S.G.A. SENATE MEETING February 2, 2015 The meeting was called to order in the Leaders Suite of the Donald G. Bollinger Student Union at 4:00 p.m. Presiding officer was Vice President Mary Sauce. The Recording Secretary was Dolly McGeever. The pledge was led by Senator Tommy Thibodeaux and the prayer was given by Senator Emily Sauce. The Nicholls Student Government Association Mission Statement was read by Senator Trey Clark and Senator Markos Picou read the first value of the Nicholls Creed. The following Executive Board members were present: President Adam Lefort, Vice President Mary Sauce, Treasurer Bobby Dufrene, Director of Student Rights and Grievances Carolanne Moore, Director of Public Relations Lillie Bourgeois and Secretary Dolly McGeever. The following Senators were present: Lawrence Arceneaux, III, Yaye Ba, Meah Johnson, Grant Ordoyne, Markos Picou, Trey Clark, Emily Sauce, Austin Wendt, Tommy Thibodeaux, Jessica Fradella and Tiffany Durocher. The following Senators Peyton Chiasson. were absent: Les Theriot, Chante’ Singleton and Web Tech was not represented. Student Supreme Court was not represented. Election Commission was not represented. The following guests were present: Dr. Eugene A. Dial, Jr., Vice President of Student Affairs and Enrollment Services and SGA Advisor, Dr. Todd Keller, Interim Vice President of Academic Affairs, Christian Lovell and Vincent Sbisa, The Nicholls Worth Sports Reporter. No Minutes were presented. GUEST SPEAKER: Dr. Todd Keller, Interim Vice President of Academic Affairs I’m here to address a possible change in the class schedule that the administration is looking into. Most of you who have only been here a short period of time have probably become accustomed to a four and a half class day schedule where you have Mondays-Wednesdays-Fridays courses early in the morning. Then it puts you on Mondays-Wednesdays, Tuesdays-Thursdays. The initial reason for going to that type of schedule was to see if there was a cost savings to be realized. It started when the budget issues arose. We know that budget issues have remained. What we found out is that there is no cost savings to be realized. Buildings still have to have lights on for safety reasons. Labs still have to have electricity to keep dish, rabbits and mice and other critters alive, as well as fungi and other things. So there really is no cost savings to be realized with a four and a half day class schedule. What we have come to realize is that there is a scheduling issue that has evolved. With the number of first time Freshmen we’re getting and the need for General Education courses, your English 101 and 102, your Math 112, 116, 117, etc. History courses, Geography and those, we’re having issues getting an adequate number of those sections available with this four and a half day schedule. So that’s one of the reasons we’re entertaining a five day class schedule, Monday-Wednesday-Friday and Tuesday-Thursday schedule. The main reason for looking into going back to that is for the students’ sake so that students will have an appreciable amount of sections available at good timing. One of the things we’re seeing right now is a little disagreement between the Physical Sciences and the Natural Sciences. Chemistry 109, 208 and 435, these courses are offered at very specific times and there is usually only one section because of the way the scheduling is set now. At the same time, some of these mid-level Biologies, the 200 levels, are being scheduled at the exact same time so students who need both of these courses are having trouble scheduling them. Juniors and Seniors are looking at 300 or 400 courses. GUEST SPEAKER CONTINUED: Some of those students have probably come accustomed to not coming to class on Fridays because those courses are being offered later in the afternoon. The thing here is your 300 and 400 courses is a small group of people who need those courses, who have advanced to that level, getting closer to graduation. The instructors still have the latitude of making those courses like an XM or XT where they set the specific time. We’re talking about affecting 100 or 130 students versus 700 to 900 incoming Freshmen. The reason I am here today is because I want to get some feedback from SGA about whether or not you think the student body would be grossly negatively affected by a five day schedule versus what we now have. (Dr. Keller requested from Vice President Mary S. that the floor be open to discussion.) COMMENT: Senator Lawrence A. said he has no problem with it but there could be a minority group of students who might because they like having that extra day off perhaps for work purposes or whatever. Dr. Keller said that is going to occur but for those in the upper level courses, the instructors still have that latitude. COMMENT: Senator Austin W. said some professors use that afternoon for office hours to meet with students. In reality, what makes up the work week? 40 hours a week makes up the work week so the office hours will still be there. Dr. Keller said the Faculty Senate supports it 100% for the student. This is the way it was done for a very long time. The faculty have been the ones crying out for this for the simple reason that they’re having a lot of difficulty scheduling the Biology and History classes. Whatever is decided is going to be in the best interest of the student. COMMENT: Senator Austin W. asked if Sodexho hours of operation. Dr. Keller savings but revenue-wise it’s Services has noticed a decline campus becomes empty at a certain no reason to keep services open. would have to change the said there is no cost a deficit. Auxiliary of revenue because the point in time so there’s COMMENT: Senator Lawrence A. asked when it would take place if it does take place, who decides. Dr. Keller said in the Fall of 2015 and will likely be an Administrative decision. COMMENT: Director Lillie B. said there was talk about the online classes and for Freshmen that you’d want them to be in the classroom. Can you elaborate on that? Dr. Keller said we’re seeing an evolution of more and more classes being offered online and one of the reasons for that is to make it certain that there is a space. When a person chooses to come to a four-year university, the reason they should be here is to get that socialization, to have that college experience. What we’d really like to see is students come to classrooms and this is one way of doing this. You build your network that’s going to help you later in your career. People you meet here are the ones that you can call on for things we need later, not necessarily to climb the career ladder. Dr. Keller said this is one of those things that when it speaks to issues of student access and student success, it would probably be decided by administration. When the decision does come forth, it will be found in the schedule of classes. It won’t be something they’ll ease back on. COMMENT: Director Carolanne M. said she supports the decision. If the first Orientation is April, do you think the decision will be made by then? Dr. Keller said it will come up again in the President’s Cabinet tomorrow morning. It has gone through the University Council and has been supported. It has gone through Faculty Senate and has been supported. It’s coming to you now to get your feedback. Up to this point, there’s been overall support for it because it centers around the students. I don’t want you in the upper level classes to start thinking the sky is falling by going back to Mondays-Wednesdays-Fridays, “I want my Fridays off”. For those 300 level courses, those instructors do have latitude to schedule them differently if it fits the mold better. GUEST SPEAKER CONTINUED: COMMENT: Senator Austin W. asked if there are other issues or concerns that have been decided by the Faculty Senate or the University Council concerning this new schedule. Dr. Keller said somebody mentioned the fact that the faculty might be upset because they won’t have that Friday afternoon available but they will have time on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and/or Friday to spread out their requirements. The ones that have been doing the labs from 1 to 4 on Friday afternoon, they’re ecstatic that they’ll now be able to have those labs during the week. Dr. Keller said the major issue that has raised eyebrows is the loss of revenue but you have to realize that the majority of faculty that this involves has been here for a while. They were here under that five day class schedule. We’re not talking about a four and a half day work week or a five day work week, we’re talking about class schedules. At Nicholls, we’ve always had the five day work week, this is just going back to scheduling classes. The only reason we gave up the one half was to see if there could be a cost savings. Dr. Keller provided his email address of todd.keller@nicholls.edu and his phone number of 448-4148 to contact him with any questions. OFFICER REPORTS PRESIDENT’S REPORT – ADAM LEFORT I have a COSBP meeting this weekend in Baton Rouge so we’ll probably be discussing any type of monetary budget cuts across to State to see what we can do. Last week I had a Swamp Stomp Committee Meeting. It was announced that this will probably be one of the last years Nicholls we’ll have Swamp Stomp on campus. Nicholls uses our resources to have it here so unless someone comes in to do this, this will be our last year. Last week I also attended a Food Advisory Committee meeting with Senator Markos P. We’ll give you a calendar of events happening with Food Advisory. Recruitment – thank you. Several students picked up applications last week so good job. The school calendar for this year – I know in the Fall we had a Dead Day but in the Spring we don’t have a Dead Day because of the way the classes fall. Would you like a Dead Day in Spring? I think the only reason was because we started school early. DIRECTOR OF STUDENT RIGHTS & GRIEVANCES’ REPORT – CAROLANNE MOORE Thanks for turning in your WID/WIH this past Friday. their emails. Remember to include TREASURER’S REPORT – BOBBY DUFRENE We have the budget in a motion. We’ll be tabling it. let me know if you have any questions. Please look at it and If you need any ideas for motions involving money, let me know. DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC RELATIONS’ REPORT – LILLIE BOURGEOIS Today is “Stuff Stopher” for the men’s basketball game at 6:30. This game will be a “Red Out” game. We are no longer handing out the spirit shirts, the cheerleaders will be throwing them. We may still hand out pompoms so please be there. If you signed up, please try to go. OFFICER REPORTS CONTINUED: DIRECTOR OF PUBLIC RELATIONS’ REPORT CONTINUED: Next Tuesday and Wednesday, February 10th and 11th, will be our first Scantron Giveaway from 9:00-1:00 in the Union. We will serve king cake since Mardi Gras is the next week, as well as lemonade. I have a flyer already made and I’ll post it so please share it. I will pass around a sign-up sheet in the general meeting. This is a mandatory event so please sign up when you are available, and if you can’t make either of the two days, please send in an excuse. Next Wednesday, February 11th will be the softball home opener as well as student appreciation night. Starting at 6:00 p.m., we will hand out vouchers for free hot dogs and free nachos to students. I’ll need volunteers to hand them out at the game, so I’ll pass around a sign-up sheet. Please sign up if you are available and promote this to all students. Again, new student orientations will be coming up this semester, so if you have any ideas for new items that we could give out with SGA’s logo on it, please let me know so we can get that ordered as soon as possible. VICE PRESIDENT'S REPORT – MARY SAUCE Everyone has been doing a great job with recruiting. I’ve been emailing to have a specific department or college I’d like you to contact. I’ve received some emails that say they haven’t heard back and are still waiting. Senator Meah J. said she’s making a flyer so I’ll get that from Meet the SGA so you can start putting them up on the bulletin boards. We can make pocket size ones. Thanks to everyone who attended the workshop. I think it went really well and productive. We went over things that should have been routine but needed to brush up on. We talked about putting a prayer into our agenda for our meetings. It’s just a prayer that the University had on the website. That way if you’re called on for prayer, you’ll have the option to say your own prayer or to read the one on the agenda. We also talked about the order of appointments for swearing in. From now on, new appointments will have the right to discuss a motion but not vote on it. This is fair because they haven’t reviewed the motion or been to the committee meetings. They don’t know everything the motion is about. The E-Board will meet about the Homecoming Display Contest so we’re trying to get that under way. At the end of the week, I’m attending a budget meeting with Treasurer Bobby D. because President Adam L. will be at COSBP. If you have any questions, let me know. For WID/WIH, some of you said you had problems accessing it on Moodle. If you have anything like that, let me know. We can look at why it’s happening at the Moodle site but try to use Moodle because that way it’s accessible directly to Director Carolanne M. I still have some that WID/WIH that are in written form to submit to her so try to use the Moodle site. If you need motion ideas, come to me because I have five of them. ACTIONS TAKEN ON OLD BILLS S1415-039 I move that the Senate remove Markos Picou from the Senate for failing to fulfill his duty in accordance with Article Six, Section 3 of “The Lefort Corollary”. The section reads that “All SGA senators are required to write a minimum of one (1) motion per semester. Failed. S1415-040 I move that the Senate remove Meah Johnson from the Senate for failing to fulfill his duty in accordance with Article Six, Section 3 of “The Lefort Corollary”. The section reads that “All SGA senators are required to write a minimum of one (1) motion per semester. Failed. STUDENT SUPREME COURT REPORT No report. ELECTION COMMISSION REPORT No report. WEB TECH REPORT President Adam L. said he’s interviewing applicants. SGA SENATE COMMITTEE REPORTS Finance Committee – Tiffany Durocher, Chair Present: Senators Tiffany Durocher, Yaye Ba, Trey Clark, Meah Johnson, Markos Picou, Emily Sauce, Tommy Thibodaux and Jessica Fradella. Absent: Senators Theriot. Guest: Treasurer Bobby Dufrene. Lawrence Arceneaux, III, Peyton Chiasson and Les Today we discussed the following: The Spring 2015 budget. highly favorable. The motion to approve the budget was found to be Three motions: A motion to purchase a security camera for the Library. A motion to purchase Mardi Gras beads for a Nicholls float riding in the Ambrosia Parade. A motion to co-sponsor the LAS Conference to fund registrations fees. All three were found to be highly favorable by the committee. Judiciary Committee – Lawrence Arceneaux, III, Chair; Austin Wendt, Co-Chair Present: Senators Lawrence Arceneaux, III, Austin Wendt, Yaye Ba, Trey Clark, Jessica Fradella, Meah Johnson, Markos Picou, Tommy Thibodeaux and Emily Sauce. Absent: Senators Peyton Chiasson and Chante’ Singleton. We discussed the following: The motion to renew the “Lefort Corollary”. While discussing the motion, the committee felt that the Corollary should be amended so that it would allow students to have drinks such as water, tea and coffee at the meetings. The committee agreed to the amendment as well as the rest of the Corollary. Senate recruitment was discussed such as methods of recruiting and whether or not Senators spread the word about open positions. Six applications have been picked up from the SGA office. Meet the SGA/Social Events: Mr/Ms Nicholls/Banquet - Homecoming/Christmas) – Grant Ordoyne, Chair Present: Senators Grant Ordoyne, Tommy Thibodeaux and Austin Wendt. Absent: Senators Peyton Chiasson, Emily Sauce, Chante’ Singleton and Les Theriot. Guest: Director of Public Relations Lillie Bourgeois We discussed the following: The “Stuff Stopher” game and plan to meet at Stopher Gym following the meeting. Scantron Giveaways taking place next week. Since this event is mandatory, we encourage the members to make it a priority to attend. Minutes were distributed to committee members to post on bulletin boards of their respective colleges. SGA SENATE COMMITTEE REPORTS CONTINUED: Campus Improvements Committee – Peyton Chiasson, Chair; Tommy Thibodeaux, CoChair; Present: Senators Peyton Chiasson, Tommy Thibodeaux, Jessica Fradella and Austin Wendt. Absent: Senator Grant Ordoyne. Guest: Senator Les Theriot. Tiffany Durocher, We discussed the following: Revisited items that need to be completed. The wifi in Powell/White Halls is working but other areas still need improvements like Polk Hall. Senator Austin W. will meet with Mike Davis about new housing project ideas and vending machines in the Ponder Room. New business was looking in the Lost and Found policies and how items are handled. UNFINISHED BUSINESS None. NEW BUSINESS S1415-041 I move that the Senate approve the Spring 2015 Budget. 1. 2. Discussion: committee. Senator Tiffany D. said we Tiffany Durocher Meah Johnson discussed the Spring budget in Vice President Mary S. said this motion will be tabled. S1415-042 I move to allocate up to $500 to purchase Mardi Gras Beads for students riding in a Nicholls Float for the Krewe of Ambrosia on February 7 at 5:30 p.m. The money will come from the Senator Project line item of the budget. 1. 2. Tommy Thibodeaux Emily Sauce Discussion: Senator Tommy T. defers discussion to President Adam L. He said he learned from different sources that Ambrosia gave Nicholls a free float in the parade to get Nicholls out there in the community for our Nicholls Awareness Campaign. They have the Dance Team, the Cheerleaders, students from different sports and Tillou. They spent about $1,500 on beads and want to make sure they have a chance to throw and not run out of beads so they asked us to help. We spoke to Terry Dupre in Purchasing who approved the vendor. We need to have a motion for it. If you accept, we’ll go on and purchase it. COMMENT: Senator Lawrence A. asked where the beads were coming from. President Adam L. said a vendor in Houma. COMMENT: Senator Austin W. asked if the SGA logo would be on anything. President Adam L. said it will probably be on the float in the form of a poster. Question: Move into vote Passed For-11 Against-0 Abstained-0 NEW BUSINESS CONTINUED S1415-043 I move to allocate up to $2,600 to purchase a security camera in the Library. The price breaks down as follows: Extreme B5G124-24P2 Network Switch Axis P3354 Camera = = $1,977 599 This should be taken from the Senator Project line item of the budget. 1. 2. Yaye Ba Jessica Fradella Discussion: Senator Yaye B. said we spoke about it last semester. It’s for the Library for use at night when people enter and exit the building. I think it will be good for all of us to have in case something happens. Vice President Mary S. said the motion is over $500 so it will be tabled until next week. S1415-044 I move that the Senate renew “The Lefort Corollary” for the Spring 2015 semester following Article 3, Section 2 of “The Lefort Corollary”. 1. 2. Lawrence Arceneaux, III Jessica Fradella Discussion: Senator Lawrence A. said we discussed the motion in Judiciary and found it highly favorable with the exception that he amends it allowing students to have a drink of water, coffee or tea at the meeting. Senator Austin W. will have more on this. S1415-044a I move that the Senate amend Article Five, Section 6 of The Lefort Corollary”. The Senate finds the current wording unfavorable. As amended, Article Five, Section 6 will state “No Food will be consumed during meetings. Drinks may be consumed as long as they’re in closed and discreet containers. 1. 2. Austin Wendt Lawrence Arceneaux, III Discussion: Senator Austin W. said what we came up with in the Judiciary Committee is that at the beginning of the year, we said that water may be acceptable. We could allow other drinks in a closed container. Question: Move into vote Passed For-11 Against-0 Abstained-0 S1415-045a I move to suspend the Rules of Procedures to allow the motion to be heard. The reason for the suspension is the motion is in violation of Article VIII, Letter B., Number 6 of the Rules of Procedures (The motion is over $500.00). 1. 2. Move into vote: Passed For-11 Against-0 Emily Sauce Lawrence Arceneaux, III Abstained-0 S1415-045 I move that the Senate allocate $980.00 to be taken from the Senator Projects line item of the budget. These funds would be allocated according to Article XII, Section D., Number 5 of the Bylaws titled “Rules for SGA CO-Sponsorship” for the co-sponsorship of The Louisiana Academy of Sciences Annual Conference to be held at Nicholls State University on March 13-14, 2015. Funds would cover the registration fees of $35.00 per student for up to 28 Nicholls students to attend. 1. Emily Sauce 2. Tommy Thibodeaux Question: Move into vote Passed For-11 Against-0 Abstained-0 UNIVERSITY COMMITTEE REPORTS None. DISCUSSION PERIOD: None. ANNOUNCEMENTS: None. There being no further business the meeting was adjourned at 5:15 p.m.