SUFAC Minutes
Date: November 7, 2011
Time and Location: 5:30 PM; Student Senate Chambers; Cartwright Center
I. Call to Order
a. 5:32 PM
II. Athletics (Spencer Niebur, Kim Blum, and Josh Whitman)
a. Niebur: We have five proposals and we ranked them as far as safety to what
is best suited for the university. Safety with softball, mascot is the face of
university, and so on and so forth.
b. Softball: Current fence has nothing over the top and the safety padding is no
longer staying up. All of the outfield fencing does not have the capping on it,
along with ties, and the installer. We would like that on top of the fence for
safety reasons. Primary safety issue due to catching a ball, getting hand
caught on fence. A portion also would be going to bases and a pitching
rubber. Bases wear out and crack. One for the field and two new ones for
home bullpens.
c. Eagle Mascot: The eagle, Colbert, is falling apart and the picture shows
where he is ripping which is pretty much all over. His whole head is also
caving in and the structure is no longer holding up. It is hard to keep piecing
him back together. Colbert has been on the campus for eleven years and they
usually last about five to seven years. We use him quite often and we get a lot
of emails that request Colbert to appear at different places. He has been a
visible presence in our community and we would like to make him even more
visible. With a good costume, we could make him even more active. The
committee felt strong enough about this that they wanted to find a more
quality outfit and get a quality product at the end of the day. Kelly Galvan
checked into mascot companies to ensure that we would be getting an eagle
that we would all be proud of.
d. Rykal: If they go with the higher quality product would it last longer?
i. The higher quality one is suppose to last that long, but the $1,000 one
would not meet that timeframe.
e. Scales for Wrestling Team:
i. They would come with a case so that the scale can travel with the
team. Wrestlers weigh themselves everyday, several times a day.
There isn’t much to wrestling as far as equipment needs. We ranked
this at three because the bare wires that are visible and could become a
safety issue.
ii. Rykal: Do you know how old this scale is?
1. Blum: This is my eighth year and I don’t recall getting a new
scale in that time.
iii. Holt: What is the cost?
1. Just under $500 dollars with the scale and the case. It has to be
certified.
f. Gymnastic Equipment:
i. We ranked this fourth because the equipment is wearing out.
Gymnastics is a high impact sport and our gymnastic program is
highly regarded. Everything that is used for our meets is hauled over
from the gymnastics gym. We were here last year and the gymnastics
mats are a huge part of what they do. In order to prevent injuries and
maintain their safety is it necessary for these mats to be approved. The
surface of the vault board is carpet and now the equipment is
changing. The boards are now mostly made out of material similar to
a basketball. We are just looking to replace one to stay more up to
date.
ii. Nelson: Why is the mascot second and this fourth?
1. Niebur: We ranked the mascot second because it is the face of
our university. With gymnastics, they should be using the
equipment that is similar to what they will be competing with.
iii. Josh Whitman: We have a lot of used mats, but I think that we would
be a place that people would buy used mats from. A program like ours
has a high reputation.
g. Bats for Baseball Team:
i. The bat regulations were changed and there were only two bats to use
for the entire team. They would like to buy extra bats in order to
maintain a supply. We want them to be able to practice like they play
and to perform at the peak of their ability. I think there is a
misperception that these bats last forever, but often these bats do not
last more than a season.
h. Josh Whitman: I wanted to thank this group because of the changes that the
student’s generosity has allowed. The starting blocks at the swimming
facility, throwing cage for the track team, and the mats for gymnastics. They
all continue to get great use. These requests are significant needs for our
programs. Thanks for the opportunity to come and for all of your hard work.
III. Student Services and Buildings [Olivia Boerschinger (Student Services and Building
Chair), Kelli Ponce (Editor in Chief), April Taylor (Publisher)]
a. The Racquet
i. Our computers are too old and we are not being efficient in our work
because of the condition of the computers. We would like to work on
a plan that would allow us to even have one computer. Currently we
have a business Windows computer and five iMacs. Two of those are
newer and are able to be used with ease. The remaining three cause
compatibility issues for us as well.
ii. Dr. Ringgenberg: Kelli, could you explain the kind of staffing you
have?
1. We are in room 232 and 231 we have our business side and
editing side. We probably have about eight to ten people
editing at a time and multiple people at computers at one time.
Dave Faulkner, with computer assessment, was the one who
said that the three computers would be necessary.
iii. Vo: What kind of price quote did you get, was it through ITS?
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
i.
1. Kelli: Yes, it was through ITS and the software quote was
from ITS as well.
iv. Palmer: We had talked a few weeks ago that you are not supposed to
allow drink special ads through the Racquet?
1. Dr. Ringgenberg: We will talk about that at another time.
Archery Club:
i. It is their first year on campus. They need the netting after a target so
that the netting would catch overshot arrows. The field house would
be shutdown during shooting time for safety reasons. They are asking
for six because it would go the length width of the tennis courts in
there. Their dues that they collect from their members and they take in
165 dollars from each member. They are not receiving funding this
year because it is their first year.
Men’s Lacrosse Goalie Gloves and Throat Guards:
i. These new gloves would offer more protection and the throat guard is
necessary for their games.
Women’s Lacrosse:
i. Looking for a goalie helmet with throat guard and they would like one
that covers the entire throat.
Men’s Rugby:
i. Scrum sled, the best way to describe this would be like the bodies in a
line. The one that they have now is made of plywood and metal and it
was homemade. This is dangerous and it is necessary that these
players learn to play safely.
Ski and Snowboard Club:
i. Asking for a ski rack to be able to clip onto the door jams in order to
transport boards and skis.
ii. Holt: How many members do they have?
1. It’s around 30-40 and they do a lot of recreational skiing at Mt.
La Crosse. They are doing a couple competitions.
Triathlon Club:
i. The equipment they are asking for would allow them to train in the off
season. It allows for resistance.
ii. Holt: How many do they have now?
1. They have one now, but it is older so I would assume it is the
magnetic version.
iii. Palmer: Where do they keep it?
1. They have a storage locker at the Rec. They check equipment
in and out.
Waterski Club:
i. They are looking for jump helmets because at a lot of competitions
there is more than one boat out.
ii. Doering: Is the price quoted for one?
1. Yes, it is.
Tires for Trailer
i. Two back tires for the trailer and multiple teams use this trailer. This
would be going through the physical plant.
ii. Murray: Is there reasons they do not rent it out?
1. I am not sure what they would use it for and it is there for Rec
Sports.
IV. Discussion of Capital Fund Requests
a. Rykal: Is there anything that you are not interested in funding?
i. Holt: The bats.
ii. Palmer: I would second the baseball bats.
iii. Rykal: Since the league changed their policies on bats, they were
unable to accumulate a number of bats that would be able to be used in
a game situation.
iv. Palmer: We continue to fund baseball and tennis and when it went to
the Foundation. Philosophically I am a little bothered by this because
we are continuing to fund things that we decided not to fund. It is a
mixed message that we are funding these things, but also “not funding
them”. I don’t support spending any student money on this.
v. Stanley: These are student athletes as well and this is important to
support them.
vi. Murray: I see that these mentioned teams are working hard to
fundraise.
vii. Holt: I was worried more about that these programs have a safety
issue and the bats don’t seem to have that.
viii. Karlstrand: I was going to say since they were cut; their whole budget
doesn’t come from this.
ix. Dr. Ringgenberg: With the cut, it was more for coaching salaries and
personnel costs. The only thing that was changed is that the coaches’
salaries are now in a grant account through the Foundation.
x. Stanley: NCAA does not make changes like this out of the blue and it
is something that has a lot of discussion.
xi. Nelson: Also there seemed to be no safety issue with the mascot.
xii. Vo: For the baseball bats, it seems like the contingency fund would
have been a better way to do this.
xiii. Karlstrand: I think the bats rests more on the rule change and they
should have some money allocated because of that.
xiv. Motion to fund four bats at about $1, 120 instead of the original eight.
1. Karlstrand/Nelson
2. Discussion:
a. Dr. Ringgenberg: The question is that if you are going
to vote on stuff because we have the money or that you
see a need for this. What do you think really needs to
be funded?
3. Motion rescinded.
b. Rykal: I think we should kick it off to talk about what you think we should
fund.
i. Unofficial Straw Pull
1. Softball – 8
2. Eagle Mascot – 7
3. Wrestling – 8
4. Gymnastics – 6
5. Baseball Bats – 1
6. Men’s Lacrosse – 8
7. Women’s Lacrosse – 8
8. Waterski Club – 8
9. Trailer Tires – 8
10. Racquet – 6
11. Rugby – 7
12. Ski and Snowboard – 5
13. Archery – 7
14. Triathlon Club – 1
c. Fluid Trainer
i. Holt: I am for it because they can only do it when it is warm outside
and I thought they would need to use the equipment.
ii. Stanley: This isn’t really a safety issue.
iii. Karlstrand: Do you know how much they talked about the magnetic
trainers?
1. Rykal: We could send the request back and ask them to change
it to magnetic.
iv. Murray: It seemed like a lot of their proposal focused on the at home
training.
v. Stanley: There are also only 19 members on the Triathlon Club.
vi. Rykal: With SUFAC, we are not necessarily supposed to look at the
amount of students that are part of the group.
vii. Palmer: I would even recommend that the Rec purchase these so that
other clubs would be able to use them.
viii. Murray: They are a new club and part of their request may be that
they are still learning how to submit these one shots.
d. Baseball Bats
i. Motion to fund this at $0 and recommend it back to the committee that
they look to the Rec for funding a few of these to keep in the Rec.
1. Nelson/Holt
2. Call to question.
3. Vote:
a. Passed. (Yes – 8, No – 0)
ii. Motion to fund four bats rather than eight.
1. Karlstrand/Palmer
2. Motion to amend the funding to two bats.
a. Holt/Nelson
b. Discussion:
i. Holt: I really don’t want to fund this.
ii. Karlstrand: You do need a wider range of bats
for people that are different heights and weights.
e.
f.
g.
h.
iii. Nelson: They knew this rule change was
coming and they should have planned for this.
This is so that they have more legal bats in case
they are in a competition.
iv. Call to question on the amendment.
v. Vote:
1. Passed. (Yes – 5, No – 3,
Abstentions – 0)
vi. Call to question on the actual dollar amount to
fund two bats.
vii. Vote:
1. Passed. (Yes – 6)
Ski and Snowboard Racks
i. Motion to fund the two racks at $290.
1. Nelson/Holt
2. Call to question.
3. Vote:
a. Passed. (Yes – 7, No – 0)
Softball
i. Motion to fund them at $1,432.00.
1. Nelson/Holt
2. Call to question.
3. Vote:
a. Passed. (Yes – 7, No – 0)
Motion to fund anything that was straw-pulled at 8 votes or higher at the subcommittee approved amount.
i. Nelson/Karlstrand
ii. Call to question.
iii. Vote:
1. Passed (Yes – 7, No – 0)
Eagle Mascot
i. Discussion:
1. Palmer: I think if you get a $1,000 one, it won’t last as long.
2. Murray: This is just a thought, but so if you get one for about
$1,000…would it be beneficial to buy a cheaper one and
request one sooner?
3. Karlstrand: It would depend on it being the face of the
university and it would not be able to be customized.
ii. Motion to fund $3,000 for a new eagle mascot.
1. Karlstrand/Palmer
2. Discussion:
a. Dr. Ringgenberg: It seems to me one of the big parts is
being able to dry-clean the material.
b. Palmer: I think Dr. Ringgenberg makes a good point in
that athletics does have that four hundred some dollars.
c. Nelson: I would feel more comfortable allowing the
money to remain at the sub-committee level.
3. Call to question.
4. Vote:
a. Passed (Yes – 6, No – 0, Abstentions – 1)
i. Gymnastics
i. Discussion:
1. Karlstrand: I don’t understand why they need more than two
vault boards that have the new surface.
2. Murray: They need one for each event in order to mount the
bars and other events.
3. Palmer: That facility probably has one of the biggest needs for
funding because it is in terrible shape.
ii. Motion to fund them at $1,753.
1. Holt/Breunig
2. Call to question.
3. Vote:
a. Passed. (Yes – 7, No – 0)
j. Rugby
i. Move to approve them and fund $1,500.
1. Palmer/Holt
2. Call to question.
3. Vote:
a. Passed. (Yes – 7, No – 0, Abstention – 1)
k. Archery
i. Dr. Ringgenberg: If they are not able to receive money from SACC,
should we be funding them through SUFAC?
ii. Rykal: Is that viewpoint neutral?
1. Dr. Ringgenberg: I believe so.
iii. Karlstrand: Isn’t this in their by-laws, is it in ours?
1. Rykal: No, we made our by-laws open last year.
iv. Vo: I think that from the other side, technically, they are a fund
request from club sports.
v. Murray: I think this is a safety issue.
vi. Palmer: Our field house is already a dump and why should we put
money into trying to make it look nice when it already looks like crap.
vii. Rykal: It is more so to protect the arrows because they are expensive.
viii. Stanley: The ESS has archery classes and they were talking about
partnering with this club.
ix. Dr. Ringgenberg: You have a procedure for groups to qualify for
funding which is separate from SACC because we fund SACC, not the
individual groups. We are not funding them individually.
x. Palmer: I am not for funding this because they could speak to ESS.
xi. Motion to fund at $0 and to recommend that they partner up with ESS
department to use these nets.
1. Karlstrand/Nelson
xii. Call to question.
xiii. Vote:
1. Passed. (Yes – 7, No – 0, Abstentions – 1)
l. The Racquet
i. Palmer: I am more for funding them for two computers to increase
their productivity.
ii. Holt: I agree with this too because they will get funded either way.
We might as well give them access to two.
iii. Nelson: I have mixed feelings about this and I am worried with giving
them this money.
iv. Palmer: I think that our committee has to make a decision here and we
shouldn’t make decisions on what Senate will have and not have a
problem with.
v. Vo: The thing is that their computers run CS4 and your computers do
not have very strong requirements. I would suggest to buy new
computers and not upgrade the software.
vi. Nelson: As far as software upgrade, they can transfer their licenses to
the new computers. The problem I would see would be transferring
the license.
vii. Palmer: With all do respect, I don’t think we should be telling IT what
they should recommend.
viii. Karlstrand: I want to point out that IT isn’t paying for this and that
they aren’t funding this.
ix. Vo: I think ITS only supports Windows and they have a hard time
dealing with Macs.
x. Palmer: I guess I apologize if I am coming off that way, but I feel like
if ITS is recommending this we should either pay for it or not and that
it is not our role to second guess what we should be funding.
xi. Dr. Ringgenberg: I think there are a couple issues here: one is the
computers and another is the operating systems. I am always nervous
when dealing with technology and having it fail. I am pretty high on
trust, but you know if you are putting $240 of software on there. They
could fund the software if they need that. Right now, the Racquet is at
positive cash balance.
xii. Nelson: Knowing that, I think that having these computers would help
them productivity-wise and I would feel comfortable funding all three
computers.
xiii. Motion to fund the Racquet two computers with the software upgrade
that would total $3,366.
1. Holt/Nelson
2. Motion rescinded.
xiv. Motion to fund what the sub-committee approved at $1,682
1. Karlstrand/Nelson
2. Discussion:
a. Nelson: Another thing that came to me is that they
should do their power intensive things on certain
computers.
b. Karlstrand: I would like to make the majority of their
computers to work well.
c. Holt: Either way they are going to find a way for us to
fund them.
d. Vo: I think that one computer for graphic processing is
enough and that it would run very fast.
3. Call to question.
4. Vote:
a. Passed. (Yes – 8)
m. Motion to approve this document as a whole.
i. Karlstrand/Nelson
ii. Vote:
1. Passed. (Yes – 8)
V. Adjournment
a. Nelson/Holt
b. 8:30 PM