USG Senate Meeting - September 12, 2006

SENATE MEETING MINUTES

30th LEGISLATURE

SEPTEMBER 12, 2006

I. Call to Order

Roll Call

II. President Levin-Stankevich Report:

A. I would like to welcome everyone and inform you that Dr. Payne will be swearing the Senators In. We will go right into swearing in the senate so that there will be a senate to approve the agenda. There are 6 nominations for the senate which I will ask to come forward to answer some questions. Floor will be open for questions to the nominations. Vote is taken to approve Narcisa Nunez for senator and passes unanimously. Vote is taken to approve Jamie Jueckstock for senator and passes unanimously. Vote is take to approve True as senator and passes 19 yeas and 1 abstention. Vote is taken to approve James Manzione and passes unanimously. Vote is taken to approve Chris Janik as senator and passes unanimously. Vote is taken to approve Cristeen Dapaah as senator and passes unanimously. Dr. Payne will swear in the new senators. I would like to go right into the appointed positions that have been approved by the E-Board and are being brought to the Senate for approval. I would like nominate Allie Brady for the open Executive Vice President position. Allie is recognized to say some words. Floor is open for questions. Vote is taken to approve Allie for EVP of USG and passes unanimously. I would like to nominate Cristeen Dapaah for AVP of Student Life. Cristeen is recognized to say a few words. Floor is open for questions. Vote is taken to approve Cristeen Dapaah for AVP of Student Life and passes 23 yeas, 0 nays and 2 abstentions. I would like to nominate Chris Janik for AVP of Academics since Allie moved up to EVP. Chris is recognized to say a few words. Floor is open for questions. Vote is taken to nominate Chris Janik for AVP of Academics and passes 23 yeas, 0 nays and 2 abstentions. Are there any objections to take a break from the nominations to let Lt. Carey give his report? There are no objections.

B. Lt. Carey is recognized. Lt. Carey congratulates everyone on the Executive Board the Senators and everyone else involved in USG. I would like you to know that there are about 100 faculty and staff who volunteer in our emergency response plan. Traffic went smoothly for the first week of school. Regarding the funeral of State Trooper Lombardo 4 officer's went from UPD.

C. Back to the order of the day. I would like to nominate Melissa Agard for Senator Pro Tem, nomination for Vice Treasurer Donique Mears. Melissa and Donique are recognized to speak. Floor is open for questions. Vote is taken to approve Melissa Agard for Senator Pro Tem and Donique Mears for Vice Treasurer passes unanimously. Dr. Payne will swear in all the new nominiations.

D. EVP Brady motions to amend the agenda. Vote is taken and passes unanimously.

III.    Approval of Agenda
-       President Levin-Stankevich moves AVP Academics report A& B to go under EVP Brady.
-       EVP Brady adds sign up applications.
-       AVP Dapaah adds Year Book update, Program Ideas, President Round Table and Questions & Comments.
-       AVP Janik adds Goals and Questions & Comments.
-       Senator Pro Tem Agard adds sign up sheet under he report.

President Levin-Stankevich states that Rules Chair McKay will go over the rules and procedures of the senate meeting. I will go over a couple rules that need to be established immediately.

1. You need to be recognized before you can speak. How you do this is by raising your hand. The Rules Chair will write your name down and you will be called upon in the order you appear on the list.

2. Anyone outside the table needs to be recognized by a senator or an Executive Board member. If you are asked to be recognized you are asking me to recognize you then it gets confirmed by the senate.

3. There are open senate positions. Senate positions are first filled by student at large positions.

IV. EVP Brady Report:

A. The open positions we have are 5 senate, 10 student at large and a couple spots open on judicial. If I call your name please see me for a interview.

B. Camp training was this weekend. I called everyone to confirm they were coming and 27 people said they were going. Only 4 people showed up and they were non USG members. If you sign up for something please come if you can't come don't sign up. Treasurer St. Rose states that senate training was this past weekend at Lasertron. Because of low attendance at the program some of the $1700 was wasted.

C. If there are no objections I would like to recognize Tikia McBean our Chief Justice. There are no objections. Tikia states that there are 7 open positions and Judicial is separate from USG.

V. Treasurer St. Rose Report:

A. If you have any questions regarding your budget please stop by my office. My office hours are Tuesday & Thursday 12 pm -5 pm and Monday & Wednesday 3 pm - 5 pm.

B. I would like to inform you on things we have bought this year. For orientation we bought blankets, flash drives, key chains and some book bags. Sodexho will start catering our meetings every other Tuesday.

C. NFTA bus passes have your pictures on them in case they are stolen.

D. Readership program &endash; the New York Times and USA Today are available every day for the students paid for by USG. Also library prints are 2 cents and we are working on next year getting them free. We pay for the fitness center maintenance contract so if you have any problem with the machines let me know.

E. A packet was put in every funded organization mailbox. In this packet it was stated that we needed to have a copy of your constitution and you had to fill out an organization form. If these forms were not handed in your budget has been frozen. Also there was a form for the Carnival of Clubs which I highly request that you participate in.

Senator Perreault would like to make a motion to recognize Leonora Cardenas President of CSO to speak. Senator Manzione 2nd . Vote is taken and passes 21 yeas, 4 nays and 0 abstentions. Leonora states that she would like to comment on her Budget being frozen and her forms not being handed in. She states that the forms were handed in over the summer. Treasurer St. Rose states that there is a lot of paper work coming in and to check back in the office tomorrow. Leonora states that she would like to address a different subject. President Levin-Stankevich states he will put her under New Business.

VI. Standing Committee Reports

A. AVP Chris Academic Report:
- One of my goals is to re-establish a working relationship with the Provost. I also want to reach out to all the academic clubs.

B. AVP Ammirato Community Relations Report:
- Homecoming Dance &endash; I put together a survey asking students if they would like to have a dance on campus. There were 244 students that filled out a survey out of that 193 said yes and 41 said no. This dance would be held on a Saturday from 10:00 pm &endash; 2:00 am.
- Pictures &endash; next Tuesday pictures will be taken at the meeting for the USG poster.
- T-Shirts &endash; I will pass around a sheet please write your name and what size t-shirt you will need. Also check if you would like short sleeve or long sleeve in black or state a different color.
- Service Day is October 14th at 8:00 am. I'm just trying to get an idea how many people are interested. Please sign the sheet if you are interested.

C. AVP Dapaah Student Life Report:
- Year Book budget is frozen because there is no staff to run it. I will pass around a sign up sheet if you are interested in joining.
- Program ideas &endash; if you have any idea's please let me know.
- Presidents Round Table &endash; for all the organizations. There will be a meeting on Thursday September 14th from 3:30 pm &endash; 6:00 pm in the Assembly Hall. President Levin-Stankevich states that normally AVP Sports & Recreation would give their report next but there is no AVP. I will be accepting applications for this position. Please put these applications in my mailbox. Therefore, we will go to Senator Pro Tem Report.

D. Senator Pro Tem Agard Report:
- If you are interested in being on the Food Service Committee please sign the sheet I am passing around.

E. Rules Chair McKay Report:
- I will pass around hand outs stating the rules of the Senate meeting. I will briefly go over some of the rules.
- USG Constitution will be handed out at next weeks meeting.

VII. New Business

A. President Levin-Stankevich recognizes the new Vice Treasurer Donique Mears to say a few words.

B. EVP Brady informs the senators to check their mailboxes at least once a week.

C. Senator Perreault motions to recognize the CSO President to speak. Treasurer St. Rose 2nd. Vote is taken and passes 22 yeas, 0 nays and 3 abstentions. Leonora President of CSO is recognized to speak. Leonora asks AVP Dapaah how far in advance were people told about the Round Table. AVP Dapaah states that flyers were put in mailboxes 2 weeks ago. Leonora states that she is not happy the way things are going this year with CSO Dollar Jam. CSO Dollar Jam is usually off campus and this year USG and the administration want us to have it on campus. Their main concern is safety and we understand this and we have looked into the alcohol policy. Also there will be 20+ officers staffed for this event. President Levin-Stankevich states that he agrees with Leonora regarding this being a great tradition and a great program. In the past BSC students have been at jeopardy when they have attended some off campus events. We follow SUNY guidelines and they have put limitations on the liability when it comes to spending student money on student events. There is a liability issue we are talking about here. I have met with the E-Board of CSO and agreed that it was a great program and I would do everything I possibly could to have this event off campus with out alcohol. The next day I went to Dr. Payne and advocated for CSO. Dr. Payne did not want this event off campus at all. After 2 hours he agreed to allow CSO to go off campus as long as there was no alcohol. Following this meeting a UPD inspection of the location and a signed letter from the owner of the club stating that no alcohol would be served. The venue that CSO decided to pursue is the Town Ball Room which has a history of unruly crowds around it. Dr. Payne does not want to risk the possibility of anything happening at this event. There will be no alcohol served at this event. Everyone had agreed that alcohol would not be served. CSO now wants alcohol at this event. This is where the issue arises the event can be off campus but it needs to be without alcohol. Discussion continues and starts to get intense. President Levin-Stankevich calls adjournment due to unruly conduct.