Eastern Mennonite University
Student Government Association
Senate Agenda
29th of February 2012
Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
i.Call to Order
ii.Roll Call/Prayer
iii.Approval of Minutes passed unanimously
iv.Announcements
v.Committee Reporting
i.Blene & Ruhama- Enrollment
A. They spoke to Dorca Ressler in Res Life and asked some questions specifically pertaining to enrollment with international students. Dorca is focusing on recruiting international students, but EMU doesn’t have enough funding to have someone travel around and recruit students in different parts of the world, so they’re fairly limited. Marketing is also developing a new part of the website dedicated solely to international students—shows how welcoming EMU is. Dorca also talked about scholarships for internat’l students—there isn’t much money given out because of a lack of funding. She said they also want to connect with people outside of the church (which is how they get the majority of their internat’l students right now). They would like to work through international high schools to recruit more students from abroad.
ii.Justin & Elias- Website Enhancements
A. Elias met with the website manager—they talked about some goals for the SGA website: updates, forums for students to post opinions, add a tab for SGA on the EMU homepage. The manager will talk with IS about the forums (it is something new and may take longer). Justin now has access to the SGA website so he can make changes. He needs to get bios from the exec, but hopes that once he has everything he can have basic info and pictures for everyone in the SGA up on the SGA site.
vi.Old Business
i.Sexuality Coffeehouse- Tomorrow
A. The Sexuality coffeehouse is tomorrow, March 1st at 9 p.m. The coffeehouse will be a “fishbowl” format. Senators made suggestions for questions to be asked, such as “What is the goal for the class?” and “What format should the class take?” Everyone in SGA should make an effort to come!
vii.New Business
i.Submit Written Report
A. Hannah and Erika would like every sub-committee to write up a summary of what they have accomplished and plans for the second half of the semester. This will also help the sub-committee to transition successfully from this semester to next fall if it continues after this year. (Just half a page)
ii.Mid-semester Email to All Students
A. Hannah and Erika plan to send out an update email to all students, telling what SGA has accomplished so far this semester and hopes for the rest of the semester. They are looking for feedbacks from senators about what should be included: sexuality coffeehouse, sponsoring the Writing Conference, conversations with Res Life (about the future), the encouragement corner is fully functional, potential talks about the changing location for our meetings/snack time. For the future: updates will be made to the website, conversations will continue with Res Life, hopefully EMU will be officially recognized as a “bike friendly university.”
viii.Open Floor
i. Erika said that we are thinking of starting a half hour “campus wide snack” prior to meetings outside of the President’s Room, so she is sending around a sign-up sheet for people to bring snack.
ii. Tyler went to the IS committee meeting and they were discussing their budget. They reported that Admissions is getting a big screen to list campus events/announcements (IS had been thinking about putting up similar screens all over campus) and IS is going to get more and put them up in other places on campus/install a management system. They will also be adding wireless and smart boards to some more classrooms.
ix.Adjournment Sam moved to adjourn the meeting. Alli seconded. Motion passed unanimously.