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Minutes for Mar. 23rdOpening & Reports(No statements are direct quotes unless specified by quotation marks.)
President Cailao called the meeting to order at 5:00 p.m. by the Senate Clock. Roll callGuests:
Proxy:
Emilie Mihal for Kendall Bliss
Approval of the AgendaBard moves/Weber seconds to approve the agenda Approval of the MinutesBard moves/Weber seconds to approve the minutes Public Hearing Bard I apologize for the numerous emails and the lack of attatchments. Schwegal Apparently it is unsafe to leave the computer lab doors open in the evening. However, it gets very hot and humid in there. It would be great if there was some way to turn down the thermostat or increase circulation. Haken Over spring break I
stayed in the dorms. Kise is my main source of food and
yet they were not open. Because I am currently unemployed
I had no money to purchase food. I think having Kise open
over break should be considered as there are students here who
do stay over the break and who do use their services. Mihal I am proposing an amendment. Basically the amendment will help outline some things such as whether or not non members such as the secretary would be able to proxy. The secretary before Costley felt that she was not being treated fairly and we would like to avoid this sentiment in the future. Cailao President Barden was
gracious enough to come and speak with us tonight. This
will be an opportunity for the senate to ask questions as well
as for Barden to answer them. I would like to thank
President Barden for coming tonight. Thank you, and welcome back from spring break. I am pleased to hear that there was at least one student on campus over break. I hope you are all Looking forward to a hard drive through your final exams. There will be 850 of us at the commencement this year. Commencement promises to be a very happy time for family and new graduates. This week the bonding bill is in the legislature, the draft of the bill and the bill for the senate went through the committee on finance in senate and they suspended the rules and did a complete floor vote. The vote passed by a large majority. We do not know yet what the house bill is. The Process is continuing forward. We look forward to a long process all the way to a bill. There are Interesting circumstances here because the governor can line item veto a bonding bill. In this type of situation you are not secure in funding until the very end. Also I am pleased to report that the Hagen hall project is moving a long. We could go into the fourth floor right now if we wanted to. The third floor will be about a month after that and in the summer the second floor. We will be vacating first floor during that time. We will have that building in full service by the end of fall term next year. Whether or not McLean starts renovation depends on the bonding bill. We are very pleased to have the support from the state. It has been one of the clearest forms of support form MN state that you get in terms of encouraging you and supporting your education. I look forward to continued improvements on our campus. I would also like to thank the senate particularly for expressing support for these projects. Ascheman
Policy section talks about possession of containers or trophies. I know as most of us here do that the MSUM shot glasses have been removed from the bookstore. I guess our question is how far does this extend? Can somebody walking through campus with a Budweiser t-shirt on be i in jeopardy of violating the policy? Also Section 5 talks
about off campus. What exactly adversely effects the service
function of the university? It seems like you could claim that
with just about anything. Even a speeding ticket may have
adverse effects. A lot of the concern is just to have it more
clear as to what exactly these words are meaning.
We are trying to elaborate a little more. It is not going to be a perfect thing to define boundaries if people knew how to do that we would not need lawyers. The language you quoted is in fact an effort to make sure that there is a clear definition. Our biggest point is to maintain the integrity of teaching and learning with respect to drugs and alcohol. The primary interest is that students are in shape to engage, very usefully in the teaching and learning process. It was a year ago that we really got an interest in engaging our attention to the policies and to the efforts of the university. We wanted to make sure that we are headed in the right direction. We found almost immediately that there were about three maybe four versions of the student conduct policy on campus. Our initial goal was to unify our student conduct policy and that process is still undergoing. A timeline amped up this process. The task force report is the near end product and is the result of a lot of people who have worked very hard on this. It does however need to be reviewed by student government. Wiese In the current
student handbook there is a great deal of language regarding the
off campus policies. I know that this has come to surprise a lot
of students. The intention of the task force is to promote a
greater awareness of these policies. Barden This applies to club
teams, musical groups, organizations, or anyone else supported
by the university or recognized as part of MSUM, faculty members
and leaders of those groups are required to act as if they were
here working, when they are out there working with those groups.
Also any other activities with employees and students is always
susceptible of being looked at. It is certainly not welcome. It
is important to remember that there is a power difference
between faculty and the students. Ascheman How do you define the alcohol trophies and paraphernalia addressed. Is that just anything related to alcohol? Barden The board of higher education in the state of SD switched over to a particular language covering these types of things. There they were primarily after bottles and containers. So when the RA comes a long and there is a container, then the assumption is that it did have alcohol in it and it has been consumed in that room. Now if there were some type of sculpture made out of say a wine bottle, then that would be looked at differently. Braddock "I've seen documentation that proposes a unified incident tracking system intended to aid the university in dealing with student conduct issues on campus. When I worked at Security, I was told several times that plans were in progress to eliminate the student records officer position because of contractual issues with the various unions faculty and staff belong to. Now that a new proposal has been made to track the behavioral issues of our students, how involved will students be in maintaining that system and enforcing conduct violations outside the student conduct committee?" Barden They can’t be very public because it is private information. It is conceivable that there would be a student employee involved with that. I am not sure that the information would be available to a student talking to security. The primary purposes is to avoid the situation of finding out that there had been several interactions with a student and that we had treated them each as first offence solely because the left hand didn’t know what right hand had done. The idea is to have one record of things. Braddock While I worked with Campus security, security employed a great deal of discretion. If we came across an individual with alcohol that was cooperative most of the time they just got let go. Barden I don’t think that there are any reports that the university would have to answer that with . They have a lot of discretion on the street. In those situations the university only knows what has been charged formally. Braddock The sustainable
campus committee, has taken approximately seventy thousand
dollars from the students. I am curious as to what they
can and cannot do with that money. There was talk of employing
the students money in the community. This does not seem
right, as the money should benefit the campus not the community. My understanding is that this proposal came from the senate and that it must be used on campus. One suggestion was an alternative form of energy, securing a renewable energy source, and avoiding horrendous increases in fossil fuel prices. Hopefully this would make it so that students down the row wouldn’t have to pay the huge fee for fuel costs. I don’t ever recall the money being taxed and put into community projects. Wiese
Braddock Is the wind turban idea still in play? Barden City of Moorhead did a wind turban several years ago. It costs nearly a quarter million dollars to fix the thing. If that is the nature there needs to be a reconsideration. The city has had very unpleasant experiences with this. The people most interested in this project are trying to discover if this is common or a freak thing before pursuing it to closure. On another note Rita Sailor is a representative from 3A park rapids up north. Rita is a dragon an art major graduate and brand new to the legislature. She fought a vigorous campaign and is very interested in the environment and very interested in student work in this area. She is also interested in this small fee for environmental issues. She would love to see you. Maybe sometime she will be on campus and be able to stop and chat with you. Mihal When I started here in 2002 out of state tuition was at no cost. Will this be continuing? Barden What you are referring to is tuition for residents across the country outside of reciprocity. That policy continues to be scrutinized by the board of trustees. There are 16 in mnSCU that have used that policy. The economic development interests of state of MN are very interested in having more people out of state come into MN. It is not a sure thing but I believe it is going to be around for a long time. If you move to MN and become a part of the state they will take their chances that you will stay. Weber Is there the possibility of a hockey team being formed here at MSUM? I think that it would help to boost attendance. Barden Both Caroline and I attended the University of North Dakota if we have free evening time we are at home watching gophers or huskers. Interestingly enough I have been hearing this since the 89/90 academic year. I have never had a serious overture from the community to put in a hokey team. You cannot be division 2, you can only do what the other schools do and be division 1. Bemidji plays everyone else that cannot get in a big league. That is an interesting situation from an economic view. I am not sure why there is not more pressure to go up to a division 1. The fact is that more people than just you ask where it is but no one has suggested how to pay for it. I am very concerned about that. I cannot tell you what it costs when you have to travel by air. You cant get to anchorage by bus. Although it is a great idea and it does get peoples attention it needs to funding to actually happen. For whatever reason people are more interested in hockey then a lot of other sports but it is also very expensive. I just can’t imagine students seriously supporting the hockey team. The hockey arena In St cloud was obtained by the community. The city went and got the team anyway. Gains There is a ten year plan until 2013 can you address the plan on diversity? Do we need to pursue a more aggressive plan? Barden We have begun changing our process for the plan. We have been working with a group of individuals from TOCAR and other groups who have made some recommendations. They have also recommended that we work through our language on the committee. The Diversity Committee did not believe they were responsible for this part of it. One thing I would like to write in to that charge is that they must meet with the student senate diversity committee. Because that has got to be apart of the play and oversight that has been going on. While on subject, the board of trustees have set up standing committee on diversity. Dr Harris senior officer in the equal opportunity and diversity has been on our campus several times already. He is a very active leader, the board has just accepted a diversity plan at the board level. That should be out very soon for all of us to see. They are also considering documentation on definitions on exactly on that. There definition and the scope of the Diversity Committee is getting broader. We have focused initially on persons of colors and minorities the diversity definition of the board would be more sweeping of underrepresented people. People who are poor as well. We have almost 30 percent Pell Grant eligible. I hate to say poor student. I just mean people that do not have a lot of funds. This is a much broader initiative. Gains Is it possible to start a social norming campaign? I see that we have directed enormous amount of money to alcohol. I think it would be great to have some kind of social norming campaign on diversity. Barden I will not agree with
the amount of money spent on the task force. It has been an area
where we have very committed people. Our dilemma on the other
hand is that we have spent money on diversity for a number of
years, but we have not achieved what we set out to do. We have
done a lot of things but almost no one knows about it. The issue
is energy, it doesn’t look like the energy is there. That takes
leadership. Mihal In terms of the bonding bill, we don’t know what will happen this time but assuming both pass what is on the plate for next time? Barden The master plan calls
for renovation of Lommen Hall. Once we are done with
McLean the second item is to remember the design plan for Lommen
Hall. Both buildings were built in 1931-1932. They need some new
parts. That is what is going on. You can see the master plan for
the campus and see how all of this plans out. It is not
something that has to be changed but it is something we need to
sit down and take care of in a diplomatic way. Mihal Regarding the alcohol policy what is the intent? Is it that whenever a student does something bad off campus they are going to be punished. When will this be enforced?
Next fall at earliest. We cannot enforce it till it is widely published. I am assuming you're back to the off campus phenomenon. Mihal My concern is that some policies are not already enforced, we could be enforcing something now but I don’t see it happening. Next year is it every time a student has a violation and the university knows about it? Barden If you are under the care of a criminal justice system, I am sure that the university will look at it but I'm not sure that it will automatically do something. If the Student Senate was out there and all of you were picked up it would be pretty interesting. If you are driving home and picked up I'm not sure we would be particularly interested in that. It would get into the question of whether or not repetition shows up. If not a one time thing the university will get involved, we don’t see that kind of behavior leading anywhere fruitful. Mihal It sounds like in the policy that anything is being watched over Big Brother style. Barden The language is intended to clarify that. It conveys more information. Hepola I guess I haven’t really looked at the handbook. Is it in the handbook that if you are off campus and you get in trouble that it goes to the school? Barden It says now that they can be applied to off campus situations. The task force report has not been documented, but the other language is still there. Brown What happens if McLean does not get the funding. Barden Everything will sit. Cailao In response to some questions it says in the handbook that “campus is not a sanctuary from civil law" Braddock Traditionally how it worked in security was we got reports from police and then forwarded them to the appropriate offices. Barden I appreciate your interest in the proposed policy and look forward to getting your comments about it. The ultimate sanction from the university is suspension. That is not a lot compared to what the court system can do to you. One thing about our court system is that you never want to be swept into it. It is not a happy experience. Rapp In general, beyond the alcohol task force what do you feel is the most pressing issue on our campus right now? Barden Certainly in our society and on our campus there is a continuing erosion of will in public and in voting members of the legislature to recognize higher education. It is valuable to this country and this state that you are here becoming more knowledgeable learning more about yourself and about the world. People will generally recognize it, they used to both recognize it and pay for it now there is an erosion in there commitment to paying for it and supporting it. We all need to figure out a way to address and redress this. Wilson-Mattson There is a piece of legislature in the house right now, if it passes students will be able to go to a chair and say that a student does not understand a professor and they will receive full tuition and if ten percent of the class agrees the professor will be issued a new assignment. Barden
Cailao Where do you see enrollment numbers going over the next years. Barden We are watching that closely because of the population dynamics of the Midwestern states. A lot of families are relocating to Fargo Moorhead. It is a Classic global phenomenon that hasn’t been going on for a while and you can read that in any era. The fact is that Fargo is growing quite rapidly and yet the school students are not increasing. We are concerned and
watching this because it has a significant roll in the overall
ability of university to maintain size and opportunities. We are
watching this and recruiting further away in part to make
institution better known. I want to talk about some technical
things. The MSUM head count enrollment includes a number
of students we instruct including NDSU students who take classes
here. Our allocated funds are based on instruction not number of
actual fulltime students, even if they are not paying us. We
have a number of exchange programs. Our tuition revenue is based
on students that pay us. Our fee revenue is based on those that
pay us not those we instruct. That is the enrollment number that
we monitor very closely. Last fall when we talked about
budgeting we were here to discuss a one percent decrease in the
size of the student body. Next year if enrollment were to
decrease more than one percent than we would not be looking for
more than a 9 percent tuition increase. We are ready to trim
some expenses if we have to. A primary message is that we are
determined to maintain a very effective teaching and learning
environment here. We are spending a lot of times discovering
ways to do that more cost effectively. If the state will stand
to its obligation and increase its support to you the ways it
has historically done that will help a great deal. Cailao A lot of us deal with
student activities fee committees. We see tons of money and many
people want that money. I encourage you to
say no when you think you should. You need to work on your
language to define exactly what you mean. People are
extraordinarily creative when they think they can get someone
else to pay for something. Cailao I know you have a previous engagement, but if there is anything u would like to close with... Barden The Academic Vice
President was not able to be with us, please extend an
invitation for her to possibly come meet with you later. Again I
would like to express appreciation for your diligence in
expressing the central roll of student government. Government
expresses the will of the people in a useful way and I really
appreciate that you as individuals have set aside time to use
your time in such an essential way. I am glad that you have
stepped forward and stood up to the task of being the official
voice of students on this campus. Mihal I do not have a good sense of smell but lately when I walk into the Hagen lab in the south west corner it smells like a dead rat. Obach It has recently come to my attention that Bard has seen Walk the Line and become a bit obsessed we may need to stage an intervention.
Reports
Advisor Wiese
I met with the president earlier and presented the fee recommendations, including the SABC recommendation. It made a nice neat package and I presume he will approve it soon. I Also presented recommendations from tech fee. We are looking for volunteers for dragon days parents program, fun neat program to meet with parents of future students and discuss your experiences here. I would like to ask senate to conduct a discussion about the possibility of student health insurance. It has been on our radar screen for a while now. I just want to put it out there that that will be coming along.
Cailao
Is that typically a much lower rate than blue cross blue shield?
Wiese
It is definitely much less. It would be a group plan for a very specific situation.
Haken
Does everyone that comes to school have to have insurance?
Wiese
Yes but that can still be under your parents plan, as long as it meets a minimum standard. It would really benefit those without insurance.
Young
What were the dates on the parent program?
Cailao
The 27th -29th of April. Monday is the first of May, that is also our last MSUSA conference.
Ellsworth
Is there any requirements for that?
Wiese
No, I came to senate because generally
students involved in organizations are more knowledgeable.
Justin Schwegel (Treasurer)
(No report)
No questions on the report
James Cailao (President)
Welcome back from
Spring Break!
Chris Braddock
(Vice President) -This tuna
sandwich was excellent.
Obach Is
it true that I froze up like a little school boy
when we saw Clinton? True, also when I
said look its Hilary Clinton secret
service men grabbed for guns. Hilary Clinton is
like 4 foot 2. Yes but she was
also very well put together.
What was she wearing?
Braddock
Jennifer Costley (Secretary)
No questions on the report
Emilie Mihal (Special Projects)
Thank you for filling out the Survey of engagement, there were many needs improvements. I gave suggestions to Cailao. I am going to Mankato for my last campus meeting of the year. Also there will be a 500 tournament.
Cailao
Here is how you play 500.
You get a
person who throws a football. There is
a field of people who try
to catch the ball. If you catch it its
100 points if u touch and it misses you lose 100 points. It’s a fun time
and I bring band aids and Neosporin
The blood
on the legislate like
a champion sign is the result
of a game. When is this?
That will
depend on who signs up.
Committee Reports
Committee on Committees (Chair Obach)
COC has a motion coming up regarding committees. There is also a member of my committee up for grabs. You can have them in a heart beat if you wish.
Campus Affairs
Attendance: Bard Rapp Ellsworth
Guests: Bliss
- Floor matt will hopefully be put down this week. CA will follow up on this. - MSUM student Alcohol and other Drugs Policy discussed.
Cultural Diversity Rep. (Oni)
Attendance: Oni Weber Vrtis
Guests: Wilson-Mattson Ellsworth Braddock Cailao
-There was a proposal to add something to the ballot regarding whether or not to support Together Minnesota in their lobbying against the proposed Minnesota Constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage. -Suggestion about possible funding for diversity Jellybeans.
Ascheman
Are you talking about how they came to us
and said some of the things they opposed going through
legislature?
I think that is the best option. Legislative & Internal Affairs (Chair Wilson-Mattson)
Attendance: Wilson-Mattson Zeiher Ascheman Lovcik
Guests: Braddock Ohren
-Change in Art II Sec 7 Sub B (add 11) II. Serves as a voting member of the Sustainable Campus Committee -Discussed the polling booth on campus -Reviewed the CD resolution to be presented, no problems with it.
Mattson
Where exactly do you have your meetings?
We had it at 9 last night.
If your requested can you be stole
away from your committee? No one person specifically
Marketing (Chair Brown)
Attendance: Brown Ludden Horn
- Marketing has taken over the bulletin board by the library/dragon stop. We are going to split it into 8 sections. M-F, Sa-Sun future post and misc/things for sale. The goal is just to make it easier to find out what is going on. - The banquet is fastly approaching we need to take a vote on the food. The options are "Little Italy" and "Backyard BBQ".
Obach
What are
they charging us for the room fee over there? 75 bucks and
its already being taken care of,
not by senate.
Little Italy is Selected by one vote Rapp
Can you ask them if we
could substitute barbeque pork ribs for
shrimp scampi
I will
look into the barbeque
ribs question. Tuition & Fees Oversight (Chair Elkin)
No Report
Campus Safety Committee (Vice President Braddock)
-At this point Campus Safety Committee has completed its duties.
MSUSA Campus Representative (Senator Zeiher)
No Report
Obach
Election Committee (Chair Young)
No Report
Cailao
When are the meetings next week?
How about we talk about that later?
Do you know which seats are contested?
No Old Business:
New Business:
Motion SP06-32 (Leg/Int)
Mattson
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