ASOC SENATE

Meeting Minutes

March 5, 2008

By Thomas Stringer

Passed:3/19

 

Meeting Chair:  Ryan Bowen                                                                                                                                                                                Meeting Guests:  Spencer Jemelka, Bena Li, Laura Knuttenen, Julian Mitchell

Senators Present:  Tilak Gupta, First Year Senator ; Xochiltl Ramos, First Year Senator; Andrew DeBlock, Sophomore Senator ; Patrick McCredie, Junior Senator ; Mike Myers, Junior Senator; Dominique Kirkwood, Senior Senator; Don Johnson, Proxy for Don Johnson, Proxy for Senior Senator Smutney; Santiago Mendez, Campus Wide Senator; Rob Calderon, Campus Wide Senator; Rozell Hodges, Campus Wide Senator;Nonda Hanneman, Sophomore Senator; Ken Smutny, Senior Senator; Monikah Baltimore, Campus Wide Senator

Senators Absent: Nonda Hanneman, Sophomore Senator

Ex Officio: Kenna Cottrill, Advisor; Paolo Cosulich-Schwartz, GA Co-Chair; Noel Hollowell, GA Co-Chair
 

 

I. Meeting called to order at 6:03 P.M.

 

II. Passage of Previous Meeting’s Minutes

 

Ryan mentioned a paragraph that could be modified, but was unable to locate it.  The minutes were passed by general consent. 

 

III. Old Business

 

A.     Founder’s Day Appointment

Kenna stated that she needed to meet with Monikah, Xochiltl, and Noel, and added that there would be plenty of time to construct a list of eligible people. 

 

B.     Newspapers

Santiago reported that the newspapers were coming in at 5 A.M. each day, and had received requests to increase the quantity of New York Times papers to 40.  They were a great success.  Kenna recommended touching base on cleanup, as the Cooler staff had not been expecting the influx of extra waste created by the improper disposal of newspapers. 

C.    Review Of 2^nd Semester Agreements

Ryan advised the Senators to keep him more informed as to the meeting times of committees, and asked them to retain a high level of communication.   He also told them that not attending GAs without sufficient prior notice was unacceptable. 

IV. New Business

 

            A. Finance and Public Relations Committee

a.     Funding Requests

 

Club/Org	Event/Program	Funding	Vote
Ka Poli O Hawaii	Luau	$1007.38	Mike moved, Santiago seconded, and the motion was passed by general consent.
Ryan suggested funding at a level lower than the algorithm’s recommendation given the Senate’s tenuous financial straits.  Mike replied that he was searching for alternative sources of funding, and that he could not recommend shorting the algorithm.
Sigma Lambda Gamma	Easter Egg Hunt	$100.00	Mike moved, Tilak seconded, and the motion was passed by general consent.

 

Oxy Engaged had filed a funding request, but Kenna informed the Senate that it had been denied due to her disapproval, and that Ken had said he would be making the event off-campus.    

 

Mike noted that the Senate now had $660 remaining, but noted that there was still upwards of $2000 in the RA fund that could be transferred into club funding.  Andrew noted that RHA still had $11,000 remaining, making it unlikely that the RAs would need this money.

 

Mike moved to transfer $2021 from the ResLife Fund to Senate Discretionary, Andrew seconded, and the motion passed 10-0-1 with Don abstaining. 

 

The Senate then passed the Honor Board proposal for $400 by general consent. 

 

b.     PR Update

Santiago wondered why the Senators had not brought the t-shirt money he had requested; they had not received his e-mail.  Ryan asked Santiago to look into the possibility of fundraising with these t-shirts. 

 

Dominique notified the Senate that she would henceforth be conducting quad sits herself. 

 

          B. GA Update

Paolo thanked the senators that had attended the GA, but remarked that there had been many issues with the two proposals that could have been ironed out if

 

Ryan suggested informing the absent senators of the details of the proposals in question. 

 

Patrick stated that the proposal was for $7500 (having institution subsidize in $2500 increments for APIA, Black grad, and Latino grad), but added some may have misconstrued it as some forcing the administration’s hand. Patrick went on to say that he had spoken with Dean Avery, who had told him that support came in the form of a package deal contingent upon obtaining food from Campus Dining. 

 

Kenna said that since this was the first year of institutionalization for Cultural Graduations, the form it takes next year may be different and may not include the Campus Dining requirement.  Rozell assessed that these clubs should have access to ASOC funds and that Campus Dining lacked the expertise to make the foods needed for their graduations.  Dominique agreed and said that supporting the graduations under only a certain set of terms seemed shady to her. 

 

Ryan asked if clubs had been charged for use of facilities in the past; Rozell replied that they usually had.   Kenna agreed that Campus Dining was a problem for the cultural graduation clubs, but the fact that they had been given special treatment in bringing in off-campus food necessitated a middle ground in the future.  Ryan noted the immense financial power of Campus Dining, and suggested a future investigation.  Don said that there were ways to get around Campus Dining if one simply sat down and negotiated with Amy Munoz.  Ryan suggested that any interested senators congregate for a meeting the next day. 

 

C.    Committee Updates

a.     Multicultural History

Dominique reported that she was trying to get a meeting organized on Friday.  Santiago reported that a student willing to paint a mural had approached him, and Ryan asked Santiago to examine the possibility of an artwork such as this getting installed in a prominent location. 

b.     Facilities Staff Issues

Rozell reported that the duties of the Rangeview housekeeping staff are split among various towers, and that they were being provided with more efficient machinery to lighten the workload.  He planned to compile a report and post it on the web page. 

c.      Administrative Relations

Andrew reported that he had met with an RHA vice president, and that they had determined that ASOC Senate and RHA had negligible overlap in duties.  He had told her that she was welcome to attend Senate meetings.  The Senate discussed RHA’s funding policy concerning RAs, since the vice president Andrew had met with stated that no one was coming to them for funding. 

 

D.    Scholastic Committee

a.     DOCSAC Senator Status

Santiago reported that Dean Frank had given a solid update during the meeting, after which the committee had complained about advising for the duration.  He suggested that the Committee convene before the actual meetings to draw up an agenda and make the meetings less unruly. 

 

E.     President’s Update

a.     1:1 meeting Scheduling

Ryan told the Senate that he wished to have these meetings soon, and would be posting a sign-up sheet shortly. 

                   b. Advisory Council Publicity Person

Ryan reported that Monikah and Xochiltl had expressed interest in working on this. 

 

V. Forum

 

A.     General Comments

Kenna stated that she would be working with Tilak on the budget in a couple of weeks.  Santiago asked the senators to bring money for their T-shirts. 

 

Santiago moved to close the meeting at 7:02, and it was closed by general consent.