i. Call to Order 8:35
ii. Roll Call/Prayer
Alicia Ygarza Basketball
Andrew Yoder Intramurals
Amy Springer H
Becca Longenecker H
Caleb Hinga H
Carissa Harnish H
Carol Song H
Chantelle Garber Sick
Charlie Good H
Christine Baer H
Curtis Handy H
Erin Nafziger H
Jacob Lester H
Jane Wenger Clemens H
Ken Nafziger H
Krista Nyce H
Kyle Storc H
Makora Nyagwegwe H
Mariah Elliott H
Ryan Swartzentruber H
Sonja Anderson H
Tyler Denlinger Basketball
iii. Approval of Minutes
Minutes passed
iv. New Business
- Alicia’s absences
i. Absences for basketball are excused by the senate unanimously.
- Ken’s response to Chris Yoder’s recent WV article
i. Student conduct policies have changed for hosting students. Used to be that they used to have to take an alcohol education course. Now students are also suspended if they are hosting parties with alcohol available for underage students. Ken wants to know how students are feeling about the new policy. The policy pertains to off campus hosting, but 21 and older hosts are allowed to host parties as long as students are not drinking excessively.
ii. Erin shared that the CA class last semester talked a lot about the policy and wondered how the university can be in a process of restorative justice rather than punitive action.
iii. Christine said that SGA senate will discuss the policy during the meeting following spring breaking, and at this point encouraged students to talk to their constituents how they are feeling about the policy.
iv. Jane shared that the faculty from the PXD department openly opposes the suspension policy.
v. Krista also shared that she is part of a class that also openly opposes the policy.
vi. Ken said that the policy is meant to deter students from destructive behavior, but if the policy is not effective, then the policy is not working and that is what he hopes to find out from student voices.
vii. Jacob asked how is Student Life wanting to hear student opinions. Do they want letters? Do they want students to stop by the student life suite? Ken said that Student Life felt like they wanted SGA to mediate the conversation by getting student opinions and bringing them to Student Life. But he said that students are also welcome to send him emails personally.
viii. Jane said that restorative after the fact is often the way that our society implements RJ, but she hopes that EMU will move towards a preventative relationship that falls under a broader definition of RJ. Ken said that he hopes SGA senators will ask students what they propose in place of the policy to prevent students from drinking.
- Funding Request: CAC
i. Jonathan Estrada presented a funding request to SGA asking for more money for the events that CAC has planned for the rest of the semester, since they have run out of money for the semester. One of the future events that CAC is asking for money to fund is Spring Fest.
ii. The ski trip this year attracted a lot more students and ended up costing CAC more money than they expected. CAC did not anticipate this kind of turnout for the ski trip and ended up spending over $3,000 compared to $900 last year.
iii. The funding request handout that CAC presented stated: “Ultimately, our greatest programming success has become our greatest financial oversight.”
iv. Jonathan also pointed out that CAC covers commuter lunches every week and it ended up costing over $2,000.
v. The expected cost of Spring Fest is about $2,000 and the rest of the semester’s movies will cost $250 a piece. Movies include The Hunger Games Sequel, The Hobbit, Frozen, and Saving Mr. Banks.
vi. Jacob asked whether there was an addition allotment for the Freelance Whales concert. Carissa said there was not, but that a few years ago their budget was increased for the Performing Arts Series, but this year they spent more for the Freelance Whales concert than they spent for the Performing Arts Series years before.
vii. Caleb said that CAC does a lot for students and that they deserve the money and it directly benefits students.
viii. Christine mentioned that she had talked to Rachel and Rachel told her that the because it is a transitional year and because advertising has been a lot better this year.
ix. Charlie said that he was a little concerned about their budgeting issues, but that they do great things for students. He said that he went on the ski trip and had a really good time. He said he enjoys the events and would like to give them the money, but $3,000 seems like a lot of money.
x. Caleb said that last year’s CAC student members left, and this year everyone is different including the staff leaders that that is a big part of the reason the budget didn’t work out. Mariah said that she felt the same.
xi. Christine said that she thinks talking to CAC about their budget for next year will prevent this over spending, and Carissa said that she talked to both Phil and Rachel and they are still figuring out how to do the best they can with their budget without over spending.
xii. Charlie said that he really affirms Rachel and Phil’s work and would like to encourage them. Ryan said that as far as SGA funding goes, giving money to CAC directly benefits students in a way that our other allocations might not. Mariah mentioned that community members also really enjoy CAC events
xiii. Krista motioned to pass the pull amount. Sonja seconded the motion. Motion passed. 12 in favor, 0 opposed, 1 abstaining
- Funding Request: Safe Space
i. Safe Space wants to participate in a Queer Summit at University of Richmond to hear about what is happening in the world in the queer movement and is requesting $200 for gas to get the students there and back and also for a day’s worth of food ($20 for the day).
ii. Getting Safe Space to the Queer Summit will help Safe Space to connect with other members of the Queer Movement and to be rejuvenated in this stressful time on EMU’s campus.
iii. Safe Space has also been approved to host a seminar “Queerness and Christianity” at the Summit, which will hopefully be a learning opportunity for Safe Space so that they can bring the information back to campus and also so that EMU’s Safe Space can benefit the greater Queer Community by presenting at the summit.
iv. Jacob mentioned that there were a few conferences that SGA financed last semester that did not bring the conference “back to campus”.
v. Mariah said that she thought with the timing of the conference she felt it was important to send the Safe Space students to the conference. Charlie
vi. Jacob motioned to give the full amount, $200 to Safe Space for their conference. Curtis seconded. Motion passed
d. Call to talk to constituents about student life policies
v. Old Business
a. Update on Campaign
i. Christine showed the senate the SGA campaign website. There are images, a campaign statement and a donation page. Hopefully the site will start seeing some action soon.
ii. Jacob proposed putting the campaign page on the search engine on the EMU website.
vi. Committee Reporting
Institutional Review Board has agreed to meet electronically for the rest of the semester Jacob informed senate. Krista said that her committee met, but she was unable to attend and will update the senate when she reads the meeting.
Christine and Carissa went to the Cabinet meeting and talked about Faculty work load.
vii. Announcements
T-Shirts will hopefully be done by the April Auction.
The Auction date has changed again, and this time it is final: Saturday April 5th
viii. Open Floor
ix. Adjournment
Becca motioned to adjourn the meeting. Kyle seconded. Meeting adjourned at 9:23