Student Senate

Student Senate Minutes – March 27th, 2008

Chair Jenson moves, Chair Camargo seconds to approve the agenda (approved)

Chair Jenson moves, Proxy Haugen seconds to approve the minutes (approved)

Public Hearing

Mayor Voxland

Mark Voxland, mayor of Moorhead.  I went to the Moorhead High School and MSUM, graduated in 1972.  I chose to be an electrical contractor in town, elected to City Council in 1988, and was elected Mayor in 2002 and am midway through my second term. 

Garman – Handling relations with the minority groups in town.  Study by the police department, and the bigger issues, such as the July 4th issue. 

Voxland – I'll give you a little bit of a history lesson.  It was in the late 1990s, on the fourth of July.  There was a small scale incident.  As the police were breaking it up, a person had a felony conviction was spotted in the crowd.  Police officer moved to them, and the crowd reacted.  It was a mess and created tensions that evening.  Police from the two cities, about 40 officers involved.  The net result was a study that we did as a city to take a look at what we can do to make the area of the Romkey Park a safer place.  The result of that, the buildings have been remade, took out several buildings and created more green space.  Poor maintenance was a big issue – garbage all over, and no place to be except going to the park.  No parking, no green space around the building.  The buildings are much less dense, there's more parking.  I'd say 25 to 35 percent of the buildings have had major rehabs.  That's step 1.

The MN civil rights commission came in and did a study in 2002/2003 – came up in 2004.  They suggested – how are we handling police stops and are we profiling?  There was a concern that we had as a community.  A study done in 04-05 that more numbers was taken.  In the middle of 05, we have a camera mounted on the dashboard of every one of our police vehicles.  Once the light bar goes on, it moves back 30 seconds and watches the entire incident until the light bar goes off again.  We don't keep much statistics, but we have every incident set up so we can see.  That's the type of things we have done to move this question forward.  On another front, I worked hard at getting different minorities involved in the city of Moorhead.  It's a very small percent, and very difficult to get anybody of minority involved in city government.  I have some authority to appoint people, and I appointed several people of the minorities.  One of the things we have done in the last year or two, we have kind of re-energized with minorities, youth, and others that haven't been involved in government before.  We started civic university, its being put on by community education.  It's 15 weeks where city employees come in and talk about the areas they work in – zoning and planning; how the sewers work, etc.  We want them to understand the municipality in general.  We want to get people who might be more interested in running for city council or maybe even mayor.  Have we done enough?  No.

Garman – What's the racial make-up of that neighborhood as compared to then?

Voxland – 1990, that place was mostly crawling with college students.  It had a shift as MSUM plummeted in their population in the early 1990s.  It had dropped down to about 7000 in 1994.  Landlords were renting as fast as they could to mostly Hispanics.  By the late 1990s it was mostly a Hispanic population in general.  We don't have exact numbers; we don't usually keep numbers in the city.  We have some retired people, but not a lot.  We have a lot of students, and other groups.  We find we have a stronger Hispanic population, but less Native Americans than Fargo.  It seems to be driven by the main leadership group.  It also tends to be where the basic programs are stronger.  Cass County, Fargo, North Dakota has a stronger Native American program than Minnesota.  American Crystal was here – the first Hispanics were related to beet towing and the sugar fields.  They settled on the Moorhead side and have stayed.  This is a good thing, they are good people.  It's interesting to see how there's a division.

Virnala – I've noticed that the economic focus is on the gateway area between Fargo and Moorhead.  Are there any plans with 1st and Main where there are empty lots and buildings, such as the Holiday Mall area? 

Voxland – The smaller cities are on Minnesota side, and the larger cities were in North Dakota.  Historians believe that is because North Dakota was the dry state while Minnesota was not.  The Civil War was a major change of the way policy was created in the United States.  States that have stronger social programs, created a state government that wants to work more to help the disadvantaged. Minnesota was the last state that came in before the Civil War.  We live on that border.  We have less of a population and a more cumbersome and problematic tax policies.  As we work on economic development, we have to find ways to overcome it.  I would love to see a bookstore in Moorhead.  You're going to look at property tax, how much you have to pay your people.  How much you have to pay in income tax and building costs.  We've finally leveled the playing field in property tax.  They pay 2.3% of value, and pay about the same to hire anybody with the exception of the hospitality industry.  Income tax is the killer.  MN has a higher burden than North Dakota.  You're going to make more money in Fargo.  We have worked very hard to equalize that, but it's pretty limited.  There isn't a lot we can do in retail.  We've had a growth in population.  Getting more rooftops in that downtown area, because they see that it's growing and they can make some money.  We have spent our economic dollars in high paying jobs.  We're looking at high paying jobs.  If you're in that already, you know what you're getting paid.  We want that job available so you will stay in the area and can pay off your college debt.  We're working hard with the tri-colleges and the tech to create programs within the institutions.  We are trying to get businesses to come in and say that we're developing students right now – bring your company.  We have a market and more coming in and can add programs to add value once they come in.  Microsoft, Phoenix International.  If you get those, you get the secondary businesses.  They do the programming for John Deere.

Downtown in the 80s was a disaster.  90s it got better.  The area we've been focusing on is the downtown gateway where Kirby's used to be.  We're talking with developers and talking about changing buildings.  Walgreens bought an old dairy and built a beautiful building on it.  We're seeing that more.  We're kind of limited as to what we as a city can do for that development.  1st avenue north where the big grain elevator used to be.  There are several developers going down that stretch because they want to change the look of 1st avenue.  How can we make that a good place to build?  They're suggesting those stupid medians so you can't cross traffic – taking those out, burying electric wires, etc.  We're working with property and business owners.  It's going to take a bit, but we're going to find out what's going on.  Once we get done with 1st, then Main, then Center.  This is all private property.  We want to work with the property owners.   We have to work in the system.  As a community you end up knowing more than you want to.  There are 18,000 cities in the United States, and we're all the same.

Virnala – There's been some resistance, saying that Moorhead's waiting for other businesses to come.  Is it resistance or is there an economic plan for the businesses?

Voxland – That's what he had talked with me about.  What we're looking for are people who have backing.  It's really a case where the real way to do it is (Dilworth, Fargo, Moorhead) is to work with the realtor and the banker.  Sometimes they get a little backwards.  No we don't have a secret plan where we want to do something in particular.  We have a comprehensive plan and it's very broad.  What we would like to see in certain areas around MSUM – it's pretty loose.  Those single family properties are zoned so that you can build what's on Main now.  You could have a mix of retail and condos now.  You learn on the fly – as college professors retire they want to live close to the college library.  It's their life.  If you build good facilities, you'll have them near the university.  If you build decent student housing in close proximity you'll get students but they'll take care of the property better than most landlords think.  We've rezoned that area.  It almost happened 2 years ago.  He didn't have the leverage dollars to put it together.  Our plan is very fluid and flexible. 

Randall – Why were the lights on Main avenue disrupting traffic so much earlier this year?

Its part of a huge project Moorhead and Dilworth started in 1996 – a rail safety zone in Fargo/Moorhead.  We have 70-80 trains going on those tracks and we were losing 2-3 people a year getting killed and to make the corridor safe.  Safety was the first concern.  Part of the package was traffic preemption.  This preemption is the problem.  When a train is coming there is a certain amount of time, 3-5 minutes where traffic is slowed going east and west.  The light is going with you so you can cross the tracks.  When it's in 30 seconds, that's when we get into more traffic flow going east and west and it goes north and south.  If you're smart, when the light is blinking you have north and south time or else start looking for an underpass or overpass or move east and west.  With Moorhead we don't own many of the stoplights.  They're owned by the State of MN, and they have the key to change them and the traffic engineers have to set those timers.  The guy who does that out of St. Paul didn't have this as a high priority.  In the middle of February and had to wait until a few weeks ago he actually looked at it and changed it.  There are a couple of intersections that we have to fine tune – we have the same preemption and timing.  It's much safer for cars and pedestrians. 

Haugen – I'm really glad that preemption changed.  The drive was a little longer and I noticed the changed.  I was wondering if the relationship between Fargo and Moorhead had changed with the new Mayor.  If there is any initiatives/collaborations on the horizon?

Voxland – One of our problems is that the river is not just a boundary but it's a political boundary.  One thing that boggles my mind is that it's two federal jurisdictions.  Each district interprets a law differently.  Doing the quiet zone, the federal rail administration we deal with is in Chicago, ND's is in Denver.  All split at the red river, so we never get to deal with one federal government.  It's a challenge but we have to overcome how we work together to function well.  Most citizens don't care where the border is.  You don't care which city or state a place is in – citizens don't care.  We have to find a way to make everything seamless.  Smoking a few years ago, we tried to get it same in the two communities.  Bus service – we worked so that the bus service is pretty much seamless right now.  If it breaks down in Moorhead, goes to Fargo to get fixed.  We set the Moorhead schedules, and Fargo sets theirs 3 to 5 years.  We'll never be able to merge the police and fire forces but will be close.  We have a great ladder truck that can work a building with a fire.  We have mutual aid agreements to work together.  You're going to see more melding of those types of groups.  We got on very well – Wallacker and I get along well, and we have staff that knows partnering is an important thing.  We save money and it's seamless.  You will see things more and more together between Fargo and Moorhead.  We will be doing what we can to lessen the tax burden on our citizens. 

Weiss – I live in Romkey Park, and about a month ago, it was 6:00 pm on a Sunday.  My neighbors got robbed.  I called my landlord and my lock is half broken. 

Voxland – One of the things we set up in the city is neighborhood services.  There are certain standards your landlord has to meet – we have the ability to take away their ability to rent one of those units if we deem it unsafe.  They have time to get things fixed.  Come to the neighborhood services and they can get that started for you.  In a robbery or a lot of incidents that are life threatening – the police officer will get pertinent information and the police will be investigators.  The day shift is really boring.  Evening and nights – DUIs, domestic problems, that's when that usually occurs.  If you don't feel you're getting a response and you can get that moving from there.  We have a newer police chief – he was the #2 guy in Little Rock – he got tired of living in a city that had a murder and a half a week – he wanted to go someplace else.  We're fortunate to have him and right now we are really recreating our police force.  I would say talk with the officer and you might be surprised with what's being argued.  It never hurts to follow up. 

Haugen – Are you going to seek a third term?

Voxland – If today was the time I would say yes, but in two years I don't know.  If you run for office – how's my health, will my wife say yes?  We own a business together with 6 employees.  What's the business like?  George Washington is one of my favorite people in history.  The two term thing, I can see it.  Projects I've started.  The green initiative for Moorhead.  I would like to pull that forward a couple years.  If I left, the next mayor might push it, might not – I would like to see that through.  The variables, I have to see what that's like.  You can't have a felony and you have to put $5.00 up. 

I've tried very hard to get students involved.  The reality is you're very busy and you're surrounded by the campus and that's where your attention lies.  I try to solicit information from your age group and people in general.  Feel free to call me – my number is in the phone book.  I can get back with you within a day.  We're working real hard – this is the second biggest employer in the city.  Education is important here in Moorhead, we want to make sure it thrives and grows.  We're excited that you get to have a new manager.  The city manager is 28 – we've got a vested interest in what happens here.  We're interested in your input.  The parking study – we're interested in what's going on and what you have to say.  If you ever want to sponsor a brown bag thing on campus and have me on a Q&A with the general population, I'm more than willing to do it.  I get a lot of great ideas. 

Support International and Model UN – Senator Dolney

Support International – we try to pick international charities to support.  We've currently been working on invisible children.  They're going to be filming part of their new documentary on campus in the fall.  This semester we've tried to get away from it, but we're also working on Heffer International – livestock in other countries.  We're working to get some more students to volunteer for Lutheran Social Services to do small job for immigrants – helping them get picked up from the airport, finding them apartments – even open their mail.  It looks great on a resume so we're trying to get more students involved in that. 

Model UN – To be involved in it, you have to take Political Science 270 – it's focused on going to a conference each spring – each student takes on a role of the country and participates in a mock session of the UN to learn more about the countries and about the United Nations in general.

Zeiher – I've had students ask about the bookstore moving into the Union…

Wiese – It should be forming right now and should be in the works.  It should be started within the next week.

Zeiher – Does the COC chair know about that so I can direct students to be put on?

Reports

Wiese – We have our second presidential candidate on campus today and tomorrow.  I plan to attend part of the MSUSA meeting on Saturday to address the student health issue.  I will be participating in that issue on behalf of the chancellor.

New diversity position being created?

Yes, there are conversations about that, but it's not new.  There's some funding that was released last July and its part of the access scholarship funding and its part of MSUM's proposal for an additional position. 

What's the position going to entail?

It could entail – it's not written yet, so we're far away – an individual that would be responsible for diversity issues on campus.  Multicultural affairs, TOCAR, women's center, safe zone – it would be a fairly high level position.  Also the diversity director – working with access scholarship students.  It's a combination of those kinds of different responsibilities that would be in this role.

Treasurer Morse

This week I attended SABC, Marketing meeting, and balanced the budget.  We have $955.00 tied up in motions and 1,190.35 in discretionary funds.

Vice President Zeiher

I attended exec and many presidential search meetings and forums.  I submitted an application for student senate for student organization of the year.  Senate banquet invitations went out.  Please let me know if you haven't got one.  We're also working on President Barden's gift.  The student senate picture is next week at 4:45 pm.  Cabinet will be next Friday at 3:00 pm.

President Weber

I attended SABC, UPBC, and met with exec.  I briefly attended the open forum for a presidential candidate.  The MSUSA conference is this weekend.  There will be possible changes to the platform and possible action on the MnSCU affirmative action policy.  The banquet is April 25th.  On a related note, that is also the weekend of the April MSUSA conference in Winona, so for those of you that are going we will be leaving late so be prepared for a long late night drive.

Virnala – The guy who's running for State Chair for MSUSA is for joining USSA, and vote against that because I am against joining that.    

Secretary Randall

I did the minutes and the attendance.  I have a computer again, so the minutes will be back to the usual standard.

Ellsworth – Anyone up for removal?

Virnala – Office hours?

Campus Affairs – Chair Brungardt

I emailed Michael Parks about the issue of needing more crosswalks on campus.  A couple students have almost gotten hit trying to cross the street.  I dealt with the midterm grades issue, the hand sanitizer concern, and found out that the roofs on campus are not available to the public for gardening, but there may be room elsewhere on campus or near the regional science center.

VP Kirk emailed us and let us know that the childcare list probably exists somewhere, but he's not sure.  I contacted Weiss to try and get more information.  I received complaints about the smoking ban.  Staplers have gone missing from the computer lab, and will be contacting Les Bakke or someone down in IT to take care of that issue.

Ellsworth – What do you mean took care of midterm grades?

Elsperger – If students feel inclined about finding out midterm grades you can contact professors. 

Haugen – Were you working on green space on the roofs?  Were you part of that discussion?

Elsperger – I didn't look into that one either.

Butrum – I emailed VP Kirk and he said they're not available for public access.

Haugen – Have they thought about utilizing those roofs for generating a green effort?  Like growing grass or growing trees?

Elsperger – I haven't heard anything on that.

Wiese – From MNSCU rules about facilities, they have very specific rules for roofs in the system.  For whatever reason, they have taken the approach that the variable things that campuses can do with a roof is very narrow and regardless of what a single campus wants to do, it'd be a board of trustee recommendations based on the chancellor.  We don't have public access to roofs, but there would be issues about leaks, etc.  That would be the kind of discussion that would need to take place.

Olson – You mentioned there might be other places for public gardening.  Where would that be?

Butrum – He mentioned the regional science center.

Garman – Where is that at?  Like 20 miles away? 

Committee on Committees – Chair Norris

(No Report)

Marketing – Interim Chair Williams

Attendees: Interim Chair Williams, Treasurer Morse, and Senator Weiss

Marketing met yesterday with Treasurer Morse to establish what needs to be handled for the rest of the year.  I've gotten in touch with the former chair of the committee to get the information on the t-shirts, sweatshirts and pictures, but I haven't gotten that information yet.  Some ideas were tossed around, but otherwise an uneventful week.

Legislative and Internal Affairs – Chair Jenson

I confirmed the letter campaign.  There is a constitutional amendment coming up, I have 2 constitutions left, and attended today's open forum for the President candidate.

Tuition Fees and Oversight – Chair Randall

Right now I'm working on the preliminary design for the new student fee bookmarks and pamphlets.  We will not be meeting this week because I will be in St. Paul for the conference, but we will be meeting next Friday at 1:30.

Diversity – Chair Abey

The committee convened on Friday and briefly discussed the carnival and diversity week.  We will be making the final arrangements for the carnival tomorrow.  I have been contacting different groups to volunteer for the event.  The participation of the senate is very important and I urge all of you to come on Saturday.  I also contacted Barb Seiler and confirmed Witney Haris's trip to Moorhead.  They will be joining us on the 11th of April.

MSUSA Campus Representative Lovcik

(No Report)

MSUSA Diversity Representative Ellsworth

Diversity week starts tomorrow, if you can help at the carnival and throughout the week that would be very helpful.

Morse – I suggest that if you have some free time to help out and represent Student Senate and the carnival should be extremely fun. 

SPA Ohren

This week I contacted the university photographer and booked him to take senate pictures next week.  You will all need to be here by 4:30 pm and dressed up in professional, business attire.  I update the website.  For those of you who are new or have not filled out a senate bio there are extras in my box.  Please fill those out and place them back in my box.  I have also been working with Laura on a gift for President Barden to be given to him at the end of the year banquet.

Haugen – We have an inconsistency in times – is it 4:45 or 4:30? 

Weber – Picture is 4:45, but try to get here at 4:30 so we can have it taken at 4:45, so it is both.

Elections – Chair Camargo

Filing ends tomorrow, so please let me know if you want to file by then. 

Abey – Did the senate decide on what questions would be on there?

Weber – We voted on them last week.

Haugen – (Lists referendums) – What time is the debate on the 17th?

Camargo – 11:30 to 1:00 in the main lounge area downstairs.

Old Business (None)

New Business

Constitution Amendment – Student Senate Committees – Sponsored by Leg/Internal

Jenson – This is something I forgot to bring up a couple weeks ago when we had the discussion about possible amendments to bring up to the body.  We have little printoffs to make – instead of having to run to the senate to get approval for those miniscule amount of money – we had a discussion on how we could streamline that process.  We came up with the idea of the budget to work off of so they don't have to run here for a motion all the time.  They are responsible and providing information – it speeds up the process and will still know what they are doing from reports.  The treasurer will have oversight of each of the accounts rather than the committees themselves. 

It would have to wait until the FY 2010 budget to come into effect.

Morse – Are you saying that each committee have $50 or is that just a set amount?  You want all the committees to have $50 to work from and they will have the budget to balance?

Jenson – They will have their $50 and if they use it they'll put it in their report so the treasurer can know and keep track of it.  The treasurer will always know what's going on – so they don't have to run to the senate all the time.  For it to be permanent they'll have to wait until 2010.

Haugen – Is $50 a typical amount used throughout the year?  It is going to be substantial enough?

Jenson – This is mostly more for the tiny projects – if I want to photocopy some documents, I won't have to bring up a motion.  Any big motions for dorm stuffers they would go to the body to get that money but if you want to amend it for a little more, just remember it'll be harder to give them that amount until we give it to SABC to approve it. 

Morse – I would suggest saying that it's for office tasks of making copies and so forth. 

Haugen – I know the senate has an account to use for charging.  Is each committee going to have its own account number?

Jenson – I doubt that – it's like a discretionary funding budget for each committee – it would be built into the budget as a line item. 

Morse – There wouldn't be any separate accounts. 

Randall – I don't believe this amendment is necessary because $50 is such a rudimentary amount.  I could see if we were giving them more to start out with, but they will have to come back to senate anyway.  Plus, they can already make copies that are less than $5.00 and give the receipt to the treasurer. 

Weber – I think it would be better stated as "base operating budget of $50."  They will have to come back for money – it can be raised or lowered by budget discussions.  You can raise or lower that, and that would make it more flexible and solve some of the concerns.  I think that's more of what the intent of the motion is.  A little less bureaucracy.

Jenson – It speeds up meetings because we won't have to fund small expenditures.  It's to speed up the more pointless paperwork.  For bigger projects, I expect the chair to go to the body to get more funds.  We're looking at this more to speed up smaller motions.

Haugen – I'm not partial at this point – so can any committee person charge, or just the chairs charge?

Jenson – I assume the chairs would have control over who does it in regards to a regular committee member. 

Weber – The receipts do have to be given to the treasurer so we will know about it.  It has to go to the treasurer.  If there was irresponsible spending we would know about it.  As it stands all committees would get budgets starting at $50.00.  It does not separate accounts.  It would just be another line item or series of line items.

Jenson – It'd say committee budget amounts – lump it into one sum for the committees.  That's $300.00.  Then you can take those over and have each committee and a record of what they're spending of that $50.00.

Ellsworth – How is that going to affect the diversity committee and diversity week?

Weber – It would have no effect the diversity week account because it is separate.  They could do things without having to come to the senate to print off little flyers. 

Haugen – I'm not concerned about reckless spending – I want there to be a clear distinction that any spending within the committees will be delegated and there will be order in respect to that $50 that they're going to have to use. 

Weber – Even if they came to senate for the money, the chairs are supposed to be leading their committee, and if they aren't regulating spending, they would have to explain. 

Morse, seconded by Senator Williams – Amendment to state "for small committee expenditures" after base operating budget of $50.00 because advertising is going to be more than $50.00. 

Morse – It's more specific so they know what that $50.00 is for, such as TFOC copying budgets.

Amendment Passed – (1A, 1N)

Diversity Rep Ellsworth moves, Senator Virnala seconds to strike committee from "small committee expenditures"

Ellsworth – The wording sounds weird. 

Haugen – It is grammatically correct, but it is misleading on how it describes the committee.

Withanachi – It is grammatically correct but it sounds awkward.

Morse – It's talking about the committee's small expenditures.  So do we want to switch the words around?

Ellsworth – I understand what it's getting at – last year I had a committee by myself and could call myself a small committee.  There's a lot of issues with the constitution right now – why add something that could be picked apart.

Weber – Whether or not you were the committee, you would have had the $50.00.

Vote - Amendment – Failed

Vote - Motion - Passed – (1N)

Motion – MSUSA Conference Meals – Sponsored by MSUSA Rep Lovcik, seconded by Chair Randall

Lovcik – Delegates – they usually pay for one of the meals, and I told everybody they were and I feel bad.  I moved it up to $10 because we're in the Cities so it cost more to eat.

Ellsworth – Is it supposed to be only up to $8.00?

Weber – Those are the rates – we could allocate more if we wanted to.  We don't have to follow those rates. 

MSUSA Representative Lovcik moves, Diversity Rep Ellsworth seconds to amend "nine" to "ten"

Vote – Amendment – Passed Unanimously

Vote – Motion – Passed Unanimously

Points for the Good of the Order

Morse – For the MSUSA trip, please keep your receipts so we can reimburse you.

Jenson – If anybody likes handling money and budgets, we need somebody to run for treasurer.  If you're interested on being on exec board, please file.

Camargo – Just email me – they removed the link – if you're interested.

Butrum – Thank Sodexho for providing refreshments tonight.

Haugen – The honeydew was a little woody. 

Ellsworth – The tabling schedule for diversity week is going around very very slowly – make sur