SENATE MEETING MINUTES

31st LEGISLATURE

JANUARY 29, 2008

 

 

I.            Call to Order

            Roll Call

 

II.            Approval of Agenda

A.   President Brady adds Swear Ins. President Brady asks if there are anymore agenda changes and there are none. President Brady motions to approve the agenda.  Student at Large Yazicilar so moved.

B.    President Brady motions to approve the minutes.  Senator Desimone 2nd.

 

III.            President Brady Report:

A.   Swear Ins - Chief Justice Jerge officially swears in President Brady and EVP Perez officially gets sworn in as Vice President. President Brady brings forth a nomination for AVP Community Affairs which is Kafilat Hassan. Senator Hassan is recognized to answer any questions that the Senate may have. Vote is taken to appoint Senator Hassan for AVP of Community Affairs and passes 10 yeas, 5 nays and 0 abstentions. President Brady swears in Senator Hassan as AVP of Community Affairs.

B.    President Brady states that the following positions are open on the Executive Board: Vice Treasurer, AVP of Academics, Senator Pro Tem and Secretary. If you are interested in any of these positions please put a letter of intent in my mailbox.

C.    Tower 4 incidents - President Brady explains the House Rules before she recognizes Senator Desimone. Senator Desimone states that she is representing Tower 4 and the Residence Office campus. There have been 8 suites robbed, 7 floors out of 10.  Items that were taken are: Xbox, 20 Xbox games, 30 DVD’s, electric razor, IPod, IPod box, the time range was from 3:00 am - 6:00 pm while students were asleep.  There was nothing caught on camera because there is 1 camera which is in the entrance way and it is a 6 hour tape. This is such an issue because we feel that UPD is responsible for on campus safety. It has been a week and we have not gotten an update on this. We have come up with a couple of ideas to make it safer and are willing to pay more for tuition to make it safer in the Towers they are: NY State Alert, 24 hour surveillance, id swipe machines, stickers that would be put on students id, surveillance camera on every floor, staircase and by the elevators, have more than 1 UPSA in each residence hall, or have 1 officer station for UPD. President Brady states that the Associate Director for Res Life is here along with Officer Myers if the Senator’s have any questions. President Brady opens the floor for questions. Senator Dann states that she was upset and its scary knowing it’s not safe. Senator O’Grady states that he was a UPSA and Res Life UPSA has one overnight and students should make sure their doors are locked.  President Brady states that you should make sure your doors are locked and some students did have their doors locked. Senator Kennedy states that she is in Tower 4 and she wasn’t notified about what was going on. There were signs that said lock your doors but there were no details and no e-mails.  Student at Large Lane states that she received an e-mail but had no idea what was happening it should have been an alert. Although students could suggest raising the tuition it would be easier to lock your door. EVP Perez states that this happened last year too and this seems to be an occurring problem and I think UPD needs to rearrange their priorities.  I received 3 tickets over the weekend.  Senator Manz states that there are 2 RA’s sitting at the desk on the weekend. One person will go on rounds and the other walks around. Maybe there should be 2 UPSA’s so they could do the same.  Student at Large Yazicilar states that this is a public campus and you would think that after what happened at Virginia Tech there should be more safety.  President Brady states that she will take one more Senate question because we have the Associate Director of Res Life and Officer Myers.  Senator Desimone is recognized and restates the question. President Brady recognizes Mike Heflin Associate Director of Res Life.  Mike states that some doors were locked and some were not.  Those who doors were locked can go to the Res Life office and fill out a claims form.  They are looking into ID swipe.  President Brady recognizes Officer Myers. Officer Myers states that half of the information here tonight has some or a lot of inaccuracies.  There has not been a single robbery on campus this semester and these were burglaries.  Out of 14 or 15 that took place and reported to us 13 or 14 of them were from a suite, common areas that were not locked.  There was maybe 1 or 2 people who did have the door locked that somehow the door didn’t lock right or something happened that night and someone got into a locked suite. On top of that there is a reason the camera didn’t catch like what was said there is a 6 hour loop.  Also, if this is another resident in the building they didn’t have to leave. They would throw the stuff in their schoolbag the next day and walk it out little by little.  If students don’t have serial numbers we can’t contact pawn shops we can’t look on eBay, without serial numbers it will be very tough to get it back. We have increased patrol on the dorms I know someone mentioned some attacks that went on last semester there were some things that went on that we are not allowed to discuss right now.  There were 6 or 7 undercover officers doing different details after that took place. The chief got some people together and the President and the Vice President know about but it was not shared with the student body and it may make you feel better if it was. But the fact of the matter is we don’t know who were looking for.  On February 11th the UPSA program will be running operation id in Tower 4.  If you stuff does need to get replaced get it logged record your serial numbers and get it engraved.  In terms of getting money for your stuff the only thing I know about is to get renters insurance. I’ve heard it’s about $50-$70 a year this way if you do get something stolen it will be replaced. I don’t know how many other questions I can answer some of the things need to be directed to RHA.  President Brady asks besides operation id what other steps the college and UPD are doing to prevent something like this from happening again.  Officer Myers states more cameras a lot has to come from the Resident Life budget. For instance, the doors that they lock automatically so that you can not leave the suite open for your friends to come in it will lock automatically.  They are looking at updating some of the cameras; I don’t have a lot of information on this. Senator Desimone asks why everyone is just hearing about this now and why was there no NY alert.  Officer Myers says he does not know why everyone is hearing about this now and as for the NY Alert UPD advised someone in Administration and they make the determination if the NY Alert is to be activated.  Dr. Ecklund states that the NY Alert comes from Dr. Kardonsky’s office it’s not his responsibility that one of his staff activates it. The NY Alert is when there is a threat to some one a burglary is more a crime. Senator Desimone states that we pay for our safety and there should have been some notification on what is going on.  President Brady asks was no one notified at all. Mike states we can not put out the word unless it is approved.  EVP Perez asks Dr. Ecklund that paying $8,000 would include some kind of rental insurance. Also, can we asure the residents in Tower 4 that their claims will not be written off by negligence on their part.  Will they be fairly investigated or are they going to say they should have locked their door. EVP Perez states that they will do an investigation and we will check to see if there are maintenance reports on faulty locks. Senator Manz asks if it is possible to have 2 UPSA in the building at one time.  Officer Myers states that he does not have the answer because that is a separate department and its run by an investigator and student coordinators. The number you can call is x6612 and talked to investigator Agen or Jonathon Innocent the student coordinator.  Mike states that there is a high turnover rate because students don’t want to work the late hours and students filling in when someone is sick because of having an exam in the morning.  UPSA are told not to confront people. President Brady asks if there are any more questions from the Senate because she would like to move into the gallery. Treasurer Gabriel asks what floors were hit.  President Brady states there were 8 suites robbed on 7 floors. They were: suite 930, suite 710, suite 430, suite 720, suite 910 and suite 640.  Senator Desimone states also suite 730 and 220.  Treasurer Gabriel states so the person basically went through the whole entire building and it could have been a multiple person.  Officer Myers states that there is something on tape with someone holding a large duffel bag over their face but never left.  Senator Dann asks if there is any more information available. President Brady states that she did talk to Lt. Carey today and he pretty much said what was heard today.  AVP Jueckstock makes a motion to create a campus safety and security Ad Hoc Committee within USG to investigate these issues and the department so maybe we could get more answers for the students.  The committee would create a report and report back to the Senate and be able to report back to these students.  Senator Desimone 2nd.  President Brady takes a vote to approve an Ad Hoc Committee for campus safety and passes 12 yeas, 1 nay and 1 abstention.  President Brady states that she would like to nominate Senator Desimone to chair this committee. Treasurer Gabriel 2nd.  President Brady takes a voice vote and passes 12 yeas, 0 nays and 2 abstentions.  President Brady states that Senator Desimone will report back to the Senate regarding this issue.  AVP Dapaah states that it was said that the burglaries occurred between 1:00 am and 5:00 am in the morning and your first report was at 10:00 am. So at 10:00 am when you received your first report were you able to see anything within that 6 hour spam before the tape was erased.  Officers Myers states that investigations are investigated by student investigators and protocol is that a report comes in and we investigate the scene. President Brady asks if there are any objections to recognize only Tower 4 residents to address their issues.  There are no objections.  Senator Desimone point of information if they stay to the end of the meeting can they talk under Constituents Questions/Announcements.  President Brady states yes.  Senator Manz point of information can I try to defer my time again?  Senator Manz motions to recognize Tower 4 to speak.  President Brady takes a vote and passes.  Tawanna Robinson states that this is our home away from home who else will this happen to.  I was up at 5:00 in the morning to check the door I can’t sleep.  We just want safety, we want answers, and we want to be comfortable.  President Brady thanks Tower 4 for coming to the Senate and voicing their concerns.  Mike Heflin says thank you for your time and thank you for your voices. 

 

IV.            EVP Perez Report:

A.   Senate Appointments - Samuel Hemingway and Peter Hirsch please stand.  EVP Perez speaks on both candidates.  Student at Large Michelle Lane and Nese Yaszicilar will be moving up to Senators.  President Brady opens the floor for questions.  Senator Stone asks Peter Hirsch former AVP of Academics if he is going to be committed.  Peter states that he was taking on too much of his student teaching internship. Peter states that too much time was needed for his internship and so he had to resign from his AVP position. President Brady asks if there are any other questions and there are none.  President Brady states we will go into vote to appoint Peter Hirsch as a Senator and vote passes 10 yeas, 1 nay and 3 abstentions.  President Brady states we will go into vote to move Student at Large Nese Yazicilar to Senator and passes 11 yeas, 0 nays and 4 abstentions.  President Brady states we will vote to appoint Sam Hemingway to Senator and passes 13 yeas, 1 nay and 1 abstention.  President Brady states we will vote on moving Student at Large Lane to Senator and passes 14 yeas, 0 nays and 0 abstentions.  President Brady swears in the new appointments.

B.    Senator Retention - don’t be surprised by the number of people we have lost it happens every year.  Please invite your friends to be Students at Large or Senators; we are still recruiting.

C.    EVP Perez motions to suspend the rules so we can vote on the election chair. Senator Bancroft 2nd.  There are no objections.  EVP Perez states that there were some issues with the chair.  On behalf of Judicial Council they are suggesting Dr. Michael Niman.  I would like to make a motion to elect Dr. Michael Niman for the new election chair.  President Brady recognizes Dr. Niman to say a few words. Dr. Niman states that he has been a poll watcher for the Democratic Party and for a number of Democrats.  I am going to make sure that candidates are fair.  I am going to bring in David who is a former student of mine who is finishing up his masters degree. President Brady asks if there are any questions for Dr. Niman and there are none. President Brady states we will now vote on Dr. Niman to be the new Election Chair and passes 20 yeas, 0 nays and 0 abstentions.

D.   Student Bill #1 - I will pass around a copy of this bill when you get it please strike letter E.  President Brady states that you have had this Bill for 2 months now.  EVP Perez states that this bill is regulating on how we get paid.  We ran into a problem that was addressed to the E-Board. President Brady states that no one is getting an increase in pay, if your suppose to do 10 office hours then you do all 10 or your pay will be issued on the number of hours you worked.  EVP Perez states that really what this is doing is preventing people from getting paid for 10 hours if you did not work them. Senator Hirsch asks why E was stricken.  EVP Perez states that it just wasn’t feasible with the budget at this time.  President Brady states if any of the Senators feel that the stricken E should be added you can go to the Rules & Regulations Chair and see how it could be corporated.  Treasurer Gabriel makes a Friendly Amendment in Section II B to strike Executive Vice President and change it to the Treasurer because the Treasurer handles the money.  EVP Perez accepts the Friendly Amendment. President Brady states we will vote on the Friendly Amendment and passes 19 yeas, 0 nays and 1 abstention. Treasurer Gabriel makes a Friendly Amendment to Section III A to add unless given prior notice. On Section III B it says a .25 absence I think we should change this to something else.  President Brady states that she needs Treasurer Gabriel to give her the correct wording.  AVP Dapaah states she could do this.  Treasurer Gabriel says ok. AVP Dapaah states Section III A & B 1 official should be stricken and Section III A should read: Officials “Time In” shall correspond to their publicly stated office hours unless given prior notice to the secretary Cindy. President Brady asks what do you mean by prior notice. AVP Dapaah states sometimes thing come up I can’t give you a time. If something comes up and you come in late you should call and tell Cindy. President Brady rereads Section III A and adds that Section III B 1 will be deleted and 2 will be moved up to 1. President Brady states right now we will vote on Section III A floor is open for questions.  Senator Manz states that he thinks it should be left the way it is because if you went to a real job and you were late you would be docked. There should be an excuse policy and absences should be given.  I am against this.  Senator O’Grady states that prior notice needs to be defined.  AVP Dapaah states that if you sign up for something and you show up late does this mean you get a 1⁄2 absence.  I am here for more than my office hours so does this mean I should get penalized we are students to. I am in favor of this.  Senator Nunez motions to move to previous question.  Senator Manz 2nd.  President Brady states we will vote even if were not ready to vote.  Vote is taken and passes 18 yeas, 1 nay and 1 abstention.  President Brady states we will now vote on the motion Section III A says Officials “Time In” shall correspond to their publicly stated office hours unless given prior notice. Vote is taken and passes 16 yeas, 3 nays and 1 nay.  President Brady states we are moving to strike Section III B 1 “Any official who fails to be present and signed in for a publicly stated office hour shall be charged a quarter (.25) absence”. Floor is open for debate. EVP Perez states that this is a critical part of the bill because the AVP’s don’t get absences when they take a report and don’t hand it in.  Senator O’Grady states he is against this because it is a paid job and a privilege. Senator Hirsch states that the fact that we just did prior notice.  Senator Nunez calls to previous question.  Senator Manz 2nd. President Brady states vote will be taken to call to previous question and passes 20 yeas, 0 nays and 0 abstentions.  President Brady states will vote to strike Section III B 1 and does not pass 7 yeas, 13 nays and 0 abstentions. President Brady states that Section III B 1 will now be open for debate. Senator Nunez states we had this for 2 months and is it still in effect that you could have submitted your questions in if you had any. President Brady checks with Rules & Regulations Greco.  Rules & Regulations Greco states yes.  Senator Stone call to question to vote on Student Bill 1.  Senator Nunez 2nd.  President Brady takes a vote to call to question to vote on Student Bill 1 and passes 10 yeas, 7 nays and 3 abstentions.  AVP Jueckstock states Division of the House.  President Brady states we will vote on a hand vote.  Vote is taken and carries. President Brady takes vote to pass Student Bill 1 and passes 13 yeas, 5 nays and 2 abstentions. 

E.    EVP Perez thanks everyone for holding the Executive Board responsible for their charged duties. 

F.    Game Room Committee - the white board for the game room is in. Please let your organizations know that the tournaments are starting if they want to sign up.

G.   Food Service - I’m looking to plan a meeting for next week, I will only be in charge of this until we get another Pro Tem. On Friday there is a ribbon cutting ceremony at 11:00.

 

V.            Treasurer Gabriel Report:

A.  There is a Treasurer’s Round Table on February 5th in Library Butler 210.  Senator Stone states that he heard about a giant trip to New Orleans is this a E-Board conference thing.  Treasurer Gabriel states this is a Leadership Conference the E-Board goes on every year but the locations changed. Treasurer Gabriel asks if Senator Stone is asking for a budget. Senator Stone says yes.  Treasurer Gabriel states this is budgeted for every year and it is set for $10,000. Senator Stone asks when the conference is.  Treasurer Gabriel states it is February 8th - 9th.  President Brady states everyone will bring something back to the Senate on what they learned.

 

VI.            Standing Committee Reports

A.   AVP Jueckstock Communications Report: No Report

B.    AVP Dapaah Student Life Report:
- Camp Weekend is this weekend and I am not taking any excuses because you have known about this for 2 months. Please check your mail boxes because I will be giving you itineraries and what you will be responsible for. The bus will be here on Friday at 5:00.
- Weigel Health Center - on Tuesday they are bringing back free AIDS testing. Also at camp I will be taking names for volunteers for Mardi Gras which is Tuesday February 5th.
-  Senator Stone asks what time we will be coming back from camp. AVP Dappah states Sunday by 2:00.

C.    Rules & Regulations Greco Report:
- I don’t have a report until I can meet with my committee.

 

VII.            New Business - None

           

VIII.            Old Business - None

 

IX.            Constituents Questions/Announcements

A.   Senator Desimone states if you want to join my committee let me know.

B.    Senator O’Grady inquires about the conference.

C.    AVP Dapaah states if you are a graduating senior please put your name in my mailbox. If you are on my committee we are meeting tomorrow at 12:00. President Brady states the deadline for graduation is this Friday.

D.   President Brady states to look in your mailbox for new committee assignments.

E.    Erin from NYPIRG gives and update.

F.    Gail Wells welcomes everyone back and thanks everyone who helped out with the Snowman competition. Gail states that there is a Campus Safety Committee and it is chaired by the Dean of Students.  President Brady states no I believe it is chaired by Tony Hotchkiss. Gail states that the Union closes at 11:00 pm, and almost every Tuesday night with out fail I have a building manager coming to the door with a imploring look because they are kept late every Tuesday. I am asking you to please be considerate and realize that you are keeping students in the building.  How would you like it if you were working from like 9:00 - 5:00 and it was time for you to go home and you couldn’t because someone was still here. I’m just asking you to be respectful these are students. President Brady states that so we don’t cause any more disruption for the students we will now start meeting in Bugler.

 

X.            2nd Roll Call

 

XI.            Meeting adjourned.