Student Activities Council Meeting Minutes
October 17, 2012
Call to Order
3:00PM
Roll Call
Present: Blake Barlow, Elizabeth Bousson, Keenan Collins, Samantha Easterling, Becky Griesmer,
Tiffany Hudson, Danielle Jackson, Katie Keller, Rob Kelly, Ian Kerley, Kelsey Kirkegaard, Kelly Kleier,
Becca Longville, Brian Murphy, Collin Neri, Megan O’Donnell, Jacquelyn Reineke, Colleen Reynolds, Kat
Rivers, Kate Sabetta, Tyler Sauerbeck, Katie Schad, LeeAnn Scherbauer, Kevin Tighe, Kaitlin Whelan,
Morgan Zuziak
Excused: Allie Haar
Prayer
Given by Kevin Tighe
Approval of minutes
10/3/12 minutes were approved without change
Public Forum
Sarah Roveda
Senator, Ignatian Family Teach-In
Jacquelyn Reineke
Cincinnati Help-out in January, close to Crosstown Classic
Kevin Tighe
Approach November 9th
Meghan Savercool
Senator
Jimmy Geiser
Senator
Review of the Budget
Crystal Guffey
Opinion Entries
Morgan Zuziak
My Dearest Fellow S.A.C. Members,
I would like to take the next few moments to express to you a few of my thoughts regarding
the process that has been undergone in regards to the S.A.C. Selection Committee Amendment that is
currently on the table today. I would like to begin by acknowledging the fact that our current selection
process is noticeably broken. Although selections have gone smoothly this fall, due to several different
situations in the past, a change to the process needs to be made. Considering that this is our Selection
Committee, it is our responsibility as S.A.C. and S.G.A. to make the changes needed to the process
that will best benefit S.A.C., S.G.A. as a whole, and most importantly our fellow students who apply
Student Activities Council Meeting Minutes
October 17, 2012
and interview in a desire to be a part of our organization. It is important that each of us as members
of S.G.A. feel empowered to make a change when we see fit because we are all here to represent our
fellow students and part of doing that is ensuring that as a group we function in the most effective and
efficient manner.
This being said, I have been overwhelmingly frustrated and disappointed with the process and
actions concerning the current tabled amendment. There are several aspects of the process that have
distraught me, but my frustration originated from participating in dialogue where I felt discouraged to
give constructive feedback, not to say that I didn’t voice my opinion, but I felt that it was looked down
upon for me to express my dissenting view. This especially frustrated me because at our S.A.C.
workshop we had discussed creating an environment in meetings, especially during Blasts from the
Past and Proposals, where we were actively going to give constructive feedback so that each of us
could take that time as a learning experience and make the necessary changes needed for next time.
However, when it comes a time for a constitutional amendment where there is a lot of constructive
feedback given, it is merely heard and responded to in a defensive manner, rather than being listened
to and responded with the hopes of collaborating to create a better understanding.
My frustration was heightened from there when I was personally and privately singled out and
told that because of my dissenting opinion I was not thinking about what is best for S.G.A. and that I
should take some time to reflect and conform my opinion to agree with the current tabled
amendment. Through various conversations I have been a part of since the tabled amendment has
been presented, I have learned that I have not been the only one bullied into changing my opinion for
the sake of passing a rushed amendment. As I have previously stated, I understand that if there is a
change that as members of S.A.C. and S.G.A. we have the ability to make that change. However, I
find it very unethical for myself and others to be cornered and manipulated through phone, e-mail,
and in person. I also find it extremely inappropriate for certain S.A.C. members to talk to Senators
before the Senate meeting about their excitement of Senate voting no to listen to a new idea
presented by Colleen, Blake, and I, not only 3 of their fellow S.A.C. members, but 3 students.
Regardless of my involvement in this creation of the new idea presented, my opinion on this would still
stand. We are supposed to be one association working together collaboratively towards to common
goal of serving our fellow students to the best of our ability, and it’s actions like these that hinder our
ability to reach this goal.
As an organization we need to stand together and respect one another, although at times we
have differing opinions and we participate in conflict every now and then. It’s unhealthy for us to show
animosity toward each other due to a difference of opinions, which is what I have seen and felt
throughout the past weeks, especially now that Blake, Colleen, and myself have simply brought up a
new idea.
S.A.C. please understand that I am expressing this opinion to you all, on behalf of myself only,
because of my passion for this organization and the mission and goals that we all strive to achieve. I
want to see us work as one collaborative association where we respect each other enough to listen,
ask questions, and challenge each other. That being said, I’m happy to take any questions.
Thank you for listening to my opinion, I greatly appreciate it.
What is your plan of action? Hope for you to have an Open Executive Session.
Grateful that you, Colleen, and Blake have put a lot of effort into this. You are representing a good
part of SAC's opinion.
Blake Barlow
Student Activities Council Meeting Minutes
October 17, 2012
Good afternoon SAC. As I am writing this letter, I had to stop and honestly ask myself, “What is the
reason for writing this?”. It’s a valid question, because all too often opinion entries can easily take the
wrong direction and lose focus over what’s important. So right from the start, I want to frame what I
am about to say with the statement that I do not write this out of hate, spite, jealously, or even
vengeance. I am writing it out of shame--shame for what we as a board, and the organization as a
whole, have become in the past couple of weeks.
What has become of the constitutional amendment debate is honestly laughable, but not in a
funny way. As you have noticed from prior meetings, I feel that there are problems with the current
amendment being proposed. Because I have a different opinion on the matter, I came together with a
few other SACers to simply find an alternative to the single option that we have been presented with,
and to seek a way that takes both board’s complaints into mind and attempts to fix them. Again,
these are my personal opinions. But these are not the problems I wish to talk to you about right now.
I want to talk to you about how embarrassed I am about how this whole process has been handled
both in and out of the meetings, by both the board members and our ranking officers. From the start
of these debates it seemed as if honest conversation and respect were present in the room. Not
anymore. What we see now are totally emotional based arguments, where some sense of personal
attachment to the current amendment has led to adverse criticism of those who might simply have a
differing opinion or idea on the matter. Anyone who states that they will vote it down is met with
confrontational conversation or emails trying to convince them to rethink their opinion. Any comment
that suggests another option available regarding this issue is viewed as a personal attack and is swiftly
met with contempt and criticism. How low have we become, SAC?
I had not truly experienced how much disrespect and childishness that was actually circling
around this process until I tried to bring to the table what was in reality a simple alternative option.
In fact, it is the ONLY major alternative view that has been seen in the three weeks of debate over an
issue. And let me tell you, never did I expect that a different viewpoint would bring about such
criticism, hateful gossip, and denigration as myself and the two others have experienced these past
three days. Once Colleen, Morgan, and I finalized our thoughts on another way to look at the SAC
Selection Process, we swiftly send out an email to SGA with the intentions that everyone should be
aware of what we are doing, as well as seeking welcome input and feedback from all of you. But I
truly underestimated the morality of some members on this board. Within a couple of hours we were
met with strongly worded emails, contemptuous text messages, and satirical Twitter posts basically
condemning us for having a different opinion. We were told it was simply too late to bring a new idea
to the table, that what we were doing was spiteful and malicious, and that we shouldn’t even be
allowed to discuss it. Has SAC become such a cynical hive mind that we openly oppose fresh ideas? I
was truly unsure at this point. However, we decided to continue on with this plan of action, because
after all, it’s perfectly within our rights to do so.
On Monday, we went to the Senate meeting, with the intent of welcoming ANY type of
feedback or suggestions Senators might have so that what we would bring to all of you today would
be as complete as possible. It was similar to the idea of the one Sunday meeting that was held,
except all Senators would be present and we would actually seek opinions before proposing it. What
resulted was a complete joke. As we sat down in the back of the meeting room, the other SACers in
the room began to move away from us, as if we were plagued with some disease. Once the meeting
started, not only were we strenuously opposed from even asking Senate’s opinion in a simple open
executive session, but were we also prefaced with a report from the Senate Coordinator, which
although was based on good intentions (I’ve personally spoken to him about it), ended up giving a
completely twisted and uninformed view to Senate as to why we were there. Senate then voted to
not even let us speak. Even prior to the Senate meeting, we had witnessed a SAC member
encouraging Senators to shut us down, to never allow us the chance to ask for their help and advice.
Student Activities Council Meeting Minutes
October 17, 2012
So maybe I should make an apology. I apologize for having an idea that is different than some of you
in this room. I apologize for attempting to bring at least one alternative option for SAC to think about.
And to Senate, I truly apologize for seeking out your advice and opinions on a matter important to
myself and this organization as a whole. I guess I learned my lessons.
So what am I asking from you today, SAC? I would ask that you please never let emotions
and personal attachments cloud your judgment and reason regarding any issue we might face in the
future, as they have done with this current issue. I would ask that you never let our debates get to
the point where some members of our board feel worried or fearful about walking into the SGA office
to study, wondering if those present have been speaking about you in a negative manner, as I have
personally felt these past couple of days. No one should ever be made to feel this way. I ask that you
allow us the option that Senate deemed unnecessary—that you give us the opportunity to present and
explain our fresh idea on the matter. Most importantly, we welcome any discussion and critiques in
regards to it, because there is no way in our minds that three people have all the answers. There is
absolutely no reason that this amendment should be rushed as it currently has been. We have until
the end of the semester to give a final vote on this. And finally, I promise you that I will never become
so personally attached or protective of our new idea regarding the Selection Committee that I would
turn my head to valuable input and constructive criticism. Thanks for respectfully listening to what I
have to say, SAC, and I promise I will always respectfully listen to each and every one of you.
Did you know I have respect for what you, Morgan, and Colleen have done outside of the meeting? I
support what you are doing.
Proposals
Xavier Alliance: Zach Wahls Lecture
Amount Requested from FAC: $6,000
Organization’s Allocation for ’12-’13: $1,800
Current Balance: $2,140.69
Specific Cost Breakdown
$5000 for Zach Wahls ($2500 nonrefundable deposit)
Approx $600 for plane ticket
$200 for hotel
$200 for meal with Wahls (up to 9 XUA members and VIPs, plus Wahls. Everybody gets $20 to spend)
$80 for transportation from and to CVG
$20 for Wahls private meal
$200 for breathing room
Special Request Evaluation
Is this a new event/trip/conference?
Yes
Is this club/organization asking for less than or equal to 70% of the total cost?
No
Is the club/organization asking for less than or equal to $4,000?
No
Special Request Evaluation
If approved, would this be the fifth Special Request allocated to this club/organization?
No
Does this event/trip/conference appear in the club/organization’s initial budget?
No
Student Activities Council Meeting Minutes
October 17, 2012
Was this special request turned in 3 weeks prior to the event?
Yes
Decision of Financial Affairs
Voted 8-0 to send to SAC with a $4000 allocation request
Due to Ch 5, Article 5, Section 3, a club can only request $4000
Initial Questions
Is this event going to open to student? Yes
When will it be? March 13th
Where will it be? GSC
What will they do for the rest of the funding? Use their club fund and fund raising
Nothing on their initial budget about an event like this? No
Debate
I've heard Zach speak and think he's a great speaker.
Look like you voted unanimously in FAC, look like it will be a great event.
Passed
Open Executive Session
Constitutional Amendment
Debate
This amendment is something real big, should not vote down to simply vote down. Meghan and Jimmy
said this may be all we get.
We can still pass this and implement this new idea.
If you think more suggestion needs to be made, you should vote it down.
I don't want us to vote yes, just to vote yes. Just to pass it and go back and make another
amendment. I don't understand why we have to settle, if that is not what we want?
If we pass this today, we can still make changes to it later? No, this goes into effect, you will need
another amendment to go thru Senate.
Senate spent three weeks working on this. We have many other amendments coming down the line.
We probably won't touch this one.
I and others didn't feel like we could give our honest opinion in this manner, some SAC intimidated by
Senate. The reason why I want to vote down is because we want to be considered constitutionally
equal.
This isn't a completion between your one and ours, . The FAC that Senate threated "pass this or we
will never look at it again". I think there would be Senators open to new ideas.
Failed
Open Executive Session
Report of the SAC Chair
LeeAnn Scherbauer
Tiffany is excused at 4:30pm today for her re-scheduled class in Cintas. Becky is excused at 5:10ish
pm for work.
I hope you all had wonderful fall breaks and you are ready to finish up the rest of fall semester. Crazy
to think we are about half way through!
I sent out yesterday the formal invite to SGA Bonding. Please send me a quick RSVP as to whether
you will be attending. I think it should be quite fun!
Student Activities Council Meeting Minutes
October 17, 2012
I met with your lovely chairs last night. We had a nice discussion about many different topics such as
workshop, the mentor program, events, and more.
Needom and I are planning workshop as we speak. More details to come. It will either be the weekend
of November 17th or November 30th.
Please sign-up mentor and mentee pairs from the spring selection to talk about the mentor process
with me. I hope I gave enough varying times in which we can all meet. Please let me know, if none of
the times work for you. I will place the sign-up sheet in my mailbox.
I hope to have evaluations out after NACA.
Proposals due next week are the following: Cyclones Game, LNS, Guitar Hero/Rock Band, SAC Trip to
the Movies, and Crosstown Help-Out.
Snack next week is Katie and Collin. Thanks to Jacquelyn and Kelsey for bringing the delicious cookies
today.
Have a great rest of the week! Enjoy your families if they are coming in this weekend. My mama will
be joining me on Friday.
Appreciate you looking into another weekend because of Ignatian Family Teach-In
Committee Reports
Publicity
This weekend we need to meet with Mr. Muskie, Trip to the Cyclones Game, Late Night Snack with
Guitar Hero & Rock Band, Trip to the Movies (Newport) and The XU/UC service collaboration event. As
always we will be meeting at 7:00pm on Sunday.
Late Night Programming
Happy post-second debate day SAC! It has been a while but I want to make sure that I thank
everyone that helped out with MAD and attended Magic Mike two weekends ago. We could not have
put on MAD without the help and support of all of you. Late Night is beginning to work on a whole new
batch of programs that will be rolling out in November and early December. We have two late night
snacks left and I was hoping to get some ideas for possible vendors from everyone. If you want to
send me a note or tell me after this some ones to look into, that would be great! We have one late
night movie left and it will be the Dark Knight Rises and Tyler will be bringing that one to you
relatively soon. We are also doing something new for Late Night and it will be a trip to the Movies in
Newport on Nov. 16th. This will be the first full day that Breaking Dawn is out so we are going to try
and secure tickets for that while also getting normal passes to use for any movie.
Concerts
Thank you to all of you who helped push out our concert survey, we've gotten over 1,500 responses!
We really appreciate it. It looks as if we have a clear top three so we will be contacting our agent soon
to start booking our spring concert! We are changing to date of Glo Hard, once we have a location we
will have a date because we are looking to see what is available. But we have been in contact with
Thunderbolt for productions and we have been talking to O'Conner and Cintas for our location. But our
tentative dates are Nov. 16th, 30th or December 1st. We are also starting to work on our Rockband
event with LNS in November and our Open Mic Night in December.
Campus Traditions
Hey SAC! Hope everyone had a fantastic fall break. Not a lot of updates from Traditions this week.
Megan and Brian have been working on Movie on the Yard, so incase you haven't, be sure to mark
your calendar for next Thursday. After all of your feedback from our last meeting, we decided to
change the movie from Hocus Pocus to The Ring, and we are officially collaborating with RSA for this
event. I want to say an extra thanks for that discussion. I'm going to defer to Kevin in a second to
Student Activities Council Meeting Minutes
October 17, 2012
update all of you on the lecture, but as far as the rest of the semester goes, we have begun planning
for Mr. Muskie so we'll be able to give you more of an update next week. Traditions is also happy and
excited to announce that we are planning a NEW traditional event for the end of the semester as well.
I will now be accepting any questions before deferring to Kevin to discuss PostSecret.
Participation from the community to give away tickets.
Life & Culture
Financial Affairs Committee
Thank you for passing the proposal for Alliance! Zach Wahls is going to be an awesome lecture. I will
definitely be in attendance, myself.
On Monday, we met with Spanish Club and French Club. Spanish Club requested for $400 to purchase
the rights to a cultural film. This was an entirely unforseen cost and met our requirements. FAC voted
unanimously to pass. French club came to request $1950 for Tim Mooney, a renown playwrite, to
come to Xavier. Their request was not very detailed and had some things that were not able to be
described. We asked them to flush out a more detailed cost breakdown so we can make a more
informed decision. Their proposed event isn't for a long while so, time-wise, we're all good.
Next Monday we will be meeting with 4 clubs:
1:30 Accounting Society
1:50 African Student Association
2:10 Voices of Solitary
2:30 French Club (possibly)(same application from last week)
Tonight, we will be finishing our FAC constitution talk and will hopefully have a completed one for all
to view next week.
Remember, FAC members, we have a meeting tonight at 8:00 PM. Be there or be square.
Report of the SGA Executives
Matt Morefield
The constitutional review has finished the constitution edits and will be sending out a email explaining
the process from this point.
Please use the SAC proposal sheets starting next week. They can be found on the t-drive under SAC->Motion Forms. Please fill it out and email the form to me.
Rollover proposal for $9,600 to replenish the deficit of senior board from last year due to
circumstances outside student control.
Any kind of repercussions? No, this is for a situation out of control.
Who funds Senior Board? We do. line item.
Why did their charges come in so late? OSI has been holding off in order to make sure all charges are
Will this add fuel to the fire about funding an Office? Senior Board is a subordinate body, student
funded.
Why are you not having them go thru the executive allocation fund? Because this is outside of
students control, this is our process for clubs. I am not privy to all of the details, can talk to Leah
Busam for more detail questions.
In favor of - 21, opposed - 1
Student Activities Council Meeting Minutes
October 17, 2012
Report of Advisor
Dustin Lewis
My report this week will be brief. I will mostly speak to the business in Senate from this last week.
For your Senate Minute, Annette Marksberry, the Chief Information Officer, spoke to Senate this week
as their report of the administration. She introduced that she would like to build a relationship with
SGA to better understand the technological and informational needs of students. The Senate failed a
proposal related to compensating the Board of Elections ($880). One of the primary concerns was in
whether or not they should receive funding that is incentivized for their work. The Senate tabled a
motion to fund an Election Day shuttle. In New Business, there were several motions from Club
Relations that were presented:
• National Association for Music Educators
• Black Student Association becoming a University-Affiliated Organization
• Health Services Club
• Students for Women's Progress
• Acabellas
• Alternative Breaks becoming a University-Affiliated Organization
• Student Community Organizers
• Ethics Bowl
• Bird Watching Club
In addition, the SAC Selection was presented, asking to approve Michael Ryan, Lauren Ulmer and Luke
Schaefer for SAC.
As a reminder, there will be an open forum to discuss the first round of Constitutional Amendments on
Sunday at 5pm in the office. I hope you are able to attend.
Voting bus, coming from student fee? Yes, from Senate projects fund.
College Democrats busing for early voting, are they doing it on voting day? They are focusing off
campus residence to vote and people who need assistance.
Rep. Dem providing transportation if you call them.
The idea is that this is a nonpartisan bus.
Report of the SGA Resource Assistant
Crystal Guffey
Blast from the Past
Bengals
FiFa
28 people showed up.
I heard great things about the event.
Magic Mike
350 people went.
MAD
492 people, a lot of love for arts and crafts and palm reader and pretzels. Cupcakes were left over.
Highlighter became arts and crafts by the end of the night.
Halloween Haunt
Student Activities Council Meeting Minutes
October 17, 2012
Here and Now
Closing Sentiments
Cynthia Bear was given to Tyler, Favorite kind of pie?
Adjourned: (5:20PM)