IN THE SENATE OF THE GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY STUDENT ASSOCIATION Thomas A. Falcigno Executive Vice President Chairperson of the Senate Sen. Brandon Bernier Leadership Committee Chairperson Chairperson Pro­Tempore __________________________________________________________________________ I.
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AGENDA Marvin Center 309 | Senate Meeting #17 | April 18, 2016 Call to Order at 9:09 Roll Call Public Comment Approval of Minutes from Monday, April 4th, 2016 A. Senator Bruske: Change last name to Bruske B. Senator Spirtos: Looking to change the section where I agreed with Senator Forrest Opening Statement by Executive Vice President Thomas Falcigno A. We have been meeting about the Marvin Center Renovations, and I am happy to report that new chairs were selected for next year which went smoothly. President’s Report by President Andie Dowd A. Marvin Center Renovations have been going well, we are trying to get furniture in this summer and then are working on building it out. We have also been meeting talking about the four ride app, and are working about transitioning in Erika. Announcements on Initiatives 1. SR­S16­09
The Timely Academic Feedback Improvement Act ­ Sen. Jackson Old Business 1. Presentation of Petitions for Reinstatement to the Senate a. Petition from Sen. Brandon Brown (G­GSEHD)
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I would like to apologize for missing many many senate meetings. It was not an indication of my commitment to this body, but an indication of the stress of graduate students and I hope that this body can be more inclusive of graduate students in the future. 1. Senator Brown is reinstated New Business 1. SB­S16­19
Chartered Organization Allocation Act ­ Sen. Merani (Passed Finance Committee as Amended, Failed Leadership Committee) 2. SB­S16­20
The Payment And Distribution Equity Narrative Act ­ Sen. Gallagher (Passed Finance Committee) Allocations did decrease because of the FBAC passage, but it is more fiscally responsible to provide money when there are more details for events later, than to give out money in the beginning of the year where they are planning events 10 months in advance. So there will be money available, but it will mostly be accessible for co­sponsorships later in the year. I would encourage people next year to look into the room rental fees which rack up a large budget within student orgs. One thing that’s important, is the new tier system did hurt groups more than others. I would urge the next Senate elect to look back at the by­laws and look to change the way we label organizations. The two differences this year are OLAS and JSA which received major increases. The largest group was the decreasing of funding because of the money we had this year, but most orgs actually saw an increase in funding. ● Question Senator Spirtos: What did some orgs ask for that were not funded Answer Senator Gallagher: A lot of the people didn’t see things on drop down menus, they were not very interesting. ● Question Senator Hunt: Is this bill lit? Answer Senator Gallagher: Yes it is. ● Senator Bernier: I move that we change the name to something more professional ● Senator Spirtos: I don’t think that anyone is going to be caring about the name ● Senator Hunt: I don’t think the name makes a difference, and Senator Gallagher worked harder than anyone on this bill ● Motion to amend the Bill name to the General Allocations Act of 2016 ○ The amendment does pass ● Senator Spirtos: I would like to congratulate the Finance Committee for the great work, but I would urge the Senate Elect to increase the funding to professional and academic groups ● Senator Lombard: What were some of the main reasons that organizations got a general decrease in funding ○ Senator Gallagher: The big changes were prohibiting that if you don’t have a specific name for a speaker, you won’t get funding but you can get it later in co­sponsorship. The other reason was that there was just less money this year ● Senator Bernier: I want to say for the future, the entire basis of FBAC is to put a huge emphasis on co­sponsorships. It is crucial that the Finance Committee really works with orgs next year to make sure that they are getting the money that is reserved. ● Senator Forrest: I want to know if there is a difference between undergraduate and graduate funding ● Senator Beeler: I would say to look at the graduate umbrella organizations, and 70% of those graduate orgs are under an umbrella, so there is definitely strong allocations going towards to the graduate orgs. ● Senator Gallagher: Excuse me there is actually a slide that has that funding. ● Senator Forrest: As one of the two grad senators who doesn’t have an opt in orgs, I would urge the senate elect to look into measuring the difference between graduate or undergraduate orgs, that way I we can see that our grads are getting a fair shake of it all. ● Senator Katcher: I think part of the problem is that a lot of the graduate orgs that are not umbrella, are not umbrella because they have some undergraduates who participate in the org. I think that in the med school and law school are easier to umbrella because there is not a chance of undergraduates being a part of events. ● Senator Forrest: It is really great that there is no veto this year, there is no stream of people, and I think this really reflects what we did as an organization and shows how much outreach we did. This is heaven compared to last year, and I think this is how it should operate this year. I am really glad that we can have this discussions. ● Senator Gallagher: I move to end debate ○ Motion passed ● Senator Spirtos: Motion to vote by roll call ○ Motion passed ● Vote on SB­S16­20 ○ INSERT VOTE ○ Does pass 3. SR­S16­18
President’s Office Hours for All Students Act ​
­ Sen. Brown and Forrest ​
(Passed Student Life Committee) ● I brought this forward because I tried to sign up for the President office hours, and was told that staff could not meet with President Knapp. They explained that my staff designation trumps my student designation, and when I asked President Knapp about this, he said that he thought this was wrong. However, as staff you are supposed to go to HR, despite my issues being grad students. I think that graduate students, a lot of whom work for the university should be able to speak their concerns. ○ Senator Beeler: How do they designate staff ■ Senator Brown: I believe that it is if you receive benefits. ○ Senator Eskin: So this would make it possible for any student to be able to come to office hours? ○
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■ Senator Brown: Yes Senator Forrest: I think this gives the opportunity for students to be able to come forward with this issue and have footing. Senator Beeler: Have you reached out to the office, or the CSE to make sure that we are not condemning them without asking first? ■ Senator Brown: I have talked to Dean Konwerski, and did not receive a response. Senator Forrest: I think this is a really great moment where we can hold President Knapp accountable, and the language encourages a push to make sure that we do this. Senator Feinman: So this could apply to any student, even if they are taking one course here? ■ Senator Brown: Yes Senator Feinman: President Knapp’s office hours are already very limited, is there a reason why you didn’t add for him to increase his office hours? ■ Senator Brown: No but that is a great idea ● Senator Spirtos: Would the chair look favorably upon an amendment that adds for an increase in the amount of President Knapp’s office hours? ○ Senator Brown: I am not sure that there is a specific limitation of office hours, and I would hate for this to detract from the bill. ● Senator Spirtos: I have had trouble in the past going to the office hours. Correct me if I am wrong, but you have to wait in line at Rice Hall to even get a spot in line, so maybe we could even add one more day of office hours. ● Senator Spirtos: I move to introduce an amendment “ ● Senator Forrest: Can you send it out to everyone ● Senator Eskin: My only issue is that I think these two issues may need to be separated, and they may require a lot of different work to help them be achieved. ● Senator Feinman: I would like to propose an amendment to the amendment, to better accommodate the increase in the amount of students that will now be requesting meetings with President Knapp ● Senator Eskin: I think that this could use a lot of re­working and conversations with President Knapp if we can even figure out what hours we can add to a schedule we don’t know about. ● Senator Spirtos: I encourage everyone to vote yes on Senator Feinman’s amendment because it makes more sense to pass my amendment with this added. ●
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● Senator Beeler: Wouldn’t it just be common sense that when there are more people able to come to office hours that President Knapp would have more slots? ● Senator Forrest: I agree with Senator Eskin, I think these issues require separate ground work. ● Senator Katcher: Part of the issue is that we had Senator Forrest wondering is this something that will be well received, it sounds like people don’t want to step on toes in the President’s office, and I encourage everyone to think about this. The President’s office is very busy, and I think that getting this bill is presenting two separate issues, and I think it might be taken the wrong way, and I think that we should make sure to communicate with the office. ● Senator Spitos: Even though I hate admitting that I am wrong, after Senator Katcher’s eloquent explanation I withdraw my amendment ● Senator Oli: I move to end debate and move to previous question ○ Motion does pass ● Vote on SR­S16­18 ○ This bill does pass 3. Senate Resolution SR­S16­XX Resolution to Honor Chief of Staff John Lindsay Senator Tientiendo: Is the portrait available for viewing? Senator Watkins: We will have a photoshoot soon. Senator Legred: I move to amend the act to include the birthdate, February 17th Senator Feinman: I move to make a friendly amendment to change the middle name of John Lindsay from Christopher to Alan ○ Amendment does pass Senator Eskin: I just want to say that we don’t often get to have something so fun, and I encourage us all to pass this Senator Forrest: Motion to move to previous question ○ Motion does pass SR­S16­XX ○ The resolution does pass Committee Reports A. Senate Select Committees 1. The Leadership Committee a. The one thing leadership has done is we had appeals and we gave out about $65,000 to orgs that we meet with. Participate with the Finance Committee and come to meetings. It was interesting to XI.
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learn about all of these orgs, and I didn’t become the hammer but I will leave that to the next one. B. Senate Standing Committees 1. The Finance Committee 2. The Academic Affairs Committee a) We had a great year, and we had our graduate senators meet to discuss graduate student space within our libraries. I just want to thank all of our committee members, and say good luck to Sydney! 3. The Student Life Committee a) We meet to pass Senator Brown’s bill and that was it. Announcements from the Chair A. Thomas thanks Senate staff, Casey Syron, Aaron and Andie, Tim and Ann as well as the Senators. Public Comment Pass the Gavel Adjournment​
at 11:07