Reading of the SGA Mission Statement

Transcription

1 West Virginia University SGA Meeting 01/10/ Administration Call to Order at 7:30PM Hatfields B, Mountainlair Student Union Morgantown, WV Reading of the SGA Mission Statement We, The students of West Virginia University, desiring to preserve within our university an atmosphere of open exchange of ideas with discussion, inquiry, and self expression to insure the person freedoms and general welfare of the student within our University, to promote principles of diversity and to continue in our tradition of responsible self governance, do hereby establish this Constitution of the West Virginia University Student Government Association. Roll Call President Pro Tempore Brewster Present Senator Alotaibi Present College Representative Amato Present Senator Arbogast Present Senator Ball Present, i,n Senator Cawley Present College Representative Cuomo Present College Representative Dent Present College Representative Frazier Present Senator Giles Present Senator Gupta Present College Representative Hartwell Present, i Senator Henriquez Present Senator Hoang Present, n College Representative Howard Present, i Senator Hunt Present, i,n College Representative Kaminski Present Senator King Present, i,n Senator Kyle Present, i Senator Leasor Senator Osborne Present, i,n College Representative Scott Present, i,n Senator Sizemore Present, i,n College Representative Shoemaker Present

2 College Representative Ulman Present Senator Vijay Present, i,n College Representative Williams Present, i,n Senator White Present, i,n College Representative Wolfe Present Minutes from last week have been approved. Open Student Forum I None. The President s Report VP Smith He is in Charleston representing our school and our state. Will have a full report when he is back. Senators Reports Senator Hunt We are in full swing for Big IX basketball. There has been much trouble with receiving tickets. Remember to go back in during the claim phase. The Kentucky game is coming up. They are doing a seperate lottery for that. Make sure you are going to a lot of games to build up your points in order to get tickets to the games you would like to attend. Senator Ball I had class at 7:30 last semester. I am working with the LaunchLab to tie in entrepreneur students. We have so many bodies that are active around campus, so we are working on many events at the LaunchLab to bring these bodies together. If you would like to be a part of that, come find me. I can t disclose too many details yet but it is going to be awesome. It is great to be back. Senator King I would like to apologize to my fellow student body and my intern for letting you all down. I went through some very hard times last semester. I didn t eat for three weeks, I laid for bed in three weeks. I tried to hide this from all of you because I am so headstrong. But I am better now thanks to my amazing support group, friends, and family. Mental illness is real, and it is something that needs to be talked about more. I want to give you all some statistics. You can hide it and put a smile on your face but you re not all mentally there. 1 in 3 college students report prolong periods of depression, 50% received an education on mental health before college, and 1 in 7 students report doing unhealthy behaviors while depressed. Find friends and find people to help you do it. I knew I couldn t do it alone, and I have amazing friends. I am ready to

3 hit the ground running. Love one another, especially during winter months which can be very hard on people. College Representatives Reports College Representative Cuomo We met with Dean Reed. We talked about getting our job fair together. We will need to meet with Eric Minor to set that up. College Representative Scott My meeting with Dr. Dunaway went well. We will be setting up monthly meetings. College Representative Kaminski College Representative Wolfe and I had our scantron event right during the middle of finals. It went very well, and I am glad we could lift people's spirits during that time. College Representative Amato Snaps to everyone who has met with their deans because it is extremely hard. I am currently working on the D/F repeat policy. This policy affects a lot of people. I am an RA in Brook Tower. It is a pretty good representation of the general population. I lost around 10 residents on my floor. Of the people left, 1 in 5 to 6 students are on academic probation currently. It is pretty different from where we usually are. Let s try to fight for this policy that is written to help them. I had a meeting with the HUB. They agreed that I was right, but they didn t help or give much direction. Executive Reports Rowan Jalso Coming up this next semester I am trying to do a few more art related events. I wanted to apologize about my stopped crusade of bringing arts to the forefront. I am already trying to get an open mic night at the crossing. If there is anything that anyone needs help with that they think could be enhanced with by the arts, please talk to me. I would like to create more events which would allow students to know what is available to them in regards to the arts. I would also like to help you all with your own events. Hayleigh Bradley Spring internship application is out. Please tweet it out it will help. Lexi Brown Elections are coming up soon. On January 23rd, we have a meeting for the candidates. It is not required. You can also contact me by my . I would like to get a few more mobile office hours in regards to outreach.

4 Riley Keaton The bill is done. None of our four priorities were negatively affected by it. Blake is at the State of the State tonight, which is great news. Blake was invited by the House Chair of Education to come sit on the floor at the State of the State. The conversations at Charleston relate to three key issues. Josh Higgenbottom is the sponsor of our textbook availability bill. The budget situation this year looks much better than it did last spring. It doesn t look like we are moving towards a higher education cut this year. The third thing is building relationships. Blake has done really well with this. Governors and representatives are caring more about what we have to say that they have in the past. There will be a press release talking about the increased relationships which have been made which is awesome for us. Brandon Waters I have met with President Humphrey and Vice President Smith about accountability standards and have cleared the air about things I was vocal about in the spring. Off of senator King s report, everyone has counseling available to them at the Carruth Center. There are 8 free sessions a year at CPASS. They do walk ins as well. Unfinished Business None. New Business a. Financial Bill Treasurer Daw Title I is Young Life. This grant will help cover expenses as the organization travels to one of the Young Life s properties in Rockbridge, Virginia. We are willing to allocate $1, to help cover the cost of registration. Is there a representative from the club that would like to speak? Title II is the English Graduate Student Union. This grant is to help cover expenses to pay for printing programs, buying folders, and catering at the EGSU graduate conference in the spring. We are willing to allocate $ to help cover these items. Is there a representative from the club that would like to speak? Title III is the Men s Rugby Team. This grant will help cover expenses to help fly members of the team to and from Oklahoma University, where they will compete in the Big XII tournament. We are willing to allocate $1,500 to cover flights for four people. Is there a representative from the club that would like to speak? PPT Brewster This looks like a lot of money for this amount of people; and it is. However, we rationalized it by their past performance. They typically win, which reflects really well on the University. Senator Henriquez Is this a University authenticated team or is it a club sports team? Treasurer Daw It is a club sports team.

5 Senator King How many members are they taking? Treasurer Daw I believe they said they are taking 14 to 16 members. Treasurer Daw Title IV is the Muslim Student Association. This grant will be for expenses to cover catering of their annual Fast a thon at the end of January. We are willing to allocate $1, to help cover the cost of catering. Is there a representative from the club that would like to speak? Title V is College Republicans. This grant will help cover the expenses of registration for the Conservative Political Action Conference in February. We are willing to allocate $1, for registration costs for 12 people. College Republicans Representatives We are taking twelve members. They have been with us and done a lot. We are taking the cheaper route so we can take more people. Without the grant, it will make it a little more difficult on us. We would like to add the $ for lodging back into the grant request. The recommendation made by the Board of Finance said that the tier this falls into is a soft $1,000. I have two defenses; twelve is a lot of people, even for a club event especially since it is member only. This number could go up, but this number is viable for us. Second, registration is only $85, which is generally low for conventions. We are asking for lodging included to open the door for us to take more people and benefit the people that we are taking. Behind the scenes of CPAC, there are a ton of opportunities for professional growth and development, as well as networking. This is very beneficial for all of our members. PPT Brewster Do you know how many people went last year? College Republicans Representatives I believe it was eleven. SGA has helped us get there for the past three years, so a grant for this event is nothing new. Senator Gupta What is the average cost for one person to attend? College Republicans Representatives We are looking at an Uber bill each morning and evening as well as lodging. I spent $250 of my own money last year because I didn t get any subsidized rate. The members will be paying for their own food and transportation while there. Senator Henriquez What is the cap for this current tier and for the next tier? Treasurer Daw Our tiers are split up by $500, $1000, $1500, and $2000.

6 Senator Henriquez I think we could justify raising this grant allocation if we increase the amount given to Young Life. PPT Brewster How much did we give College Republicans last year? Treasurer Daw We gave them $1,000. College Republicans Representatives Students for Trump also received $1,000 which we combined with the $1,000 grant we were given. Senator Sizemore Are you doing anything else to fundraise? College Republicans Representatives Yes we are out in the community. We believe we can raise a substantial amount this way. PPT Brewster This is usually around the amount we give to organizations when they go to conventions. This is a national conference, which fits into tier three. If you guys feel comfortable raising the amount, $1,500 would fit in the tier. College Representative Amato It takes a lot for members to come up and appeal. We haven t had many organizations show up, yet we still give them funds. Also, I will never question what we did in the past in terms of grants. If we split the hotel, it will stay in the range and does recognize the fact that what was done is worthy of a raise. Senator Hunt The amount per person given to Young Life is $89. The amount given to this organization is right around $85. This shows consistency. Senator Gupta They mentioned it is around $250 per person. I believe paying around half of that is reasonable. It will also remain in the range of the tier as well. I support adding that amount of money. Senator Hoang Last year they requested $1,000. We technically did give them more per student to go to this conference. If we pay for three rooms for one night it is $231. If we add it to what the Board of Finance has listed, it will break down to around $104 per person going. College Representative Amato What would be the difference of splitting it compared to what you did?

7 Senator Hoang It is easier. The price they have included includes taxes which we can not pay for, so it makes more sense to do it this way. It is a matter of how it breaks down. College Representative Amato Move to amend the amount to $1, by unanimous consent. VP Smith The motion passes. College Representative Amato Move to vote on this bill by unanimous consent. VP Smith The motion passes. b. Assembly Bill PPT Brewster This is something we brought up in September about an issue facing the organization. We created a committee consisting of a member from each branch, and came up with the following accountability standards: reading of Assembly Bill Document. This is not to sound mean, but to hold people accountable to what they need to be doing. This is a pilot program. If we find that many people are not meeting these standards or that it is too easy, we will alter this. Senator Hunt Are we going to add anything about Sydney and her team about their reports? PPT Brewster How do you want to add this language in? Senator Hoang I think that per team, there should be one report to avoid being redundant. It can be anyone in the team. College Representative Amato We are voting on implementing the pilot. What we implement will be in the realm of changing, so I do not see a reason to not implement it tonight. Senator Hoang When we make these changes, will we have to vote on the changes made? PPT Brewster Yes. Senator Hoang Months when we don t have many events for SGA, can the points be reduced? PPT Brewster That is why it includes the 50% language. Senator Kyle If we do find problems with it as we go along, should we just contact you?

8 PPT Brewster Feel free to contact me or Adila. Please bring any issues you have with this at these meetings. This is the best place where we can debate it all. College Representative Scott How long will this pilot last? PPT Brewster Ideally, the rest of this administration. It will be in the hands of the next administration to determine how to handle it then. College Representative Scott How will we set this in stone or determine that it works? PPT Brewster We should have a good idea by March if this is working or not. We will add it to our bylaws when we know it works. These are written by each administration. Senator Hoang If you have academic conflicts, will the number of point threshold go down? How will you define this? PPT Brewster It is in the forth bullet point of the bill. I believe that four one conflict, it will drop by one point. If you have an excused absence for academic reasons, the point threshold for that month will be lowered by one point. I would find it hard that you couldn t come to a weekly SGA meeting or a Board of Finance meeting. Things like the Share A Swipe event will count as a point as well. There are more than just meetings to attend. Hayleigh Bradley Points count by attending meetings, monthly reports, and other SGA sponsored events. Senator Giles To clarify, you only need eight total points from whatever type of event or meeting? PPT Brewster Yes. Senator Hunt I want to move to table this to next week so we can have amendments finished by then. This gives us plenty of time to have the month of February to test this out. Senator Vijay Let s say this is implemented, who will be keeping track of this? PPT Brewster I already keep track of attendance, and Adila takes attendance for executive meetings. Adila and I will keep a point tally by sign in sheets. Senator Vijay Can we have a point tally spreadsheet?

9 PPT Brewster It will be a Google Sheet that will be accessible to everyone. I would say it could be updated every weekend. Senator Vijay If you see someone who is not close to the eight points near the end of the month, will you have an sent out to them? PPT Brewster I would like to have an accountability director that specifically runs this. College Representative Amato I would like to stress that this is a pilot again. We will sort out these kinks as time goes by. These are all different pieces we have working on large. I think it is important to implement this tonight. Senator Gupta I agree with Vinnie. Most of the issues we are having are implementation issues. If we put something in there that doesn t work out we can always alter it. College Representative Scott I believe passing this tonight would be a mistake. What Tyler is doing is great, but we should sort everything out and start it come February. PPT Brewster This is a pilot program. There is no penalty for passing it tonight. I will go type up all the language discussed tonight. The quickier we start working out the kinks tonight, the quicker we can start implementing it. Senator Arbogast This is more of a make sure people are doing what they need to be doing, not kick people end who are not meeting their points. I believe we should vote on this tonight. Senator Hunt Move to table this to next week. If PPT Brewster needs any help he can do it by use of the GroupMe. Move to vote on this by roll call. VP Smith The nays have it, can I introduce a new motion? Attorney General Cannon The bill needs to be formally introduced. He was talking to the qualifications of the bill. If he inputs the changes made during discussion, he will need new signatures. The bill must be read before more motions can be made about this bill. College Representative Amato The bill can be tabled after it is read. Hayleigh Bradley Reading of Bill

10 Senator Henriquez Does anyone have an issue adding in the end of the bill that we approve the pilot system? Senator Hunt I see what you re saying but this also goes along with the point that we can table this and sort out the kinks. Senator Hoang I think we should table this and talk about it more in the GroupMe before we vote on it. Senator Gupta I still disagree with tabling it. This will allow the people responsible with implementing, to actually begin implementing it. I think it is a good idea if we all agree to amend it by February. That way we can sort out kinks before we begin it in February, instead of waiting until then. Hayleigh Bradley This was written based off of what was discussed at the last meeting. Kayla Asbury You all are not the only ones being affected by this, it is executives as well. College Representative Amato We have all been at this point that we want to have a discussion on this, but changes must be made. That is why we need to vote on this tonight. PPT Brewster There is no point to table it this week, because changes can be made next week. Passing it tonight allows us to start on working out a system for the future. College Representative Wolfe I don t see any reason to not pass it if we can change it on a rolling basis. PPT Brewster No one will be kicked out this semester, do not worry. Senator Hunt The last part of this bill is saying that this document is the cover for our system, but we do not have a system yet. I think that wording needs something if you all are bound to change something tonight. Senator Henriquez That is saying that the pilot can be changed week by week, instead of just passing a pilot bill with no changes that can be made. I motion that the last point is changed to include the pilot program language. Second.

11 Representative Wolfe Motion to vote on this bill by roll call with the proposed changes. VP Smith This bill passes. c. Bureau of Finance Appointments Treasurer Daw The Board of Finance has had some quorum issues. I decided to appoint all four of our interns. We are also going to try adding a few more members in the coming weeks. Hopefully, we will have some more interns added soon as well. Senator Arbogast motion to vote on the appointees via unanimous consent. VP Smith Congratulations! You have all been appointed. Open Student Forum II Senator Hoang Next Wednesday in the Shenandoah room at 5 6:30 there will be an I Am Aware discussion held about what signs to look out for when walking alone, especially at night. Treasurer Daw Tonight s balance is $6, This means that so far, we have allocated $84,176, which leaves $33,000 for the semester. I will be wrapping up grants around spring break depending upon organizations that do not claim their money. You all have budgets as senators and representatives, please use it or the University will take it away and use it for budgets and stuff. This will also reflect poorly on SGA if the money is not used. Senator Sizemore Can we have an update about the law school grants? Treasurer Daw I haven t brought it back up to them yet, but I am inviting them back next week with the same allocation amount. They will be put up to the assembly next week and you all will have the final say. Brenna Leasor Sign up for Share A Swipe event happening soon. I posted all the details in the GroupMe. We need people signed up. If anyone has a car they want to donate, let me know. Jordan Nistendirk The Students Reproductive Justice Club meets on Tuesdays at 6 in the LGBTQ center. Our first meeting will be next Tuesday. Brandon Waters It is important to note after all the discussion we had, that many people have not been included in the conversation. In the future we should not be so hypercritical and know what we are talking about before you talk.

12 PPT Brewster The Student Alumni Association is having their next meeting on Monday, January 22nd in the Mountainlair. This organization helped us produce the WVU Alumni App. It is a great way to get internships and job opportunities. You ll learn a lot more about WVU connecting students to alumni if you attend the event. Also, I encourage all of you to download the app, it is free! VP Smith I am so happy to see everyone and that everyone had a good winter break. I am very excited for this semester and I think we are going to do great things. Assembly members keep a look out for an from me, I would like to meet with you all to talk about your goals. Thank you all for your hard work. Advisors Reports Professor Klandorf What happens if many of you are ill this next semester in regards to the point system? Half of you could be gone in one night. We have an election coming up. Keep up the energy and maybe include in the constitution that the runner up could be a second Vice President or President. All three of the announced candidates have wonderful traits and qualities they bring to the table, I would hate to see them disappear. Senator Hunt Motion to adjourn. Adjournment