University of North Florida Student Senate
Senate Meeting Agenda – June 3rd 2013 – 6:30 PM – Senate Chambers
I.
Call to Order
Meeting called to order at 6:39 pm.
II.
Pledge of Allegiance – Senator Collin Waychoff
III.
Invocation – Senate President Chris Brady
IV.
Roll Call – Senate President Pro-Tempore Kaitlin Ramirez – sgaspt@unf.edu
Quorum is established with 14 voting members.
V.
Approval of Minutes
Motion from Sen. Waychoff to approve last meeting’s minutes. Second.
Objection from Attorney General Lehman to make note that there are no minutes from last meeting.
Motion from Sen. Anderson to table previous minutes. Second. No objections. Moved.
VI.
Approval of Agenda
Motion from Sen. Estrada to strike SB-13SA-2692. Second. No objections. Moved.
Motion from Sen. Estrada to approve the agenda as amended. Second.
Objection from Sen. Anderson to add to the agenda. Sen. Estrada rescinds motion.
Motion from Sen. Anderson to add Danny Powers to Judicial Appointments. Second. No objections. Moved.
Motion from Sen. Morrison to approve agenda as amended. Second. No objections. Moved.
VII.
Recognition of Students Seeking Appointment
Alexandria Brown, political science major, senior, seeking general senate seat.
Clarence Ganyers, political science major, senior, seeking general senate seat.
VIII.
Student Remarks
John Raider, political science major, student government president at FSCJ Deerwood Center – I am curious
to see how this student government runs and so far I’m liking what I see. Thank you.
IX.
Guest Speakers
None.
X.
Judicial Branch Report
a. Chief Justice – Alex Goetz (sgajc@unf.edu) (5-minutes)
For the status of the branch right now we have five active justices, one on leave of absence for the
summer, and one person, Danny Powers, coming up for appointment tonight. I had the chance to
interview last semester and be with him again recently with President Fassi, and I would highly
endorse him for a role in the judicial branch. We have three openings, so we would like to get those
filled as soon as possible.
What happened last week, we had a request for a judicial review on another constitutional
referendum, and another one we decided that slipped through the cracks. What happened with this
one was this was the graduate seat constitution referendum and it passed through Committee went to
Senate and it was inable, went back to Committee in which change were made and it was passed
again. And because there was a transition period, somehow it was forgotten about until Fall election
when it was put on the ballot, and was voted on. In our findings, we reviewed all the minutes and
voice recordings from the senate meetings, along with Attorney General Lehman, and there was no
mention of the bill, nothing in the agenda minutes or anything. With almost complete certainty we
were able to agree that it was not done correctly. What’s going to happen to this bill is because it has
been a year and a half we recommend it go back to committee and essentially start from scratch, in
case there are new changes that need to be made, instead of it coming straight to you.
XIV.
Executive Agency Reports: (3-minutes each)
a. Osprey Productions – Director John Chwalisz - opdir@unf.edu
Good evening Senators, I put my contacts in today so I can actually see the notes that I have. My
report’s pretty simple. You guys have a senate next week so I’ll provide more details for summer B
next Senate. But we do have summer B kick-off week, and as you guys know we always have a lot of
volunteers, but that is not true during the summer. We have five events during the first week of
Summer B kick-off week, and we need all your help. It goes from June 24th -June 29th and there’s an
event about every day. We also have the help of Campus Life as well, so if you want to help out
come by my office and you can come talk to me, Zahni, Nick, or Stormy and we’d be happy to help.
b. Club Alliance – Director Brett Weismann - sgacluba@unf.edu
We are jut preparing for our general meeting on Friday, at 11:00 am, and preparing for Club Fest and
Week of Welcome. Week of Welcome is the first week of school and Club Fest is September 26th.
We’re still trying to get two coordinators, our events and communications coordinator. If anyone
knows anyone let me know.
XI.
Executive Branch Reports
a. Attorney General – Paige Lehman sgaag@unf.edu (3-minutes)
Hope that you’re having a relaxing summer break. I’m just going to reiterate what Chief Justice
Goetz said about the CR hopefully going back to CSC Committee. It is my recommendation that the
committee consider combining that old bill with the new CR bill they are currently working on.
Since the last time we spoke I was re-organizing the constitution and statues to make sure that all of
the bills that have passed through Senate have been added appropriately. I am currently working with
all of the agencies and branches on their policies and procedures. The goal is to have these
accomplished by July 1st, which is the first day of the new fiscal year as well as your next senate
meeting. In the upcoming weeks I will be meeting with each of the senate committee chairs to
discuss any discrepancies or complications in the title and statues. I also want to take this opportunity
to share with you that if you have any questions or concerns or you just want to learn some more
about the constitution and statues, Senate Pro-Tempore Ramirez and myself are always more than
welcome, please feel free to ask us.
b. Treasurer – Joseph Turner sgasbt@unf.edu (3-minutes)
We have a Title VIII revision bill I have been telling you about since I got this position. I have
coordinated with pretty much everyone up here who would be relevant. So that is before you, and
will be going before you at B&A in about two weeks. I’ve also met with a couple representatives
from clubs about club sports funding, and I’ve talked to recreation about that and they have an
exciting new process that hopefully I will get back in here to talk about once Fall rolls around, so you
all can be informed about your constituents on that. Also, we have a special request coming down
the pipeline for the beginning of the next fiscal year. It is a free printing special request on behalf of
the executive branch so stay tuned for more details on that.
c. Vice President – William Namen sgavpres@unf.edu (3 minutes)
Hope everyone’s summer is going well. I got a couple things I’m going to throw at you guys tonight.
I have a lot of things but I don’t want to bore you guys to death. One thing that’s been going on that
I think you all will be really excited about I the Jaguar ticket deal that we did last year. Good news,
after a very fun meeting with the Jaguars two weeks ago with Treasurer Turner, as well as Business
Manager Rivera and Christine Malik, we were able to secure the deal once again this coming year.
The best part about it is that they wanted to do more tickets with us. This year we will have 500
tickets per seven games. I’m pretty excited about that and this coming week I will be meeting with
Joe and the tailgater’s parking to secure that again.
Besides the Jaguar tickets, the other thing I’m working on is the volunteer center. As you all know
the Volunteer Center is currently inactive, after several reviews from the last administration. After
several discussions with the treasurer and the student body president, we have decided to push it and
reinstate it as an online forum, which we will be adding an addition to our website where all students
looking for volunteer opportunities can go on the website to the forum where they can see all the
attached and listed organizations that are looking for volunteer opportunities. The students can
simply go through them and contact those organizations. In addition we will attach a database where
they can track volunteer hours, I think that’s one of the more important things on their. I think this
will help the students a lot with their volunteer opportunities.
Sen. Anderson – Has there been any research done as far as who’s going to manage the database or is
that going to be something of an in-house?
Vice President Namen – what we are planning on doing is creating a scholarship position under the
lend-a-wing pantry and that scholarship position will be a coordinator who’s sole focus will be the
new volunteer center online.
d. President – Carlo Fassi sgapres@unf.edu (5-minutes)
Thank you Senate President Brady. It’s been a while since I’ve spoken in front of this room. Couple
things that I’m working on with our Vice President with regards to Week of Welcome, we’re
potentially adding a new event to Week of Welcome. Basically finishing up the week with something
a little more, something comparable to the Osprey Tailgate Classic. We are also, during Week of
Welcome, going to have our Jaguar ticket sales, as Vice President Namen mentioned, however with
the Jaguars ticket sale we’ll be working on something very much filed after what political parties in
the United States have; when they have their conventions, before elections take place on what their
platform is going to be, what it is that they will be focusing on if elected. Given the set of
circumstances with regards to this past election we feel it’s important that we engage our students
with regards to what it is we’re working on this year. I have assembled a committee within the
Executive Branch, very much football oriented but I have an offense committee I have a defense
committee I have a special teams committee, and this offense committee is working on
brainstorming future initiatives and actually implementing these initiatives. Defense works with all
state-level issues and controlling messaging within SG, and the special team is really advocacy styled
and we have members of the senate on those committees as well. For those of you who don’t know,
I have been elected the chairman of the Florida Student Association, so now I am the student
representative on the Florida Board of Governors. I will be transitioning a lot of my internal
responsibilities to Vice President Namen, and I have full faith that Vice President will use all
executive authority for the best interest of the students, and with those responsibilities I have been
working on planning a conference for the other student body presidents in the state. Our first Board
of Governors meeting, which I’ll be attending, it’s actually a conference call so I’ll be in my office on
June 10th, a week from today, for a conference call with Board of Governors. We have our June 18th
meeting which the biggest meeting of the year where we review whatever differential tuition increase
requests are made, all student fees will be on the agenda, our CNTF fees, and any new policies the
universities are implementing as well as establishing the preeminent universities and our online
university at UF. Besides that, one of the major things we’re focusing on for this week and next
week is finalizing the SG Retreat where your legislative cabinet, your legislative leadership will be
attending along with executive and judicial branch as well.
Sen. Anderson – Two part question about that first thing, about adding an event to Week of
Welcome. What’s your target size for that event and is there enough money in the Week of Welcome
budget to allocate additional resources?
President Fassi – Target size has not been determined yet and the budget would be taken potentially
from multiple sources however that hasn’t been determined yet. Again, when this is made available
you’ll know.
XII.
Legislative Cabinet Reports
a. Constitution and Statutes Committee – Chairwoman Kaitlin Ramirez (sgacsc@unf.edu)
Good evening everyone. In my Committee we are amidst revising Title X bill. My committee
members or non-committee members, if any of you are interested in sponsoring either the Title X
bill, which is on Code of Ethics, or the Title XI bill, which is on club funding revision acts, please
shoot me an email, pop into the office. I would love to talk to you, tell you, how bills are written and
hear any of your ideas on these two bills. As our Chief Justice and Attorney General have mentioned
the Constitution and Statues Committee is very busy in revising the constitution and statutes and if I
could hear a motion as per the Chief Justice’s recommendation on the graduate CR to be recalled
back to the CSC committee. And if I may ask for a point of information from Attorney General
Lehman what is the CR name?
Attorney General Lehman – 12S-2583
Motion from Sen. Anderson to recall CR-12S-2583. Second. No objections. No discussion.
Electronic vote.
Motion from Sen. Estrada for unanimous consent. Second. No objections. Moved.
b. Budget and Allocations Committee – Chairman Fransua Estrada (sgabac@unf.edu)
First of all I would like to welcome back Mr. Christopher Brady and Anthony Stevens, hopefully
they’re all ready to come back to work. At our last meeting, At our last committee we had a great
presentation on Southward by our business manager, Angel Rivera, and on our next committee we
will probably, most likely, hopefully, be hearing our first travel request of the next fiscal year. And
also like Treasurer Joe Turner mentioned the Title XIII revisions will most likely be heard on then as
well. And with that I have nothing else to say.
c. Elections and Appointments Committee – Chairwoman Emily Antworth (sgaesac@unf.edu)
None.
d. Student Advocacy Committee – Chairman Aaron Anderson (sgasac@unf.edu)
None.
e. University Affairs Committee – Senator Jennifer Morris
The last UAC meeting notes there are no new business so we just went over thoughts for next year
in terms of the new senator orientation, shadowing cabinet member and increasing senate awareness.
And our next meeting is June 17th at 5:30 pm, and Justin Turner will be back. Thank you.
f. Senate President Christopher Brady (sgasp@unf.edu)
It’s great to be back. I had a great time with our chief of staff in Germany for the past month. We
had some cool, possible initiative ideas from the school we were studying at in Germany. So we’ll be
talking to President Fassi about that. I want to extend a huge round of applause to Ms. Kaitlin
Ramirez for the amount of work she did. Kaitlin had been constantly emailing me letting me know
what she was doing, and honestly I couldn’t have picked anyone better to do my job when I asked
her. I was a little afraid that when I got back I wouldn’t have a job anymore because you guys would
want her to do it instead. She really did a great job, I really appreciate that. You all have probably
noticed that we haven’t had a Senate Secretary. I had someone to fill that position but unfortunately
it fell through. So Kaitlin and I have decided that we are going to open that position for applicants
and we’ll keep posting on the SG page and the appropriate medias within the next week, and then go
from there with that. So if you know anyone who is interested in being our Senate Secretary tell them
to keep their eyes open on the SG media soon. Really glad to be back, I’m really looking forward to
the rest of the summer. Thank you to those of you who are here. I know you could have been doing
fun things over your summer. But I’m glad you chose Senate. I really appreciate that. That’s all I have
to report.
XV.
Fiscal Requests
XVI.
New Business
a. Legislation considered for 1st Reading
i. SB-13SA-2691 Title VIII 2013 Summer Revision
ii. SB-13SA-2692 Free Printing Summer B
iii. SB-13SA-2693 Club Funding Revisions Act
b. Senate and Joint Resolutions on 1st Reading
c. Legislation considered for 2nd Reading
d. Senate and Joint Resolutions on 2nd Reading
XVII. Judicial Confirmation
a. Danny Powers as Associate Justice
William Namen, Vice President – Good evening guys, once again. Like our Senate President said, today we have
Danny Powers who has been selected by myself and President Fassi to be one of the next Justice’s for Alex Goetz.
After reviewing him and going through the interview process he’s shown a lot of characteristics that are important
for a justice, like organization, hard work ethic, passion, a love and ambition to go further and beyond what is
needed. He seems to have a lot of past experiences. He’s very involved in the law coursement and training
programs, which he can talk more about later. This is something that he really and truly wants to do and somebody
that Carlo and me wholeheartedly recognize and really encourage you guys in voting and confirming tonight. I’ll
hand it off to him to let him talk about himself a little bit.
Danny Powers – I can tell you a little about myself. My name is Danny Powers I am currently a sophomore at
UNF with a major in criminal justice, minor in political science. I transferred up here from FAU last year. Back in
my hometown in Coral Springs I was involved in the police department there for about 4 years and fell in love
with the criminal justice system and the way it works, and the way the whole system works and Student
Government kind of offered that up to me and to everyone else up here tonight. I have a pretty decent
understanding of how it works, in terms of local law, state law, federal law; I could see the transition to student
government pretty clearly. So I feel I have a good need and love for this position.
Motion from Sen. Morrison to confirm Danny Powers as an associate justice. Second. No objections. No
discussion. Electronic vote.
One abstention.
Reason for abstaining – I don’t feel like you’re unqualified I just feel like we should know more about you.
Sen. Brady – That’s not a reason to abstain. We will redo the vote.
Electronic vote. Passes 14-0-0
Danny Powers is sworn in as an associate chief justice.
XVIII. Announcements
That concludes all of our business for tonight. Remember we have meetings in two weeks and senate in four
weeks. With that we will go to final roll call.
XIII.
Final Roll Call - Senate President Pro-Tempore Kaitlin Ramirez – sgaspt@unf.edu
Quorum is reestablish with 14 voting members.
XIX.
Adjournment
Meeting is adjourned at 7:08 pm.