4:32 pm
Absent:
N. Saputo, V. Santana, J.
Trompke, E. Mead, M. Ryan, S.
Leahy, J. Alfonzo, M. Cogliano, K. Ryer, O. Jimenez
Arrived
Late: None
Left Early: J. Peralta, M. Skorker, S. Boucher, W.
Lappas
Guests: Jim Stoll (Dean of Student Life), Abraham
Scarr
(MASSPIRG), Jonathan Ring (Student Trustee
& CFACT),
Elizabeth Paz (MASSPIRG), Haimin Luo (SSC
Log), Patrick
Connolly (Alliance), Bruce Perry (Campus
Center)
Chair Boucher pointed out that under the Sophomore Senate report the word “said” should be omitted.
President
Dalton announced the minutes for November 4, 2003,
Were accepted as changed.
· President Dalton introduced Dean Stoll who
spoke about the
“green architecture” for the new residence
hall on Central
Campus.
He showed pictures that showed there would be a grass
space about the size of a football field in
the front of the
building, metered irrigation for this green
space, and a wall of
treated glass, which looks like windows but
is more efficient
because it keeps the heat in in the winter
and out in the summer.
The heat recovery system is very energy
efficient. Many of the
materials that are being used are recycled,
such as the acoustical
tile and furniture fabric. This building is
well advanced. Chair
Lappas asked questions about the
contaminated land fill and
Dean Stoll explained that it has been
cleaned up and capped off.
It is checked several times a year to ensure that the glass will
not
come back up. Dean Stoll told us that every room will be able to
control their own heat and AC and new
temporary lights will be
put in the parking lot very soon. Permanent
lights and more
parking spaces in Central Campus when the
new building opens
up.
MOTION: President Dalton entertained a motion to
appoint
Michael Higgins to the Food Service Committee.
Batastini/
Runyan (Unanimous)
· Vice President Batastini announced that
this week is Attitude for Gratitude.
She encouraged people to collect cans or non- perishables and bring them
by the SGA office, get checked off, then bring them to Interfaith to be
stored. The group or club with the most
donations will win a Papa John’s Pizza party.
She also reminded the group about
the hunger banquet to be held in the Mezzanine dining commons sponsored
by Vinny Testas.
· Vice President Batastini also announced the
Holiday Ceremony
on December 1. This event is mandatory for Groups and Clubs
and it is during community time. They will
be celebrating all the
different holidays including Christmas,
Kwanzaa, Advent, Dia de
los Reyes, Ramadan, and many more.
· Treasurer Garvey announced that Ryan Cahill,
Candice Milan,
and Ashleyne Alexis have been
selected to attend COSGA this
year.
· Unfortunately Assistant Treasurer Mazza had no report.
· Secretary Spano announced that after going
over the Chair’s
lists of committee members she had to
appoint people to
committees to ensure that they have equal
representation and to
make sure all members of senate are on a
committee.
MOTION: Secretary Spano made a motion to appoint
the following people to the following committees:
Governmental Relations: Jeff
Laine and Julissa Alfonzo
Public Relations: Mike Higgins,
Jenn Trompke, Janelle
Williamson, and
Rose-Marie Theberge
Rules: Candice Milan
Student Life: Rose-Marie Theberge,
Janelle Williamson, Charlene
Abreu, and Mike Higgins
Batastini (Unanimous)
·
SENIOR SENATE
· No Report
·
JUNIOR SENATE
· Junior Senate gave out a handout on Robert’s Rules that will be
used for a game later that is a cross between Jeopardy and Family Feud.
· SOPHOMORE SENATE
· Sophomore Senate asked if they can try propaganda type things
to get people to
come to the meetings.
· Senator Leung suggested we do things like
RHA. He would like
to
play games and do riddles at the Senate meetings. President
Dalton advised him to see her with any ideas he might have.
· FRESHMAN SENATE
· No Report
· Treasurer
Garvey announced that his committee has a
meeting this
Thursday at 6:00 to meet with the Women’s
Center again.
· Dr. Brossoit
brought up what the E-Board had discussed in
their E-Board meeting about bias in the committee.
Members of the Finance committee should use ethics and
decide not to vote on a proposal if they belong to the group or
club that is proposing. It creates a bias if you vote for your
own group. Treasurer Garvey said this will be discussed
more thoroughly at the next finance meeting.
·
RULES
COMMITTEE
· President Dalton requested that from now on
everyone please date your amendments.
·Chair King brought up the Amendment by
addition on the special election that has been posted and is located in the
minutes of October 28, 2003. She opened
it up to discussion. There was a lot of
discussion on letter c under number 1.
It is thought to be too vague.
The term “governing bodies” is far too unclear. After telling the people with the problem with
the amendment to attend the Rules committee meeting to prevent further problems
with amendments, Chair King entertained a motion.
MOTION: Chair King entertained a motion to send
the
amendment by addition on the special
elections back to the Rules
committee.
Garvey/Leung
(Unanimous)
· Vice President Batastini, who is also the
Assistant Chair of the Rules Committee, brought up the amendment by
substitution regarding the recess during the meeting. This amendment has been posted and has been put into all members’
mailboxes. She explained that
government takes time and this amendment was made because of the last meeting
where everyone began to rush come 6:00.
She feels that if we had more time before the recess than people would
not feel rushed and pressured to finish what is going on. Treasurer Garvey brought up the point that
if the recess was pushed back to 7:30 then he would miss dinner and that would
not make him happy. Since some people
agreed with Treasurer Garvey’s point it was sent back to the Rules committee.
MOTION: Chair King entertained a motion to send
this
amendment by substitution regarding the
recess back to the
Rules committee.
Garvey/ Peralta (Unanimous)
· Chair King again suggested that more people
attend her committee meetings to take away some of the debate that goes on at
the Senate meetings.
· Chair King announced that at her last
meeting the part-time student issue was brought up and it was decided to wait
for a referendum from part time students.
· STUDENT LIFE COMMITTEE
MOTION: Chair Boucher entertained a motion to
appoint
Candice Milan and Julissa Alfonzo to the Student Life
committee.
Batastini/Runyan
(Unanimous)
MOTION: Chair Boucher entertained a motion to
appoint
Jessica Peralta as Assistant Chair of
the Student Life
Committee.
Milan/ Williamson (Unanimous)
· Chair Boucher announced that on Thursday,
December 4 they will be holding a traffic light theme day. All day on campus people should wear red if
you are in a relationship, yellow if you are just looking around, and green if
you are single and looking for a relationship.
Flyers will be posted soon.
· Chair Boucher informed us that she went to
the office of institutional research to find the demographics for our school,
but the person in charge is on vacation.
· Chair Boucher announced that her committee
will be meeting Friday, November 21 at 4:30 in the lobby of the Campus Center.
·
ACADEMIC AFFAIRS
MOTION:
Chair Skorker entertained a motion to appoint
Mekonnen
Meshesha and Melissa Zardas to the Academic
Affairs
committee.
Abreu/
Alexis (Unanimous)
· Chair Skorker announced that he met with
Diane Lapkin and she is working on posting class cancellations online. Also the CE (computer enhanced) code will
hopefully be put in the course catalog next year.
· Chair Skorker announced that he has to
speak with Dr. Brossoit about the E-mail drive.
· Chair Skorker announced that his committee
will be meeting Monday, November 24 at 5:30 in Bates Commons.
· GOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS
· Chair Lappas announced that he will be having a meeting next
Monday, November 24 at 2:45 tentatively in the game room. They will be going over election services,
such as voter registration, and they will introduce the SAT tutoring program on
campus.
· Chair Lappas introduced Elizabeth Paz from
MASSPIRG to discuss House bill number 2400.
She explained why she is a volunteer and why she thought waivable fees
should be illegal. Her reasons included
that if they were illegal it would be anti-educational and anti-democracy. Senator Laine asked what other groups were
funded by a waivable fee and she informed him that some schools fund their
daycares by the fee, but here at SSC only MASSPIRG. Members of the Senate wanted to know what the money brought in by
the fee paid for so she told us that the $7 paid by the students goes directly
to pay the staff. President Dalton
wanted to clarify that this bill was not to make waivable fees illegal, it was
to make negative check off illegal.
Elizabeth informed her that she was correct. Members of the senate wanted to hear another point of view on
this issue.
MOTION:
Chair Lappas entertained a motion for the Student
Government to support the resolution in front of them.
In Favor: 10, Against: 6,
Abstained: 1...Motion passes
·
There was a lot of discussion along with this motion.
Some people felt passionately about not backing the support
statement and did not want
anything sent to the government
that they didn’t agree with. The
rest of the people felt that we
were a group and due to the democratic process majority rules
and
we as a group have to come to a decision.
Several people
wanted to hear the other side of this bill because obviously our
government has a good reason behind proposing a bill like this.
It
was made clear that Abe from MASSPIRG wrote this support
statement and there a lot of discrepancy about the language of it.
It
was more like a resolution rather than a support statement
and several members of senate
thought that it was a little
extreme. The fact that this bill was
“Anti-educational” was a big
stretch. Also there was a problem about the support
statement
not matching the bill. It says nothing about negative fees so it
comes across as
underhanded.
· At this point the group took a 30 minute
recess at 6:20 and
resumed at 6:55 as stated in the
constitution.
·
JUDICIAL
AFFAIRS
No
report
·
PUBLIC
RELATIONS
· No Report
· None
None
· Chair King announced that Best Buddies is
selling charity
tickets to the mall on November 23 for $8 if
you are interested call
ext. 6443.
· Senator Milan announced the play, Course
Work that is about
150 years of Salem State College. It is a great show. It is playing
on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at 8pm and
on Sunday at 2pm.
It is free for students.
· Senator Milan also announced that the
Catholic Student
Community is also selling the mall tickets
to help raise money
for their spring break trip to
Kentucky.
· Senator Alexis announced that MSA is having
their annual
Gentlemen’s dinner Wednesday, November 19 at
6pm. It is semi-
formal attire and ladies can help out
because they need
waitresses.
This is a free event held in Vet’s Hall.
· Jonathan Ring said that he agreed with
Secretary Spano’s views
on the support statement because the
language is not acceptable.
He suggested that the President veto this
resolution and he also
suggests that someone try to contact Fagan’s
office and try to get
someone to come in a give us another
prospective. This will not
only help clarify the bill, it will help us
to establish connections
in the State House.
· Dr. Brossoit announced that the Student
Judicial Board has
openings so if anyone is interested see him
for the application.
He would prefer some men to apply because
right now the
majority of the board is female.
· Patrick Connolly, the President of the
Alliance, announced the
AIDS benefit dance that is being held this Friday,
November 21
at 8pm.
The theme is “Ties for Lives” so wear a tie in a creative
way.
The dance will be held in Downstairs Chartwells and all
proceeds will go to the Strongest Link
Foundation. He also
announced that on December 13th
the Strongest Link will have
their holiday party and it is a great
time. Patrick informed the
group that the Alliance donated the money
raised from
Raspberry Swirl to the Crombie Street
shelter and
they bought new blankets.
· Chair King reminded everyone that her
committee will still
meet downstairs after this meeting.
MOTION: President Dalton entertained a motion to
adjourn the meeting.
Meshesha/
Pereira (Unanimous)
SUBMITTED BY MICHELLE L. SPANO