes more so people can see them.
Adjournment
Roberto makes a motion to end the meeting. Hans seconds the motion. Motion passed unanimously at 9:51pm.