Hartwick college

Summary of Minutes:

• Potential Split between Student Senate and Student Union
• Working with SUNY Oneonta's Student Senate
• OH Fest
• Ad Hoc Committee Appointments
• VP Forst and Co-VP discussion
• Dorm/Community Damages Issue

Senators Present: Blea, DesRoberts, Fiteni, Harrington, Hight, Intrilligator, Isbell, Jones, Kelsey, Kopstein, Lillie, LoSardo, Murillo, Negrich, Parker, Podmijersky, Ramos, Russell, Schultz, Woskoff

Senators Absent: Post

Passage of Minutes
No new minutes to announce (first meeting)

Committee/E-Board Reports:

• VP of Campus Affairs, Whetsel: Nothing to Report
• VP of Finance, Utterback: 
  • Four SMRs to review
  • We held a meeting w/ club leaders to discuss SMRs and budget process
  • Wanted feedback
• VP of Judicial Affairs, Rudy: Nothing to report
• VP of Senate Affairs, Daboze: Nothing to report
• Vice President Nick Forst: Absent
• Secretary Roods: Nothing to report
• Chairperson, Riviello: Nothing to report

Introduction of Marisela Rosas

• Ms. Rosas: I’m excited to be working with the senate this year
• E-board has worked very hard to get things rolling
• Enjoys the hall-council set-up
• Will be also working with Allison Green, who will trade off with Ms. Rosas weekly

President’s Report:

• Are there any questions about how the meetings go? None

There are four main things to discuss tonight:

• First Point:
  • E-board met with president of student union Joe Faton about the split between student union and student senate
  • Union is considered a club, this is unique to Hartwick
  • Union wishes to get out from under Senate
  • Looking for a written proposal from Union
    • Ask for a % of student activities fee
    • 20% is what we agreed on
    • 1400 students, 200 dollars, 70,000 total for their budget
    • No longer able to SMR senate, but still will work with us
  • Hight: How much have they gotten in the past?
    • 44,000 last year, 87,000 the year before, 40-50,000 before that
  • Schultz: When will this happen?
    • Soon, that’s why I brought it to Senate
  • VP Rudy: Even though there’s an increase in budget, Union still will be using SMR
  • VP Daboze: The changes wouldn’t go into effect until spring 2008. Our total student activity pool is 280,000. It would eliminate time on our end.
  • Hight: How will this affect the overall debt?
  • Kendall: We will be out of debt at the end of this school year.
  • Utterback: Last year we were told that we were 70,000 dollars in debt – no answer as to “why”. We think it was years piling on top, we couldn’t continue pulling out money. Hartwick is “not a bank”. We had to repay 30-30 for both years. It was too much, Pres. Gardner negotiated down. Now the debt is 25,000 dollars. It was budged out during out budget hearings. There is 10 going to the debt this year but we also have a cushion.
  • Gardner: *explaining the debt issue to new senators*
    • Business office told last years e-board that they needed to cut budgets because they were in debt. Clubs were upset
      • After budget cuts, we were told to cut more
      • At the end of it all, we were in a 70,000 deficit
      • The first OH-Fest ate a chunk of money that didn’t exist
      • A number of year’s worth of accumulated debt that no one had caught until this point.
      • Now we only have a 25,000 dollar debt. We had planned for the 10 we are locked into paying and have a cushion of 20,000.
      • Clubs and people are angry at the debt but we have done all we can at the moment.
        
• Second Point: Would like to work with SUCO Senate E-board. Held a meeting several weeks ago
  • New position of campus affairs – how will it work with the equivalent at SUCO?
  • Into the streets – go downtown.
  • Good idea if we:
    • Get the two senates together at some point to meet our SUCO counterparts – just for one day, get to know each other. Build a bridge.
    • Start a new committee whose sole purpose is to meet with a SUCO counterpart
      
• Third Point: OH Fest
  • As of now we are still going forward with it.
  • We have a budget of 40,000 to the entire thing
  • Ramos: In high school I wanted to bring in band, they were 45,000 dollars for the gym class heroes, ben folds for 12,000. They seemed to be a 4,000 – 15,000 range.
    • Gardner: We have a company that we work with and we pick within our price range.
  • Gardner: there were a lot of rumblings about how much people hated OH Fest.
    • We need to know soon if this is something we need to pursue or if the 40,000 could be better put somewhere else.
    • Schultz: Can we as a senate make the decision to not hold OH Fest?
      • Gardner: No one can tell us where to put our money.
    • Gardner: There was a survey last year, 100 responses.
    • Russell: We should utilize hall councils to give surveys
    • Blae: We should also just try word of mouth, it needs to be more personal
    • Gardner: There is an OH Fest committee, however it is our intention that we want to have a Hartwick OH Fest Committee open to the campus – not only senators. It’s difficult to ask whether or not students want OH Fest before we know what bands we could possibly have. We could do a lot with an 80,000 budget (should we not do OH Fest)
    • Blae: We could still get out there and talk to the residents to get ideas
    • Hight: I agree with Russell, we don’t have the ability or opportunity. If we do another survey maybe we should throw other ideas in there: if we offer two smaller concerts would that be more appealing?
      • Gardner: The cost of doing two would be greater than just doing the one. The point of OH Fest is to build the unity between the two schools. Is it worth that?
      • LeSardo: How many attended OH Fest? Could we charge?
      • VP Rudy: That would be difficult to monitor, we don’t have the funding to build a “wall” around it because its in a park.
      • VP Daboze: Had around 10,000 people last year and it rained.
  • Lillie: Students want to see more concerts, not just one.
    • Gardner: There is also a time constraint. What I’m looking for is just a general consensus – what does your res hall think? What do your friends/other students think?
      • Hight: How much money did we spend setting up the street?
      • Gardner: 15-20,000.
      • Hight: It didn’t seem to be very “college student” oriented, more for people of Oneonta
        
• Fourth Point: Ad Hoc Committees
  • Tech Committee: Blea, Isbell,
  • Food Services Committee: Woskoff, Negrich, Blea
  • Library Advisory Committee: Jones, Podmijersky, Isbell
  • SSAB (Student Safety Advisory Board): Kopstein, Harrington, Parker, Fiteni
  • Exchange Committee (between SUCO and Hartwick): Podmerjerski, Lillie,
  • Club Officer Training Committee: Parker, Kelsey, Intrilocator
  • Academic Standards Committee: Schultz, Hight
  • Laura’s Café Committee: DesRoberts, Kelsey
  • Student Life Committee: Russell, Murillo, Woskoff, Parker, Ramos
  • VP of Student Life Search (to look for the new VP of student life): Lillie, LoSordo, Fiteni
  • Campus Safety and Security Committee: Schultz , Murillo, Ramos, Hight, Harrington

SMRs: Omitted

Old Business:

• Gardner: Vice President Forst has a conflict with a class – his pro-seminar for his philosophy major meets Tuesdays from 7-10 this entire semester. Thus, he is unable to make it to these meetings. Should we appoint a Co-VP with him to represent VP Forst’s positions at these meetings?
• VP Forst had prepared a short statement, read by Chairperson Riviello. (ATTACHED BELOW).
• LoSordo: Issue lies more with replacement. I propose that we amend the constitution to allow this
• VP Rudy: I don’t think we need to change the constitution inasmuch as something in the bylaws.
• Schultz: Since he was elected for the full year, he would be able to make these meetings? Yes.
• Kopstein: It’s a one-in-a-million chance, we should amend the constitution
• Gardner: There is a lot of work that goes into amending the constitution and it is beyond the scope of this situation.
• Blea: I don’t think there needs to be changes – we have to decide as senators if this is a decision we can make.
  • Russell: I agree with Senator Blea, how does the E-board feel?
  • Kendall: Nick will still be working actively on everything but the Tuesday meetings.
  • Whetsel: It would be unfortunate to lose VP Forst
  • Harrington: We should try the Co-VP solution
  • Daboze: Nick is a very hardworking individual. However, I feel that there are many other people here capable of filling Nick’s position.
  • Rudy: I believe that this specific question was in regards to Nick’s ability to work actively as Vice President while not being able to attend Tuesday meetings. We should try it out.
  • Gardner: He is the only person sitting on this e-board that is a returning E-board member. He is the only continuity between last year and this year. Senate lacks continuity in both the Senate and the E-board. It would be a great loss since he is also going to be a hard worker on the side.
• Ramos: I motion to appoint a Co-VP for VP Nick Forst.
  • Woskoff: Seconded
  • Discussion:
    • If VP Forst resigned, he would be able to come back in the spring.
    • VP Rudy will draft an official notice that can be negotiated on next week as to the Co-VP’s duties.
      • Vote is called: Motion Passes.
      • We will need letters of intent for any Senators who would like to be in this position. These need to be in no later than this Friday by 5pm.  It is up to you as a senate to approve of President Gardner’s appointee.
  • LoSordo: We may have acted too fast, the Tuesday meetings are very important and we are downgrading this
  • Kopstein: But a lot of what we do goes on outside of this meeting, committees, talking to students.
  • Rudy: 10% of what is done is here in the meetings.
  • LoSordo: We should have had something down on paper
  • Hight: I agree with Senator LoSordo, it was voted on too quickly. It is a big deal. In the future we should break ourselves in as a Senate. We should be more cautious in the future.
  • Gardner: And also, this topic can be revisited as needed – any one senator who becomes upset it is your prerogative and right to know what is going on.

New Business:

• Ramos: community damages are a big issue. What can be done to alleviate that problem, maybe alleviate some of the concerns of the students in any form?
• Kopstein: My floor in smith had some instances about garbage in the hallway/bathroom. My RA went to every door and it stopped completely. It is your own self government, you have to step up and pay for it or step up and tell people to stop. They need to step up and say stop.
• Kelsey: I live on the 4th floor of Saxton, we’re being faced with massive charges with broken windows and garbage and we’re getting angry post-it notes. I want to bring it up in hall council meetings.
• Gardner: The hall council is the key into this issue; it is somehow a mini-senate in your building. You can band together and get some great ideas; you can also use this meeting to get some good ideas as well.
• Harrington: If we have a meetings with the whole building, give out surveys and ask what we want changed about our dorm but also what they want changed about OH Fest.
• Daboze: Smith hall was renovated in the hopes that if you give freshmen something nice, they will be less likely to damage it. Apparently that doesn’t appear so.
• Blea: You have a small group of interested students at hall council and ultimately it’s you guys who are living there and will be able to get the issues out there. No one ever gets caught for damages to the dorms. I think that the hall council should be used to channel these concerns.
• Recycling… Do other dorms have this?
• Gardner: We have brought this up very often in years past; I would like to table this discussion for at least one week.
• Lillie: I would like to see more lights around Van Ness, specifically the side facing the townhouses. It’s a safety issue I would like to see fixed.
• 9pm could perhaps be the cut-off for entry into other dorms.

Meeting adjourned