Hartwick college

Summary of Senate Minutes:

• E-Board Trustee Committee reports
• Passage of Hilltops Constitution
• 2 SMRs: Chemistry Club and Hilltops
• Approval/Amendment of OH Fest survey
• Cooperation with SUNY Oneonta
• Academic issues: thesis
• Heat issues in Smith Hall
• Election of new Senators

Senators Present: Blea, DesRoberts, Fiteni, Harrington, Hight, Isbell, Jones, LoSardo, Murillo, Negrich, Parker, Podmijersky, Post, Ramos, Woskoff

Senators Absent: Intrilligator, Kelsey, Kopstein, Lillie

Passage of Minutes -Fiteni: motion to pass minutes -Schultz: seconded -Minutes passed

Committee/E-Board Reports:

• VP of Campus Affairs, Whetsel:
• Trustee Committee report:
• change in registrar’s office
• trying to be more transparent, trying out an E-registration
• students are involved in a second pilot program
• VP of Finance, Utterback/Kendall: 
•  Audit and Compliance Committee:
• Switching auditing company, ask for bids—standard practice to switch
• In process of perhaps adding 9 million dollars to the endowment
• Due to a Trust Fund that was set up several years ago
• Two SMRs for tonight
• VP of Judicial Affairs, Rudy:
• Facilities Meeting: talked about buildings on campus and at Pine Lake
• Two top priorities were dorm renovations and renovations to Binder
• Plan on fixing up Hill and Dale at Pine Lake, putting in a septic system -So students can move in
• Thornwood (President’s House) renovated for the new president
•  Estimating 1 million dollars worth of upgrades to Binder (new floor, new bleachers, etc)
• VP of Senate Affairs, Doboze:
• Two things: Enrollment Management Committee: retention has increased
• Number of applicants has remained the same yet acceptance rate has increased
• We are less competitive
• Goal is to have a 5% increase in number of applicants
• Model is changing
• Senator Russell is no longer a Senator
• should we wait until spring to select a new sorority representative this semester
• Hight: they were elected to represent Greek council so if they chose not to come then that is how they chose to represent Greek Council.
• Ramos: I think that they deserve to have representation here
• Secretary Roods: - Check over the website if you get a chance
• Chairperson, Riviello:
• Vehicle information: I am no longer in charge of the vehicle contracts.
• Tell clubs that if they need to have vehicle contracts, contact ALlison Spears.
• Co-Vice President, Schultz (Forst absent): - Nothing to report

President’s Report:

• Sat in on Development:
• Money is up, spending is down
• Galisano is under budget, brick drive.
• 200 dollars per brick
• Develop new alumni links
• Can begin a capital campaign
• Have a mega-fundraising for one big or many small projects
• Looking to renovate Binder, overhaul of the building
• Planning will start now; implementation won’t begin for upwards of a year, maybe longer. I doubt that even freshmen would see the benefits of that when the graduation.

Old Business: None

New Business:

• Constitutions:
• Hilltops Constitution is going around
• LoSardo: motion to pass this constitution · Fiteni: seconded
• Harington: there are certain parts of newspapers that have opinions and others that have facts. We were talking about someone’s article in class and it doesn’t fit.
• Blea: ultimately it’s up to people’s discretion what article to put in and the constitution states it will have news and opinion (two separate things).
• Motion Passes
• 2 SMRs:
• Chemistry Club
• SMRing for soap fundraising – 8 batches, $357.56
• Make their own soap and then sell it
• Use money to fund their club § 3 Years. Our goal this semester is to do 8.
• Miranda Lahr: Every year we go to a national Chemistry meeting, this year we are going to New Orleans. We want to make sure that things are covered and the only way to do this is to up fundraising. They work hard making the soap in the chemistry labs. I outlined every ingredient that goes into soap-making. We will not have leftovers.
• Riviello: how much money will you be able to fundraise with this?
• 4 batches make 400 in profit. 8 might make more.
• DesRoberts: how many people go?
• Lahr: it used to only be the seniors who were presenting, but last year we had a lot more underclassmen going.
• This year we will most likely limit it to those who are presenting
• Roods: how many bars come in a batch?
• Lahr: I believe it comes out to 40 per batch.
• LoSardo: motion to pass the full amount o Fiteni: seconded
• Motion Passes
• SMR2 – Hilltops:
• They are requesting $175 for 15 issues of Hilltops o $2625 Total
• Doboze: I feel like a lot of these papers get thrown away, are some of these recycled?
•  If we don’t print 1000 then we don’t get the paper
• Doboze: can it be put in pdf file?
• Yes, that’s how we send it to be printed, but we’re looking into using that
• Murillo: do you need 15 issues?
• Ramos: you said you’re trying to get it online, would that be online and in paper?
• It will most likely be a transition over several years.
• Ramos: also, what is the period of time that those 15 issues cover?
• The whole year
• Ramos: is it possible for you to request the number of issues between now and the end of this semester and then SMR for the spring next semester?
• Rudy: I would be very personally upset if we no longer had a tangible copy
• It is definitely something we will have to talk to about on campus. It is very far into the future at the moment.
• Doboze: out of the 1000 copies that you print, how many do you retain? How many students pick up a copy?
• We don’t count due to there’s no way to actually count. We try to drop them off in every big building. In Dewar there’s usually 100 left in Miller there are none left.
• Utterback: I personally read the paper and then put it back.
• Blea: do you feel that since you have more new members this year is there any attempt to get more readers?
• This will be our third paper… right now it’s me and a vice president. We’re trying to have underclassmen to get more active. I know Hilltops has had a bad reputation and I don’t mind paying even out of pocket to get the message out there.
• Hight: so this is the minimum amount you need to keep up the printing
• We need to print a minimum of 1000 copies.
• DesRoberts: what are 15 issues, every other week?
• It’s every other week with exceptions of weeks that we’re on break.
• Hight: why is this being SMRed?
• Kendall: because they didn’t apply for a budget last year, they are one of the few clubs that did not.
• Rudy: the reasoning behind that is because last year we did something new where we had constitution hearings. Basically the judicial affairs committee met with every club. Hilltops did not have what I considered the best of an E-board. Whereas the club members believed things were okay. It wasn’t the club that made things this way it was the actions of the E-board.
• Gardner: as a side note, Hilltops this year is infinitely better. President Miller actually loved the paper saying it was the best issue he had seen in his entire tenure here. They are making great progress.
• Harrington: I think this is important because I believe it brings a lot to the classrooms.
• Kendall: The Finance Committee recommended everything but the two issues that we would need to reimburse (because we aren’t allowed to reimburse).
• Jones: I like the idea that Senator Ramos had of splitting it up between the two semesters.
• Utterback: how would that help?
• Ramos: we have so much money going towards SMRs this semester and just based on the amount it seems high.
• Gardner: SMRs tend to be “back-heavy” because a lot of them tend to come in the spring. The other thing is that regardless of whether or not we spend all our SMR money in the fall then it rolls into the spring anyways. It would still be the same thing.
• Utterback: if your concern is that we will run out of money, the 20-20 is how we split it up. If at the end we think we should move 1000 into the fall then we can vote to do that and move it around. I believe there’s also 17,000 left in the semester.
• Doboze: I think we should spread out the number of issues they can put out because then the issues will be more interesting and draw greater numbers of readers.
• Hight: I don’t see why we can’t separate just because it’s a strange thing. It’s only going to be two semesters. I would like more definite answers to how many issues are read.
• Ramos: in regards to asking them to print fewer issues, it probably will make it more competitive but it sounds like they are trying to get back on their feet and getting strong again. Setting up a competitive base might turn new members away.
• Fiteni: does it really matter whether we pass it now or later? It doesn’t. Do we want to deal with it now or just keep pushing it off?
• Kendall: yes, it’s paid in the spring but they need to know whether or not they have the money.
• Blea: motion to pass the suggested amount by the finance committee of $2275
• Fiteni: seconded
• Motion Passes
• Schultz: VP Forst and I have created a survey, this is what we would like to present to the entire campus. Basically I would like you to take a look at it, read it and tell me what you think. Comments, concerns, complaints, if not I would like to see if we have a motion to say “yes” to the survey and then discuss methods of distribution.
• Ramos: I think we should put “did you attend OH Fest 2006/2007”
• Forst: I think its covered in the questions
• Jones: who is going to go through all these surveys and tally it up
• Schultz: myself and VP Forst will figure that out
• Hight: I think we should put a question such as “do you want another concert”
• Gardner: we need to see that there is a number of people who have thought this issue through
• Harrington: I know there was discussion on having it happen every other year.
•  Gardner: one of the most important things to consider when we’re doing this survey is what you tend to find is that the more against something someone is the more likely someone will respond. I need more than 150 responses of people who say they don’t want OH Fest because that’s not representative. I need a high level of response. There is in some instances a silent majority that if they like something they see no purpose in saying that they like it. We should keep that in mind.
• LoSardo: is there any race or gender question?
• No, I don’t see a reason for it.
• Harrington: Something to think about as far as distribution is giving them out personally by senators.
• Woskoff: motion to approve the survey
• Roods: I think there should be a “not applicable” section, give them the option.
• Fiteni: I have to agree, if we put non applicable because if freshmen fill a form out they would be more likely to put a “not applicable” answer.
• Ramos: we should put something that amounts to “did not go by choice”. Then we will know that people didn’t like OH fest or didn’t go.
• Schultz: what VP Forst and I were trying to get out of this is to see among students who did go to OH Fest.
• Kendall: I think it would be nice to say if they didn’t go by choice. The first OH Fest I didn’t go—but it wasn’t my choice I wasn’t on campus. I think it’s a good idea of separating it as well.
• Gardner: second the motion
•  Motion Fails
• LoSardo: I motion to pass the amendments made by Senator Harrington
• Gardner: Seconded
• Motion Passes
• Gardner: We had our first meeting with SUCO’s CUAC. They all seem really nice. Things that came up in discussion were the idea of splitting funding, see how much more they can kick in for this year
• They will use this information for future years
• We discussed the idea of starting monthly competitions mainly in the forms of battle of the bands
• This is very preliminary
• Maybe having a green concert, different types of diversity, things like that.
• Ramos: They topic that we discussed earlier about splitting funding according to Student Population—is it possible for maybe this year to somehow give different tickets to Hartwick and SUCO and the town? This way we can differentiate people between the town, SUCO and Hartwick.
• Gardner: the idea of tickets is usually difficult for us because Neawah Park is very difficult to keep “secure”
• Ramos: well maybe we can keep one part of the ticket, put it in a box or something, we might get some kind of idea of student involvement in the event
• Post: Battle of the Bands: Smith Hall does do a battle of the bands and its open campus-wide.
• Gardner: the prelim discussion would use Hartwick/SUCO/and town bands and see if any surrounding schools would be interested and would come. We would like to see an ultimate battle-of-the-bands winner to open for the band at OH Fest. We’ll come back to this in a second.
• We have meetings set up every Thursday at 7pm and they switch off campus by month.
• Lahr: Has there been any attempt to have the community pay for OH Fest tickets?
• Gardner: there are a number of problems when paying for tickets comes up. We tried to charge for an inclement weather site. You could pay 10 dollars and you would be guaranteed to get in. Basically if we have lightning or a hurricane, we have it outside. Neawah Park is too difficult to lock-down to the point where tickets would be able to used. Hartwick Students tend to feel that everything is free. We attempted to do the tickets last year, I’m sure we will again this year. To require tickets will take a lot to get going. If we require tickets then we also need to have a refund policy. If we sell 10,000 tickets then what happens if there is a rain-site location that only seats 4000? Then we have an issue of who gets in and then we have to reimburse those who can’t get in. Of course we can discuss it but it will be very difficult to discuss for this year.
• LoSardo: the issue seemed to be the taste in music. Perhaps we could get a list of maybe 10-15 people that are within our price range. Then we could have students vote and not guarantee that we will get their highest percentage, but we could promise to pursue those bands.
• Ramos: is there any other outside venues? Wilbur Park?
• Wilbur park has a lot of trees and not very open.
• Fiteni: for all of you who were here last year. I sat there for many hours selling tickets and I probably sold maybe 30 tickets over three days of sitting there. You think it works great in your mind but when you try and sell something at this campus it doesn’t work well.
• Gardner: we sold in total between 40-60 tickets.
• Hight: there were some pretty good surveys online; maybe we could use it for this survey.
•  Murillo: for the distribution of surveys, can we bring it up now?
• Gardner: how do we want to distribute these surveys? I personally like the idea of hall council senators doing their buildings door to door.
• Harrington: I know this probably cant happen, smith is having our hall meeting tomorrow, if somehow we could get that e-mailed to us it would be a great time to distribute it then
• VP Schultz: since it was your survey that you wished to be ratified could you please write down exactly what you want and then we could go to the copy center and ask for that? Nick and I also discussed ways for distribution. Door to door hall senators doing this was one idea. Also sliding it under doors. 3rd idea is using the mailbox system. Another was using the RAs and RDs and Hall Council to do this. What are your opinions?
• Utterback: I think door to door is the best way to do it. It gets your faces out there. Having people vote more than once isn’t really an issue in my mind.
• Ramos: can we have a combination of going door-to-door and also having hall council senators and e-board members that way it reduces work-load for the senators.
• VP Schultz: one option is for all hall council senators we were elected as liaisons and we could leave it up to each individual hall council to how to distribute the surveys.
• Gardner: if we do wish to take this on and go door to door, since there are more than one of you in most cases it shouldn’t be that difficult. Secretary Roods and I went through all of sexton in less than two hours to get constitution voting. That’s a big building and it was just two of us. It will be kind of daunting but in Smith’s case there are more. Most dorms do have two reps
• Rudy: I guess that my point is that the amount of people we have vs. just the e-board we could split it up by floor. That would work.
• Fiteni: you have to remember to also have the frats and sororities, we could also table outside the commons.
• Rudy: I think it would be better to just go down to the Greek houses themselves. We could also use Alison Green.
• Woskoff: I motion to go door-to-door, assigning people a floor to do.
• Miranda: if we had an online surveys and encouraging the rest of the campus to use it—it’s just something to look at to encourage sustainability.
• Gardner: move to have the survey facilitated by hall council members be how they chose to do that
• Ramos: I would like to say that the hall council or senators should make a note of what survey method they used so we can learn what was most successful. Second the motion
• Motion Passes
• VP Schultz: when do you want these by? I can have these done by tomorrow, how am I going to get this to you all?
• Utterback: I think the easiest way is to e-mail it to the senators and then have them print it out at the library.
• Gardner: reminder: tomorrow we have our meeting with SUNY Oneonta’s senate. It’s at 6 at SUNY Oneonta. We have reserved the vans. Meet in Stack Lounge at 5:45.
• Post: how long will this be?
• You should be back by 7:30
• Gardner: Lost Sorority Rep, do we want to have a reelection now or later? You can all think about what to do.
• Ramos: I make a motion for All Greek Council to elect a new sorority representative
• LoSardo: seconded
• Motion Passes
• Hight: VP Doboze, have you heard that this may be the last year that it will be mandatory for students to have thesis? I think that some departments may have senior capstones and some may remove it. My concern is that we are lowering our standards and then we might be lowering the academic standards as well by not having a thesis.
• Utterback/Riviello: Many schools now are making thesis optional and it doesn’t really lower the prestige of the college. There is also talk that they might be getting rid of Curriculum XXI.
• Fiteni: being an ISP major, I don’t have to do a thesis; many people chose to do a project. I agree, it isn’t really lowering standards but just changing the way it works. A lot of professors feel that papers are becoming less and less practical application of the knowledge that you’re learning in a class.
• Harrington: the heat in Smith has been ridiculously hot, can I address this here?
• Gardner: I would say ask your RA or ARD and I will ask Zach Brown. This is a potential problem for most dorms.
• Riviello: I’ve asked about it before and once a certain date hits, the heat is on. Sometimes it happens to be 80 degrees outside.
• Lahr: speaking of climate change, what has senate been doing to work into the academic theme?
• Gardner: I have been looking into other things, more focused on having Senate work as a group. There’s no reason why we couldn’t do something. Greening OH Fest might be something.
• Harrington: we just passed new senators. I’ve been told that if one of us dropped out we wouldn’t have new elections.
• Gardner: in our constitution there is a section that talks about elections. It states that senate can decide whether it wishes to hold special elections or not. It’s generally a case-by-case basis.
• Parker: Is it likely you will hold an election? Neither fraternity nor sorority rep was here. It was there job to represent their sororities and fraternities, why should we give them the privilege of a senate position if they don’t even show up?
• Gardner: it’s up to senate always to hold special elections. It’s easier now, though, to hold special elections because of hall council. I assure you that I will personally go to all Greek Council at their next meeting and tell them to give me quality senators, or I will refuse to accept them.
• Parker: you’ve said this isn’t the first time this has happened, it comes to a point where it is unfair to senators who come to every meeting.
• VP Utterback: this is the first year that we had a hall council. In previous years that the number we were missing got brought back up. The idea was to have a rep in that building that the hall could go to. Its not punishing them by not giving them a new rep, is it the halls fault that the person didn’t show up?
• Doboze: as I understand it, neither the fraternity nor sorority rep were really interested in senate, they were encouraged to join.
• VP Rudy: I think that this comes back to the example of what happened with Hilltops where they had poor representations and the group suffered by not having a budget. They counted on these people and it failed, they are a crucial part of this campus and people on this campus have viewed that senate does what they want without consulting the rest of the campus. To incorporate as many people as we can it would only benefit us to reelect people.
• DesRoberts: I am representing Pine Lake and my status is non-existent after this week. I am taking advantage of this situation where I feel it will benefit me to move back to campus.
• Gardner: you should think how you want this to go.
• Hight: could you get some input from the hall council of whether they would care.
• DesRoberts: their concern is that they are underrepresented on campus.
• Fiteni: motion to adjourn
• Gardner: seconded
• Meeting Adjourned