STUDENT SENATE
Meeting of March 19, 1998
Unofficial


Meeting was called to order at 5:42 PM.  Roll was taken at 5:42 PM.

Senators Present: Butler (CIT) - 0, Chang (MCS) - 0, Devine (HSS) - 0,
Ditterline (CIT) - 1, Falso (SAL) - 1, Go (SIA) - 2, Gray (HSS) - 0,
Gross (HSS) - 1, Guerra (CIT) - 0, Guzy (HSS) - 1, Jones (CFA) - 1, Lu
(HSS) -0, Meier (CIT) - 0, Muir (HSS) - 0, Ng (CIT) - 0, Rothschild
(CIT) - 0, Schneider (CIT) - 0.5, Tham (SIA) -1.

Senators Absent: Ablak (SIA) - 0.5, Betz (SCS) -0.5, Brown (HSS) -1,
Candela (CFA) - 1, Christoforatos (MISC) - 2.5, Cina (CFA) - 1,
Hardjanto (SCS) - 1, Hunt (CIT) - 2, Hutsko (MCS) - 1, Joshi (MCS) - 1,
McCartin (CIT) - 3, Merry (SAL) - 2, Mingo (SIA) - 0.5, Phelps (SCS) -
2, Rumpf (CIT) - 1, Shah (SIA) - 1, Sinnamohideen (SAL) -2, Stovall
(MCS) - 1, You (SIA) - 2.

Approval of the Minutes:

	Minutes for March 12, 1998 were approved by acclamation.

Ex-Officio Reports:

	Activities Board (Shubo Mookerjee): No report.

	Graduate Student Assembly (Grant Bromhal):  No report.

	Greek Council (Michele D Savery):  The all Greek BBQ is being planned
for April 19th from 4:30-6:30.  A Women's Role Model Dinner is being
organized for the sororities and Morewood C&D towers on April 9th at
5:30.  Tridelt will being having their philanthropy Batter's Up on April
25th.

	Division of Student Affairs (Barbara Prevost):  No report.

	Student Dormitory Council (Rob Migliore):  Earl Crane is our new Vice
President.  We are still in the process of electing a Secretary and
Treasurer.

	Student Body President (Bryon Krug):  (1)The Calendar Committee meeting
was today.  Again, they did not discuss Spring Break and instead
discussed the Fall semester.  I presented to the Committee the results
of the bboard survey on whether midsemester break should be on a Monday
or a Friday.  We have received over 150
responses to this question, and the responses are approximately 10 to 1
in favor of a Monday midsemester break.  Unfortunately, the Committee
did not come to a conclusion on the calendar for the fall semester. 
There are approximately 9 or 10 proposals that they are currently
considering, and the number is still growing.  (2)They are trying to
find a proposal that will have the same number of days in the first and
second mini, which is what the Monday midsemester break proposal that
Amy and I put together accomplished.  However, our proposal met
opposition for the following reasons: They want to make
sure that there are the same number of Mondays in both so that Heinz
students who are taking classes that meet only on Monday evenings will
still have the same number of meeting days.  They want to make sure that
Calculus can still hold its mini-exams on Monday, October 12 because
rooms are already reserved. (However, the course instructor might still
decide to hold the mini-exam on a Wednesday in class regardless of when
midsemester break occurs.)   (3)For some combination of these reasons,
many people on the Committee think that a midsemester break that occurs
on Friday is better than one
that occurs on Monday.  In addition to pointing out to the Committee
that students were overwhelmingly in favor of a Monday midsemester
break, Amy and I raised the following points:  Many students don~t have
classes or have very few classes on Friday so a Friday break is a less
useful to students as a time to catch up or relax before the second half
crunch.  A Monday midsemester break would give students a day to prepare
for many of their midterms or mini-exams before the exams rather than
after them.  If there are other points that Amy and I should raise,
please let Amy and me know, or email John Papinchak directly at
jp7p@andrew.cmu.edu. If you email him directly with new points, please
email me a copy of the message.  (4)In addition to this, we have been
working with the Academic Affairs Committee to prepare the Student
Government Report on Course Information.  This report should be ready
for the next meeting.  Also, Matt Phelps and I will be preparing a
Student Government Newsletter sometime after Spring Break. If there is
any information that you would like us to include in the newsletter,
please let us know. (krug@andrew.cmu.edu or phelps@andrew.cmu.edu)

 
	Student Body Treasurer (Avinash Jain):  We~re currently doing budgets. 
80% should be done by tomorrow.  I~ll present them to Senate in about a
month.

Committee Reports:

	Academic Affairs (Amy Ng):  (1)Thanks to all who filled out our survey
on course information.  Overall, we received 371 responses.  Students
have given positive feedback on the project.  We are hoping to have some
of the information available
on-line, ready for the Fall registration process this semester.  Bryon
and I will have the report and a presentation at the Senate meeting on
April 9th.  (2)The Office of Planning has included our input in their
upcoming university-wide survey.  This survey will be sent out to all
1st year, 2nd year, and senior students.  The questions that Student
Government provided to the survey concern whether advisors speak to
students about graduation requirements, career objectives, opportunities
in research and industry, and personal issues.  We hope that this will
provide to the administration more adequate feedback from students
regarding advising.  (3)A new statement of Academic Integrity is being
reviewed by the administration.  Faculty Senate has already approved the
statement. 
Academic Affairs will bring this document to Senate for review after
Spring Break.  (4)
Enrollment Services is looking into a system of Phone-In Grading. 
Students would call a 1-800 number for the HUB to access grades at the
end of the semester.  With this system, the HUB will no longer
automatically mail hard copies of grade reports to students.  AA is
looking into conducting a survey in conjunction with Enrollment Services
to see if students would find this service useful.  (5)The University
Education Council discussed whether academic course units accurately
depict a student's workload.  The Council will encourage
departments to follow the standard course unit structure, where one
course unit equals one hour of course work per week.

	Campus Affairs (Sarah Gross):  I~ll be meeting with Marcia Gerwig on
Monday to discuss issues about the University Center hours (summer and
school year), food/dining gallery hours, and Skibo.  After Spring Break,
we~ll be conducting a survey outside Doherty and will then present
results at a Senate meeting.  We have also started looking into
recycling issues.  We discussed the current poster policy and its
effectiveness.

	Funding and Recognition (given by Keith Rothschild):  F&R will be
presenting three recognitions and one special allocation.

	Human Resources (Jamie Chang):  HR met last Tuesday for a short
meeting.  We discussed the Student Senate Fiscal Policy proposal.  Since
no ideas, comments, or complaints were made, we decided that the
document was in good shape.  We reviewed a budget sheet primer which is
being developed.  I plan on having it ready for the joint GSA-Senate
budget meeting.  Finally, we had a short discussion on the bylaws and
decided upon a basic plan of action.  The proposal on buying a PC for
the Senate office has been postponed because we have not had time to
properly compose it.  I will have it ready after Spring Break.  I have a
preliminary proposal; if any want to see it, they can talk to me later. 
At our meeting after the break we will be going over the current text in
the bylaws.  Direct any questions concerning the Human Resources
Committee to me at pet@cmu.edu, or call x2-3593.

	Public Relations (given by William Guzy):  The elections board members
are: Nicole Cook (Chair), Reed Taylor, Feige Grundman, Alison Merikangas
and Jan Falkowski.

	Chair (Jen Gray):  Thanks for being flexible on room assignments.  The
next meeting should be in the Adamson Wing.

New Business From Committee: 

	S98-023 - Non-funded Recognition of Brother to Brother. The mission of
this organization shall be to provide awareness, a sense of unity, and
an opportunity for leadership for African-American males on the Carnegie
Mellon campus.  Approved by voice vote.

	S98-024 - Non-funded Recognition of The Originals.  The purpose of this
club is to provide a collegiate level of a-cappella musical excellence. 
Approved by voice vote.

	S98-025 - Non-funded Recognition of Voce.  The purpose of this club is
to provide an opportunity to sing in a SATB ensemble.  Approved by
acclamation.

	S98-026 - Special Allocation to Scotch~n~Soda for an amount not to
exceed $1500 for a table saw, three cordless drills, a sewing machine,
and floor microphones.  Approved by voice vote.

	S98-027 - Approval of Elections Board: Nicole Cook (Chair), Reed
Taylor, Feige Grundman, Alison Merikangas and Jan Falkowski approved by
voice vote.

Old Business:

	S98-021 - Election Rules and Bylaws Amendment approved by voice vote. 
Sen Guzy~s Amendment: line 80, change ~ten~ to ~seven~ fails by voice
vote. 


Meeting adjourned at 6:51 PM due to lack of quorum.

Respectfully Submitted,
Lori Lee