SENATE MEETING MINUTES

30th LEGISLATURE

NOVEMBER 28, 2006

I.      Call to Order

        Roll Call

II.     Corrections to the Minutes

A.      Approval of Minutes

B.      Approval of Agenda
- President Levin-Stankevich states that the following reports will be stricken from the agenda: AVP Bush, AVP Dapaah and Rules Chair McKay.  Also, I will remove the NCLS conference from Treasurer St. Rose report and add it to my report. I will also add Health fee and Procedures about questions under my report.
- AVP Ammirato will add NYPIRG.

III.    President Levin-Stankevich Report:

A.      Florida recap - we hope to bring a lot of what we learned to our Senate training. Senate training will be on February 9th and 10th this will be an all day and night training.  Everything will be provided for you and we will spend the night at Whispering Pines Camp.

B.      Dollar Jam is still in committee. In my folder in the USG Senate Chamber I have all my documents regarding Dollar Jam.  If anyone would like to see my folder you are welcome to see it. Dr. Howard called me while we were down in Florida and asked me to separate the events from the committee.  The committee was charged to look at the tradition, alcohol, venue and the event. Dr. Howard asked me to do this so we could move forward with Dollar Jam. We've been trying to contact the owner of the Town Ballroom but he hasn't called us back. A full report of what I am going to say is in my file if you would like to look at it. We have forwarded a revised contract to the Town Ballroom. This contract was not appropriate for us to sign because of the liability insurance which was a huge amount of money along with a concern regarding door sales.  I tried numerous times to call Artie from the Town Ballroom but as of today I still haven't been able to reach him. If Artie signs this we will go forward with this contract.  Hopefully CSO will be able to get the contract signed so we can go forward with this.

C.      Cassety Hall update.  I have a meeting tomorrow with Debra Hurley about furniture and room assignments and what the recreation of the 4th floor will look like. I hope by December 1st I will have a couple of room models to show the organizations.  Furniture alone is going to cost well over $100,000.  This move is only going to happen if Cassety Hall moves forward. Faculty members and some students on the campus are still very upset about what is going on with Cassety.

D.      Health fee intro - Senator Perreault and I met with Dr. Haines and the Director of the Counseling Center.  We gathered information about what is going to be a proposed increase in the student health fee. They are proposing a $40.00 increase which would make it $115 instead of $75.  This would generate about $800,000 more for the facility.  There has not been an increase in about eight years. If this is on the next College Senate agenda I will have more information the Tuesday following that meeting. We can then decide if we support the increase or not.

E.      Procedures about questions - last week we got into a lot of amendments to amendments.  Last year's President started giving the senate a week to review the bill.  If you have any questions regarding a bill you need to contact Rules Chair McKay during the week.  The only way it will be brought up in the senate is if he does not answer you or it hasn't been answered to your satisfaction. Senator Antwi is not happy with this therefore I will put this in writing and it would be brought to the senate for approval.

IV.     EVP Brady Report:

A.  I would like to recognize Anne from NYPIRG to speak on their upcoming events.

V.      Treasurer St. Rose Report:

A.      Budget update.  We are under budget which means we have more money to do things.

B.      The x-ray machine in the Dental Clinic is broken and Amy from the Dental Clinic is asking for a new one.  The Budget Committee would like to make a motion to approve $5123 from surplus to buy a new x-ray machine for the Dental Clinic. Floor is open for questions.  Vote is taken and passes 21 yeas, 1 nay and 0 abstentions. 

VI.     Standing Committee Reports

A.      AVP Janik Academic Report:
- Study Day is next Friday.  The last day of school is Thursday and we will be having activities in the Houston Gym. Nothing is finalized we will be meeting tomorrow to discuss the events at 12:00 in the senate chambers. The budget is about $1200.

B.      AVP Ammirato Community Relations Report:
- Aids Awareness is going well. Please sign the sheet if you can help out on the time slots listed.
- Union Bash is this Friday and USG will be doing Bingo.  I will send around a sign-up sheet if you are interested in helping out.

C.      Senator Pro Tem Agard Report:
- There is a Food Service Committee meeting tomorrow at 5:00 pm.

VII.    Unfinished Business

A.      Senator Perez states that if you are interested in being on the PR Committee please see me or Senator Dobney.  Senator Dobney makes a motion to nominate Senator Perez to co-chair for the PR Committee.  AVP Janik 2nd.  Floor is open for discussion.  Vote is taken and passes 22 yeas, 0 nays and 3 abstentions.

B.      Senator Antwi asks if once a bill is passed is there anything you can do to change something.  Rules Chair McKay answers the question.

VIII.   New Business

A.      AVP Janik states that he will be resigning from the chair of the Dollar Jam Ad Hoc Committee. President Levin-Stankevich states that when the chair steps down the co chair will move up. Senator Juecstock who is co-chair will automatically move to chair.

IX.     Constituents Questions/Announcements

A.  Senator Anderson makes an announcement about Kimberly Lewis memorial service.

B.      Senator Dobney suggests that the parking lots have number markers so the students can find there cars. President Levin-Stankevich states to address this with Lt. Carey at the next meeting he comes to or it could be addresses in the Student Welfare meeting.

C.      Senator Antwi asks if CSO's recognition is up now why are you waiting until next semester to re-recognize them. Rules Chair McKay states that because there are pending issues the Rules Committee has decided to hold off on this for now.

D.      Senator Perreault announces that there will be a Student Welfare Committee meeting on Thursday at 5:00 pm in room 414.

E.      Senator Amedzekor asks why there is a $15 cleaning fee. President Levin-Stankevich states that we would have to allocate more money from our budget if we didn't charge students. This could be brought up at budget time if you would like to pursue this.

F.      AVP Ammirato passes memos out for AVP Bush. Also, Sports and Rec will be tabling this week.

G.      AVP Janik reminds everyone about the study day meeting on Wednesday at 12:00 in the senate chambers.

H.      Rules Chair McKay announces that he would like to meet with his committee after the meeting.

I.      Senator Dobney asks about the tree problem.  President Levin-Stankevich states that the college has cleaned up a lot of the branches but they are probably waiting until spring to reseed. This can also be brought up in the Student Welfare meeting.

J.      Mark in Student Life announces the Midnight Pancake Breakfast on Monday December 11th 10:00 pm - 1:00 am in the Social Hall. Student Life is having a Karaoke competition at 5:30 pm and 11:00 pm. There are sign up sheets in the Student Life department and downstairs in the Union. There was a memo in your mail boxes regarding a winter welcome if any organizations would like to be involved in this please let me know.

X.      2nd Roll Call

XI.     Meeting adjourned.