University of North Florida Student Senate
Senate Meeting Minutes – January 25th, 2016 – 6:30 PM – 9:30 PM – Senate Chambers
I.
II.
Call to Order
a. Meeting called to order at 6:34PM.
Invocation – Interfaith Center President Clare Stern
III.
Pledge of Allegiance – Sergeant-at-Arms Burton
IV.
Roll Call – Senate President Pro-Tempore Dallas Burke
a. Quorum has been established with 28 voting members.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
Approval of Agenda
a. Senator Lee: Motion to move Parliamentarian Election to Unfinished Business. Second. Adopted.
b. Senator Burke: Motion to add CR-16S-2926 under Legislation on 1st Read. Second. Adopted.
c. Senator Burke: Motion to add SB-16S-2928 under Legislation considered for 1st Read. Second.
Adopted.
d. Senator Burke: Motion to approve the agenda as amended. Second. Adopted.
Approval of Minutes – January 6th, 2016
a. Senator Holbrook: Motion to approve the minutes from January 6th, 2016. Second. Adopted.
Recognition of Students Seeking Appointment
a. Jennifer Lee: English major, Freshman, General Senate Seat
Student Remarks (3 minutes each)
a. Justin Dato – I am the VP Marketing for Presidential Envoys and applications are open currently.
We are an on campus ambassador program that does events for the President and the Alumni
Association. This past I attended the ILI Interfaith seminar and if you are interested in attending one
please let me know.
b. Sami Mims – Starting in February, updates to the Hodges Stadium will be made thanks to the bill
that passed last semester; thank you all for passing that because it shows us
c. Dallas Burke – Our men’s basketball team is currently undefeated in the Atlantic Sun’s Conference.
We broke our own record last night against NITC. FGCU is our closest competitor and we are
playing them this Saturday. Please attend the game this Saturday and support our men’s basketball
team.
d. Warren Butler – Recently over this break I was fortunate enough to travel to Israel and I encourage
you all to apply for it this upcoming year. It was an incredible experience so please do not hesitate in
asking me any questions about my experience.
Guest Speakers
a. Shari Shuman – Vice President of Finance (10 minutes)
a. Thank you all for having me tonight, I act as the Vice President of Finance for the
University and I am in charge of 17 department budgets. We have a total budget of $280
million. The state has provided additional dollars in the past few years to comply with the
“no tuition increase” initiative passed. {The University of North Florida’s budgeting was discussed in
detail.}
i. Senator Jordan: What will the insurance money from the bridge incident be used for
now that the bridge will be demolished? –The money will be used to demolish the
bridge.
ii. Senator Mims: What are the possibilities for getting the funds back for the library
bus stop? –We used to have a north route and a south route. The decision was made
to remove one of the funds to have higher efficiency; instead of having 3 or 4 buses
per route, there are now 7 per one route. We are working on increasing safety around
the library
iii. Senator Jordan: Are there any plans to expand our doctoral program? –We are in the
process of expanding our masters programs and the doctoral programs will expand
as they become more relevant to the society.
iv. Club Alliance President Mease: could you explain where the university’s endowment
fit into the budgeting? –It acts as an investment. Once a year in July there is a
spending policy which takes 1.5% out of that amount.
v. Club Alliance President Mease: With the latest status of fossil fuels, what is the
university doing about our current investments in fossil fuels compared to our
investments in green energy? –The Foundation has looked at the issue and has come
up with a policy
vi. Senator Butler: Do you have a master plan of finances? –Yes, we have protected
ourselves in preventing layoffs compared to other universities. We know we can
survive for another year in case something happens. We are always looking at multiyear budgeting.
vii. Senator Adamson: Will there be any budgeting changes coming into the next
semester and next year?
viii. Pro-Tempore Burke: Is there anything we can do to get more funding for our
university? –Anytime you have an opportunity to get with a governmental leader and
speak on UNF, I would encourage that.
ix. Attorney General Baker: What is the percentage of revenue from parking that goes
back into their expenses? –Their two forms of revenue are citations and tickets.
x. Matthew Dowdie: How self-sustaining are the new initiatives that parking services
has brought? –Very self-sustaining.
xi. Would the university ever consider be transparent in what the endowment is being
invested in? –Some reports are proprietary to the firms that we are investing in.
X.
Office of Elections Report
a. Elections Commissioner Brad Johnson (3 minutes)
i. Declarations are due February 2nd, email me with any questions.
XI.
Judicial Branch Report
a. Chief Justice Ben Jaeger (5 minutes)
i. Last Wednesday we conducted a review on Attorney General Baker’s interpretation. We did
not uphold her decision because of the timeline
1. Senator Thames: Would you
XII.
Executive Branch Reports
a. Osprey Productions – Director Katie Jackson (3 minutes)
i. We are showing Goosebumps this Wednesday at 7 and 9:45. Thursday is our Winter-themed
bingo. We are also having a casino night next week. Please invite your friends to the Comedy
Show on Facebook. Please volunteer for Homecoming , there is a sign-up sheet being
passed around.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
1. Could you please give an estimate of how much the contracts were for the comedy
show? –Approximately $85,000 and we had to pay
Club Alliance – Director Zachary Mease (3 minutes)
i. Our last general body meeting categorized our clubs and will help us in collaborating more
to clubs.
1. Senator Cajuste: Will clubs meet at different times on the same day? –No, they will
be meeting
2. Senator Jordan: Will you be introducing a bill to Senate about the club funding
changes you want to make? –Yes, I do not have a specific date but it is in the works.
Treasurer Cameron Duffy (3 minutes)
i. My presentation of the budget will be this Wednesday at 5PM. Next Monday we have
budget deliberations. You will all be voting on the budget so stay informed.
Attorney General Dana Baker (3 minutes)
i. The bill should be up on 1st Read on February 22nd. The bill about Lend-a-Wing pantry
needs a 2/3 vote. The CR added to 1st read needs a ¾ vote to be added to the ballot.
Vice President Caleb Grantham (3 minutes)
i. The free print initiative has begun this semester, with 25 free prints per student. Please
volunteer for the annual 5K on February 20th. There is a Lend-a-Wing pantry workshop
tomorrow from 11-11:30AM. There is bill up tonight that I fully support that makes the
Lend-a-Wing pantry an agency.
President Hailey Guerra – presented by Vice President Grantham (5 minutes)
i. There is an MLK luncheon on February 18th. The FSA will have a meeting this Friday. There
is an opening on the SAB.
1. Senator Dato: When are SUAB meetings? –There are on Fridays around 2PM or
3PM.
XIII.
Legislative Branch Reports
a. Pro-Tempore/Constitution and Statutes Committee – Chairman Dallas Burke(3 minutes)
i. Right now our committee ideas are being translated into legislation so expect to see it on 1st
Read at the next Senate meeting.
b. Budget and Allocation Committee – Chairman Troy Bottom (3 minutes)
i. Three is a campus wide open forum on February 24th. The special request amount is $89,277
and the travel request amount is
c. Government Oversight – Chairman Elect Vaughn Sayers (3 minutes)
i. I am a philosophy major and I am very excited to give this position everything I have and
more.
d. University and Student Affairs – Chairwoman Cassidy Keefe (3 minutes)
i. Our next Osprey Voice is February 8th-10th. If you have any questions you want seen on the
next OV, please see me after Senate. Round Table will be after our February Osprey Voice.
{January Osprey Voice results were reviewed}
1. Senator Beaucham: How many students were surveyed? -374 students.
e. Senate President Chase Baker (5 minutes)
i. I hope everyone enjoyed our Guest Speaker Ms. Shuman and learned a lot. Please attend
budget deliberations and open forum next week. Thank you to all of those who attended the
ad-hoc committee about P&Ps. Please review the bills on 1st Read for the next Senate
meeting. Please go to the FGCU game on Saturday, you are all campus leaders.
XIV.
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
e. Parliamentarian Election
i. Senator Butler
XV.
New Business
a. Simple and Joint Resolutions on 1st Read
i. JR-16S-2927
b. Legislation on 1st Read
i. CR-16S-2926
ii. SB-16S-2928
c. Simple and Joint Resolution on 2nd Read
d. Legislation considered for 2nd Read
i. SB-16S-2925 Student Union Administration – Senator Jordan
1. This bill works to replace the projection screens.
2. Senator Keefe: Motion to table this bill to our next Senate meeting. Second.
Adopted.
ii. SB-16S-2917 Lend-A-Wing Pantry – Senator Jordan and Attorney General Baker
1. This bill works to adopt the Lend-a-Wing pantry as an executive agency. UNF acts as
a family, leaving no one behind to hunger or lack of necessities, something that the
Lend-a-Wing pantry works to support so it deserves to be an Executive agency.
a. Senator Thames: Where would we talk about the number of hours that the
director or assistant director receives? –That would be something that the
treasurer handles and it would be dependent on the budgeting of the year.
b. Senator Jordan: Motion to approve SB-16S-2917. Second. Discussion. Roll
call vote 26-0-1.
XVI.
Legislative Appointments
a. Matthew Dowdie: My major is Fine Arts and I am a junior. There are many reasons I am seeking
appointment as a Senator. Over the last few months I have gotten to know this campus and this
Student Government. I have gone over our Constitution and Statutes and I believe my experience
through
i. Senator Jordan: Is there anything on campus you would like seen changed or augmented? –
There is very little conveyance between Student Government and students. Students see the
end results of what is done here but the in-between moments. There are a lot of
opportunities to streamline what Student Government is doing that I would love to
ii. Senator Lorenzo: Can you speak more about your previous leadership experience? –Yes, I
served as parliamentarian at my previous school’s student government. I also acted as the
Vice President of a video-gaming club.
iii. Senator Mims: If you were to be appointed tonight, what committee would you serve on and
what could you bring to that committee? –I would like to serve on the Constitution and
Statutes meeting and I currently work as a copying editor so I can bring my experience to
that committee in working on
iv. Senator Jordan: Motion to approve Matthew Dowdie for a General Senate Seat. Second.
Discussion. Roll call vote passes 26-0-2.
b. Michelle Feghali: I am a senior studying business administration and marketing. I know I only have
one semester in Student Government if I were to be appointed but I know I could make an impact.
I would like to serve on the B&A committee because I feel my experience working as an accounting
associate would bring good experience to that committee.
i. Senator Burke: Can you please explain your plans after graduation and how student
government would help that? –I will be taking a gap year off after graduation to get a job
and save up for my MBA. Student government will bring a lot of leadership experience for
me and will also be a great resume addition.
ii. Senator Villavicencio: What did you do on campus with your job? –I was an accounting
associate that focused on auditing.
iii. Senator Villavicencio: Motion to approve Michelle Feghali for a General Senate Seat.
Second. Discussion. Roll call vote passes 21-0-5.
XVII.
XVIII.
XIX.
XX.
Swearing In – Chief Justice Jaeger
Announcements
Final Roll Call – Senate President Pro-Tempore Dallas Burke
a. Quorum has been reestablished with 30 voting members.
Adjournment
a. Meeting adjourned at 8:16PM.
Minutes taken by Farah Azzouz, Senate Secretary