STUDENT SENATE Meeting of October 7, 1998 Unofficial Meeting was called to order at 7:10 PM. Roll was taken at 7:00 PM. Senators Present: Anthe (CIT) - 0, Chang (MCS) - 0, Devine (HSS) - 0, Ditterline (CIT) - 1, Guerra (CIT) - 1, Guzy (HSS) - 0, Hardjanto (SCS) - 0, Hutsko (MCS) - 0, Jones (CFA) - 0, Kalafchi (SIA) - 0, Koch (CIT) - 2, Markle (CIT) - 0, Merry (HSS) - 0, Monroe (CIT) - 0, Moskowitz (HSS) - 0, Ng (CIT) - 0, Silverman (MCS) - 0, Stovall (MCS) - 0, Strauss (SCS) - 0, Tham (SIA) - 0, You (SIA) - .5 Senators Absent: Chan-Mendez (SIA) - 1, Die (CFA) - 1, Gross (CIT) - 1, Joshi (MCS)- 1, Mccartin (CIT) - 1, Meier (CIT) - 1, Phelps (SCS) - 1, Tassone (SCS) - .5, Wei (HSS) - 1 Approval of Minutes: Minutes for September 23 were amended and approved. Ex-Officio Reports: Activities Board (Shubo Mookerjee): No report Graduate Student Assembly (Grant Bromhal): Not present Greek Council (given by Cyndi Vuong): Greek Council is currently sponsoring Greek Letter Day this Friday on October 9. All Greek members are encouraged to wear their letters and sign up at the table in front of Doherty from 11 to 3. The House with the greatest number of signatures, in proportion to their total size, will win afree pizza party. Not only is Greek Council busy with promoting Greek pride and spirit, they are working hard on planning two major philanthropy events for fall semester. Plans for The Haunted Quad and Battle of the Bands are underway. The Haunted Quad will be held on October 31, approximately from 11 to 3 p.m. fun-filled afternoon of trick-or-treating and games within the quad area. Our goal is to provide a safe environment for kids to enjoy the Halloween festivities. = Our second philanthropy, Battle of the Bands, is to raise money for the Battered Women's Shelter. This four-hour concert will feature selected bands from campus and local areas. For more information on any of these Greek-Council events, feel free to contact me via e-mail at cyndi@cmu.edu. Aside from the Greek council, the Greek Community remains active in their own ways. Last weekend, Panhellenic Council had a successful turnout at their fall formal where they recognized all new Greek women on campus. Kappa Kappa Gamma had another successful Kappa Kappa Gong show this year - they were able to raise approximately $500 for the Maggee-Women's Hospital Breast Cancer Patient Resource Fund. Zeta Psi Sigma will be hosting their annual Cansome Ransome on October 18th. For more information on Cansome Ransome, contact Krista Contino at contino@andrew.cmu.edu. Division of Student Affairs (Denise Fazio): No report Student Dormitory Council (Rob Migliore): Not present Student Body President (Sarah Gross): - Recently I attended spirit and SDC meetings to introduce myself and = offer to help them in any way that I can. - My office hours are on Wednesdays from 6 to 7pm in Skibo Coffeehouse. - I attended recent MLK Day Program Cmmittee meetings. There will be = day activities in addition to the Early Evening event. - I worked with Spirit of Skibo in order to make sure that there will beTartan Towels at Homecoming. - There has been talk about what to do with the vacant space under = Margaret Morrison. - If anyone has questions, ideas or suggestions, please email me at sbp@cmu.edu Student Body Treasurer (Keith Rothschild): Not present Special Businesses: Senate appointed Chris Guerra, Mike Strauss, Joel Swela, and Matt Monroe = to the Joint Funding Committee (JFC). A fifth position on the nine-seat committee is yet to be filled. Approval of Validated Petitions Elizabeth Ferrick, a junior Psychology major, is accepted as an official senator representing H&SS. Committee Reports: Academic Affairs (Amy Ng): - AA explored several used textbook exchange websites for possible implementation on campus. We are also still looking at the textbook = return policy at the school bookstore. The committee looked into a phone-in-grading system last semester, but has decided not to pursue this issue any longer. - As a side note update on the JobTrak issue that was discussed in = points of discussion at the last senate meeting, the Career Center is working on the issue of having JobTrak provide more security on their site. By the next senate meeting, we expect a statement from the Career Center regarding = this issue. Campus Affairs (Neil Guzy): - The committee is working on the laundry token problem. First, the = price of a laundry token went up. The reason is because Housing used to pay for the cost of the electricity and water, but the responsibility has been handed over to the Laundry Services. Also, sometimes the machines eat away tokens and the process of getting refunds for the tokens is really complicated = and inconvenience. We are working together with SDC to solve this problem. - Morewood Basement survey will be passed out between October 15-16. - CA is working with SARC (Student Alumni Relation Council) in = Homecoming to send good image and get feedback from the alumni. - The committee is also working with the Housing to improve the = condition and services of the housing by putting together student feedback on the = new dorm. Funding and Recognition (Sern Tham): - F&R will be presenting four recognitions. - ASA and KSA are currently on financial probation. All expenditures of funds must be approved by the Funding and Recognition Committee. Human Resources (Jamie Chang): -The committee discussed the Elections Board, election locations, and election times. We decided to hold elections from 10:00AM to 4:45PM in = front of Doherty Hall, with Kirr Commons as the rain location. Senate will be voting on these later. -The committee agreed to the reapportioning of Senate seats. Excomm = agreed with the recommendation and the current Senator list reflects most of = these changes. -The committee discussed election ballots. We talked about several ways = to create and layout the ballots for the upcoming elections and future elections. We plan on picking a method for this semester election at tomorrow meeting. -The committee began discussions on revising the Bylaws. We will be = setting goals and talking about the problems of the current Bylaws tomorrow. Ideas already given to the committee, but not yet discussed include: changing = the name of the miscellaneous seat; changing the number of signatures required for a vacancy petition to a percentage; making the Vice Chair a required office; and changing the representative fraction number. If anyone has ideas, please email them to myself or to the Human Resources dlist, +dist+/afs?andrew/org/senate/HR/human.dl. -The new PC arrived last week, sooner than I expected. Charlie Anthe = has agreed to be the system administrator. The computer is not completely set = up yet, but should be soon. The old Centris is no longer available over the campus network. -Robb Moskowitz finished the labels for the inboxes in the Senate = office and they have been applied. If you would like to see them, visit the = Senate office in the University Center. -We discussed a committee contribution to the Student Body President's newsletter. The committee is going to see that the impending Bylaws revisions discussions are publicized there. -The HR Committee web page is up. There is not a lot on it, but it is useful. Thanks to Charlie Anthe for writing it for us. -The committee is still working with accounts to get the user id = changed on Senate's Andrew account and to get additional project volume space on Andrew. -There is a new Senator list, and Senators should pick it up. -Direct any questions concerning the Hr Committee or its issues to me = at chang@andrew.cmu.edu, or call x2-2695. Public Relations (Joshua Merry): -The committee is working on advertising the coming-up Student Senate election. Fliers are ready in University Center. -PR is also planning on having two advertisements for the election on = the Tartan -We are going to have a booth for the Activity Fair. Chair (Drew Stovall): -Keycards are ready. New Business from Committee: HR: Approval of election time from 10:00AM to 4:45PM accepted by voice vote. Jeffrey R. Thibert is appointed as the Election Board Chair by handvote = (16 in favor). F&R F98-007 - Funded Recognition of F5.6- The Photography Club The purpose of F5.6- The Photography Club is to allow CMU student, faculty member or employee to learn about and enjoy the art of photography in a self-paced, unrestrained environment. Motion was approved by voice vote. F98-008 - Non-Funded Recognition of BUDAYA BUDAYA is essentially the Malaysian Cultural Organization, and will = promote the celebration of Malaysian culture. Motion was approved by voice vote. F98-009 - Non-Funded Recognition of Orthodox Christian Fellowship Orthodox Christian Fellowship seeks to establish a profound and lasting fellowship among the Orthodox Christians in CMU. Motion was approved by voice vote. F98-010 - Funded Recognition of Fiesta de Primavera Committee Fiesta de Primavera's mission is to plan and execute Fiesta de Primavera, the last day of classes party at the end of each academic year. Membership in the committee will be open to anyone eligible to participate in extra-curricular activities, as defined in the Carnegie Mellon University Student Handbook. Motion was approved by voice vote. New Business: Prashanth Mekala is approved to be a new member of Student Senate. Points of Discussion: - Jamie Chang mentioned that the discussion on Bylaws revision is on the student government bboard. - Sen. Guerra brings up the issue of the 3D Porn movie showed on October 4 during the sleeping bag weekend. Shubbo Mookerjee, AB Chair, also = discusses the issue in details. Announcement: Academic Affairs Committee will discuss the projects that we are working = on this semester on WRCT 88.3FM on Wednesday from 6-7PM. If any senators want to say something, join us in our discussion. Meeting adjourned at 9:00 PM by voice vote. Respectfully Submitted, Paula Rumli