I. Call to Order Michael (9:05)
II. Roll Call/Prayer Ben prayed
Present: Michael Spory, Benjamin Bergey, Will Morris, Janelle Freed, Sarah Beck, Amin Laboriel, Hannah Schrock, Erika Babikow, Nels Akerson, Courtney Walker, Heidi Bauman, Dan Sigmans, Laci Gautsche, Todd Hooley, Matt Dean, Alli Eanes, Amy Springer, Ken L. Nafziger
Absent: Hannah Wenger, Brittney Wenger, Vi Dutcher
III. Approval of Minutes
Motion 16022011-1 to approve the minutes: Heidi
Second: Matt
Motion approved
IV. Announcements
a. Hadestown – Feb. 19: SGA co-sponsored this event, which takes place in Lehman on Saturday! Come out and enjoy! There is also a workshop in the afternoon on Saturday for all students.
b. Join a Club Party – Feb. 22: This event is sponsored by USO; please encourage any club leaders you know to attend this!
V. Old Business
a. Reflections on the Concert: Thank you to everyone who volunteered; it went off very smoothly and everyone’s hard work was very appreciated! All senators were impressed by the concert and
felt like it went well. Lehman was a good venue for this particular genre; however, if the concert
would not have been so chill, it might not have been an appropriate venue. One concern was the
lack of security; perhaps in the future we should have more senators around the dressing room.
The final ticket number was 476, which was an encouraging number. Now is the time to start
thinking ahead to the future so be thinking about bands that you would like to see at EMU next
year!
b. Maplewood Move: The Maplewood move is February 25 and outsiders are allowed to help
from 1:00-7:00 p.m. Seven senators agreed to help out at some point during that time frame as
schedule allows.
c. Lounge Swipe Card: The SGA Exec felt that this particular issue did not warrant a survey or
petition; we instead felt that our job as SGA is to be the voice for the students in place of a
survey. Although we are a small group of students, our job is to represent the broader voice of
students at EMU so we feel our collective decisions reflect the opinions of the student body. Ken
shared that part of the sentiment of the Res Life meeting was that even when the majority of the
students may want something, we still want to be aware of those students who would feel
uncomfortable with the new changes. One reason this might cause discomfort was if there were
a lot of people from another dorm in a lounge late at night and residents wouldn’t know those
people. Others felt that 24-hour lounges offer a safe haven for where students can go if they feel
unsafe at any time. One senator brought up that no one seemed to be super passionate about this
issue; we decided that until we hear a strong voice from the students either way, we don’t need to
change the current system.
VI. New Business
a. Club Constitution – Fishing Team: We received a constitution from a new club, EMU Fishing Team, seeking approval from EMU. Two major concerns that jumped out at senators were the requirement of a 2.0 GPA and the requirement that every member provide their own equipment, travel expenses, and tournament fees. Many felt that the pay-to-play restrictions are kind of limiting for all students. There are currently six members interested in this club. There were also clarifications needed with a few ambiguous statements in the constitution (i.e. “responsible members”). There was also concern with the tournaments; senators had questions about whether they can attend any sponsored tournament (Budweiser?) and what can happen with the winnings. There were also some grammatical and technical changes suggested. Overall, there was no strong negative feedback for this club; it seems like a great addition to EMU’s extracurriculars!
Motion 16022011-2 to approve the constitution for the EMU Fishing Team with said changes (grammatical, clarifying): Nels
Second: Amin
Motion passed
b. New Tasks: Michael shared that last week we looked at the committees that still had energy and the ones that had kind of fizzled out. He asked for any suggestions for new things that SGA could get involved in for the rest of the year. Janelle shared that one thing might be to have people in place to organize a “Spirit Bus” should the men’s basketball team advance in tournament. In addition, Alli suggested another faculty forum for this semester and offered to help organize this endeavor. Michael also brought up the possibility of a Music Festival some week on campus, which got a lot of interest from senators.
c. How a Future SGA Might Look: Ben talked about the possibilities for infrastructural changes, one being an additional Exec member who would be a Marketing Representative. In addition, we could add a few members to the senate as representatives from some larger campus organizations (Res Life, CAC, Campus Ministries) who would be actual voting members. The difference between these members and the current members is that the representatives would not be elected by the student body. General senator feedback was very positive for adding a Marketing representative to the Exec committee. There was also discussion about the fact that the current constitution does not require students running for Exec to have previously served on the senate; this may also need to be something we look at since it’s very beneficial to have previously-serving members. Regarding the additional representatives from other clubs, there was some discomfort noted with having voting members who were not elected by the students. There were also a few concerns raised with having so many people added to the senate; at what point does the SGA just become too large? A viable next step seems to be to go to the clubs we’re considering adding to SGA to see if representatives on SGA would be beneficial or unnecessary.
VII. Open Floor
-Help is needed to toss t-shirts at the women’s basketball game. Courtney and Todd volunteered to help with the tosses.
-Amin suggested having clubs fill out progress reports to show how they are doing so we can learn about how other clubs are working/progressing.
-Amin shared that he has heard that there is a concern with athletes and their academics; he worries that this particular culture stresses sports instead of school and was wondering ways SGA can possibly help out with that. As an SGA, we don’t feel like it’s really our place to handle this issue but we encouraged him to talk to Student Life about his concerns.
VIII. Adjournment
Motion 16022011-3 to adjourn: Janelle
Second: Matt
Motion passed
Meeting adjourned (10:32)
smb 02/16/11