University of North Florida Student Senate
Senate Meeting Minutes – January 26th, 2015 – 6:30 PM – 8:30 PM – Senate Chambers
I.
II.
Call to Order
- Meeting is called to order at 6:35PM
Invocation – Senate Chaplain Noah Gomez
III.
Pledge of Allegiance – Sergeant-at-Arms Jonathan Rader
IV.
Roll Call – Senate President Pro-Tempore Caleb Grantham
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V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
Quorum is established with 32 voting members.
Approval of Agenda
- Senator Harvel: I move to remove President John Delaney from guest speakers. Second. All in favor.
Moved.
- Senator Rader: I move to strike number 11, line e to replace Anthony Stevens with Chris Brady. Second.
All in favor. Moved.
- Senator Harvel: I move to add executive appointments of Elections Commissioner, Assistant Director
of Club Alliance, and Associate Justice after new business. Second. All in favor. Moved.
- Senator Kennedy: Motion to approve the agenda as amended. Second. All in favor. Moved.
Approval of Minutes
- Senator Kennedy: I move to approve the minutes. Second. All in favor. Moved.
Recognition of Students Seeking Appointment
- None.
Student Remarks (3 minutes each)
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Jonathan Rader. Political Science- A couple students approached me; they told me that they would like
to see SG work on bringing more tables/chairs to campus to study. There is a lot of room for that. So
maybe that is something we can look into. I would also ask all of us to pray for our student Garth, who
went missing.
Annie Black. Communications. Senior- I am speaking on behalf of the leaders of Spinnaker Media. I am
the radio station manager for Spinnaker. I am talking to you in reference to our B&A meeting last week.
We would like to be a lump sum budget. 2 years ago the Spinnaker merged into Spinnaker Media. The
reason a line item budget doesn’t work anymore, is that the budgets are set up to where TV can’t use
money from print. We can’t always predict were our funds will be needed. We would like to be able to
have a lump sum so we can pull money whenever we need it. The student leaders should have more
control.
Lydia Moneir. Political Science. Senior- I am also speaking on behalf of the Spinnaker leaders. Going off
of what Annie said, you might be thinking that there might be less accountability. Just as Student
Government is at the assessment level, we would answer to the auxiliary oversight committee. We
would be accountable for how we would handle the money, instead of for how we create and distribute
our content. We have had consistent issues in the past with Spinnaker funding including current talks
about the proviso language. The system is flawed because it is based off of a past system. We need to be
funded differently. If you approve the lump sum, you will be helping spinnaker move forward.
IX.
Guest Speakers (5 minutes each)
a. President John Delaney (5 minutes)
X.
Judicial Branch Report
a. Chief Justice Ben Jaeger (5 minutes)
- Last semester we started the Student Government council for parking appeals, when we started that we
noticed there was a drop in confusion. You may have seen me talking in some of your classes. I have
been going around speaking to students explaining the process. We have one person going up for
appointment tonight; she has volunteered a lot of her time with us.
XI.
Executive Branch Reports
a. Osprey Productions – Director John Chwalisz (3 minutes)
- Next week we have Elevate from 5:00-7:00 on Monday in Starbucks. We are showing Big Hero 6 on
Wednesday, 7:00 and 9:45. For the Oz festival our first headliner is Mac Miller, our second headliner is
Sublime. If you would like to volunteer, please let me know. We will need a lot of volunteers. For
homecoming, our comedy show is featuring Jim Gaffigan. We are having Bin Wars during homecoming;
it is a team building competition. We are doing crate staking at the rock wall.
b. Club Alliance – Assistant Director Katie Jackson (3 minutes)
- I am going up tonight to hopefully be confirmed as Director of Club Alliance. We are trying to get our
likes on Facebook to 2,000. This Friday we have our specialized board meetings from 11:00-3:00. WE
have our board fairs coming up on February 12, February 19, March 12, March 26, and April 2 from
10:00-3:00 in the Student Union. Spring Bash is our big event coming up; the person that is the most
involved that day will receive a plaque at the president’s gala. We are also trying to get clubs to sign up
homecoming.
c. Treasurer Morgan Wolf (3 minutes)
- The budget process is in full swing. I just want to thank the B&A committee for dedicating time to this.
This Friday I will be proposing my budget. From committee then it will go to senate. You will be voting
on this budget in two weeks. I encourage you to come to deliberations. If you aren’t able to make it, the
budget will be posted in the chambers. If you are on the CBC committee, please come see me after.
d. Attorney General Matthew Harris (3 minutes)
- The two bills on 1st read, I wrote in collaboration with others. These are changes I think are important.
They will be going to committee next week. We have 3 appointments tonight. I think we have a great
semester ahead of us. I would also like to thank Chief Justice Jaeger for the work he has been doing with
parking appeals.
e. Vice President Anthony Stevens Chris Brady(3 minutes)
- Over the past two weeks, I have been transitioning a lot. We have a lot of things coming up in the
upcoming weeks with the agencies. I encourage you to attend all the events; they are all a lot of fun. We
have some big basketball games coming up. This Thursday, Saturday, and next Friday we have games.
The SG banquet will be April 9th at 6:00PM in the ballrooms; you will be getting an email to RSVP. The
Club alliance director Dato got a great opportunity, and Katie will be going up for appointment tonight
for that position. Tomorrow morning there will be applications for the assistant director position.
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XII.
f. President Joseph Turner (5 minutes)
As we move into the spring semester, I will be lobbying a lot in Tallahassee. BOG met on campus last
week. Governor Scott visited our bookstore, and he announced that he will be including a sales tax
exemption and to extend the bright futures for the summer to propose in his budget. We did set an
agenda for the FSA, we will be lobbying to bond our revenue, we are against tuition increases, sales
exemption text book, and surcharge back to 2009 levels. If you have any questions I can answer those. I
would like to at the next senate meeting draft a joint resolution to include UNF student priorities, I can
work with you all on that. I will send that information all out to you.
Legislative Branch Reports
a. Constitution and Statutes Committee – Chairman Caleb Grantham (3 minutes)
- Thank you to everyone who attended senator orientation. Last meeting we had two items, one was a title
3 revision and one was for absence policy. They were both tabled, and will be brought back next
Monday. Our time has been moved to 6:15 in the JES.
b. Budget and Allocation Committee – Chairman Blake Kennedy (3 minutes)
- We are doing deliberations on Friday; I encourage you all to be there. The B&A committee has the
power to break it all down, and then it will be coming to senate. Email me before if you are coming.
*shows account totals on screen*. We had 4 travel requests that came through our committee last week,
they were all approved. We also had 2 special requests that came to our committee and approved
unanimously, which is coming to you tonight. We switched committee time to 6:00.
o Senator Kontol: What time are the deliberations? - 9:30AM in the Chambers.
c. Government Oversight – Chairwoman Amanda Wollam (3 minutes)
- We had an emergency meeting before this meeting. We had 3 people come through, elections
commissioner, associate justice, and the director of club alliance. My committee time is moving to
5:30PM. I wanted to let you know that senator Gomez and I have been working on some volunteer
opportunities, we want to do 1 a month. It is not mandatory, but we are just trying to put a footprint in
the community. Let me know if you have any volunteer opportunities.
d. University and Student Affairs – Chairwoman Leah Melquist (3 minutes)
- Thank you all who came to senator orientation. My committee was move to 7:15 in the chambers.
Osprey voice starts tomorrow; we only have 14 people have signed up. We have a new system online to
sign up. *shows the website on screen* If you have any questions please talk to me after this. Please go
on tonight and submit your slot. A shift for Osprey Voice is only 1 hour. *shows osprey voice questions
on screen*. For new senators the B&A office has the iPad for you to checkout. If you could, please
come back up and check it back in. The polos have been ordered.
e. Senate President Chase Baker (5 minutes)
- Thank you to everyone who came to senator orientation. Your job here is to learn, the change here on
campus happens in this room. Take it seriously, step up and have fun.
XIII.
Unfinished Business
a. Legislations considered for 1st Reading
b. Simple and Joint Resolutions on 1st Reading
c. Legislations considered for 2nd Reading
d. Simple and Joint Resolutions on 2nd Reading
XIV.
New Business
a. Simple and Joint Resolutions on 1st Read
b. Legislation on 1st Read
i. SB-15S-2830 Title III Revisions
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XV.
ii. SB-15S-2831 Title V Reform
c. Simple and Joint Resolution on 2nd Read
d. Legislation considered for 2nd Read
i. SB-15S-2828 SG Exec Nature Trails
President Turner: This will enhance ECO adventure. It is a very successful and growing program that
Student Government funds. A lot of this equipment will be replacing existing broken equipment.
Director Costa: A lot of our canoes are 20 years old. We keep repairing those ourselves. We constantly
repair broken equipment. A lot of students have come back with scrapes and cutes from broken canoes.
It is getting to the point where we can’t repair. We are growing constantly. We are constantly training
staff, only student’s work at ECO adventure. Our gear checkout area, we have 11 canoes 22 surfboards,
12 tents, 16 sleeping bags. With the population of UNF, we are always out of gear. I don’t like turning
people away. We do trips year round, locally and out of state.
Vice President Brady: $20,000 looks a lot, but we will be getting 130 new pieces equipment. It is giving
ECO adventure that next level.
o Senator Melquist: With all of this new stuff, will this be replacing or just adding? Would the
things you would be getting rid of or will you be donating? - It is about 50/50 of replacing and
adding to it. We do want to donate that equipment.
o Senator Brown: How will this affect the storage unit? - Over break we expanded our storage. We
are doing the best we can with that. At one point we will need a new building. We also plan on
using the Student Wellness Complex storage units.
o Senator Brown: Do you have a certain time frame for this to be available to students? - It
depends on size and shipping, but probably middle semester.
 Senator Rader: I move to approve SB-15S-2828. Second. Discussion.
 Senator Kennedy: I move for unanimous consent. Second. All in favor. Moved.
Executive Appointments
a. Elections Commissioner
- Bradley Johnson: I am a 4th year student. I haven’t been a senator for very long, but I know what we do
up here is incredible. When President Turner approached me with the idea, I came up with a lot of ideas
with the positon.
o Senator Melquist: Can you tell us some of your ideas? - My ideas center around on what we have
available to us. The table in the Student Union where elections where happening, there were no
signs pointing to the tables saying vote here. The past Elections Commissioner didn’t use the
money to advertise. My ideas center around getting people to come vote.
o Senator Ascanio: For the election code, I was wondering if you were planning on changing
anything to the elections code? - I did read it a lot, I am proud of what Commissioner Rains did
to it. I do believe we can only expand and build off of what we have.
o Senator Akers: Do you believe voter apathy is an issue? - I think that is a big problem. People
that are dead set on being uninvolved aren’t going to change their mind. But I know there are a
lot of people in the middle of that. My plan is to get it out there and to capture the middle
ground voters.
o Senator Melquist: A lot of students who vote, they don’t know who they are voting for do you
have any ideas on how to inform the students? - I have a lot of ideas getting platforms. If the
parties were advertised on platforms, in the spinnaker or in the rotunda whatever it may be.
 Senator Kontol: Motion to confirm Bradley Johnson as the Elections Commissioner.
Second. Discussion.
 Senator Melquist: I move for unanimous consent. Second. All in favor. Moved.
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b. Associate Justice
Elizabeth Avilla: I am aspiring to go law school. I volunteered in the judicial branch and fell in love how
it reflected the actual Supreme Court. I would really appreciate the opportunity to serve school.
 Senator Gloster: Motion to approve Elizabeth Avilla for Associate Justice. Second.
Discussion.
 Senator McCulskey: I move for unanimous consent. Second. All in favor.
Moved.
c. Director of Club Alliance
Katie Jackson: I am majoring in Public Relations. I started off in Osprey Productions and moved into
Club Alliance as the assistant director. I am very passionate about marketing and funding.
 Senator Kontol: Motion to approve Katie Jackson for Club Alliance Director. Second.
Discussion.
 Senator Galligan: I Move for unanimous consent. Second. All in favor. Moved.
*Chief Justice Jaeger swears in new executive positons*
XVI.
XVII.
XVIII.
Announcements
- Elections Commissioner Johnson: I would like to get some ideas for elections, so let me know if you are
interested.
- Senator Kontol: there is a small local mission in North Carolina over spring break, if you are looking
- Senate President Baker: Anyone interested in helping with volunteering let Chairwoman Wollam know.
- Senate President Baker: Let me know what you all thought about Senator Orientation.
Final Roll Call – Senate President Pro-Tempore Caleb Grantham
- Quorum is reestablished with 31 voting members.
Adjournment
- Meeting is adjourned at 7:51PM
Minutes taken by: Leah Tolisano, Senate Secretary.