4:30 pm
Absent:
V. Santana, J. Trompke, E.
Mead, J. Alfonzo, M.
Cogliano, K. Ryer, O. Jimenez, C. Abreu, J. Pereira, J. Peralta
Arrived
Late: A. Alexis, J.
Laine, S. Boucher, W. Lappas
Left Early: C. Milan
Guests: Candace Curtin (Women’s Center), Abe Scarr
(MassPIRG)
President
Dalton announced the minutes for November 18, 2003,
were accepted as changed.
· President Dalton announced that there is a
seat open on Junior
Senate because Nina Saputo resigned. Screen-ins for that and
other open positions will be announced next
semester.
· President Dalton announced that she spoke
with Dr. Cahill
about a public safety committee and anyone
who wants to
volunteer should see her. Senator Cahill, Treasurer Garvey, and
Senator Leung all expressed interest in
joining the committee.
· President Dalton reminded everyone that
next week is our last
meeting so we will be going out to Vinny
Testas for dinner. We
will be meeting in the MLK room first for a
short meeting at the
normal meeting time. We need a count of who is coming so see
Sharon immediately to let her know, if you
do not reply, you will
not be counted in.
· President Dalton informed everybody that
the staff parking
spaces reserved in the Peabody Hall parking
lot are available for
students to park in between the hours of 6PM
and 6AM, so at
night feel free to park there, just make
sure you move your car by
6AM.
· President Dalton explained a little about
her choice to veto the
motion passed at the November 18th
meeting regarding the
support statement against house bill
2400. She felt strongly that
the group needed to hear both sides to
properly represent the
students.
She has been in touch with Representative Fagan’s
office and they are planning on sending a
legislative aid or a
report that will help us to get the other
perspective.
· Vice President Batastini announced that the
Holiday Ceremony
on December 1 was a great event. It was nice celebrating all the
different holidays including Christmas,
Kwanzaa, Advent, Dia de
los Reyes, Ramadan, and many more. Our own
Senator Alexis
spoke about Kwanzaa and even Santa came for
a surprise visit.
· Vice President Batastini gave everyone a
heads up about the
first mandatory group and club event for
next semester on
January 26.
There will be a candlelight vigil for Martin Luther
King at 6PM in either the MLK room or Vet’s
Hall depending on
the amount of people that show up.
· Vice President Batastini informed everyone
that a list of
required group and club events will be put
in the mailboxes by
the end of the week.
· Treasurer Garvey announced that our new
furniture for the
office came and it looks great, feel free to come check it out.
· Treasurer Garvey informed everyone that the
last day for
spending for all groups and clubs is on December
8th , no
paperwork will be accepted after 5PM on this
day.
· Treasurer Garvey announced that we will be
ordering T-Shirts
for the senate and he passed around a piece
of paper for members
to write down what size they would
like. If you were not at the
meeting, make sure you see Treasurer Garvey
so that you can get
the right size.
· Assistant Treasurer Mazza announced that he will be forming his budget committee soon so all that are interested in joining, leave your name and all your information in Assistant Treasurer Mazza’s mailbox and he will make his committee from there.
· Assistant Treasurer Mazza informed everyone about the volunteer fair Bruce Perry is organizing that we have funded in the past.
MOTION: Assistant Treasurer Mazza made a motion to fund $400 to
the volunteer fair.
Spano (Unanimous)
· Secretary Spano gave a stack of Student
Government business
cards to all members of the group.
· Secretary Spano asked if anyone was
interested in doing a
Secret Santa among the senate. Due to too much confusion, we
will not be doing that this year.
·
SENIOR SENATE
· Senior Senators expressed their concern with the fact that a
lot of seniors did not know that they would not be having traditional yearbooks
because of budget cuts.
·
JUNIOR SENATE
· No Report
· SOPHOMORE SENATE
· Sophomore Senators thanked Chair King for the holiday cards
in everyone’s mailboxes (We love you Mel)
· Senator Leung suggested that we do an event
for finals week.
Since that is next week, President Dalton told him to come up
with ideas for next semester and let her know.
· FRESHMAN SENATE
· Senator
Meshesha told us that a lot of people were
complaining about commuting long distances
only to find out that
class is cancelled. He said that there should be some way to
find
out if your class is cancelled before you
drive all the way here.
Chair Skorker informed him that he is
working on posting class
cancellations online. There was a lot of conversation about
whether or not this would help. Sharon suggested that people
communicate with their professors more. People should ask their
professors if they could e-mail them if they
know prior that they
will be absent. Some professors won’t, but a lot will.
· Treasurer
Garvey announced that on Thursday before
Thanksgiving break the Finance committee met with
the Women’s Center and decided to fund them $2500.
He introduced Candace Curtin who spoke a little about
what the money would be used for.
She informed us
that they will be having a Women’s History Month
dinner that costs about $2000, a
Women’s History Month
speaker that will cost
$4000+travel, and the Vagina
Monologues which has no projected cost yet.
MOTION: Treasurer Garvey made
a motion to fund the Women’s Center
$2500 for the above mentioned events.
Batastini/Alexis (For: 12, Against: 3,
Obstained:1) Motion passes.
· There
was a lot of concern about the speaker costing
$4000 and
only being able to speak to about 80 students.
Assistant Treasurer Mazza pointed
out that this means the
Women’s
Center is paying this guy $50 per
person to do a
powerpoint
presentation. Despite this fact the
motion was
passed.
· Treasurer Garvey announced that the
committee will be
meeting
this Thursday, December 4 at 6PM to go over a
proposal
put forth by the Catholic Student Community.
·
RULES
COMMITTEE
· Chair King brought up the amendment by
substitution that was placed in everybody’s mailboxes. This amendment deals with page 1, article 1,
section A of the constitution dealing with meeting times.
MOTION: Treasurer Garvey made a motion to accept
the
amendment that
changes the break time of the meetings to 6:30.
Runyan
(Unanimous)
·Chair King brought up the Amendment by
addition on the special election that was also put into everyone’s
mailboxes. The term governing bodies
was defined so there was no more discussion about it.
MOTION: Chair King entertained a motion to accept
the special
election
amendment page 21, article VIII, between section L and
M.
Batastini/Leung
(Unanimous)
· Chair King thanked all the senators for
giving out the surveys regarding online elections.
· STUDENT LIFE COMMITTEE
· 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.
· ACADEMIC AFFAIRS
· Chair Skorker announced that he met with
Bill Murphy and Dr. Brossoit about the e-mail drive and got good ideas from
them. Only a few can administer e-mails
to only those who sign up. This will
prevent unwanted e-mails. He will ask
Bill Murphy to come in a speak to the group.
Chair Skorker strongly urged everyone to use their SSC e-mail accounts.
· GOVERNMENTAL RELATIONS
· Chair Lappas announced that he will be having a meeting next
Monday, December 8 at 2:45.
· Chair Lappas told us about a cool program
online where you can actually try to manage our state’s budget and try to
balance it.
· Vice President Batastini suggested that
Chair Lappas look into the candidates for presidency and see where they stand
on such issues as public higher education.
· Chair Lappas announced that the
Commissioner of the Department of Correction, the Commissioner of Public Safety
and the Chief Medical Examiner have lost their positions.
·
JUDICIAL
AFFAIRS
· No report
·
PUBLIC
RELATIONS
· No Report
· None
· President Dalton got a copy of house bill
2400 and the current bill and highlighted the changes, which was only one
word. There is a copy of this in
everyone’s mailboxes.
· Chair Lappas suggested that all chairs
maintain a folder of procedures that can be passed on to future years. He is currently working on an election drive
and it would be easier if someone in the past had left a procedure. Senator Theberge and Senator Williamson
informed him that they did the election drive last year and kept a folder.
· Senator Runyan announced that on Monday,
December 8 at
11:30 the Student Commuter Association is
having a holiday
party and all are welcome.
· Senator Leung suggested that the secretary
document exactly
who said what and who voted which way on
motions in the
minutes.
After discussion it was decided that adding dialogue
and names to the minutes would not be the
most practical
approach.
· Chair Skorker announced a chorus concert in
Charlotte Forten
Hall this Thursday, December 4 at 7PM.
· Senator Alexis announced that MSA is having
Kwanzaa Week
this week, Tomorrow Night (Wednesday,
December 3) they will
be showing Brown Sugar to celebrate black
film makers. On
Thursday, December 4, they will have their
annual Kwanzaa Ball.
This is free and is at 6:30ish.
· Chair King announced RHA is having their
coffeehouse
Wednesday, December 3 in the campus center
underground.
· Sharon reminded everyone to see her after
the meeting and give
her a yes, no, or maybe for our dinner next
Tuesday.
MOTION: Vice President
Batastini made a motion to
adjourn the meeting.
Williamson
(Unanimous)
SUBMITTED BY MICHELLE L. SPANO