University of North Florida Student Senate
Senate Meeting Minutes – July 7th 2014 – 6:30 to 8:15 PM – Senate Chambers
I.
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II.
Call to Order
Meeting is called to order at 6:34PM
Pledge of Allegiance. Senator Rotella.
III.
Roll Call – Senate President Pro-Tempore Shomari Gloster– sgaspt@unf.edu
 Quorum is established with 15 voting members
IV.
Approval of Minutes – June 9th 2014, Emergency Meeting June 9th 2014
 Sen. Savage. Motion to approve the minutes from June 9th, 2014. Second. All in Favor. Motion passes
 Sen. Savage. Motion to approve the minutes from the emergency meeting on June 9th, 2014. Second. All in Favor.
Motion passes
V.
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VI.
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Approval of Agenda
Sen. Rotella: Motion to amend the agenda to include SB-14SB-2778 under new business. Second. Discussion. All in
favor. Added to new business on 2nd read.
Sen Savage: Motion to add JR-14SA-2773 to 2nd read under new business. Second. Discussion. All in favor. Added to
new business 2nd read
Sen Savage: Motion to add John Solar for appointments under new business. Discussion. All in favor. Added to after
new business
Sen. Savage: Motion to add True Rains after Judicial appointments. Discussion. All in favor. Added.
Sen. Rotella: Motion to approve the amended agenda. Second. All in favor. Added.
Recognition of Students Seeking Appointment
Alin Cepoi. Finance and Finance Services. Senior. General senate seat.
Shaneice Byrom. Construction Management. Senior. General senate seat.
Akash Brahmbhatt. Sophmore. Public law and Advertising. General senate seat.
Kyle Spear. Freshman Marketing. General senate seat.
Thorson Bastien. Freshman. Business and Finance. General senate seat.
Jackson Phillips. Political science. General senate seat.
VII.
Student Remarks (3 minutes per Student)
 None.
VIII.
Guest Speakers
a. Kaitlin Legg, Assistant Director of the LGBT Resource Center (5 minutes)- NOT PRESENT.
IX.
Judicial Branch Report
a. Chief Justice – Daniel Powers sgajc@unf.edu (5 minutes)- The judicial branch has a nominee tonight, John Solar, I have no doubts about his ability. He is the
right person for the job. I would like to thank the president for providing qualified positions for the
branch. It has been about 3 months since I have taken office, and I can say that this is the fullest I’ve
ever seen the branch. We have a CR going for 1st read tonight, some of the changes being going from
9 to 7 justices. And striking the requirement that the branch must consult the general council. So
change it to say may consult the general council. This is going to help us run more efficiently.
X.
Executive Branch Reports
a. Osprey Productions – John Chwalisz opdir@unf.edu (3 minutes) –
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b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
I think it great to see all the new senate appointments. I think it is great you are trying to make that
difference. Who all saw the camels on campus? Next time there is an animal on campus or anything
else on campus please come out. It was a great success, we had a line the whole day and we had
media attention from all the local news stations including the Times Union. Thank you to all that
came out. Ryan Hennesey came to our pool party and helped out the whole time since we had a
small amount of staff since it is summer. If you didn’t get to receive one of those nifty tanks, we do
have more, please come by and get one.
Club Alliance – Katie Jackson (Assistant Director) sgacluba@unf.edu (3 minutes)- We are super busy with club reregistration going on we had 44 new clubs re register to be active in
summer, including 4 brand new clubs. We still have fall registration so we are hoping to see more.
We had the club funding workshop which was a huge success. We had a lot of clubs that are now
completing the club funding process. We also had our coordinator orientation, so you will know start
seeing them. Feel free to come by and meet them. We also have our next general meeting coming up,
July 25th at 11:00AM in the Student Union auditorium; we would love to see some of you all there.
The Club Fest date has been set for September 29th from 10:00-3:00 on the green. The theme has
been decided for “Game night”. The vision is for board games like candy land, twister, and checkers.
We have received a lot of positive feedback from the clubs.
Attorney General – Matthew Harris sgaag@unf.edu (3 minutes)- The two nominees for tonight, I had the privilege of sitting in on the interview process for both of
them and I am very confident about them and I fully endorse their confirmation. I’ll talk about John
Solar first, for judicial. He had to go through a rigorous interview process; I can say with absolute
certainty that he has the mindset that you look for in a justice. True Rains is coming before you for
the first ever Elections Commissioner. The process for picking someone to fill these shoes was not
easy. There is certainly a large deal of pressure on his shoulders, but I have full confidence that he
will do an exemplary job. So please ask him questions, he has a great insight. We have been working
very hard on this elections reform. It makes me very happy to see so many students seeking
appointment. I would like to applaud the GO committee for working so hard this past month. They
have been working on the appointment application; they have been working on elections issues. They
have had several emergency meetings. Lastly, we have several projects coming up, and I look forward
to the fall.
Treasurer – Morgan Wolf sgasbt@unf.edu (3 minutes)- It feels really good to be back after 2 months away. It’s good to hear about all the great things that
have happened since I’ve been gone. I just want to commend the executive branch; they’ve been
working very very hard on making changes to make this organization better. I have only been back
for a week, and I have been going over title 8, there are a few minor technical changes that need to
be changed.
Vice President – Anthony Stevens sgavpres@unf.edu (3 minutes) –
- NOT PRESENT.
President – Joseph Turner sgapres@unf.edu (5 minutes)- It is very important to me and our university to support our veterans in every way we can. We have
the 2nd highest veterans population by percentage in the state university system; we have about 1,200
veterans on campus. To make sure that we are doing all that we can I have decided to set up a
veteran’s council, which currently has 5 people on it, we will be meeting once a month starting in
early fall. We will be discussing various veterans around campus so I can ensure that I am doing all
that I can thus student government is doing all that we can to ensure that our veteran’s population is
well served. All except for one vendor has agreed about providing discounts to veterans. That
remanding vendor hasn’t said they wouldn’t do it but we are still in talks with them about getting
there. I am fully confident that come fall all the vendors on campus will be providing veterans
discounts. Some of you might have seen on our social media that we have announced our Jaguar
ticket deal. We have been able to secure 50% discount off a single game ticket price for our students.
The single game tickets will be for $30, which normally sell for $65. We will be able to do a presale
event for season ticket passes. We will be doing 3 sale dates next week Monday, Tuesday, and
Wednesday in the Student Union plaza. The exact date and times are online. Students will have the
opportunity to buy season passes for $210. These are really good seats. There is a kicker on the
season ticket deal; they will get a free ticket to the Jaguar mega event, Carrie Underwood concert on
the 26th. We also have promotions going with for the preseason game. We will also be providing
discounts on parking. We have 50 more than we have last year. The library learning commons project
has finalized the design. We are finalizing the budget and exactly what we will be able to include in
the library. Furniture is the top priority but they are also going to have updates on technology. Some
of the things that the library could do, they can’t because of their budget. So I will be sponsoring a
special request to enhance the library in early fall. Garage monitors will be in the arena garage by fall.
The only change is that there won’t be exterior signs on campus, just the exit/entrance of the garage.
One last thing, the JR that Senator Savage sponsored, I figured it will take the shuttle an extra 3
minutes. It will only add 45 seconds to the wait time at the other stops. There is money set aside for
projects like that.
 Senate President Ramirez: Is the Jaguar ticket for one person?
o In the past you had the option for buying only 2 tickets. There is now no limit, you can buy
as many as you want for a single game.
XI.
Legislative Cabinet Reports
a. Constitution and Statutes Committee – Chairman Shomari Gloster sgacsc@unf.edu (3 minutes)- In our committee we discussed JD-14SA-001. Attorney General Harris requested that Title 3, chapter
3.03, be reviewed for its constitutionality. He argued that there is an overstep between the legislative
and executive branches. In a 2:0:0 decision the judicial council agreed with the Attorney General.
Furthermore chapter 3.03 was struck from statute. JD-14SA-002, Attorney General Harris requested
that title 5, chapter 5, be reviewed for its constitutionality because it violated article 4. The statute was
stricken in a 3:0:0 decision, the judicial council agreed with the Attorney General. They gave us two
viable actions. The first action being on first read, which is CR-14SA-2776. Also in our past meeting
we went over how to be a committee member, and Roberts Rules. July the 14th is our last committee
meeting.
b. Budget and Allocations Committee – Chairman Michael Rotella sgabac@unf.edu (3 minutes)- I have two requests that need sponsored for our next committee meeting. The requests are for
Dance Marathon travel and SG’s request for free printing in the fall. IF you are interested I need a
response by Wednesday. Our current index balances as we are now dealing with the 14-15 budget, it
sits at: Special Requests -$150,000; Travel Requests-$27,660; Salary Reserves-$57,978.08. The two
requests that passed last committee were “Better Together UNF” and “Mathematics and Statistics
Club”. They were both travel requests. If anyone has questions on the requests that we need
sponsors on please feel free to reach out to me or Joe if you want to talk about the request for
printing.
c. Government Oversight Committee – Chairwoman Katherine Savage sgaesac@unf.edu (3 minutes)- We just had an emergency meeting at 5 this evening were we heard 2 appointees. One for our
Elections Commissioner, True Rains, and the other for Associate Justice, John Solar. They passed
unanimously through our committee. I encourage you to ask questions. In our meeting before we
finalized and approved our brand new appointment application, which is on the website now. An
appointee will announce himself at the senate meeting. They will have until the next committee
meeting to meet with the branch heads. They will attend too committee meetings, one being the GO
committee. After, they will be confirmed at senate. We have added the “osprey voice like” section.
We are requiring appointees to poll 35 students. This includes 3 questions: “Did you know that SG
is responsible for allocating the $4.45 million A&S fee budget?”, “Do you have a favorite Student
Government-sponsored event, and if so, what is it?”, “Do you have a favorite Student Governmentsponsored initiative, and if so, what is it?” If you have any questions regarding this please let me
know
d. University and Student Affairs Committee – Chairman Chase Baker sgausac@unf.edu (3 minutes)- We need members for the USA committee, we have spots open. We passed our JR in the last
meeting. We went over Roberts rules. We went over the results for Osprey voice. The results were
low because many of you didn’t participate. To try and change that we are now going to introduce
the “tabling osprey voice”, since nobody does it on their own. If anyone would like to hear about
this, our meeting is next Monday at 7:15.
e. Senate President Kaitlin Ramirez sgasp@unf.edu (5 minutes) –
- The purpose of government is to protect the individual rights of citizens. All of our rights as students
are protected by numerous laws at the national, state, local and university level. In all those levels we
must also enforce those laws. Our Student government was established with the purpose to protect
our interests and to make sure the student voice is heard. After all, what is a University without its
students? The preamble in our constitution states, our student government is established in which
the individuals student voice can be heard and actively participate in this university by promoting
cooperation among the student body, faculty and administration. Further in our constitution a part of
our purpose includes: the support and development of student activities, clubs and organizations,
publications and services. And the representation of concerns and student moral, welfare,
responsibility, and integrity. As senators, your duty is to all the students of the university. To do
everything in our power to make sure everything is heard. So we may fulfill our duties and do the
best job possible, it is vital we understand the diversity of our fellow students. To help us in this
effort, we have two safe space trainings. Senate President Pro-Tempore Gloster will be passing
around a sign-up sheet for the trainings. The first is this Friday for the LGBT resource center, and
the next is Friday July 25th by the interfaith center. Please talk to Sen. Rotella if you are interested in
sponsoring one of the requests. For your scholarship you must sponsor something during your term.
Lastly I have your senator polo’s, please come to the front after senate to pick them up.
XII.
New Business
a. Legislation considered for 1st Reading
i. CR-14SB-2776 Refinement within the Judicial Branch
b. Senate and Joint Resolutions on 1st Reading
i. SR-14SB-2777 2014-2015 Senate Policies and Procedures
c. Legislation considered for 2nd Reading
 SB-14SB-2778 Sponsored by Sen. Rotella: This is fixing some little stuff; I will let Treasurer Wolf
explain it to you. I definitely support it.
o Treasurer Wolf: It is allowing legislation to be changed so that those clubs can be funded
according to the money allocated in their budgets. Last year there was a bill that was put on
1st read and was pulled by Carlo Fassi. Through those changes there was a minor change that
got overlooked. It is a minor correction that changes clubs now have their own budgets. It
used to say that club alliance funds could not be used for travel related expenses. Which is
true, but now that clubs have their own budgets, we need to add excluding those funds
allocated by the CBC. This needs to be urgently revised. The 2nd change is a technical error.
In past revisions there was a line taken out in chapter 840 that bumped the lines up. There is
no chapter 840.10 it should be 840.9. No money is being transferred, it is just wording.

Sen. Savage: Motion to approve SB-14SB-2778. Second. No discussion. Roll call
vote: Motion for unanimous consent. Second. Moved.
 JR-14SA-2773 Sponsored by Sen. Savage.
o Sen. Savage: Only having that one stop that takes you to one stop. If a crossings resident
uses it takes about 15-20 minutes to get to like the café. That inconveniences the students
that wish to use the shuttle system. If this is to pass, it will be built it would be positioned
behind the S and R buildings. It is an add of convenience.
 Sen. Baker: Motion to approve JR-14SA-2773. Second. No discussion. Motion for
unanimous consent. Second. No objections. Moved.
d. Senate and Joint Resolutions on 2nd Reading
XIII.
Appointments
a. John Solar (Associate Justice)
o President Turner: During his interview he answered all the questions and answered with
thoroughness, I have the confidence in him to uphold our constitution. I think he will do a fantastic
job.
o John Solar. If I am confirmed as a Justice I will do my best to be will be objective with each and
every case, and uphold the constitution and statutes as I see fit.
*Question-Sen Savage: Pres. Turner mentioned that you interned? - I interned for Marco
Rubio, I did secretary work for people.
*Question-Sen Savage: are you involved in any leadership? I am the treasurer of PHI Alpha
Delta.

Sen. Savage: Motion to approve John solar for Associate Justice. Second.
Discussion he passed through the interview process with ease, he is very qualified,
and he was unanimously approved in the GO committee. He will take this position
seriously. Roll call vote: Sen Baker-Motion for unanimous consent. Second. No
objections. Moved.
b. True Rains (Elections Commissioner)
o President Turner: My signature piece of legislation is the elections reform bill. As I mentioned in my
inaugural address this was my number one task. After him being sworn in it will complete our vision.
I am placing a lot of confidence in True. He is really in touch with the student body. We are placing
all our trust in him to help us here.
o True Rains. Sophomore. Political Science. I never planned on applying to UNF. I came and toured
and fell in love. When I got here that same passion grew. I am apart of swoop squad, honors
program. I want to see UNF be a great school. I think one of those things that it starts with is
elections. A competitive election will drive the best ideas forward. I want to see the most fair and
competitive elections possible, and that is my goal.
*Question-Sen Rotella: what organizations are you apart of? - Swoop squad, Greek life, Honors
Program.
*Question-Sen Rotella: You said you have a lot of ideas. What are some ideas aside from
elections? - I would like to see an overnight orientation; I think it takes away the experience.
We are missing out on a great opportunity for that experience
*Question-Sen. Savage: this was created because we haven’t had an election, what can you do
to employ the students? - One of the strongest ways to encourage students is to simply ask
them, also flyers and signs. I wouldn’t have known when the elections occur, the only reason I
knew was because I applied. Making the student body more knowledgeable about elections
through signage and marketing . Also going around and personally asking them will create a
pressure to go out there and do it.
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Sen. Rotella. Motion to approve True Rains for Elections Commissioner. Second.
Discussion- I just want to say he is a great candidate for this position. I know true
personally I know he will execute this position very well. Roll call vote. Sen Baker:
Motion for unanimous consent. Second. No objections. Moved.
XIV. Announcements
 Tonight I appointment Sen. Tunjic for Parliamentarian. Our official Parliamentarian is out for the summer. If you
would like to be our parliamentarian for the next meeting let me know.
 The LGBT is this Friday from 9:30-12:30.
 Next week is Monday committees.
 The following Monday is our last senate meeting.
 Don’t forget to come up after for your polo’s.
* John Solar and True Rains are sworn in by Chief Justice Powers*
XV.
Final Roll Call - Senate President Pro-Tempore Shomari Gloster– sgaspt@unf.edu
 Quorum is reestablished with 15 voting members
XVI. Adjournment
 Meeting is adjourned at 7:31PM