5:55pm: Senators are filtering into the room and grabbing cookies off of the table. In addition to cookies I see barbecue chips, chips and salsa and Oreos up for grabs. If you need dinner, and don't mind it being slightly less than nutritional, come to the Conference Room in the SUB.
5:58pm: I believe that sitting behind me are some student athletes. The gallery is pretty full this evening, I'm betting because of Purple Fridays and the Perimeter Access System resolutions.*
(*This timestamp has been edited since the original post. Any questions regarding the editing should be sent to the Socialite inbox.)
6:01pm: With the tapping of his gavel Speaker Tom Hogan begins the meeting.
6:04pm: Secretary Piel is reading Student Affairs Chair Kristyn Potter's resignation letter. Below is the full text of the letter.
To the members of Truman State University’s Student Government Association,
After much contemplation and careful deliberation I have decided to step down as Student Affairs Chairman. To some this may come as a shock, to others this may seem quite understandable. It must be noted and explicitly stated that my decision to resign is not deeply rooted in any inextricable conflict with any Senator or member of leadership. Despite the ties that lie between members of Student Senate, these associations are more counterproductive and self-destructive to the body than to my own personal well-being and success.
I imagine a large part of why I was initially appointed as Student Affairs Chair is due to the diversity of my involvement that has evolved substantially over these three years. This involvement has been my gift as well as my curse and, as such, in lieu of overextending myself as graduation approaches, my resignation is due in large part to the necessity to finish projects that I began last year in the journalism and PR field. The foundation of my being lies within the communication field and it is necessary that I indulge in this passion before I graduate and leave this institution.
I believe my role as Student Affairs Chair has been sufficient, if not, satisfactory. My committee and I worked very hard to resolve and explore issues related to sexual assault and the all-campus smoking ban, most notably. I am exceptionally proud of the evolution of characters that has occurred within my committee members and I have the utmost faith that upon reception of directed and motivated leadership they will do amazing things with the committee.
Finally, it is only appropriate that I offer suggestions on Senate for the future. Overall, Senate is doing an amazing job on a vast array of projects yet I believe the divide that exists between members of the group will lead to its demise. It’s imperative to understand, as it has taken me three years and a semester to understand, that you aren’t going to make everyone happy, that you can’t control people and/or their actions, and that you aren’t going to friends with everyone, so it is most important to be proud of the person that you are and your personal contributions to this outstanding university.
I wish you the very best in all of your endeavors, related to Senate as well as social and professional ventures. I am available for advice, networking and resources and I hope the Student Government Association can embark into the future positively and strongly with the utmost and deliberate effort of group cohesion.
Thank you for this opportunity.
Kristyn M. Potter
Student Affairs Chair
The resignation is approved without contention.
6:08pm: Maggie Fisbeck is approved as the organizational representative for Tri Sigma.
6:10pm: Hillary Shoun is appointed as the Communications Director for Student Senate.
6:11pm: Lauren Massey is appointed as the Deputy Communications Director.
6:13pm: First up, the Purple Fridays resolution. Basically, it's supporting the Student Athlete Advisory Committee's efforts to increase school spirit by starting up "Purple Fridays," Fridays where as many people on campus as possible wear purple. President JoEllen Flanagan notes that both Dean of Student Affairs Lou Ann Gilchrist and University President Darrell Krueger fully support this.
6:19pm: The standing rules have been suspended so that the resolution can be voted upon tonight, given that Purple Fridays are supposed to begin this Friday. Otherwise this would just be considered a first reading.
6:21pm: Right now we're making a few technical changes to the resolutions: punctuation, word choices, removing parts seen as unnecessary, redundant or incorrect.
6:24pm: Fun fact: did you know that there are about 400 student athletes on campus, in 21 sports?
6:25pm: Reasonably certain that everyone is going to vote "Yes" on this, no real opposition is arising for any reason.
6:26pm: The resolution passes 18-0-0. Now we're having the first reading of the Perimeter Access System resolution.
6:27pm: Senator Christopher Graham says that while he supports what the resolution says he thinks that by passing it Senate will be giving its approval to a system that most students he has spoken to do not approve of.
6:29pm: The resolution is about Senate supporting modifications to the system that has been proposed, not supporting the system. Lines 28 and 29 read "Proper implementation can increase both the security and convenience for on-campus residents..." (Emphasis mine.) Lines 58 and 59 read "The Student Government and the Residence Hall Association believes that convenience need not be sacrificed to accrue additional security."
Modifications that Senate supports, contained within this resolution, are (Lines 64-67.):
- The use of yellow doors as card access entrances between 10:30pm and 12:00am.
- That green doors in Dobson Hall and the West Campus Suites remain unlocked until 12:00am, given the location of C-Stores.
- The manual unlocking of red doors during some period of the day.
6:37pm: Quote Senator Molly Stroup, who is bringing this resolution, about PAS: "This is definitely going to happen."
6:39pm: RHA President Katherine Tynan notes that they are listed in the resolution as supporting the resolution, though they have not reached this consensus. Apparently an email from someone in RHA sent to Senate incorrectly conveyed their support of the resolution.
6:43pm: Senator Matthew Ohs, an SA, notes that ResLife is trying to take student concerns into account as best as they can, and that they are going to go ahead and implement the system and make changes one it has been implemented.
6:45pm: Diversity Chair Dan Heagney notes that Senate's suggestion for ResLife to manually lock doors designated as "red doors" under the system (Those that are currently scheduled to be always locked from the outside.) would be an unnecessary duty for SA's. There's also an issue with unlocking those doors, period, as apparently it sets off an alarm.
6:49pm: Senator Hiroki Sato is making several points right now and I cannot hear what they are for the life of me. I believe I'm hearing him make points about clarifying the system for students and how non-resident students entering the dorms under the influence would be the responsibility of those individuals swiping them in?
6:52pm: The resolution is considered first read. Moving onto the local foods resolution, which commends and encourages Sodexo's efforts to bring in local foods for student consumption. (Something they have been doing this semester.)
6:54pm: The veggies that have been incorporated have apparently come from the University Farm. That's nifty.
6:58pm: A five minute recess has been moved and approved.
7:05pm: And we're back! Diversity Chair Heagney has made a money motion for $300 to bring the Freedom Writers and their film to campus. Heagney is explaining that Freedom Writers were students from a troubled inner-city school whose teacher was able to help make a difference in their lives. This money would be used to bring the former students, now adults, to campus to talk about their experiences.
7:09pm: The money has been approved.
7:10pm: V.P. Robinson is discussing the Board of Governor's selection report. This report was formulated in response to what Robinson calls the "selection disaster." That's a pretty accurate phrase for how things went this time around.
7:11pm: We're discussing what the role of the Speaker should be during the selection process. The Speaker's role is envisioned as being a neutral party.
7:14pm: We're now discussing making changes to the Constitution and Standing rules pertaining to how the Student BoG Representative should be selected.
7:16pm: Senator Charles Tomlinson suggests that a way to allow the Speaker to make a contentious opinion regarding the selection of a new BoG Student Rep. would be to allow him to not be a Speaker for that part of the meeting during which he wishes to make that opinion, removing the neutrality obstacle.
7:20pm: The volume at which Senators are speaking seems to be steadily decreasing, and I'm really wishing that I could just go and sit in the center of the room. Would Speaker Hogan find that to be out of order?
7:23pm: Senator Philip Gilmor is now discussing the Student Senate Scholarships, 2 of which are given out per semester. He notes that the distribution of the scholarship (Each of which is $500.) has not been executed satisfactorily, and that the consensus seems to be that Senate does not need to distribute these. The recommendation is to abolish the scholarship.
7:26pm: Senator Gilmor notes that there was a debate between whether Senate should figure out how to make the scholarships work out or just abolish them, and that a contributing factor to getting rid of the scholarships was that each scholarship was $500 of the student body's money given to one student and that that didn't seem fair.
7:30pm: Senator Lizz Esfeld is presenting the first draft of the new Senate Vision Document, opening the floor up to discussion on the document that was emailed out to them earlier on today.
7:31pm: Areas focused on in the Vision Document draft are University funding constraints, enrollment issues, Kirksville as a location in which to attend college, environmental sustainability and the University, academics, student affairs and improving Kirksville relations.
7:32pm: Chair Heagney is making several strong and welcome recommendations to make this document as diversity-friendly as possible.
7:33pm: Chair Tomlinson has just suggested that added under the Student Affairs section of the Vision Document that a provision be included for supporting on-campus pranks to lighten up campus every once in a while. I like, who's up for dressing up the Joseph Baldwin statue tonight at midnight? He also has questions about the section discussing Homecoming and how it could be made to be more inclusive when all organizations on campus (And all students.) are welcome to participate and attend all events. He notes that the Greek-heaviness perception of it is due to the choice of Greek organizations to participate in it.
7:43pm: Did you know that they're thinking of restructuring the entire library? Potential cafe, moving the computers to all be by each other, study areas for people who want to talk with their friends while studying so that they don't interrupt people who actually want to go to the library to study...
7:45pm: Under Student Affairs new sections that will be added are safety and food services. These are not in the current draft of the document.
7:47pm: Senate Faculty Advisor Dr. Scott Alberts has just commended the Vision Document Committee for their outline, which is, indeed, a very clear and straightforward outline.
7:52pm: As we have less than 10 minutes left for the meeting we're going to focus on Executive Reports primarily. V.P. Isaac Robinson will be heading up a Perimeter Access Task Force per the request of President Krueger.
7:54pm: Start thinking of educators you'd like to nominate for the Educator of the Year (Which Senate coordinates.), the nomination period will be coming up soon.
7:55pm: Senate Party at Advisor Alberts' house this weekend! For a sweet outfit idea, see this.
7:56pm: Senator Hogan: "We WILL be meeting a week from today."
7:57pm: Diggity-done, yo. I'm out.
Cheers,
Casey
