February 7, 2011
Roll Call
Senators Present: Mahaffey, Perry, Rodgers, Wheat, Beovich, Byrd, Gessner, Husain, Miller, Powell, Berglund, Ringsdorf, Tanner, Purnell, Schneider, Johnston, Pearson, Carlson, Hall, Norton, Sells, Youngblood, Pruett, Ramsey, Thomas, Swindle, Wilson, Wolf, Fishel, Davis, Speller
Senators Absent: Woodward, Calhoun
Approval of the Minutes
Beovich: I move to approve the minutes from last weeks meeting by acclimation.
MOTION PASSES
Officer Reports
President Proctor: Welcome to the last budget meeting of this year. If your budgets have been approved, your organization can leave once we state that. The academic calendar for 2011-2012 is out. We will have a two day break with no Saturday exam. In order to show our thankfulness, write a letter and give it to me and I will give them out during the next Calendar Committee meeting.
Vice President Al-Greene: Organizations, only speak once on your topic, and if you need a second time, wait until everyone has had a chance to speak.
Attorney General Macon: Higher education day is April 7, 2011. Organizations, please be thinking of who you would like to send. Higher Education is a day where we take a bus to Montgomery to get legislators to pass legislation to fund Higher Education. See a senator to sign up. I am also going to give Troy Sheppard’s report tonight; he has broken his collar bone. Right now, Troy is working on the JagTran Tracking System, and he will give more information next week.
Special Orders
Dean Mitchell: No report.
Pro tempore Perry: I would like to open the floor.
Proctor: Perry, Dustin, and Corwren reviewed the packets, so we are going to move into approvals.
Sells: I would like to close the floor.
Senators: Second.
Perry: I confirm to move Dustin LePointe to Arts and Sciences’ Senate seat and Corwren Horton to the College of Nursing’s Senate Seat.
Macon: Swears in Dustin LePointe and Corwren Horton to senate seats.
Proctor: Congratulations! You guys can sit with your colleges now.
Al-Greene: We are going to skip over New Student Affairs election until the end of New Business, and now go to committee reports.
Committee Reports
Student at Large Pittman: Get on Board is this Wednesday from 9am to noon. Also, the men’s tennis team is playing Southern Miss at 2pm on Wednesday. There is a basketball game Wednesday night at 7pm, wear pink to support Breast Cancer Awareness, you can also get in free if you are not a student if you wear pink, and from 6 to 7pm, you can get a corndog and Pepsi for $1. Thursday, Jaguar Productions is having a Valentine’s skate party from 9-11pm for free at Sunshine Skate Center.
Perry: Senators, I will give you 2 hours for wearing pink and 4 hours for wearing pink and bringing a guest. Spirit Week is going to be the 23, 24, and 26. The 23rd, there will be a women’s basketball game against Little Rock. The 24th, there will be a men’s basketball game against Little Rock. The 26th, there will be a baseball game against the University of Alabama. I will send out more information later on how the SGA and other organizations will be involved.
Appropriations Chair Sells: Senators, please take note on the spread sheet: the Biology Graduate Student Association will be taken out to be discussed individually. That brings our new mass appropriations total to $48,538.02 .
Old Business
No Report.
New Business
Al-Greene: Lets go ahead and approve budgets.
Perry: Can we get approved $30, 000 for our salary budget?
Senators: Second.
Al-Greene: All in favor?
Senators: I.
Al-Greene: Opposed? Abstensions?
MOTION PASSES
Perry: I move that we make our operating budget for the Spring $78,700.00 .
Senators: Second.
Al-Greene: All in favor?
Senators: I.
Al-Greene: Opposed? Abstensions?
MOTION PASSES
Al-Greene: We need to set the appropriations budget amount.
Sells: New total is $45,026.19. I move to approve $100,000 for the appropriations budget.
Senators: Second.
Al-Greene: All in favor?
Senators: I.
Al-Greene: Opposed? Abstensions?
MOTION PASSES
Perry: I move that we appropriate $45,026.19 to the above organizations, who have a representative present.
Senators: Second.
Al-Greene: All in favor?
Senators: I.
Al-Greene: Opposed? Abstensions?
MOTION PASSES
Al-Greene: If you are one of those organizations, you are now free to leave. We can now move to individual appropriations in order down the list.
Sells: I would like to open discussion on the GLBTA. The reason we are bringing this is up is for an event they are co-sponsoring with Jaguar Productions that they were trying to get us to pay everything for. We wondering if your organization still wanted to do co-sponsorship.
Proctor: As a point of information, we thought that if it is a co-sponsorship instead of an appropriation, it would give us a chance to market ourselves at this event given that the resolution is still fresh and to reaffirm this partnership. If we are paying for appropriations, they do not have to put our name on it at all, and that was the point of us bringing this up tonight.
Mahaffey: It has already been decided to be changed to a co-sponsorship.
Pearson: What does Jaguar Productions have to do with it?
Representative: They had the equipment and everything we needed.
Ramsey: If they are a co-sponsorship, then I see no reason not to talk about it until next week when we discuss co-sponsorships.
Al-Greene: Is there a motion
to table this to next weeks meeting?
Fishel: I motion we table it for next week’s meeting.
Senators: Second.
Representative: Our conference is the 19th.
Proctor: Let’s look at it.
Baldwin: I don’t see why don’t look at it now since the representative is here.
Sells: The conference in which he is speaking will include 5 officers and 3 members, in which we have Jag numbers all for and proof of hotel and conference. It totals $176.20.
Perry: I move to close the floor for discussion and appropriate $176.20 to GLBTA.
Senators: Second.
Al-Greene: Passed by acclamation.
Ramsey: I move to open up the floor for AED.
Senators: Second.
Proctor: AED was requesting materials to help them in the Gumbo Chilli Showdown. Is that right?
Representative: Yes and for other things.
Proctor: Well the EC did not want to start funding pots and pans for every team that applied because we already give money to the Gumbo Chilli Showdown.
Representative: The equipment would not just be used for this, and it would be a 10-15 year investment for other philanthropic events we put on.
Sells: The packet does not state that it is for other uses, and I believe that if it did say that I would have helped out the case.
Representative: I apologize and would like to add that down.
Proctor: The EC is going to have to look over it again because we have to review it before the senators do, and so if you wouldn’t mind, please resubmit us the information, so we can look it over. It can be brought up at the next meeting, because what we know now changes things.
Representative: What is EC?
Proctor: The EC is myself, Al-Greene, and Treasurer Baldwin. Executive Council.
Al-Greene: I table this to next weeks meeting and close the floor.
Perry: Where do you plan to store it?
Representative: We have a storage room for it.
Al-Greene: The floor is closed, and it has been tabled.
Fishel: I move to open the floor for Army ROTC Intramural Sports.
Baldwin: This was sent to the EC for equipment approval. You asked for: gloves, footballs, soccer balls, and softballs. Totaling $649.86.
Proctor: The EC felt that this wasn’t a proper use of student funds because the Campus Recreation Center provides this equipment for students. I talked to the Campus Rec, and they said they supply all but baseball bats and gloves, which they said that teams typically share among themselves. The EC decided it was a slippery-slope because there are so many intramural teams, and if organizations starting using this as an outlet it would be detrimental to the budget. Regardless, if there was a storage area for it; we decided this would not be a proper use of funds. The $150 is for the t-shirts/jerseys.
Perry: The senate felt exactly the same towards this packet.
Representative: You said we would receive $150 for our uniforms; however, in the original packet, I put down for $22 for each player’s uniform (shirt and shorts), but with $150 that only give me enough money to pay for 6.8 of the uniforms we need.
Sells: According to the appropriation rules, an uniform consists of a shirt or a jacket, but not shorts.
Representative: I copied last years’ exact packet, and we received money for the shorts and shirts last year.
Proctor: We changed our rules at the beginning of summer last year because certain groups had abused the process, not you guys, but the senate voted unanimously to spend the student money more on programming than on t-shirts and things of personal gain.
Representative: Is this stated in “The Lowdown”?
Proctor: It specifically defines a uniform as a t-shirt, polo, or jacket.
Sells: I vote to appropriate $150 to ROTC and close the floor.
Senators: Second.
Al-Greene: All in favor?
Senators: I.
Al-Greene: Opposed? Abstensions?
MOTION PASSES
Gessner: I like to open the floor for discussion for Jaguar Joggers.
Senators: Second.
Proctor: I believe this was for the megaphone.
Sells: Their packet says they are requesting equipment that will allow their organization to be sustainable. The problem was with the equipment itself, which was: stopwatches, megaphones, and folding exercise mats.
Proctor: When the EC reveiws, we look at the pros and cons of the request. This is the same thing as the Army ROTC request. We felt like the Rec Center would be able to supply it.
Representative: I am still unclear on the justification of where the money will be going.
Sells: It will be going for registration for the runs, gas money, and for the conference.
Representative: Are you looking at the excel sheet and adding numbers: 1, 2, 3, 4, 9, 10, and 11 together?
Sells: That was the other part. Number 9, the Military Ball, was not approved.
Representative: What’s the issue there? I looked in “The Lowdown”, there is nothing that prohibits that.
Ramsey: From what I’ve seen, I don’t think I have seen any proof of cost.
Sellers: We received an official letterhead from a Mr. Geiger, but our question is: is your organization hosting this?
Representative: We have been invited to attend to present a presentation on “Running for Future Leaders”. The cost estimated by him was $300 to send 10 members, so that’s what we are requesting money for.
Ramsey: In years past, we have had issues with this ball not being opened to the public.
Representative: It is an open event, and a sign will be posted as an invitation.
Gessner: If they are not hosting it, then it shouldn’t be a problem. I would feel comfortable with adding the $300.
Sells: If we add $300, it will come to the told of $1169.26.
Representative: As far as equipment purpose, these pieces of equipment allows us to workout outside of runs, and I can’t think of anywhere on campus that we could get those pieces of equipment.
Hall: I think that we should provide the equipment.
Proctor: The EC believes that providing these types of items for organizations, then any organization could form an intramural team and get these items. We felt that students could go out and purchase these items, and we weren’t aware if there was any place to store these items where they wouldn’t be stolen and create a reoccurring expense.
LePointe: This also is a closed rooster team that the whole student body could not benefit from.
Fishel: Agrees with President Proctor because it would show favoritism to a particular organization especially when the Rec Center has similar items.
Representative: I disagree. The Rec Center does not have a megaphone or stop watch nor would they feel comfortable lending out their mats.
Proctor: As a point of order, because the EC did not approve this, we can not discuss this here. Instead it would have to make a motion for us to reconsider, that is just in Robert’s rule of how it works.
Al-Greene: Is there a motion to close the floor?
Representive: Can I have one thing? If you look at number 10’s expenses, it is written as $104.26 right now, but if we are going off the mileage it would be 189 miles times .51 cents a mile. The reimbursement would be $192.78, in lieu of getting some of the equipment.
LePointe: As a point of information, it is actually .50 cents a mile.
Representative: Then it would just be 189 times .50.
LePointe: Secondly, you did not include that in the packet, so we do have to go by what you gave us.
Representative: I understand, but now that I know that the equipment is not going to be granted, I would like to change that.
Proctor: That would be something that the senators would need to see proof of that, so we would have to see that before we approve it.
Representative: I do have in there the Mapquest directions, which were specified in “The Lowdown”.
Al-Greene: If you will submit a new packet to the Treasurer, we will be able to discuss it at the next weeks meeting. So, I would like to close and move the table definitely.
Gessner: I move to close the floor and table it until next meeting.
Senators: Second.
Thomas: To the representative, I see exactly where you are coming from, and if you narrow down what you are asking for, I believe it will help your organization.
Proctor: Senator Thomas,
is that a request to reconsider?
Thomas: Yes.
Dean Mitchell: I would like to provide some clarity. There is a sport’s club structure that any sport organization can join, and they can help give you some support to your organization, such as storage and equipment.
Purnell: I would like to open the floor for Psi Chi Honor Society and the Psychology Club.
Senators: Second.
Sells: What we noticed is that the two packets have the same presidents with the same members, who meet at the same time, and who are going to the same place, doing the same thing. It came off as duplicate packets with different names, and what we wanted to know was, what are the differences?
Representative: The major differences are that the Psi Chi Honor Society is a National organization, in which there is a required GPA, community service, and events. It also has a national fee, and one must be a Psychology major. The Psychology Club is for students, who are interested in Psychology, and they don’t have to be a Psychology major. The reason we have the same officers is because there is minimum leadership interests.
Sells: You say that you do not have to be majors, but all of the students saying they are going to attend the conference are majors. The other thing we noticed was that you asked only for a two person room.
Representative: Can I add that some of the members of the Psychology club are majors, but they do not have the requirements for Psi Chi. And as for the second point, are you suggesting we put more people into one room to cut down the cost? We would be willing to do that. It’s just that some people wouldn’t feel comfortable staying with others.
Sells: It was just one of the things we noticed. We wanted it to come to the Senate because of the similarities in the packet.
Pearson: How many officers are not part of the Honor Society?
Representative: All of our officers are part of Psi Chi.
Pearson: The way I see it is that it is basically one club that is broken down into two, and $4,000 is a lot of basically the same group.
Representative: It will be just for the travel and accommodations for the convention, which is a requirement of Psi Chi.
Wolf: It seems kind of unjust to punish the people in the Psychology club just because they don’t meet the GPA requirements. So, I really don’t see a problem with giving $2,000 to each.
Gessner: I have a question for Senator Sells, are any of the students going double layering or overlapping? Because we are only allowed a specific amount per student. If there is not any overlapping, I am fine with it.
Sells: From what I can see, there are no overlapping members.
Schneider: Of the officers listed in the packet, which ones are going to the conference?
Sells: We have the president and the secretary.
Schneider: So just the officers are listed in the Psi Chi packet?
Sells: The Psi Chi packet is just 8 people, the officers being a part of this group. The Psychology Club has 18.
Schneider: And they both are requesting $2,000? What would that be per student? Because if they aren’t violating the rules, we have to go by the rule book.
Beovich: This kind of thing happens all the time where there are two clubs, one being for interest and the other for a Honor Society. If there aren’t names overlapping, it shouldn’t be a problem. Close the floor?
Senators: Second.
Al-Greene: Any objections?
Youngblood: I would like to move to open the floor to appropriate $2,000 to Psi Chi and $2,000 to the Psychology Club.
Senators: Second.
Al-Greene: All approved?
Senators: I.
Al-Greene: Objections? Abstentions?
MOTION PASSES
Wheat: I would like to move to open the floor to discuss the color guard?
Al-Greene: We are going to discuss the color guard next week.
Proctor: As a point of information, the EC had originally stated we did not want to spend money for that group‘s equipment request. I met with Colonel Ray, who is their advisor, and he shed some light on the situation as to why this equipment was pertinent. So, we are going to discuss it next week.
Representative: Well can I still speak on behalf of the club?
Proctor: It might be better to wait until next week. You can if you want to, but we will not discuss it.
Representative: I don’t understand why it was an issue because I copied it exactly from last year.
Proctor: Between those votes, we have reconsidered our policy on what was requested last time, and so we wanted the senators to be able to review before we make a decisions.
Dean Mitchell: Once rules have been made for a certain appropriation, we have a certain time that we have to follow that appropriation. It’s different for each semester, even if it’s exactly resubmitted, it’s a different process.
Proctor: And if it helps, Colonel Ray and I talked, and I took my questions to him, and that is why we are reconsidering. It is just that we can’t make a decision until the senate reviews it.
Representative: Why was I not contacted before hand?
Baldwin: We sent e-mails to everyone of every organization.
Proctor: When I spoke to Colonel Ray today, he was aware that you guys were told that you wouldn’t be receiving appropriation, so your organization must have had a miscommunication. However, Colonel Ray came to talk to me today because he knew your organization wouldn’t be receiving appropriations.
Representative: It’s not a problem. I will just wait until next week. I would like to be shown that e-mail that was sent to me.
Sells: I would like to open the floor to discuss the Biology Graduate Student Organization.
Senators: Second.
Sells: Just to let everyone know $1,159.75 was the recommended amount for supplies needed for DNA extractions, but what we didn’t give them was rubber weighters and boots because of the uniform policy, and we didn’t know if we should clarify it as equipment. The representative asked us to present this to the Senate and ask if it should be appropriated.
Hall: With the uniform policy, weighters barely meet that and boots don’t. However, these items are necessary to do the work.
Gessner: Can we look at it as equipment then? And can it be provided elsewhere?
Representative: It’s for the Alabama’s Dolphin stranding in Gulfport. When the dolphin’s strand, they have diseases and the volunteers get them if they do not have the proper equipment. So, we are asking for this for safety.
Gessner: So this wouldn’t be available by other means?
Representative: Teachers may have it, but it is there stuff that has been paid by their grants.
Norton: Sounds more like a safety, so I think we should appropriate.
Senators: Second.
Al-Greene: All in favor?
Senators: I.
Al-Greene: Objections? Abstentions?
MOTION PASSES
Sells: I motion to approve the budget for Campus Readership for $25,000.
Senators: Second.
Al-Greene: All in favor?
Senators: I.
Al-Greene: Objections? Abstentions?
MOTION PASSES
Sells: Organizations, you can leave. I move to appropriate $2,000 to Office Supplies.
Senators: Second.
Al-Greene: All in favor?
Senators: I.
Al-Greene: Objections? Abstentions?
MOTION PASSES
Wolf: I move to cancel next weeks meeting due to Valentine’s Day.
Senators: Second.
Al-Greene: Any discussion?
Perry: Is that going to put us behind?
Proctor: We are not going to be able to serve the students if we are having a budget meeting because the Appropriation Committee along with the Officer Board and all of you guys are not going to be to review everything we are going to have to review because of how many late packets that have been turned in. So, it would be better for us to have more time to consider these issues and communicate with the organizations.
Perry: Can we make sure there is not any budget passed the 21st?
Proctor: You guys would have to move all the leftover money to operating.
Al-Greene: Motion to cancel.
Senators: Second.
Al-Greene: All in favor?
Senators: I.
Al-Greene: Objections? Abstentions?
MOTION PASSES-- Meeting Cancelled
Al-Greene: The only person on the ballot for Student Affairs Chair is Jessica Byrd. Would anyone else would like to put in a late nomination?
Al-Greene: Congratulations, Senator Byrd!
Proctor: Senator Byrd’s first order of business is Get on Board Day, and let me see a show of hands of who can come to that Wednesday. Senator Byrd, we will discuss that after the meeting.
Perry: Since we’re not meeting next week, when will all the information be available for the Senate to review for the 21st?
Baldwin: Once the committee meets.
Sells: I am going to have reviewed the packets by Friday to be ready for midweek. I am aiming to meet with the Appropriations Committee within the next 3 days.
Perry: Everyone just watch your Facebook.
Gessner: Did we approve the minutes?
Al-Greene: We did not.
Beovich: I move to approve the minutes from last weeks meeting by acclimation.
Proctor: I would like to introduce our new Senate Clark, Miranda Tevepaugh. Hannah Sanders had to step down because she has just received the position of Chi Omega’s President.
Student Forum
No report.
Announcements
Macon: On that sheet I passed around, it should say April 7th. Try to get those turned in by the next 2 weeks.
Proctor: If you are planning on resigning, please go ahead and turn it in to me. Also, will the Rules Committee please meet sometime this week. I am going to send out a specific e-mail to the Colleges we are taking Senator applications for.
Sells: There is an American Sign Language Class tomorrow night and every Tuesday at 8pm in Episilon 1’s TV room.
Adjourn- Al-Greene 9:13pm