STUDENT SENATE Meeting of March 12, 1998 Unofficial Meeting was called to order at 5:42 PM. Roll was taken at 5:42 PM. Senators Present: Ablak (SIA) - 0, Betz (SCS) -0, Brown (HSS) -0, Butler (CIT) - 0, Candela (CFA) - 0, Chang (MCS) - 0, Christoforatos (MISC) - 1.5, Cina (CFA) - 0, Devine (HSS) - 0, Ditterline (CIT) - 1, Falso (SAL) - 1, Gray (HSS) - 0, Gross (HSS) - 1, Guerra (CIT) - 0, Guzy (HSS) - 1, Hardjanto (SCS) - 0, Hunt (CIT) - 1, Hutsko (MCS) - 0, Jones (CFA) - 1, Joshi (MCS) - 0, Lu (HSS) -0, Meier (CIT) - 0, Merry (SAL) - 1, Mingo (SIA) - 0, Muir (HSS) - 0, Ng (CIT) - 0, Phelps (SCS) - 1, Rothschild (CIT) - 0, Rumpf (CIT) - 0, Schneider (CIT) - 0.5, Sinnamohideen (SAL) -1, Shah (SIA) - 0, Stovall (MCS) - 0, You (SIA) - 1. Senators Absent: Go (SIA) - 2, McCartin (CIT) - 2, Tham (SIA) -1. Approval of the Minutes: Minutes from February 26, 1998 were amended and approved by acclamation. Ex-Officio Reports: Activities Board (Shubo Mookerjee): No report. Graduate Student Assembly (Grant Bromhal): No report. Greek Council (Rita Bosch): Not present. Division of Student Affairs (Barbara Prevost): No report. Student Dormitory Council (Brian Bluth): No report. Student Body President (Bryon Krug): (1) The town meeting was, for the most part, a success. It proved to the administration that people really do agree with our resolution. It is, as yet, undetermined whether student opinion and Student Government will play a large role in the development of policies. (2) Today~s Calendar Committee meeting did not decide anything. The committee is definitely well aware of student opinion on the Spring Break issue. If you have any concerns for the committee regarding Spring Break or the Fall Mid-Semester Break, e-mail jp7p, Pres Krug, and Sen Ng. (3) Surveys will be given out to gather information on how to improve course descriptions. (4) The CEO Town Meeting will be on Wednesday, 1 April 98 at 4:30 pm and Thursday, 2 April 98 at 8:30 pm. Student Body Treasurer (Avinash Jain): No report. Committee Reports: Academic Affairs (Amy Ng): (1) Thanks to all for the feedback on the calendar issue; we will keep you up to date on that. AA is looking into whether academic course units accurately depict the amount of work expected or required for courses. (2) The Eberly Center for Learning is looking to implement a formal, university-wide TA evaluation system. If anyone would like to review the evaluation questions, please let me know. (3) As Pres Krug mentioned earlier, AA conducted two focus groups to gather student opinions on academic advising and available course information. The result is a survey on course information that was passed out to students on March 11. Senators, please complete one also. We also will be handing them out at AB~s Friday night movie. Please sign up for time slots to help with the surveys. (4) We spoke to Enrollment Services to make it easier for students to receive confirmation of dropped courses to facilitate returning textbooks at the University Shoppe. Campus Affairs (Sarah Gross): Campus Affairs will be meeting with administrators who are in charge of UC hours on Monday concerning UC gym hours and UC summer hours--if you have any comments/ideas, please email campus-affairs@andrew.cmu.edu. Funding and Recognition (Drew Stovall): Two meetings were held. We reviewed a significant amount of recognition requests and special allocation requests (some of which will not be brought to Senate). I would also like to welcome a new member to our committee, Sen Hutsko. Human Resources (Jamie Chang): HR has met twice since the last Senate meeting and has gotten a lot of work done. At the first meeting PR Chair Michelle Brown visited to take pictures. We were also addressed by former Election Board Chair Dan Tilkin. He brought several concerns he had with the Election Rules and Bylaws. In the light of his thoughts and ideas, and the concerns brought forward by others, we made a semi-major overhaul of out first proposal set of revisions to the Election Rules. We also decided to completely replace sections in the Election Rules. At the second meeting, we made some minor revisions to the Election Rules proposal of the pervious week and tweaked the motion concerning adoption. We will be debating this today and voting on it next week. We also revised the Student Senate Fiscal Policy. It has been divided from the Bylaws and has some revisions made, in order to make it work better with the fiscal policy in the Constitution. This will receive it~s first reading today and will be voted on next week. Vice Chair Justin Cina has been working on options for buying a PC for Senate, and I hope to have a proposal before you next week. At this Tuesday~s meeting, we plan to start serious work on revising the Bylaws. If you have ideas or concerns on the Bylaws, please e-mail me. There are copies of the amended Constitution and an updated Senators list available. Direct any questions concerning the Human Resources Committee to me at pet@cmu.edu, or call x2-3593. Public Relations (Michelle Brown): (1) We are working on elections. WRCT will be this semester~s Elections Board. (2) The WRCT show will be from 6-7. We will be discussing CEO. If you are interested in participating please show up at WRCT at 5:45. (3) There is a meeting next week. Chair (Jen Gray): No report. New Business From Committee: S98-011 - Non-funded Recognition of String Ensemble. The Carnegie Mellon String Ensemble Club is an opportunity for any Carnegie Mellon student to rehearse and perform in a string ensemble in a recreational manner. Approved by acclamation. S98-012 - Non-funded Recognition of CMU Online Gaming Association. The purpose of the club is to promote gaming and allow online gamers to participate in a forum with a high level of professionalism and skill. Approved by hand vote (25-0). S98-013 - Special Allocation to Oakland Review for the amount of $1800 for the reprinting of the Spring 1997 issue to correct glaring mistakes in the text. Approved by voice vote. S98-014 - Special Allocation to Oakland Review for an amount not to exceed $510 to attend the Associated Writing Programs annual conference in Portland, OR. This money will be dedicated to the registration of up to 9 people and the table registration. Approved by voice vote. S98-015 - Special Allocation to Filmmaking at CMU for an amount not to exceed $4444 for flimmaking equipment. This special allocation is subject to Article V, Section V, subsection U of the Student Body Constitution. Approved by voice vote. S98-016 - Special Allocation to Fiesta for the amount of $5000. Approved by voice vote. S98-017 - Funded Recognition of Organizations currently recognized as Non-funded supported by F&R. A) Juggling - Approved by hand vote. B) Paintball - Fails by voice vote. C) PSO - Approved by voice vote. D) Russian House - Approved by voice vote. S98-018 - Assigning Non-funded Recognition to Association for Life. Approved by voice vote. S98-019 - Funded Recognition of Organizations currently recognized as Non-funded without support by F&R. A) cmuRIGHT - approved by hand vote (10-8). B) Objectivists - Motion to table till a representative member is present failed by hand vote (10-11). Funded recognition fails by hand vote (9-11). S98-020 - Election dates (April 20-22), times (10am - 5 pm) and location (outside of Dorhety Hall, rain location at Kirr Commons) approved by voice vote. S98-021 - Adoption of new Election Rules and concomitant amendment of the Bylaws. First reading. No Debate. Concern about violation of Election Rules. See line 185. S98-022 - Adoption of a Student Senate Fiscal Policy and matching amendment to the Bylaws. First reading. Concerns about line 112, Section XII, subsection A being suitable. New Business from the Floor: Proposed Amendment to Current Elections Rules withdrawn by Sen Brown. Announcements: (1) Sen. Gross: There is a meeting next week Monday at 4:30 in Skibo about UC hours. If you have any concerns or questions please e-mail me, Sen Gross. (2) Sen Chang: Please e-mail any concerns about the Bylaws to the bboard. (3) Turn in surveys to Sen Ng. Meeting adjourned at 7:23 PM by voice vote. Respectfully Submitted, Lori Lee