31 October 2011

 

Roll Call

 

Senators Absent: Chastain, Watson, Gosa-Lewis, Kennedy, Fishel, Nesbit

Approval of the Minutes

-Minutes from last meeting approved by acclimation.

 

Officer Reports

 

President Al-Greene – Myself, Dean Mitchell and Grounds will be meeting to discuss renovations to be made to the SGA Pavilion. That includes re-doing the sign, possibly putting in outdoor fans and also trying to make it more handicapped accessible. We’ll be doing that sometime this week. Any other Senate projects you would like to see this semester then please be thinking about those since this semester is drawing to a close.

Vice President Byrd – Tomorrow at 4:00 we’re having the Senate meeting to discuss projects and to get some of you started with those. I have a list of all the committee chairs and the members on the committee so I will pass that around. Just put your phone number and if you’re not on the list go ahead and put your name on one of the committees (you have to be on one of them). I still have shirts in the office for those of you who have not picked up a shirt. November 14th are the composite pictures; I’m also going to pass that sign-up sheet around in case you were not here last week. I have a list of some office hours but they do not include Homecoming and some other small events.   

 

Treasurer Lawkis – I’ll be talking in Old Business about the documentation we have for the Nature Trail project.

 

Attorney General Arditi – This Thursday the Governmental Affairs committee will be going to Jackson High School for Academic Premier Day. The presentations we are giving are “How to Pick a Major” and “Campus Involvement”. In New Business we need to approve $500 for Academic Premier Day for some pencils and cozies. Other than that I’m still looking for Defense Attorneys, so if you know anyone that would be interested please let me know. 

 

Chief Justice Wolf – After we adjourn tonight I’m going to stay after and I’d like for a few of you to stay after with me; I’m going to start making the JagTran routes we would like to see happen next year. I’m going to need some input from everybody to make sure that it benefits everybody so help me out please.

 

Pro Tem Wilson- Make sure you sign up for a committee and if you have any questions about senate projects or how to get your hours let me know.

 

Fallon – Wednesday in the Cafeteria Jaguar Productions is doing bumper stickers. Also on Wednesday at 4:00 in front of Epsilon 1 they’re doing “Inflatafest”. Also Wednesday at 7:00 the basketball team is playing Spring Hill. Thursday is the football game; we’re playing Mississippi Valley State and as of today there are still parking passes. The game starts at 6:30. Friday there is a volleyball game against western Kentucky at 7:00. Don’t forget Sunday is Daylight Savings so set your clock back an hour.

Old Business

 

Floor opened for discussion of Nature Trail.

 

Treasurer Lawkis – Please take a look at the sheet with the spreadsheet where you’ll see my notes on the top right corner. The $2400 was for the signs that you guys approved on April 11th. We’ve already paid that. Then later you guys approved an additional $2800 for the kiosk. Normally we reimburse the organization after they have turned in their receipts, but Brian Alred told me that they won’t sign off on the construction project unless the money is already in the account so they have enough funds to do the project. I talked to Dean Mitchell and he said this one time they will let us front the money so they can go ahead and get the project done before the end of the semester. So the $2,800 has already been approved; we just need to transfer that. Last meeting we approved $2,000 pending documentation. Look at where it says Balance: -336; the one thing I was going to ask you is to increase last week’s $2,000 to $2,400 to get the project going. 

 

Senator Ramsey – I just want to get clarification on what it is we have to do right now – we already approved $2,000 so what are we approving now?

 

Senator Beovich – We’re approving $400 more.

Vice President Byrd – And going ahead and transferring the money instead of doing a reimbursement.

 

Treasurer Lawkis – You’re making a motion to transfer the $5200 upfront but you’re only approving an additional $2400 more than the original cost.

 

$400 was approved for the Nature Trail project bringing it to a total of $5200. There were no abstentions or negative votes.

 

New Business

 

Floor opened for discussion of Jonathon Bubbett for College of Education Senator.

Senator Mitchell – Can you tell us a little bit about yourself?

 

Bubbett – I’m studying to be a secondary social sciences teacher. So I’m about to be in the College of Education; I’m going through all my sociology classes right now then move into education classes next year [inaudible]. I’m thinking about being a high school history teacher.

 

Fallon – Do you have any leadership experience?

 

Bubbett – The most relevant thing I’m doing right now is a program in the College of Education that goes into target schools and works with target students. They qualify for either reduced or free lunch and so we’ll work with them on that. That is the most relevant leadership experience for me right now.

 

Senator McDonald – What can you bring to SGA? Do you have any plans so far?

 

Bubbett – It’s cool to me the connection between the people who can make things happen and the people who are living with certain issues. For example it’s easy to think that a problem in the College of Education is only over there, [inaudible] but it’s really neat to be the source for them. The JagTran stop is a very popular issue that’s brought up because it’s so far away, things like that.

 

Senator Fornof – What are your interests and what do you like to do in your spare time?

 

Bubbett – My interests academically are history and other interests are music, playing the guitar and I also love playing soccer.

 

Floor closed for discussion of Bubbet.

Floor re-opened for discussion of Nature Trail project.

 

Chief Justice Wolf – The Code of Law that we would have to suspend is 700.6 “Organizations must submit receipts for actual expenditures to the SGA Treasurer by 5:00 pm on the fifth day of the semester following the semester in which the event was held. This would basically allow us to give up the money upfront without having receipts turned in first.

 

Law 700.6 was suspended for Nature Trail project with no abstentions or negative votes.

 

Floor re-opened for discussion of Bubbett as College of Education Senator.

Bubbett was confirmed as College of Education Senator with no negative votes and an abstention from Pittman.

 

Bubbett was sworn into office.

 

Floor opened for discussion of Academic Premier Day.

Attorney General Jean-Pierre Arditi – What we’re asking for is $500 for cozies that one of Katie Reeve’s friends said that he could do.

 

Senator Reeves – It’s a legitimate company.

 

Attorney General Jean-Pierre Arditi – We’re also asking for pencils as well that we can purchase through the bookstore.

 

President Al-Greene – Could we see if the bookstore could cut us a reduced rate than what they would normally charge?

 

Attorney General Jean-Pierre Arditi – It’s 35 cents a pencil.

 

President Al-Greene – Maybe we could get 20 cents a pencil or something.

Attorney General Jean-Pierre Arditi – I can ask.

 

Senator Purnell – As Arditi said in his report, we’re going to Jackson, Alabama this Thursday as part of the Higher Ed partnership, which is basically the folks who are our advocates in Montgomery. They help us with Higher Ed Day which in turn helps secure more funding for us. So it’s really important that we participate in this and participate well. But we’re going to be in Jackson giving presentations on campus involvement and picking a major to graduating high school seniors.

 

President Al-Greene – Part of this project is that all of the universities in the state are doing a similar thing. We’re primarily looking at people who are first generation college students and the people from the different schools are talking about college life and anything they need to know.

 

SGA member – What’s the name of the business?

Senator Reeves – Competitive Ink.

SGA member – How does giving out these cozies benefit the legislators to give more money to our university?

 

Attorney General Jean-Pierre Arditi – This is a service project that all of the colleges have to participate in, so all 14 state colleges have to participate in. Since we’re in the lower half of Alabama the lower half colleges participate in Jackson and the upper half colleges will go to another school. So we were asked to give some stuff away to the seniors.

 

President Al-Greene – It’s used as more of a recruitment tool for the different colleges.

 

$500 was approved for Academic Premier Day.

 

Announcements

Senator Reeves – This Friday is Chi Omega’s Songfest. It’s free to get in but we’re accepting donations and all the proceeds go to Make-A-Wish. Oh and the cookout is on Wednesday night.

 

Pro Tem Wilson – And we’re also selling raffle tickets outside the cafeteria all week.

 

Treasurer Lawkis – Next Monday will be a very stressful day for me so I will be going to Ollie’s after the meeting if anyone would like to join me.

 

Vice President Byrd – Don’t forget to attend the senate meeting tomorrow and there’s also one next Wednesday at 6:00 pm.

 

Adjourn