Student Government Senate Tuesday September 3, 2013 Session Agenda Call to Order/Roll Call The senate meeting was called to order at 4:36 pm. Presiding Officer Hukins conducted roll call. Quorum was met with the presence of 16 out of 23 senators. Approval of Minutes The minutes were approved with 0 corrections. Communications and Announcements Senators Non-Senators Presiding Officer Communication and Announcements The college of engineering is the first college to be full, but we still need to recruit for the other colleges. Hukins will be meeting with the faculty for the master planning committee, so if you have any ideas, let him know. Pro Tempore and Committee Reports Pro Tempore All Committees Executive, Judicial, SAC, Advisor Reports President o Bonds appointed Chase Aucion to serve on the budget committee. There will be two more that he will appoint for that committee. Edie Talley will also be nominated today to serve as a justice and two more people will come up next week. Those are Tony Collato and Jennifer Perez. Last week President Fos came to talk about renaming the cafeteria. They are in the process of developing a contest for that. Once the logistics are set Bonds will inform the senate of this information. Student Government is having an open forum on September 19 th around lunch time. He would like to have as many people there as possible to ask President Fos and Dr. Kemker questions. The first volleyball game will be September 11 th, everyone should go. It usually is a blast. Campbell: Are any colleges giving office space to senators in case of help? Bonds: I don t know of that, we have discussed it, but there s more that needs to be discussed, about where and what will be in there and who s responsible. We re looking for making space for students to use and will have more discussions. We can t just choose rooms that they want. Campbell: But you do plan to discuss with the deans about it?
Bonds: Yes, we will be discussing that soon. If any of you want to bring up issues with colleges soon. We will start talking of that late September or early October. Sentor Janardhanan here. Treasurer o There is $27,147.88 in the senate s operating account. Saybe had to change his office hours. They are now as follows: Monday 10:00 4:00, Tuesday 12:15-1:30 and 4:15-6. Thursday 12:15-1:30. If you need him you can find him in his office during his hours, e-mail him or text his cell number on his business card. Text him; don t call. He needs people for the budget committee. He s going to make slide show to show how to submit an application. They can be submitted November 1 st and then have 4 months to get them it in. The committee will have to have one meeting between October 20 th and 25 th because it is mandated by the constitution to do so. When they do meet in the spring the hours can last 3-4 hours. The committee plans how to spend the next year s money. If you have a business mind or are interested in accounting it would be beneficial for you to join. Saybe will not be making recommendations for chairman until more people are in the senate and he can go over the requirements. The committee calls for 5 people from the senate, and only 2 from each college. Almost every college ends up getting represented. Rougelot: When can we start nominating senators for the budget committee? Saybe: Technically today, but I want to be able to sit them down and really talk to the people about what it entails. Obviously I d have no problems with you since you ve done it before. Sadly, I ll be graduating in May, so we will need a new treasurer. So if you re interested in that position then you need budgetary experience. I highly recommend you being a part of this so you can under study me. Campbell: Is there any funding if offices do open in the different colleges, to put paper and all in there? Saybe: The budget for this year was already budgeted last semester so it would have to come through the senate. Campbell: Amazon is now approved to purchase from, can you look into that? Saybe: Yes. Secretary of State o I am looking for people for my election commission. They can t already be on any other branch. If anyone has complaint during the elections, the election commission decides on how to handle it, so they have to be nonbiased. The president picks 2, and senate approves 3. Judicial Report o Edie Talley is coming to be appointed to be a justice. If she is appointed, then we can meet as a supreme court. Lang pleads with the senate to consider the fact that they have to meet within 10 days of school starting, which is fast approaching. Campbell: Do you have any plans to fill the court?
Lang: Yes Campbell: Who would nominate them? Lang: President Bonds. SAC Report o Welcome week was awesome. Liz hopes you had fun. Next week they are having good morning privateers; if you want to volunteer you can help out. It ll be from 8:00 to 11:00. On September 11 th they are having a remembrance from 11:00 until 1:30. It ll be a moment of diversity for everyone to come together. They will have a hotdog bar, both regular and vegan. SAC is starting a newsletter to put their events in, if you want a shout out for your organization s events let them know. Dean of Student Affairs o A lot of people were sworn in last meeting. Rault challenges the senate to get out there and look for new people and everyone to try to fill the senate. Talk to your friends and talk up SG. Rault stressed committee work last week and will always stress that. If you join a committee, commit to it. In regards to the SG open forum, unless you re in class, you need to be there. There are so many times that advisors and others are texting people to ask them to come because of a poor turn-out. Most of the efforts will fall on marketing, but plan on being there. If you haven t seen the new UNO commercial, it s on the UNO website. They unveiled it this past weekend in all AMC theatres. Campbell: If President Fos is planning on talking about a house speaker in regard to separate funding. Now the university is funded 70% by students and 30% by the state, so do we get more say in matters. Pam: I don t know those questions, but with the open forum, if you write them down, we ll get those questions asked. SG Advisors Old Business New Business B.F13I001 VASA Paper Lantern Night In past 2 years that Netto has been a senator this event has come up. It s a great event, it always is successful and the senators always try to go. Vasa is all about keeping culture awareness and keeping the culture alive. The event is centered around the mid-autumn moon festival. It s been successful in past. Last year it had over 200 attendees. It s held in the alumni ballroom. This year it will be Sept 26 th from 6:00 until 9:00. It will be free admission and open to all. They invite members of SG to go. They will also be taking donations for their philanthropy. It s a non-profit organization to stop human trafficking. It s about the other 20%, meaning it s for those you don t normally think of. This is for the other 20% of male and young men in trafficking. VASA wants to become a change for this. They will advertise the event via social media and facebook and flyers. The SG logo will be on the flyers and at the event. The amount they are asking for is $569.49. They will have to rent a helium tank, buy discounted flyers and book the ballroom. The food will be through donated sponsors and decorations through organization members.
Nominations and Appointments Frank Bivens III, COLA This is Bivens second semester as a graduate student. He s getting his masters in public administration. He is interested in becoming part of senate. 1. Rougeleot: What made you interested? 2. Bivens: I wanted to get involved on campus and be a part of something of the decision making on campus. This is a chance to contribute to it. I wasn t able to at my last campus. a. With a roll call vote of 17 yes, 0 no, and 0 abstentions he is appointed. Brian Martinez, COLA Martinez is not sure what he wants to do. He is interested in the students. He wants people to listen and to listen to us. He feels that there are issues that need to be fixed, but that there is no such thing as a perfect university. He wants people who aren t in SG to be heard. He feels as though the faculty is not helpful most of the time and was upset that people were asking to him how to do things instead of being able to get help from the faculty. 1. Christopher: Did you say your major? 2. Martinez: I am a double major in film and business. 3. Bonilla: How do you plan to reach to your students? I ve had problems to get to the students and it s hard. 4. Martinez: You approach them everywhere you go. I m planning to join other clubs and organizations and ask those students how they feel. When I was trying to transfer from Boston, I didn t like it, but it grew fast and I like it a lot. One thing to motivate me is that I have a lot of questions that aren t being answered. Just networking and building relationships. 5. Burgan: What would be your top priority to fix on the campus? 6. Martinez: I don t know what students will like to fix. What I d like is to make staff more strongly interested in the students; not just look at them as a number. To make the staff more interested in students. 7. Lang: Which college do you plan on representing? 8. Martinez: Liberal Arts. a. With a roll call vote of 15 yes, 2 no, and 0 abstentions he is appointed. Edie Talley 1. With a roll call vote of 17 yes, 0 no, 0 abstentions, she is confirmed. Open Forum Bonds: passing around a flyer for an event for tomorrow with department of philosophy. They will be having a panel discussion. It should be an interesting discussion. Just wanted to promote it. Christopher: The first meeting for SAC is tomorrow. There will be free pizza. From SIL, this semester is having historically large turn outs at the events. They plan to have a lot of cross promotion from other organizations. If we want to be bigger and better, we need to get more events out there. It s hard to know what s going on because there s so much going on. If you can help out and get together, talk to me to get events promoted. SAC is launching a new thing where we have smaller organizations getting to co-sponsor
us instead of the large Greek organizations in an effort to get UNO to be a stronger and better community. Adjournment The meeting was adjourned at 5:18 pm.