Student Senate Agenda
Tuesday, February 10th, 2009
1:30 Approval of Minutes (2 minutes)
a. Angelina: Motion to approve last week’s minutes
b. Michelle: Passes by silent consent
1:32 Chair’s Report (3 minutes)
a. Michelle: Tomorrow morning at 9 am is the meeting with Karen Lawrence about the budgets. Also next week’s senate meeting is going to be at 8 pm.
1:35 Treasurer’s Report (3 minutes)
a. Hayleigh: We gave Dark Phrases 350 copies. We funded stitch n bitch for circular needles and food for the Folk Music festival.
1:38 Roll Call (2 minutes)
a. Michelle, Maddie, Lindsey, Hayleigh, Eliot, Nadia, Bobby, Aiden, Nellen, Hayley, Angelina, Vera, Emily, Lucy, Durga, Lenna, Brian, Cat, Amanda, Rebecca
1:40 Committee Reports (20 minutes)
SSSF
a. Aiden: Auction donations are due this Friday. Auction is Feb 20th and he doors open at 8 pm.
General
a. Brian: We got asked not to come last week again. They were talking about faculty compensation.
Admissions
a. Angelina: We are meeting this Friday! Thanks for you emails.
Student Work
a. Lucy: Today we are reviewing applications for the Paris program.
Curriculum
a. Vera: The teachers were mad that we didn’t make an agenda. We looked at guests vs regular faculty. We have the project of allocating teaching to days to every faculty members.
Student Life
a. Bobby: The meeting was a little weird last week. We didn’t set anything into motion but we talked a lot about certain things.
Bylaw
a. Aiden: We didn’t meet.
Publicity
a. Lucy: We didn’t meet
Strategic Planning Taskforce
a. Vera: Bobby and I agreed to share responsibilities for next year.
Club Liaison Updates
a. Lily: Students for Free Tibet club is having its first meeting Wednesday at 8
b. Lucy: SLC review is having a party in conjunction with the art review
NEW BUSINESS
2:00 Report Back: Student Governance Retreat (35 minutes)
a. Aiden: So one of the biggest decisions that was made on the retreat was that the current senate model wasn’t working. A proposal was to create different branches. ::Draws lots of thing on the board::
b. Cat:We were also talking about publicity. It seemed like a predominate feeling was how to make student government relevant.
c. Emily: We were also talking about the standing committees. We’d like to be able to vote.
d. Vera: We talked about goals of getting more student representative on the standing committees so there’s a more even ratio. Also, to have a greater division of labor within our body. For example, not having class presidents but having class councils.
e. Lucy: We made most of our decisions by consensus. We should mention that we asked the student affairs people to leave on Saturday morning. We felt them not being there was more conducive to the development of ideas.
f. Durga: Can we elaborate more on the accountability part?
g. Lily: We felt we need an accountability committee is because we want to have so many more people involved. We want people who have lists of who is on a committee. It’s more about facilitation and they will know the bylaws.
h. Aiden: Membership and exact duties weren’t decided on the retreat. There will be a task force who organizes this.
i. Maddie: Also, these person would serve as an archivist.
j. Angelina: I would like to see the accountability committee be involved in faculty and staff accountability as well.
k. Nellen: What is up with the community outreach thing? Is this a problem?
l. Lily: What it is is that we have a lot of individual connections with SLC, but the school itself is not connected with Bronxville and Yonkers. We used to have a good relationship with both but it’s sort of disintegrated. We would like to be more involved with them and knowing about what’s going on in each of those communities. This also involves having events off campus a well.
m. Vera: To get this in line for next year, this all has to be done soon. Our timeline is to complete this model by March 1. We’re meeting several times a week and our plan is to have a presentation.
n. Brian: Can someone discuss what the individual roles would be within the different groups?
o. Lily: We haven’t figured it out yet.
p. Cat: Roughly, I think we were thinking everything would be about twice the size of normal senate.
q. Amanda: Are we sure we’re going to have enough people to fill these positions? Also, we talked in the first anti oppression training about having some paid positions in senate/
r. Lucy: That did come up. The fact that we could have trouble filling positions. We were thinking about having being a part of student government as part of orientation week and major publicity.
s. Cat: We talked a lot about rebuilding SLC culture around student government. We need to make it relevant to people’s lives.
t. Maddie: It seems as though there are only a select number of times, but we want to create more space and more time.
u. Nellen: Are we opening the finalizing of the timeline for all of this to anyone? Not just students who went on the retreat.
v. Aiden: That was a concern. The thing is, it’s really vague right now. We decided on the three week timeline to have a more polished timeline for the student body to respond to.
w. Maddie: Theoretically, the accountability committee is dealing with appeals and to know the bylaws.
x. Vera: The accountability committee was one of the last decisions of the weekend and it still needs to get fleshed out. We know that they don’t get to make decisions without outside involvement. We’re thinking of them more as the grease on the wheels.
y. Cat: We also talked about rotating responsibilities and rotating positions. We would have town hall meetings biweekly and anyone can come and everyone has a vote.
z. Bobby: I motion to extend the time by 5 minutes. No objections. I just wanted to say that I love the idea of rotating responsibilities.
aa. Lenna: It sounds like the accountability committee will be nonvoting, neutral members? I also wanted to know about the faculty role within this system.
ab. Maddie: We envisioned this as something that would be neutral. Kind of like a secretary. They would review the minutes and know the bylaws, and being very organized.
ac. Lucy: I don’t think we voted on this but our idea was that faculty and staff would not be allowed into the town hall meetings unless they were presenting something on the agenda.
ad. Aiden: It would be good to keep in mind that this is not just absorbing student senate roles but other roles as well.
ae. Durga: We spent a lot of this year dealing with history and my only concern is what happens in the future. We have members of student affairs who have to sit in on SAS, like Josh and Mary. Are these people going to get taken out? Or added more? I understand no faculty in town hall, but there are a whole lot of faculty members who go out of their way to represent students on campus and I think it’s important not to seem hostile.
af. Lily: To talk about the first point about student affairs, but we are going to involve them in the process. We got positive feedback from them after the retreat and that’s a good sign.
ag. Nellen: I agree with Durga
ah. Vera: The no faculty in our meetings is something I feel strongly about.
ai. Brian: I’m curious about the arguments for not allowing faculty in meetings. We’re not allowed into meetings and if we’re going to try to respond to them, we need to think about that.
aj. Lindsey: I do agree that this exclusion could be interpreted as hostile. Having it being completely off limits to them might not be productive.
2:35 Discussion: Ageism and Student Representatives (35 minutes)
a. Michelle: Reads draft of letter
b. Maddie: That was great. We were talking a lot in the retreat about not being afraid to take action
c. Brian: I dont think it outlines enough why it is important to have a student voice and what the potential ramifications of disenfranchising that would be.
d. Durga: I think talking about the admissions committee predicament would be good. It’s empowering when you have an actual example.
e. Amanda: Maybe we should talk about confidentiality contracts.
f. Vera: A lot of us haven’t signed anything
g. Brian: They’re going to say it’s an issue of trust and confidentiality. Let’s bring it back to the ageism thing.
h. Durga: I don’t know how appropriate this is, but going back to last week. One way of approaching things we anticipate they will say when it comes to financial decisions, is that it is our money and our curriculum. I don’t know if that’s tacky to some extend but that’s important.
i. Angelina: I think it’s also a question of what do the faculty and staff and the students expect to encounter in these meetings. We need to be all on the same page. Especially when it comes to levels of confidentiality.
j. Brian: The faculty brings the names of students up all the time. I know this. They can be privy to the personal matters of students but we’re not allowed to know anything about them. I think there’s a big discrepancy.
k. Maddie: And there certainly have been examples of students not respecting confidentiality but the faculty does too.
l. Michelle: Let’s talk about what our goals and demands are.
m. Vera: Everyone being required to sign an confidentiality agreement and to not get kicked out of meetings.
n. Maddie: That every standing committee votes on issues.
o. Lindsey: Are the faculty and staff also required to sign agreements?
p. Vera: I think it’s implied. Not actually required.
q. Durga: Respecting the time of the students. Not emailing an hour before the meeting.
r. Lucy: In student work, we’ve only been asked to leave if a student in question is not comfortable with us. And that’s okay with me. Is that following with what we’re talking about?
s. Durga: yes.
t. Bobby: How does this affect our blogging and our obligations to our constituents?
u. Cat: At the beginning of last semester, we were supposed to be emailed minutes to put on our blogs. We should demand that we be emailed publishable minutes every week. And also to decide who decides what’s confidential.
v. Michelle: We’re out of time. Would people like to continue this conversation next week? <14 want to continue>
We also need to figure out whether or not we want Student Affairs present for these conversations. Can we vote on this now?
All those in favor or Mary’s presence, raise your hand <10 yes> <3 no><4 abstain>
3:10 Announcements (5 minutes)
a. Bobby: Basketball game Wednesday at 7. You should go, it’s senior night.
b. Brian: There’s a dance on Friday
3:15 Adjourn