Minutes of the
STUDENT ASSOCIATION SENATE
OF NORTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY
30 September 2012
CALL TO ORDER, ROLL CALL AND PLEDGE OF ALLEGIANCE
The meeting was called to order by Speaker Austin M. D. Quick at 6:00 p.m. in the Clara Sperling
Skyroom of the Holmes Student Center. Senate Clerk Chad Harris conducted a roll call of Senators. All
members were present except; Lenard Sanders. Also present were Bill Nicklas, Members of Alpha
Epsilon Pi, Monsignor Glenn Nelson, Campus activities board, and Gina Gregolunas, Kyle Bak, Jared
Brammer, Gipty Thomas, Jack Barry, Susie Richards of the Executive Board. With a quorum present, the
meeting proceeded. President Pro Tempore Brian Troutman asked Speaker Austin Quick to lead in the
Pledge of Allegiance.
MEETING AND AGENDA APPROVAL
Speaker Quick made a motion to approve the Minutes from the 10 May 2012 Meeting. Without
objection the Minutes were approved. Speaker Quick made a motion to amend the Agenda by
removing item A, and moving items B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, J, L, N, O, P, Q in New Business to Old Business
and be considered read. Speaker Quick proposed creation of a Consent Agenda for all items on Agenda.
The motion was approved.
SPEAKER’S REPORT
Good evening everyone, Please forgive me my voice is not at its full capacity. This is a good thing for you
because it means I’ll speak a little less. First off, I want to welcome everyone, the Senate just got done
with their training session today and a nice meal catered by Fatty’s, a great local establishment. Big
thing is, it’s exciting to be here tonight, I want to congratulate and welcome the newly elected senators,
and especially give out an appreciation and shout out to the students who were re-elected for a second
or third term. I’m really looking forward to this year; I think we have a lot ahead of us, and continue to
be a voice for the students of this university, the first thing I want to talk about is probably the most
important of the things we are going to talk about, at least tonight, and I want to make sure that we put
it in our minds and be cognizant of it as we go on into our week, and the weeks to come. We talked at
length over the last two years that I have been in senate regarding safety, and the safety of our campus,
and the safety of our community. Multiple times in discussions that I have been in personally with
leadership both in the university and in the community, we always said that it was a perceived violence
problem, a perceived safety issue. Today ladies and gentlemen I say to you there’s no perception
problem, it’s a reality, it’s a reality that yes while our campus may be one of the safest in the state, and
one of the safest in the nation, the campus alone is not where our students are. We know, those of you
sitting in this room today, and those of you that are specifically from districts considered Greek Row that
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there is a violence problem in our community, and it is affecting our students. When every day you can
open up the paper and read about another stabbing, another robbery, another break in, that’s not
acceptable. The reasoning behind it, we all have our ideas, and we have the things that we think are our
reasoning for this. The reasoning is not my problem. The reasoning is only part of the solution in figuring
it out. The problem and what we need to do is to find a way to get rid of this in our community, and say
it is not enough. It’s not allowed. Our community cannot handle the continued violence that we have
seen over the last 30 days, since school began. For those of you that know, violence is something affects
all of us in different ways. Some of us are from rural areas that have never had to deal with violence that
much. Some of us from more urban areas where violence was a part of our everyday life. Even myself,
even in the military I dealt with minimal violence as far as affecting the people that I loved and cared
about. And I spoke at length last year regarding violence when a member of our own staff, and our own
community here, Steven Agee was murdered, at an off campus party, on the same road where we
continue to have problems. Ladies and gentlemen I am tired of talking about it. I’m tired of talking
changing things when nothing ever changes. The time has come that the leaders in this room, and
everyone else here as well, and the people that aren’t here tonight, we rally together, and we say
enough is enough. Not on our campus. Not in our community. I sat in a meeting the other day with
leadership of this community, where some of the top people in charge of keeping us safe didn’t feel it
was necessary to even comment. Didn’t feel it was necessary to be a voice for students. I sat in another
meeting where members of leadership and academic leadership of this community, in this campus
where deans of certain colleges said that it is a perceived violence problem. There is no problem. That is
bologna, you know it, and I know it. The members of this administration that come here during the day,
earn their fat paychecks and then go back to Geneva at night, not understanding the plight and the
difficulties that you and the other students of this campus face every day, and every night. I’m tired of
hearing from students, that their afraid to leave their apartment at night. I’m tired of hearing from
students that their scared when they hear gunshots. All of that became a reality to me when myself
heard it for the first time last Saturday. The gunshot. This unfortunately has become all too much a
reality for students that live in certain areas. Enough is enough; I’m going to challenge every member of
this Senate to work with me this year and to push, to push our community, to push our university, and
to push each other, to get rid of whatever it is that is causing this problem. There is not another time
that I want to read about, or hear about one of our students being hurt. And of course we read in the
paper like the incident the other night at campus cinemas, that it was a non-student. The university put
out a thing, it was non-students, and it wasn’t affecting students. Well great maybe not this time. What
about the next. Enough. This is a very serious matter that we as leaders of this community, and this
University we need to rally against, and make a difference. The time has come ladies and gentlemen,
were done with talking, it’s time for action. And if members of the community do not want to come with
us and band together, then we will fight against them. We will stand up against them if they do not want
to make the necessary changes. If the city of DeKalb leadership, specifically City council, do not feel it’s
necessary to hold the landlords accountable, and responsible for the members of the community that
they allow to live in their apartments, without doing background checks, they don’t feel it’s necessary?
Enough! This university has enough pull, and the amount of money that we bring into this university is
big enough that we can make an impression. I say in the community that we serve in and we live in if our
elected leaders at the city council level do not want to take a stand and do not want to fight against the
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people that they give them a lot of money, by the way. Then let’s show them what we can do. Let’s stop
shopping at local places, let’s stop supporting these things. I’m not saying we do that now, all options
are on the table. Ladies and gentleman, senators, members of the audience, enough is enough. I will not
stand here and let another one of our students be hurt, let alone be killed, because people in leadership
positions have chosen to stand silent. And I hope and pray that we never have to have that discussion
again. I hope and pray that this is something that we can just start off the year and we can really make a
change so that this is not a problem. But for right now, with what we are dealing with, and the members
of those neighborhoods that are affected by this, this is a reality. We can talk a big talk, and say things
“like enrollment is doing this,” and “the freshmen class is coming in, and we’ve got this new residence
hall and all these new improvements on campus,” and “Oh look, these potholes have been fixed.” But if
our students aren’t safe, none of that matters. We can put all the billboards in the Chicago-land area
about how great NIU is, learning today and Leading tomorrow, with all of these wonderful taglines and
wonderful buzzwords that come out of this university, but if you can’t go home and you don’t feel it’s
safe at 2 o’clock in the morning to leave your apartment to walk to 7-11 to get a candy bar or whatever
it is you are doing, then none of that matters. And word of mouth is greater than any ad campaign that
the University can pay for. I am tired of seeing them spend their money on something that is fruitless if
they are not going to address the real problems that we have here. The days of a perception problem
are over. It is a reality at this university and I ask your help to fight against the members of this
community and University who feel it’s only a perception. For those members who drive home from
work at 4:30 on the dot to head home to the suburban cities that they live in and say oh the students
will be ok. Those days are over, and I call you to help me together to take a stand against this violence
problem. The next thing I want to touch on, again I apologize, we have a couple things going on it’s the
first senate session so we have a few things that have happened. I have heard from numerous students
regarding the issue of printing. How many senators have had people complain to you about the printing
issue? I have been given different figures and it’s not fact, it’s strictly what I have heard, but what I have
been told is that printing costs and what they were looking at saving is roughly 90 thousand dollars. 90
thousand dollars they wanted to save in university printing. Do you know how much we spend to allow
university administrators to have their own personal cell phone to use both personally and
professionally? $300,000. Senators, tonight I am going to tell you some things that aren’t necessary the
most favorable. And tomorrow we are going to read in the paper or hear from people that aren’t happy
about what I have said, but reality is reality and one thing I will tell you is that whenever I am here, and
whenever you talk to me, I am going to give you the truth whether or not it sounds good, whether or
not it has the buzzwords we need or anything like that. In this room, in this chamber, it’s truth.
University resources are always spent on things by people who don’t pay to be here. Last year we
brought up student grievance policy. Currently our university is one of the few that doesn’t have a
grievance policy, so if you go to the bursar’s office or any other department on campus and if they treat
you poorly or talk badly to you or are disrespectful, currently there is nothing you can do. There is no
recourse. You can complain to their supervisor, but you will get the stock-barrel excuse you always get.
“Well, they’re under contract or that contract, there’s nothing we can do” No. We are getting a student
grievance policy this year. Just like this thick book you have to live by, the student code of conduct, and
you actions are governed by. Every person in this community should have to follow under some
guidelines. This is the last comment I’m going to make in this regard. Is everyone aware of the
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intramural sports facility? The new one they are building? In a meeting the other day, I heard one of the
people in the administration, and I am not going to give who, said, “We do not need to invite students to
this. It is more of an administrative thing”. To the groundbreaking of the facility. Does that make sense
to you? It’s time to demand better from the leadership of this university. Those people in those
positions up and down the ladder, from the man who cleans the toilets to the person who signs the
checks, they are accountable to one group of people. And do you know who that it is? The students who
pay for them to be here. We are not here to provide them with the perks and luxuries that they have
become accustomed to while we pay more and more while they take away more and more. Does that
make sense? They charge more yet we get less for it. Yet the people in high positions get all the perks in
the world. Their spouses, parents, kids, all of them get to go up in the sky boxes and enjoy life. Enough.
We need to demand better. We want our university to be a community, not just in talk, but in actions. I
ask you tonight to work with me this next year to really bring back a positive change so this university
realizes why we are here. In the end of the day it is not for cell phones and other perks, it is to educate
students and allow them to grow as people. With all those less than fun things I’ve discussed, I’d like to
personally welcome the Vice President of a number of different things; strategic planning, building
services: Bill Nicklas. Let’s give this man a round of applause. I spoke to you earlier this evening at our
meeting about student centered leaders and Dr. Jones I’ve already made aware is definitely one of
those, but I have met no one at this university who is more student centered or who better understands
the mission of this university than Dr. Bill Nicklas. He is a man of the students and if you ever have any
problem and you go to him I guarantee he will help you. That is what we need. We need to promote and
to congratulate and give recognition to those people of the community both the administration and
staff who help students and who really truly live up to the mission statement of this university. I don’t
know about you, but I am tired of the talk. It’s time we see people walk the walk. Its time to get rid of
employees and departments, we all know who they are, we’ve seen them, who don’t follow the rules,
who aren’t’ helpful, who don’t understand the mission statement of this university. Enough excuses, we
have to stand up against them and we have to demand better. The last thing that I have to say is that we
have a long agenda for tonight. We have a lot going on. For those of you are here who are senators at
large, be sure to check in with the clerk before you leave tonight. We have a couple of things that we
have moved up tonight regarding the finances, you will hear about them shortly, a few student
organizations have been moved up, and we have four newly appointed directors to approve as well. It’s
going to be a long night, but hopefully we will keep this as short as possible. Just remember, I
congratulate you for winning this election, but that’s just the first part of it. Now it’s time to get your
hands dirty and make a change. In my office there is a sign now, a quote from Donald Rumsfeld, and
remember this, because you will be criticized: He says, “If you are not being criticized you may not be
doing much” Those that talk the most and actually demand better, those are the ones who are the
“squeaky wheels.” We have to demand better, we cannot be silent any longer. So I ask for your support
today so that we may stand up today as a body to represent the 22,000+ students at this university to
do better for them because they deserve it. In a time when we are charging more, they deserve more.
Thank you.
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EXECUTIVE BRANCH REPORT(S)
None.
OLD BUSINESS
SAR 44002



SAB 44001



A Resolution to Set the Senate Schedule
Speaker Quick Motions
Senator Shockey Seconds
Resolution passes 6:18 pm
A Bill to Appropriate Funds to Campus Activities Board
Senator Shockey Motions
Senator Theodore Seconds
Senator Shockey Inquires “Is this the first time NIU has gone to this event?”
o NIU has gone in the past, and won awards.
 Senator Theodore Inquires “Have you detailed the costs and how many members will be
going to this event?”
o Request was for $3,998 and for 4 members for a 3 day event.
 Senator Theodore Inquires “Where is the bulk of the funding going?”
o $1050 for the registration for the members, and the rest is going into lodging the
members.
 Bill passes 6:23 pm
SAB 44002
A Bill to Recognize Gerontology Student Organization
 Senator Shockey Motions
 Speaker Quick Seconds
 Bill Passes 6:25 pm
SAB 44003
A Bill to Recognize Virtuously Chic
 Senator Shockey Motions to Postpone
 Senator Zanayed Seconds
 Bill postponed 6:26 pm
SAB 44004
A Bill to Recognize American Meteorological Association
 Senator Shockey Motions
 Senator Theodore Seconds
 Bill Passes 6:27 pm
SAR 44003
A Resolution to Confirm Jack Barry
 Senator Shockey Motions
 Senator Quick Seconds
 Senator Quick speaks on Mr. Barry’s behalf
 Resolution passes 6:30 pm
SAR 44004
A Resolution to Confirm Jared Brammer
 Senator Theodore Motions
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

Senator Shockey Seconds
Senator Philips Inquires “what else technology wise would you like to see around campus?”
o Technology around campus for students is lacking, will work with ITS to fix issues.
 Senator Shockey Inquires “Are you updating the Student Club information on the website?”
o Yes, Moving servers, and reorganization of the information on our website.
 Resolution passes 6:34pm
SAR 44005
A Resolution to Confirm Susie Richards
 Resolution passes 6:38 pm
SAR 44006
A Resolution to Confirm Gipty Thomas
 Resolution passes 6:40
SAR 44007
A Resolution to Honor Monsignor Glenn Nelson
 Resolution passes 6:44
SAR 44009
A Resolution to Confirm Committee Appointments
 Resolution Passes 6:46
SAR 44010
A Resolution to change Organization Classification of Taekwondo Club
 President Pro Tempore Troutman motions to have SAR 44010, 44011, 44012 treated
concurrently.
 Senator Zanayed Seconds
SAR 44011
A Resolution to change Organization Classification of Hapkido Club
 Senator Shockey Inquires “So your concern with the classification is the administrative paper
change?”
o Yes and no, in free time does not want to do paperwork, but also takes away from “Art”
 Speaker Quick Inquires “Is there any conflict that your instructor is also your faculty advisor?”
o No, I don’t see a problem
 Senator Birk Inquires “Is your organization going to be participating in competition?
o No
 Senator Zanayed inquires “Is there physical activity going on?”
o Yes
 Senator Theodore Inquires “Are you requesting you remain separate from The Rec?”
o Yes, the paperwork their requesting is taxing, things like rosters and traveling fees,
which are things that we don’t do because we are focusing on the culture and tradition
of what we’re doing.
 Speaker Quick comments on the situation of the Resolution in his eyes.
 Senator Pooler Inquires “Is there any information in the bylaws on what differs cultural club
from other forms”
o There is no differentiation, we changed the format of that
 Senator Theodore Inquires “What is the legislation for”
o There legislation is to remove themselves from Rec and enter into the SA.
President Pro Tempore motions to limit debate to five minutes.
o Motion passes
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
Senator Zanayed Comments “Your organization’s point is not to play dodge ball, it’s to
participate in physical activity, and the participants are liable to get hurt every time they hit the
mat. And if we do not hold them liable to those forms, then we are liable and it is our business
to do so.”
 Senator Shockey Comments “I understand it is not our job to classify, but there are times that
we have to do things that are not in the constitution, and it is one of those times that it does not
matter what the views and beliefs of the people running the club are, tis what they do, and what
they do is physical activity.”
 Speaker Quick Yields to Rhonda Hampton and Ryan Morse
o Rhonda and Ryan speak on behalf of keeping the groups under the rec’s jurisdiction.
o Other clubs do not compete, there are organizations that do not travel, there are 26
other clubs in a similar position that these three will enter. Purely instructional and are
classified as such.
 Senator Gordon gets confirmation on the differentiation on sports and competition
classification. And their club is considered a sporting club still.
 Senator Fullilove’s motion to postpone failed in debate. Speaker quick calls the question. Ayes
have it.
 Senator Shockey calls the question on the motions
Motion Passes at 7:13 pm
SAR 44012
A Resolution to change Organization Classification of Taekwondo & Hapkido Korean
Art
o Resolution failed at 7:14pm
 Speaker Quick comments on the situation of the Resolution in his eyes.
Senators at Large Present at Meeting:
 Matthew Dunn
 Demetrius Strong
 Blake Goldman
 Shawn Hannan
 Derek Koegel
 Matthew Wellington
 Stephanie Wiggins
All legislation was passed by Consent Agenda.
PUBLIC COMMENTS
Michael Augsburger commented on his misunderstanding of why taekwondo was not entered into a
cultural art category, but instead was mandated to remain under recreational services.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
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Senator Rebecca Clark announced that Mark Cuban is trying to come to NIU in March if we get enough
tweets at @Cuban2NIU
Speaker Quick clarified the definition of a student organization for future reference when dealing with
these situations.
ADJOURNMENT
President Troutman requested a motion to adjourn. Motion is made by Senator Clark. Seconded by
Senator Theodore. The meeting was adjourned at approximately 7:26 p.m.
MINUTES SUBMITTED BY
Chad A. Harris, Clerk of the Senate & Special Assistant to the Speaker.
EXECUTIVE ALLOCATION INFORMATION
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