USG Senate Meeting - May 1, 2007

SENATE MEETING MINUTES

30^th LEGISLATURE

MAY 1, 2007

I. Call to Order

Roll Call

II. Corrections to the Minutes

A. Approval of Minutes

B. Approval of Agenda
President Levin-Stankevich states the following changes to the order of the agenda. EVP Brady’ report, AVP Janik’s report, AVP Ammirato report, AVP Dapaah’s report, Senator Pro Tem Jueckstock report, Unfinished Business, Old Business, New Business, Rules Chair McKay report, President Levin-Stankevich report, Treasurer St. Rose report, Constituents Questions/Announcement and Roll Call. Under EVP Bradys report add Dr. Kenyon report and Old Business add Michelle Curtis survey. Senator Antwi states the date needs to be changed on the agenda to May 1, 2007.

III. EVP Brady Report:

A. Dr. Kenyon is recognized. Dr. Kenyon states he would like to thank the Senate on the support in the health fee increase. Also, I would like to thank you for supporting the survey and taking the survey.

B. Spring Fest – I have 2 comp tickets for everyone.

IV. AVP Janik Academic Report:

A. USG Banquet is this Saturday May 5^th at 5:30 pm in the Social Hall please RSVP if you haven’t already.

V. AVP Ammirato Community Relations Report:

A. Questions & Comments

VI. AVP Dapaah Student Life Report:

A. Senior Week started yesterday. I would like to thank the Senators that helped out during Bengal Pause. The following events are as follows: Wednesday Patrick Combs our guest speaker at 7:00 pm in the Assembly Hall. Thursday is Spring Fest, Friday is the carnival, Saturday is the USG Banquet and the Senior Dinner is Friday May 11^th.

VII. Senator Pro Tem Jueckstock Report:

A. The Sodexho Staff Appreciation Dinner was tonight and it was very successful.

VIII. Unfinished Business - None

IX. Old Business

A. Senator Pro Tem Jueckstock gives a final report on the Dollar Jam Adhoc Committee. CSO had their Dollar Jam event as per President Howard despite everything that was going on. This was a very successful event with 1,000 including faculty and students. The majority of the students that attended were Buffalo State students. The organization made about $7,000 and there were no incidents reported. I have put together a file of everything that the committee did and it will be upstairs if you would like to look at it. It is under our recommendation that every year USG looks at this at the beginning of the year so they know that this situation can occur and has occurred.

B. President Levin-Stankevich talks about the survey for Michelle Curtis. A survey was taken on how USG helps you as a student. A survey was put in your mail boxes please fill the survey out and return it to Michelle.

X. New Business - None

XI. Rules Chair McKay Report:

A. I have 8 or 9 organizations that need to be re-recognized. President Levin-Stankevich states the Rules Committee is recommending re-recognition they are not recommending funding or non-funding. The following organizations are: The Record, Men’s Lacrosse, Physics Club, National Society Minorities of Hospitality, Students in Metal Smithing (SIAM), Art Education, Pan African Students Organization (PASO), Political Science Youth Caucus and International Students. A representative will tell the Senate about their organization. President Levin-Stankevich asks the Senate if there are any objections to moving questions and approval all at once. There are no objections. The floor is open for questions to all the organizations. If there is a question to a specific organization you must address that organization. Senator Perez asks The Record if they have thought about changing the format of the paper. The Record states that they choose the format by what is most convenient on campus. Senator Hirsch asks SIAM if anyone can come. SIAM says they do offer it to the public. Senator Hirsch asks what do you do to advertise. SIAM says they make posters. Treasurer St. Rose states how come many of you have not handed in more activity reports stating that you were having an activity. Art Education states they didn’t know they had to turn in activity reports because they are not funded. Political Youth Caucus states they will work on this. President Levin-Stankevich states there are no more questions so we will move into vote. Vote is taken to re-recognize the above organizations and passes 22 yeas, 1 nay and 0 abstentions.

President Levin-Stankevich reminds the Senate and the Gallery that Robert Rules will be followed.

B. Student Bill #7 – I just handed out a sheet that the entire Senate should have received for Student Bill #7 (see attached sheet at the end of the minutes). You had 3 weeks to review it and over 12 hours of open forum that we held this is what has developed because of it. Rules Chair McKay states he will go over all the changes then answer questions (the attached sheet has been updated with the changes he announced in the meeting). We will vote on this in sections which will be a total of 14 motions. These are just proposed changes. President Levin-Stankevich states the first part we will talk about are pages 4 & 5. Rules Chair McKay motions on the committee to accept these proposed changes in this section. President Levin-Stankevich states some of the changes are with the Executive Branch and the Legislature Branch. The Rules Committee moved Senator Pro Tem and Rules Chair from Executive to Legislature and placed Rules on Judicial. Those are the changes along with the Advisor. Discussion/Debate there is none we will move into vote. Vote is taken and passes 21 yeas, 0 nays and 2 abstentions. Rules McKay states we are on page 6 and the Rules Committee motions to approve the section specifically on the President and to the changes made to that position. Senator Andwi states that is under the Executive officers it says to appoint a USG Senator to the position of Vice Treasurer. President Levin-Stankevich states this is not part of the proposed change you would have to make an amendment. Senator Antwi would like to make a amendment to change the would from appoint to nominee under #14 Section 1 A. President Levin-Stankevich asks the Senate if it is ok to assume unanimous consent to this change. There are no objections and is not part of the motion. We are back to the motion and the motion is changed there are no questions or debate we will move into vote. Vote is taken to approve Section 1 A the President with the proposed changes and passes 22 yeas, 0 nays 1 abstention. Rules Chair McKay motions to approve all the proposed changes under Section 1 B the Executive Vice President. Floor is open for questions/debate. EVP Brady makes an amendment under Section B 5 that states shall be a nonvoting member of the Senate to say shall be a voting member to the Senate. AVP Ammirato 2^nd. President Levin-Stankevich asks Rules Chair McKay if he will accept this amendment. Rules Chair McKay does not accept. EVP Brady states that she thinks she as well as the Vice President elect shall be a voting member because I take my vote seriously. I do research and in years past the people have taken this vote seriously. This is an elected position and every elected position deserves a vote. President Levin-Stankevich takes a speaker list. Senator Perez states that I’m not arguing that you don’t take your vote seriously but we don’t work on the future. We can’t say that every Executive President is going to be like you or the ones in the past. Also, as an Executive Board member you have a vested interest in what happens to the Executive Board and your vote will always will be bias. Senator Antwi says it is like checks and balances. If you have a say in the Executive Board as well as the say in the Legislature Board whatever you decide in a way transfers over to what decision you make in the Legislature Board. Senator Hirsch agrees both with Senator Perez and Senator Antwi what we have to keep in mind is that future people might not take it seriously. Senator Dobney asks the Rules Committee why they felt these changes needed to be made. Rules Chair McKay states that we researched other institutions, we met with members of the faculty and we had an open forum for all of you. We came to this decision because we are a government and there are three branches of government and those are branches meaning they go separate ways. We feel the EVP can if they choose speak to Senators and get their voice and opinion out there to be heard. AVP Dapaah states that everyone gets opinions from Senators and everyone could have a bias view. Also, taking away an authority vote could make it an unbalanced vote. President Levin-Stankevich point of information what is the current balance of a full Senate from E-Board to Senate. Rules Chair McKay says as it is right now there are 20 Senators 19 of which are currently all 20 votes; in addition to the 20 we have up to 26 voting members. Six of those being Executive Board within those 20 Senator positions the Rules Chair and the Pro Tem are also included in the objected board. If the Executive Board were to vote and the Vice Treasurer as one block it would be 9 votes to 17. Senator Pro Tem Jueckstock comments that the EVP should have a vote because it is about the position because it is an elected position and voted by the student body. President Levin-Stankevich states that the speaker list has ended. Another speaker list is open. Senator Antwi says that the Executive Board has no voice in the Legislature it is just a way of checks and balances. Senator Dobney asks why does the President not have a vote? President Levin-Stankevich states because I am suppose to be non-biased of overseeing the Senate. Robert Rules says speaker of the house does not vote unless they relinquish the chair. AVP Janik states that the #’s speak for themselves by taking the vote away will distort the balance. As it stands right now the power is the Legislative. President Levin-Stankevich states that ends the speaker list we will move in to vote for the amendment. Vote is taken on the amendment to Section 1 B #5 to change the line to say shall be a voting member and does not pass 14 yeas, 9 nays and 0 abstentions. The new motion on the table is to all the changes proposed by the Rules Committee with the change to #5 saying shall be a voting member of the Senate and passes 21 yeas, 2 nays and 0 abstentions. Rules Chair McKay motions to approve all the proposed changes on page 7 under the Treasurer. President Levin-Stankevich takes a speaker list. Treasurer St. Rose makes a motion to amend the motion to change Section 1 C #5 shall be a voting member of the Senate. Senator Pro Tem Jueckstock 2^nd. Floor is open for discussion. Senator Perez states that the previous vote is a pretty clear example of the power the Executive Board has over the Senate. All they need is 5 Senators to agree and that is 17 which is not very much. Most of the year quorum has been 14. President Levin-Stankevich states most of the whole first semester we had a full Senate so that is incorrect. Senator Pro Tem Jueckstock states that the E-Board does not always agree unanimously. Treasurer St. Rose as Treasurer I am the one who knows the current projections and the #’s of the budget. President Levin-Stankevich states vote will be taken on the amendment to change the wording from nonvoting to voting and passes 13 yeas, 9 nays and 1 abstention. President Levin-Stankevich states the motion on the table is to approve the proposed changes with the amendment Section 1 C #5. There are no more questions vote is taken and passes 19 yeas, 3 nays and 1 abstention. Rules Chair McKay motions to approve the proposed changes for Section 2 pages 7-10. Senator Pro Tem Jueckstock motions to amend E #3 to be a voting member of the Executive Branch which also changes Section 2 B #2. President Levin-Stankevich states that the change be Senator Pro Tem is not ex-offico. AVP Janik 2^nd. President Levin-Stankevich says the Senator Pro Tem right now is a voting member on the Senate but not on the E-Board. Senator Pro Tem Jueckstock right now is saying that she be able to vote on the E-Board. President Levin-Stankevich takes a speaker list. Senator Antwi states that the Senator Pro Tem should have a vote on the E-Board because she is the voice of the Senate. Senator Hirsch states that the Senator Pro Tem is beneficial for the Senate and is the Senate voice. Senator Pro Tem Jueckstock states that I am your voice. President Levin-Stankevich states that we will be voting on the amendment and passes 16 yeas, 6 nays and 3 abstentions. President Levin-Stankevich states we will go back to the original motion which is to approve all the changes recommended by the Rules Committee with the amendments. Floor is open for discussion. Senator Otero point of information does the Chief Justice support or not support the rules and regulations of the changes as it effects Judicial. Chief Justice Jerge states that the process we went through was what we wanted to make it more official and it would be less bias, so yes we did approve. President Levin-Stankevich states vote will be taken to approve the changes made pages 7 - 10 Section 3 and passes 21 yeas, 1 nays and 1 abstentions. President Levin-Stankevich states the next change is to Section 3 pages 10-19 starting with Administrative Vice Presidents through Article 7 Judicial Council. Some of the major changes for debate are all the changes for the AVP’s. There has been some restructure of some names but not many duties. Under AVP’s one of the big changes is that they are required to attend 2 organization meetings each month. Rules Committee added section 6 which is liaison reports page 14 and also under committees the game room committee has been added. Rules Chair McKay motions to approve the proposed changes. Senator Pro Jueckstock point of information could you clarify what the current positions will be changing into. Rules Chair McKay states the AVP of Community Relations will become the AVP of Communication. The AVP of Sports & Rec will become AVP of Community Affairs. Senator Anderson asks what is the difference regarding Sports & Rec. President Levin-Stankevich states that the Sports & Rec was a large part of USG a while ago. However, when the college developed their Sports & Rec department under the athletic department we didn’t do this anymore. The AVP of Sports & Rec was in charge of Men & Women’s Rugby, Men’s Lacrosse and Intramural sports and we thought that since Sports & Rec was not recognized under us it was a good time to readjust some of these duties and positions so we have a more equal balance under our AVP’s. Treasurer St. Rose point of information do the future elected people agree to these changes. Rules Chair McKay said he talked to the people voted into these position and they are ok with this. Also, it was noted during elections that these positions were subject to change. President Levin-Stankevich states we will move to vote to approve Section 3. Vote is taken and passes 21 yeas, 0 nays and 2 abstentions. President Levin-Stankevich states the next section is Article #7 Judicial Council and their by-laws. Rules Chair McKay motions to approve the proposed changes to Article #7 Judicial Council and to also accept the by-laws as well. Floor is open for questions. AVP Janik point of information are the changes satisfactory to Chief Justice Jerge. Chief Justice Jerge states yes. Senator Antwi point of information how did the judicial function without by laws. Chief Justice Jerge states it was more less by hear say now the by laws will make it more official. President Levin-Stankevich states there are no more questions so we will move to vote. Vote is taken to approve the proposed change and passes 21 yeas, 2 nays and 0 abstentions. Rules Chair McKay motions to accept the proposed changes under Article 8 USG Organization on Student Services. Floor is open for questions. President Levin-Stankevich if there are no more questions we will move to vote. Vote is taken to approve the proposed changes and passes 20 yeas, 0 nays and 3 abstentions. President Levin-Stankevich states this is the last one for debate. Rules Chair McKay motions to approve the remaining proposed changes in the USG Constitution. President Levin-Stankevich states a speaker list will be open. Senator Antwi motions to amend the amendment #11 page 27 to reserve for Grad students to be taken out. Rules Chair McKay clarifies that this is on the SUNY College Senate not ours. Senator Antwi withdraws. EVP Brady would like to amend Article 13 F to change ¾ vote back to 2/3 vote. Senator Anderson 2^nd. President Levin-Stankevich takes a speaker list. Rules Chair McKay states he is against this amendment because he feels that this is a guiding document and it should not be easy to change. Senator Hirsch agrees to keep it at 2/3 vote. Senator Greco states he is against it because this is a constitution and it changes. EVP Brady says there are only 2 things in our constitution that has ¾ vote that being Explosion of a member and our Budget. President Levin-Stankevich states that ends the speaker list we will move into vote. Vote is taken to approve the amendment to change ¾ back to 2/3 and does not pass 7 yeas, 13 nays and 3 abstentions. Vote is taken on the proposed changes to the rest of the Constitution and passes 20 yeas, 1 nay and 2 abstentions. Senator Manzione motions for a 5 minute recess. President Levin-Stankevich states we will take a 5 minute recess. President Levin-Stankevich states we will return to the order of the day. Rules Chair McKay thanks everyone.

XII. President Levin-Stankevich Report:

A. Questions & Comments – I had a pleasure being the Chair and thank you very

much for being a great Senate.

XIII. Treasurer St. Rose Report:

A. The Budget Committee motions to approve the 2007-2008 proposed budget. President Levin-Stankevich opens the floor for questions. President Levin-Stankevich relinquish his chair and will represent one point after that point I will return to the duty of President. EVP Brady will fulfill the duties of the chair. President Levin-Stankevich motions to make an amendment to allocate $6,900 from the 2007 summer budget to the day care center. This allocation will be given with strong expectations on the Child Care Center that they address the following concerns of USG by the next budget process (see attached sheet). EVP Brady opens a speaker list on the amendment. President Levin-Stankevich states he has only refused his chair 3 times in 2 years. I made this motion because last week I listened to the debate about the Day Care Center. I think I found a resolution to the concerns that the Budget Committee brought forth as well as some of the Senators. Each year we have a summer budget through the enrollment of summer school. In the previous year this budget was $11,192.00 this is based on a $100.00 fee. This year it is projected to be $14,000.00. Last year we had $9,900.00 and out of this we allocated for training, orientations and organizations which left about $5,000.00 that we did not use. Because of the construction going on next summer and the business office might be closed for a little over the summer the structure of the summer budget has changed and actually was improved in the budget committee today. They will be allocating $5,000.00 of general approved money which will be assets for club organizations, training and orientation for USG. This is plenty of money and in my opinion it is more than enough and more than we used last year. This leaves a remainder of $9,000.00 projected in this up coming summer. Out of that $9,000.00 I am motioning for $6,900.00 for the Day Care Center. I think this is a reasonable motion because it does not affect the budget presented by the Budget Committee that they have been working very hard for the past month. It also stipulates in the motion 6 things we have been looking for from the Day Care Center. Our projected enrollment says we are going to have 34 more students next year if we do get 34 more that will be an additional $7,000.00 in our budget. Which means our current budget is not over budget it is a very balanced budget. Senator Pro Tem Jueckstock says that she agrees with it and it seems like the perfect budget. I have a point of information, does the Day Care agree to these stipulations? I would like to defer my time to Ellie Fleetwood President of the Board of Directors for the Day Care Center. Ellie states that the board has gone over the stipulations and we are working on them. Senator Antwi says we have a deficit of $8,000 and this is only a projection it is not guaranteed. President Levin-Stankevich point of information does the school have a response if we will be going up in enrollment. Dr. Kenyon says the college is expecting an increase next year. Senator Otero states this is not a balance it is the administration getting what it wants. We voted last week that it was going to be no and the summer budget is not promised. The administration has not even compromised with us. Senator Perez states that the money for this does not immediately impact our organizations. If we give the money now and they don’t hold up on the stipulations they will get a budget cut. Also, the administration needs us as much as we need them. Treasurer St. Rose states when we were in committee we looked at everything as a whole. Money was allocated in every which way and we saw a big chunk of money in a big place. We understood the money was not being used to the extent it was suppose to be. There was an allocation of $42,000 from USG that works with undergrads student activity fee paying students to help supplement the cost of some parents. That censes only was wrong some parent they need to supplement the majority of the students. We went to the Day Care and it is an excellent facility but there are some things in question. I personally believe the $6,900 is a lot on top of the $29,100 we gave them but as Treasurer I agree with the $5,000 to ask my committee to approve. Senator Jueckstock states that is why we put the stipulations on this to prevent this from happening. AVP Ammirato states that the stipulation is telling the day care that they have to change things if they don’t change then they will be cut. How do we get the summer budget money? President Levin-Stankevich states the allocation for the beginning of the year for $29,100 and then another check for the allocation. Both of our summer budgets have to be exhausted in the summer however, as soon as we issue a check and cashed by our auditing practices it is exhausted. EVP Brady opens another speaker list. Senator Antwi point of information if we are taking the money from the summer budget for the Day Care how will it help the students in the fall. President Levin-Stankevich states the summer budget is to help the students in the summer and not in the fall. Students use the Day Care in the summer as well as in the fall. Senator Dobney says this is between USG and the Day Care not USG and the Administration. If the Day Care answered our questions quicker I believe we could have voted on this quicker. Rules Chair McKay states that the cut is warranted because they have not fulfilled all students activity fee. This service does impact students’ ability to graduate. I think any service that impacts the students’ ability to graduate does deserve out support. The Budget Committee put a lot of hard working the budget and we need to give them our support. Senator Pro Tem Jueckstock asks if the Day Care does not follow any of the stipulations will they get a budget cut. President Levin-Stankevich state it depends on next year’s legislation. President Levin-Stankevich states he will comment on some of the concerns of the Senate. First point giving the Administration what they want we are not giving them what they want we are compromising we are working with them. How many times do we ask them for money through a grant along with out organizations? That is grant money coming from the college. What about the on campus programming agreement that is a grant that USG is asking for from the administration which values at $15,000. So we are compromising with the Administration. There was a comment 0 -100% that the school isn’t providing anything and we are proving 100%. Well, when you think of the school you are talking SUNY and they are providing the Day Care with over $300,000. USG is giving them $42,000. When you compare a service like the Day Care service with NFTA and you break it down per student its $3.86 per student. We heard that exact enrollment projections that were $8,000 over budget. Well we are using enrollment projections for our budget right now this is all made up numbers this is what we think we going to get next year. The Dean of Students said we are going to get 34 students. Our summer budget is going to be $14,000 the amount of money we are asking for is only a portion of this. Please allocate to the student that really need and that is what I’m going to end it with vote yes. EVP Brady states that we will vote on the amendment. President Levin-Stankevich states Division of Assembly; I ask we do a roll call vote because this is an important of enough votes that each official vote on record. EVP Brady states the motion is out of order and Division of the House is for after a vote is already taken you can request for Division of the House from the Chair. President Levin-Stankevich question of privilege to ask the Chair to do a roll call vote. EVP Brady accepts to take a roll call vote. Senator Dobney appeals the decision of the Chair for roll call to take a secret ballot. EVP Brady states that she believes that President Levin-Stankevich request to take a roll call vote makes it a more accurate vote. Rules Chair McKay states we will debate the appeal EVP Brady opens a speaker list. Senator Dobney states she would like a secret ballot vote because the Budget Committee has been hounded around campus. Also, Senators might not vote right by roll call vote. President Levin-Stankevich urges the Senate to not vote on a secret ballot because you are elected officials and your votes should be heard. To say you were hounded and afraid then take it to Judicial. Senator Stewart states that the roll call is the most effective way to vote. Senator Antwi states that even if you take a ballot vote your name is still on it. Senator Strachan asks if we can ask the gallery to leave. EVP Brady states that would be a derogatory tactic and we have to have an open forum. President Levin-Stankevich call to question. Senator Stewart 2^nd. EVP Brady states we will vote on the appeal of the Division of the Chair to strike roll call and do secret ballot vote on the amendment on the Day Care Center. All in favor raise you hand and the appeal on the decision against chair does not carry 5 yeas, 15 nays and 2 abstentions. EVP Brady states we will now vote on the amendment for $6,900 to come out of the summer budget with the stipulations on the Day Care Center. Roll Call vote is taken and passes 14 yeas, 3 nays and 6 abstentions. Treasurer St. Rose states he would like to reconsider. EVP Brady states this is out of order because we just voted in the accurate form. President Levin-Stankevich states we will go back to the entire budget with the addition to the summer allocation which is not in the budget in front of you. Senator Stone states now that NASO is not recognized I would like to make a motion that $5,000 goes to the fitness maintenance. President Levin-Stankevich states that is out of order because organizations have to the end of the school year to be re-recognized. Senator Manzione call to question. President Levin-Stankevich states out of order because he thinks its time to vote. Vote is taken to approve the budget with the changes that were made and passes 15 yeas, 4 nays and 4 abstentions. The approved budget will be sent immediately over to the administration if its not approved I deserve the right to call an emergency meeting. Treasurer St. Rose thanks everyone.

XIV. Constituents Questions/Announcements

A. EVP Brady congratulates any seniors that are going to graduate.

B. Senator Dobney says thank you to USG she will be back in the Spring

C. Rules Chair McKay states he is very proud of the Senate.

D. Gail Wells says she has enjoyed coming to the USG meetings and congratulations to the students that are graduating.

E. Dr. Ecklund talks about the incident on campus. One student is in the hospital and the other student is in jail. The other students involved are suspended.

XV. 2^nd Roll Call

XII Meeting adjourned