Student Government Minutes February 9, 2004 Call To Order: 5:07 pm I. Welcome, Reading of the University Creed, Motion to Approve the Minutes A. Motion Seconded and Approved II. President’s Report A. Richmond Trip Follow-Up 1. Thanks to everyone who participated; it was a very successful event. 2. Please send your thank-you notes ASAP. Details about the format these notes should take will be clarified in a coming email. B. Board of Visitors Meeting 1. The BOV meeting is scheduled for this Thursday, February 12 at 12:45 pm. SGA is scheduled for an hour session with the Board. Please plan to attend this meeting if you do not have class. Remember to dress professionally for this event. We will meet in the third floor lobby in Martin Hall, please be prompt! C. Co-Advisor – Patience Bartunek 1. Patience has volunteered to help Michael Mardis with SGA. D. Budget Request Hearing 1. This hearing with the Student Finance Committee is scheduled for Monday, February 16, 2004 at 3:00 pm in the Blue Ridge Room. A representative from every council must attend this meeting to answer any questions SFC might have about their budget requests. E. Letter Writing Campaign 1. A meeting of all the University Presidents was held last week and it was decided that it is important for administration, faculty, and students to begin writing their legislators to ask for base budget adequacy and stress the importance of allocating sufficient funds for higher education. Please plan to write a letter to your representative and senator to stress the importance of these issues. III. Executive Vice President’s Report A. Dr. Covington will be coming to the SGA meeting on February 16. We will also be taking SGA pictures that day. Please remember to dress appropriately for these two events (professional dress, please). B. Retreat Scheduling 1. Possible dates for next year’s SGA retreat are August 6-8 or August 13-15. The retreat will be held at Selu again. It is mandatory for all SGA members to attend this retreat. After discussion about any potential conflicts, the date for Pre-School retreat is tentatively scheduled for August 6-8. C. Banquet 1. Possible dates for SGA’s Spring Banquet are April 14 or April 21. 2. April 21 was chosen as the date for the banquet. D. Class Rings 1. Our contract with Jostens for class rings is ending. Another company, Balfour, has expressed interest in taking over our class ring services. This new company wants to make our Ring Ceremony a more important tradition for Radford University students by improved advertising and marketing of the class rings and limiting the availability of the rings until the Ring Ceremony actually occurs. They also want to limit the choices of rings to about 9 traditional Radford rings to promote a greater feeling of tradition. The prices between Jostens and Balfour are roughly the same. Balfour has also committed to providing more funding for the Ring Ceremony and wants to increase the money spent on advertising the rings. Radford students will still have input on the design of the ceremony. 2. We will vote on whether or not to move our contract agreement from Jostens to Balfour during New Business. IV. Legislative Vice President’s Report A. Elections 1. The following timeline has been set for SGA Elections: * February 23 – Filing Begins at 12:00; Application packets are available in the Dean of Student’s Office or online at the SGA website. * March 1 – Candidate Information Session in the Blue Ridge Room from 6:30 to 7:30 pm. * March 22 – Candidate Information Session in the New River Room from 7:00 to 8:00 pm. * March 23 – Filing Ends (applications due by 5:00 pm in the Dean of Student’s Office). * March 24 – Presidential Debate and Meet the Candidates Night in the Commonwealth Room from 6:00 to 8:00 pm. * March 31 – Elections begin at 10:00 am online. * April 1 – Elections end at 5:00 pm. B. New Ideas 1. Please turn in your new ideas to Brie ASAP (by Friday at the latest). C. Faculty Senate Liaison 1. Ashley Mezyk will be the new Faculty Senate Liaison. She will attend Faculty Senate meetings every other Thursday at 3:30 pm in the Commonwealth Room and will be reporting the Senate’s activities back to SGA. Anyone can attend these meetings, so please plan to go if you are interested. D. Professional Education Meetings 1. We need a representative to attend the Professional Education IG Committee Meetings on Mondays from 4:00 – 6:00 pm. Please contact Brie if you are interested. V. Vice President of Student Finance’s Report A. Budget Hearings 1. The following budget hearings have come before SFC in the past two weeks: * Sports Club Council has requested $20,000 (an increase of approximately $3000 from last year’s budget). They have requested these increases to offset the costs of funding an increased number of sports clubs that are becoming more successful and participating in higher levels of competitive play. * Campus Recreation has requested a budget of $87,500 (an increase of $35,580 from last year’s budget). They plan to use this money to fund more aerobics classes and pay the instructors, 9 new intramural events, more events for RU Outdoors, and to pay the climbing wall instructors. * BACCHUS has requested a budget increase of $500 to fund an Eating Disorder Awareness week. * Scholarly Lecture Committee has requested a transfer of money ($500 to Club Programming Committee). This is so students can have more input on the speakers RU brings to campus. This will leave the committee with a balance of $0. 2. We will vote to approve these requests during New Business. VI. Advisor’s Report A. Co-Advisor 1. As previously mentioned, Patience Bartunek will be helping with SGA and will come to Exec meetings. B. SGA Money 1. If you are using SGA money to make purchases, please remember to talk to Liz Koch and Linnea BEFORE making a purchase so that you can fill out the Purchase Payment Request and get the appropriate signatures. If you do not follow this protocol, you may not get reimbursed for purchases! C. SGA Grade Point Average 1. Congratulations! For the Fall 2003 semester, SGA members had a semester average GPA of 3.18 and an average cumulative GPA of 3.21. Four SGA members earned a 4.0 last semester. Keep up the good work! D. Foundation Scholarship applications are available. Two scholarships are designated for SGA members. Please fill out this application and turn it in! E. New Student Center 1. Construction has begun on the New Student Center. The expected date for completion is May 2005, and the Center is expected to open in time for the Fall 2005 semester. VII. Cabinet/Staff Reports A. Secretary’s Report – Kelly Snead 1. Please remember to do your office hours each week! Also please make sure to check your mailboxes on a regular basis as many of them are getting very full! B. Chief of Staff Report – Ross Holberg 1. Please remember to send a council representative to the Budget Hearing scheduled for February 16. Email Ross with the name of your council’s representative ASAP. 2. A Staff Meeting is scheduled for this Wednesday, February 11 at 5:00 pm (room TBA). C. Webmaster’s Report – Justin Nicholas 1. Please turn in a paragraph explaining the job duties of your position to Justin before the end of the week. These job descriptions will be posted on the SGA website. We will also be taking pictures to go on the website at next week’s meeting, so dress appropriately! VIII. Council Reports A. LAC – Shawn Healy 1. Emergency Contraceptive Pill Legislature – House Bill 1403 and House Bill 1414 a. Legislators have introduced two bills that would eliminate the sale of Emergency Contraceptive Pills (the “Morning After Pill”) on campus at all state institutions. We will be discussing a resolution against this action during New Business. 2. The Absentee Ballot Reform Bill (HB 1023) was passed out of committee. If passed by the House and Senate, this will allow people to access absentee ballot applications online, reducing the redundancy of the application process. This is s great success for students. 3. Update on HB 65 – This is the bill that proposed a 20% tuition increase for all students who take longer than 5 years to graduate. This bill has been deferred until next year. B. OCSC – Colin Fletcher 1. The new Char of the OCSC will be Lindsay Kirby. Welcome Lindsay! C. ISAC – Kenda Deleon 1. ISAC has elected a new publicity representative. 2. Weekly meetings will be held every Wednesday at 6:30 pm. 3. The International Dinner will be held on April 3. We need participants! Please see the handout passed around and sign up to bring a dish. IX. Committee Reports A. APC – Scott Morton 1. A Pep Rally is scheduled for February 21 at 5:00 pm. B. University Planning and Budget Committee – Shannon Joyce 1. Work Force Transiton Orders (WTO’s) were discussed. A sum of $43,000 will be introduced back into the budget for faculty benefits. Visioning essentials were also discussed. C. Business and Economics Curriculum Committee – Shannon Joyce 1. This committee is working on a vision and curriculum for the college. If you would like to provide input on these decisions please contact Shannon. X. Unfinished Business A. Graduate Student Senator 1. Amine Antari has been elected by the Graduate Student Council as the new Graduate Student Senator. Motion to approve this nomination. Motion seconded and passed. Congratulations Amine! XI. New Business A. IG Task Force 1. Discussion about the make-up of the task force and the importance of student participation. Motion made to support the establishment of a university-wide IG task force, seconded and passed to support the creation of the task force. B. Budget Approval 1. Motion to support SGA’s budget request to SFC. Motion seconded, discussed. After call to question, the motion was passed. C. Resignation – Matt Powell, College of IS&T Senator 1. Due to personal reasons, Matt Powell needs to resign his position as the senator for the College of Information Science and Technology. He is working to find a replacement for his position. Motion to accept Matt’s resignation. Motion seconded and passed. D. Resolution about ECPs at Radford University 1. Motion to approve the resolution drafted against HB 1403 and 1414 that would eliminate the sale of ECPs at all state supported institutions. After extensive discussion, a motion to table the issue until next week was made. Senators need to ask their constituent’s opinions on this controversial issue. 2. Quorum was lost; dead motion. This motion and all other unfinished business will be revisited during Unfinished Business at next week’s meeting. XII. Announcements A. Please review the SFC Handouts for next weeks meeting. B. Please remember the Board of Visitor’s meeting scheduled for Thursday at 12:45 pm. Meeting adjourned at 6:35 pm.