Minutes 2.17.09

Agenda

Tuesday February 17^th, 2009

6:30 p.m. Mills Library

I. Call to Order

II. Special Business

•  Mac has special business. He has a proposition for the voting process for scheduling the elections for the third Tuesday after spring break.
  o BJ: with May semester and summer terms, it means Spring break will always be early.
  o Motion to approve…BJ: “Can we table this?” Chance makes motion to table his motion until next week so revisions can be made.
• Career Fest09 begins Monday, Feb 23^rd! The schedule will be attached with these minutes, or you can see them here:
  MON: Career Catwalk in Hulen 11:00 AM – 1:30 PM—Professional Dress Dos and Don’ts
  TUES: Professional Etiquette Dinner at the Conway Country Club (Limited to the First 32 Seniors who register)—6:00-8:30 PM
  WED: Mock Interview Day at Career Services Offices in Buhler 8:00 AM-4:30 PM—Interview Preparation and Practice
  THURS: Major’s Fair! Hulen 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM—Students with undeclared majors… please attend!
  FRI: Career & Internship Expo Hulen 11:00 AM - 1:30 PM—All students invited to attend!
  Also on FRI: “I Got the Job, Now What?” Alumni Panel Discussion HULEN PDR 3:00 PM - 4:30 PM—Q&A session between upcoming graduates and Hendrix Alumni
• BJ: as far as notes go, even if there are technical difficulties that cause Kristi’s minutes to not be available as quickly as normal (like that one times when the internet and the website were down) or not get to you in a timely manner, you still need to get out your own notes. Definitely ALWAYS check the website. Notes are your responsibility. You are at the meetings… you should know the gist of what happened!

III. Announcements and Constituent Concerns

• Martin thanks physical plant for all the “mighty” work they’ve done around the place this past week
  o While on subject: physical plant allocates every building a certain amount of money for maintenance every year and dorms (esp. Martin) are close to overspending…most of the money comes from vandalism so Senators should encourage constituents to not vandalize or stop vandals.
  o Also, please stop breaking light by flag: flag etiquette says if no light it must be taken down, so when the light is broken someone has to go out every night and lower the flag.
• Request to replace computer chairs in Mills.
  o Dr. Carney-Hall says send to building coordinator and then after that send to provost (BJ says he is on it)
• Departmental Liaison Reports
  o Huntington Internet Access: people at IT said they didn’t see anything wrong, and they also said that most complaints came from one person. SO if it’s messed up be sure to give IT the heads-up.
  o Chance: Motion to move COC to the beginning.

V. Committee Report

• Committee on Committees with Will Green
  o Transitions: Sat., March 28 from 12-4 (tentatively, dependent on election dates)
  § Need all notes/documents/folders on your position by 3/24 at noon!!
  o There will be a meeting for all interested students on what committees we have/student positions available in order to give next senate a list of names of people interested in particular committee positions.
  o Nominate Ruari Fox for Welcome Week Chair
  § Passes in Full; Ruari appointed!
  o Nominate Ken Yang for Shirttails Chair
• Corey=No
• Lauren and Becca=Abstain
• Ken Appointed!
• Media Committee with Fraser Holmes
  o Yearbook meeting tomorrow
  o Entire Committee meeting Thursday
  o Request that Aonian move empty boxes from Hulen hallway upstairs.
• Multicultural Development Committee with Ronni Laizure
  o SBC: MISS going to Japanese internment camps Saturday, if interested email Keasha Boua
  o Looking for T-shirt ideas. Please submit to Ronni
• Social Committee with Jake Eddington
  o Trivia night Thurs. on 90s pop culture in Burrow @ 6:30 (tentatively…was scheduled for 9, but they’re trying to move the time so as not to interfere with Word Garden and Hot Mikado)
  o Natalie Stoval 2/28 in Staples
  o Rodney Jordan ¾ in Burrow
• Volunteer Action Committee with Larnie Campbell
  o Had 3^rd annual Valentine’s Dance at the Independent Living Services last Saturday and it was awesome.
  o This Service Saturday is at the Faulkner County Library
  o Service Sunday making Ads for Invisible Children
  § VAC t-shirts on sale now (again) in sunporch; proceeds go to Invisible Children
  o Invisible Children even=Next Thursday (2/26) at 7 in Hulen ballroom.
  § Childcare provided (in PDR)
  § SBC step team to perform, as well as the Damn Bullets
  o Invisible Children prep meetings are on Wednesday. Interested in helping, contact Larnie
  o And as always: VAC meetings are open to all and happen every Sunday at 7:30 in the Lily Office
• Residence Life Committee With Mac Barnes
• Recommendation on Housing Selection Process/Reporting Housing Information/Ideas for next year and seeking Senate’s stamp of approval
  § Need to reserve approx. 80 more spots for first years: Martin=10 new, Hardin=20 new, Couch=10 male new, 10 female new, Galloway=0 new, Raney=15 new, Veasey=15 new
  § Temp. housing wasn’t considered, so Study Rooms are making a comeback (hopefully, if all goes according to plan)
  § Squatter’s rights: Squatters considered first UNTIL the upperclassmen reserved spots run out, then they get booted out
  o If two roommates both trying to squat a room, but not together, the tie goes to the person with the better bid number
  § If you’re trying for a double w/o a roommate housing will most likely throw someone (upperclassmen) with you.
  § Theoretically how it should work: upperclassmen get first pick, get the better rooms, and the rooms ‘reserved’ for first years end up being the crappy no-one-wants-them rooms…AKA housing isn’t going through and marking rooms at random as “reserved” for freshmen; they’re reserving whatever the upperclassmen don’t want (up to the upperclassmen reserve limit)
  § Board agreed to attempt to level housing costs for apartments…will be published by Business Office what that number is exactly.
  o Board also expects us to house 80% of our students on-campus, so off-campus spaces will be limited/decreased by approx. 100 spots
  § What about Abroad?
  o If gone next fall: can’t pick a room. Trying to keep from kicking you off campus once you get back, however, by sending them a list of what’s available earlier, try to plug them in wherever and increase communication with them while they’re gone (so if you’re gone in the fall check your email often!)
  o If gone in spring during housing selection: pick a proxy to pick your room for you
  § BJ suggests upping the number of first year spots reserved in Galloway (currently 22 reserved, he thinks there should be 10 new spots included…taking 5 from VZ and 5 from Raney…making 32 reserved spots for FY in Gway)
  o Some think this bad idea: Gway always most requested dorm for upperclassmen from all female dorms, upping the FY reserves means fewer upperclassmen will get their pick which means that the housing rights of first years will be considered over the rights of the upperclassmen who have been here
  -John Omolo agrees: says there are usually about 115 upperclassmen vying for Gway compared to 20 wanting to stay in VZ/Raney
  -Argument made again that, in order to give upperclassmen the right to live where they want and first pick(which this new system is looking to do), we shouldn’t up Gway’s FY reserve number from 22 to 32
  -Argument made that dorms are meant for FY, shouldn’t continue culture of Gway being elitist ‘upperclass’ dorm. Also, other “in demand” dorms (i.e. Martin) are making concessions/upping their reserve and stepping on upperclassmen toes, therefore Gway should have to, too.
  § Lauren Rushdi moves to recommend to CRL to up the FY reserve number up 10 spots, from 22 to 32.
  o Nay=Becca, Reena, Mac, Derek
  o Resolution passes; Senate recommends Gway freshmen reserve go up 10 (thus decreasing the number of upperclassmen allowed to live in Gway 10 spaces)
  § What about Hall Councils? Should they be able to squat first in order to definitely live in the hall they represent? Are we interested in limiting the number of Hall Council members guaranteed to live in the hall?
  § Senate decides not to limit it now…see how things go this year.
  § Senate passes amended recommendation of CRL in full (aka, it got our stamp of approval, now it goes back to CRL/Housing to adjust and put in effect)
• Campus Kitty with Alex Graddy-Reed
  o Goal set at $45000 this year (up $3000 from last year)
• Passes sent out to our parents in next few weeks
• Environmental Concerns Committee with Wendell Cathcart and Katherine Roehm
• Cup Event to promote new Burrow cups next Tuesday (2/24) in Burrow
• Academic Policy with Samantha Bode
  o Suggestion to have an official portion of Explorations teach classroom/library etiquette.
  o Maymester stuff to be discussed later in meeting, during exec. It’s going before faculty vote Wednesday with a letter of support from Senate stating how excited students are for it, but besides that it’s fully in the faculty’s hands now and outside of ours. Still, if you have any questions/comments on Maymester (or anything) send to Sam Bode.
• Finance Committee with Alex Graddy-Reed
• For the actual proposals, see below!
• MDC: $225—PASSED!
• Feminist Club/Gender Liberation! Association: $50—PASSED!
• Student and Academic Concerns Committee with Samantha Bode and Jayce Hafner
• For Office of President: Luiza de Santos and Samantha Delagowski
• For Office of Advancement and Planning: Alex Graddy-Reed
• Communications Committee with Kristi Vo
• Senate Suggestion Box is overflowing. High five team! We’ll do whatever we can to see that these suggestion/concerns/complaints/etc. are responded to as appropriate. Some of the suggestions included:
  -“love notes” (aka suggestions to/about specific senators) handed out to them after the meeting
  -Possible Hendrix Garage Sale with proceeds benefitting Campus Kitty (dually-noted by Alex)
  -Sell cigarettes in bookstore or burrow
  -LOTS of others. Holler at Kristi to get the full list.
• Executive Committee with BJ Fogleman
• Pool Cue tips replaced, now looking into longer lasting graphite sticks
• BJ meeting with Mike Flory of cafeteria fame soon
• Maymester is going before faculty tomorrow. Here’s some info on it:
• Cost (APPROXIMATE!!!): $2500 for the class (1 credit), $800 for housing (and dining?) =$3100 total
• As far as housing goes: if lots of people do the Maymester, you may be able to stay in the room you live in now. However, if there are fewer people doing it, Maymester kids may get booted to specific dorm/apartments.
  § Library hours would be extended during Maymester (not usual summer hours of only being open until 5)
  § Some really cool classes being offered…the kinds of classes you expected to find when you came to college. Of course, they’re dependent on the professors and what they propose for courses.
  § Classes with last 2.5 hours a day, every day, for 3 weeks.
• What about the possibility of a J-term? According to Sam Bode it would be Waaaay in future, if considered at all, need to see how Maymester goes. A J-term would really shift our current semester schedule because it would require a longer winter break (approx. 5-6 weeks in order to prevent anyone from spending their Christmas here at school), therefore creating a spring semester that lasts longer…hey, then Maymester would be like Junemester.
• BJ is asking to write a letter to the faculty requesting that a May semester go through. It looks like May Semester will happen. Word from Jayce (and probably many others): Heck to the yes!
• Chance: motion to approve letter of recommendation. All approve.
• The saga of BJ and the Board
  § BJ met with the Board of Trustees Friday. Told them their decision about Southwestern (esp. the not telling anybody part) really sucked. It goes against the school’s statement of purpose as well as the general spirit of Hendrix. Also told them they’re changing spirit of Hendrix with decisions such as football/Village/Southwestern, and they really need to start hearing out the people who really make this school (i.e. Students and Faculty)
• They said sorry we didn’t include you, but tough…it’s all going through. They weren’t hiding anything; real-estate deals just move quickly and they didn’t get a chance to say anything. They’ll try to include us more in the future.
• Lydia: what sort of things will SW energy bring that we can benefit from??
• Student Learning Opportunities… J
• AGSA (American Student Government Association) conference this past weekend
• Found new transition plans to really prepare new Senate…possible transition month; BJ: we had a whole stack of transition activities to do.
  § If any suggestions about transitions plans please send to Will Green, as CoC is handling all transition related stuff
  § Found out we rock hardcore
  -Amongst top three schools in nation for voter turn-out of school-wide elections. Most schools average 2%, we’re at 45%. Nice job folks.
  § Found out we really need Senate Retreat for conflict Resolution (know the people you work with, less likely to be rude)
• Found out ways to increase invisibility…i.e. Pass out senate sponsored snacks during finals, do a senate book exchange etc.
• We are loaded with new Senate ideas!
• Sam Bode: we need people for Traffic Policy Committee. Who will be appointed?
• Execs hadn’t thought about it, but Jake Eddington and Corey Nesbit volunteered.
• Senate approves Jake and Corey to Traffic Fixer-Upper Committee.
• Suggestions related to traffic policy? Send it to those guys.
• Finally, our time in Senate is almost up. BJ gives everyone a pat on the back because we done real good, y’all. [Arkansan, anybody?] We’ve fixed a lot of little things, which adds up to a lot. Also, we’ve done some good groundwork for future senates. Way to go, team us.

VI. Unfinished Business

VII. New Business

VIII. Adjournment until February 24^th, 2009

Clean up: Apartments, Houses, Off-Campus

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