Minutes 12.2.08

Agenda

Tuesday December 2^nd, 2008

6:30 p.m. Mills Library

I. Call to Order

II. Special Business

• Erica Siebrasse on Odyssey Funding. Question about wanting funding and people who had received it before—She’s been on the committee this year and last year and it has never been an issue for a person to be denied funding after having already received funding previously since the projects are completely different. It has never been used against a student despite rumors/concerns. Just FYI!           

III. Announcements and Constituent Concerns

• Concern about not having a plus or minus grade scale. Many colleges have converted this because it best represents the scores. Instead of having a flat 3.0, a student would be able to have perhaps a 3.8. [Goes to academic policy!] However, it is really good to get a 91 and still be able to get a 4.0. The focus is more on learning instead of grabbing that extra5 points. Instead of getting just a C, a student could get a “good C”.
• Why does the password have to be changed so frequently for Educator? After all of the things that need to be password protection, why Educator? But hey, you can turn off the automatic reset! BJ will let you know how. You may also change your e-mail password! Just sign on to a Hendrix computer and when it says lock computer, just click “change password.”
• In light of the light walk that happened a few weeks ago—a suggestion: Lights that are directed or pointed downward on the path! BTW: light pollution can mess up bird migrations!
• The senior e-mail list—those students who are classified as seniors who may not necessarily be graduating need to talk to IT if they want to be taken off of the list.
• Huntington e-mail is being weird! Some people receive, some people don’t… IT will be visited. Website stuff for KHDX too?
• Couch trash can??? Hopefully physical plant will have a meeting with us soon.
• Anytime Martin Hall has used John Martin, he has made them pay some distorted prices.

IV. Departmental Liaison Reports

• WAC forum in February! Coming soon to a Thursday near you.

V. Committee Reports

• Media Committee with Fraser Holmes           
  • Meeting on Reading Day.
  • Profile comes out THIS Friday!
  • Aonian is still like a hundred days away.
• Multicultural Development Committee with Ashley Easter
  • International Week was a great success. Food bazaar was probably the most successful event of the week.
  • Upcoming events in February.
  • Planning for Diversity Awareness Openness in late March.
• Social Committee with Jake Eddington 
  • SoCo 54 was a HUGE success! Seemed like everyone had a lot of fun; some problems with the electricity, but those have been resolved. No transports to the hospital this year. High five! [We were budgeted around $6000 and we didn’t even spend that much. We gave out over 1000 wristbands, and the actual attendance was about 600.]
  • Trivia Night Holiday Themed tonight at 9!!!
  • Website is up and working. Committee members, events, dates, locations, sections for suggestions and feedback. Check it out at www.hendrix.edu/soco
• Volunteer Action Committee with Larnie Campbell
  • Canned-food drive and t-shirt selling went towards 214 Thanksgiving baskets—each basket fed about 6 people! Fantastic drive and great turn out with both faculty and student contributions!
  • Hump night tomorrow—babysitting for Hendrix Faculty and Staff 6-8 pm here in the Mills Library! Come decorate cookies and have lots of fun!
  • The Damn Bullets in the Burrow at 8:30 PM also tomorrow for Hump Night!
  • THIS Saturday, Dec 6: Senior Citizen center 7 AM-12 PM pancake breakfast. They’ll be serving the residents of Conway and you can come fulfill their motto “Help us help ourselves.” Silent Auction and craft Bazaar as well! Meet at the bell at 6:45 AM. But you could just bike there anytime since it is so close.
  • Contact Emily Uhar!
• Residence Life Committee With Mac Barnes
• Campus Kitty with Alex Graddy-Reed     
  • Monday Dec 8: Faculty Talent Variety Show, featuring your very own Karla and Jim! $2 to attend. Pre-selling tickets Wed, Thurs, and Fri in the sunporch! You may also pay at the door the night of the event.
  • Tuesday Dec 9: Holiday Bazaar (ballin selling of cool merchandise from outside vendors and on campus organizations that a certain percentage of proceeds go to charity) in the Burrow from 10 AM-5:30 PM. Holler if you have questions!
• Environmental Concerns Committee with Wendell Cathcart and Katherine Roehm
  • Cornstarch/plastic cups in the burrow to replace the Styrofoam for next semester. The Burrow wants to wait until next semester though. Any suggestions on what to do? They go through 1200 cups per semester. In the course of a year, it would be a $800 difference.
  • They are worried students wouldn’t want to pay the extra 10 cent difference. But the Pilot program would prevent this. Currently all the food services on campus are their own separate business. (Like the burrow is its own business.) Apparently they had something like this in the past and many students complained.
  • It simply needs student support. How can we show them we support it? Hey! Everyone ask your constituents to send an e-mail (please please please DO NOT have them e-mail Mike Flory) to you about whether or not they are in support of it. If you sell it as a progressive idea (like put up a sign explaining how cool these cups are) then people won’t mind paying the increase in price.
  • A lot of people who have been working on it will be abroad next semester, so with all this momentum ECC would like to get it rolling now for the upcoming semester. We have the means to make it more public so people are less likely to complain. Maybe have a profile survey? More details to come.
• Academic Policy with Samantha Bode
• Student and Academic Concerns Committee with Samantha Bode and Jayce Hafner
  • Constitutional review met last week. High five team! Jayce will keep you updated.
• Finance Committee with Alex Graddy-Reed
  • [See below for the proposals.]
  • MDC—APPROVED: $1655.33!
  • Martin Hall—APPROVED: $1965!
• Communications Committee with Kristi Vo
  • Probably won’t start “guess that senator” in Table Talk until next semester.
  • Shirts are here, just not in this room… come with me to the Senate Office/Burrow immediately after the meeting. Apologies. I’ll be sure to bring them to the next meeting. Don't hate.
• Committee on Committees with Nick Balée
  • Making selections for welcome week committee and shirttails committee are underway. Tell kids to holler at Nick if interested. 
• Executive Committee with BJ Fogleman
  • Hendrix Green Report card was forwarded to everyone. See discussion below.

VI. Unfinished Business

VII. New Business

• Campus Sustainability Discussion
  • High five for the smart cars turning up everywhere on campus from physical plant!
  • Okay, LSU got a B?
  • Dining services didn’t fill out the survey that they sent, but almost everything is 30-35% organic by the way.
  • There are schools that getting endowments and getting As
• Rob Young and Karla met about this—there are a lot of things we do that may not be represented well in the survey—sorry, we didn’t do our best in filling out it out. It was a series of open-ended questions; on endowments--we’re invested in mutual funds. Yes, there are things we can do better. Efforts have been put forth. Geothermal, electric cars, sustainability committee (check out the attachment BJ sent)—it’s all happening, although we may be a little slow in the process.
• Karla: Other than looking at the grades, did you look at the survey? Dig a little deeper and check out the criteria. Remember that everyone ranks those grades have an agenda. 44% of institutions had a D minus. We got dinked because we didn’t sign the presidential commitment to global change since there no “teeth” or no penalty for not doing the things it says; we didn’t feel like it had any real “oomph” and therefore signing it was pretty much meaningless. Always think about the criteria for any rankings and pay attention to what makes sense to Hendrix.
• Mac says the whole survey is crap. How do you know that what these colleges respond is actually true? He’s been to other campuses and knows people who go there—it didn’t seem legit.
• The survey was brand new and came out in the summer. Although some things don’t have “teeth,” like the presidential commitment to global change, the symbolism is important.
• Karla: We’ll try sustainability committee first and see how the job is getting done or needs being met and go from there. There is no an unlimited supply of money. We can’t tell you our college’s top 5 priorities—we’re not sure where sustainability falls. [Did I hear this correctly?*]
• What about the simple solutions like raking leaves instead of using high power leaf blowers? Let’s think about these.
• Recent discussion in the Raney Building through physical plant—even though we do have some efforts, being environmentally conscious is not necessarily a priority at Hendrix. There needs to be some unified thing, like the committee, that deals with all of our interests to actually cause some change on campus.
• What are some of the things we can do as students? We’ve got some money left over from the budget. How about passing out energy efficient light bulbs around campus? We can take initiatives too. Maybe once a month “organic night”. People should start integrating energy efficient/organic things in their everyday lives.
• Hey, the yellow outdoor lights are actually more energy efficient than the white lights. If we keep making small steps like this to be more green, it can amount to something big.
• Can we get administrative support? We need some pressure.
• Thomas: Hey! How about using our extra money to buy 2-liter beverages and give out free drinks in the Burrow for a full week??? Yeah!
• Jim: there is a tricky balance for us back here. You all do such great work and represent yourself quite well. And when you need administrative support, know that we’re working on it. Maybe there’s a point that we can get to that you can’t get to through the administration. We are here for you. At Gettysburg (where Jim previously worked), they’re a charter member of the environmental treaty. That institution is not doing a whole lot different that we are doing. However, they formed a committee with students, faculty, and staff that pushed for their interests. We may be a slow progression on getting there, but it is on the way!
• At LSU there is a competition among the sororities in being more energy efficient/more green. Can we do that amongst dorms here? Like everyone competing for a $500 prize or something? Maybe RAs can get into it and help drive dorms to success! Entering for a free iPod? HEY! If you do it between apartments, how about the prize be paying the utilities bill?
• Let’s advertise and get the student body all of this info so they are aware and can jump in the revolution. Hey ECC will have their own board soon too, hopefully!
• Maybe a guilt-trip approach with a documentary? These are all some really great ideas. Let’s do it!
• Talk to Tonya and get a big portion of Table Talk especially for ECC. And maybe we can talk to them about making it use less paper? Instead of 3 X 5 cards, maybe the same ad can be a bit smaller to fit more on one page instead of two. There are ways to improve.
• There is SO much more paper wasted in the computer lab every day though. How about a poster in the library to remind you to print on both sides?
• ECC + faculty and staff committee = awesome. Can’t wait for this sustainability committee mannnnn.
• Keep thinking. If you have any additional suggestions, holler at BJ or your favorite ECC chairs (Wendell and Katherine). 

VIII. Adjournment until December 9^th, 2008 

Clean up:  Galloway, Veasey, Raney 

MDC, Requesting $1,655.33, FinCom Recommends: $1,655.33  

For the first time, MDC is planning a Southern Culture Festival during the Spring of 2009. We have planned to bring a folk guitarist named Kalai as well as a comedienne named Tracy Ashley who can make people laugh about issues related both to black culture and to living in the South. This festival is intended to embrace the culture that pervades the area in which we live as well as to open up the Hendrix community to local Southern artists and residents. To that end, we hope to establish a connection between local churches, who can help to provide us with food and support within the local community, and with the Chamber of Commerce, who can connect us with Conway-area talent and artists.
            The first day of the festival will feature a Hump Night performance with the folk artist Kalai. The next evening, SBC and MDC will co-sponsor a forum discussing black culture, Black History Month, and the South. Friday night will feature Tracy Ashley and her comedy as well as an Open Mike Night, co-sponsored with the Hendrix Slam team. We intend to involve the creative writing classes, the art department, and Hendrix musicians to feature talent that relates to Southern culture and traditions. There will be a day-long art show in the Burrow where we feature art, poetry, and other literature that displays the diversity of Southern culture.
            This idea has been in conception for a long time but was not featured on our Spring 2008 budget proposal.  MDC can Contribute 1,000 so are asking for $1655.33

04 Feb. 2009

Performance by Kalai, acoustic folk guitarist
The Burrow, 7-9pm
Co-sponsored by Student Activities: half of all costs covered
Requested funding: $805.33
            Contracting Fee: $1500
            Hotel: $90.65
            Food: $20
            $1610. 65 / 2 = $805.33
05 Feb. 2009

Forum: Black History Month in the American South
The Burrow, 7pm
Co-sponsored by SBC: half of any cost covered
Requested funding: none
(Incidental food costs will be covered by other grants and funding)
06 Feb. 2009

Performance by Tracy Ashley, comedienne
The Burrow, 7-10:30pm
Co-sponsored by Slam team: half of hotel and food covered
Requested funding:
            Contracting Fee: $1800
            Hotel: $80
            Food: $20
            $1800 + $100/2 = $1850
 

Martin Hall, Requesting $3,602, FinCom Recommends $1965