University of North Florida Student Senate
Senate Meeting Minutes – October 11th 2013 – 1:00 PM – Senate Chambers
I.
Call to Order
Meeting is called to order at 1:11 pm.
II.
Pledge of Allegiance – Sen. Collin Waychoff
III.
Invocation – Sen. Star Caudio
IV.
Roll Call – Senate President Pro-Tempore Kaitlin Ramirez – sgaspt@unf.edu
Quorum is established with 31 voting members
V.
Approval of Minutes
Motion from Sen. Anderson to approve the minutes. Second. No objections. Moved.
VI.
Approval of Agenda
Motion from Sen. Caudio to add Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers to Fiscal Requests. Second. No
objection. Moved
Sen. Caudio – the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers came before B&A but they were unable to give
a full presentation so I want to give them that opportunity.
Sen. President Brady – The form has been signed by 8 senators so we will hear this.
Motion from Sen. Caudio to approve the agenda as amended. Second. No objections. Moved.
VII.
Recognition of Students Seeking Appointment
None.
VIII.
Student Remarks
None.
IX.
Guest Speakers
None.
X.
Judicial Branch Report
a. Chief Justice – Alex Goetz (sgajc@unf.edu) (5-minutes)
XIV.
Executive Agency Reports: (3-minutes each)
a. Osprey Productions – John Chwalisz opdir@unf.edu
Please pardon my absence last senate. I was with my staff, as well as the Chief of Staff, in Chattanooga for
the National Association of Campus Activity conference. We won a total of 5 awards: 4 in graphics for best
theme, best banner, best item, and best video, and 1 for the best educational session which was led by my
self. We’ve started October off with a bang. We showed Despicable Me 2, Rocky Horror Picture Show as
well as Battle of the Bands – all of which had great attendance. Next week we have Laser Tag from 7-11pm
in the Student Union ballrooms. It’ll be set up like Disney with a line for people to wait in. Next Wednesday
we’re showing The Conjuring. And lastly, we’ve announced our fall concert. It will be November 1 at
7:00pm with Lupe Fiasco and Manchester Orchestra. Also, Fort Stories, the winner from the Battle of the
Bands, will be opening the show. The show is free for UNF students and $15 for non-students. Tickets will
be on sale October 11th.
b. Club Alliance – Brett Weisman sgacluba@unf.edu
To start off Club Fest was amazing; the numbers were huge. A lot of senators were there as well. It’d be
great if you could come out to the next one in the spring. Also, club fairs are still happening every Thursday.
And, our President’s Lunch is coming up on October 25.
XI.
Executive Branch Reports
a. Attorney General – Paige Lehman sgaag@unf.edu (3-minutes)
None.
b. Treasurer – Joe Turner sgasbt@unf.edu (3-minutes)
None.
c. Vice President – Billy Namen sgavpres@unf.edu (3 minutes)
I would like to commend both agencies for their hard work these past few months. It’s remarkable to work
with all of them. The Jags will be coming this Wednesday from 10:00-1:00 during Market Days. The deal with
them still stands, and with all the other initiatives we’re at the same status I discussed from last senate.
d. President – Carlo Fassi sgapres@unf.edu (5-minutes)
Wednesday, I attend the BOG facilities conference in Tampa, which reviewed the $377 million capital
projects of putting buildings around the state of Florida. UNF President Delaney originally had land
acquisition on the Northeast area of campus to purchase, but we have shifted priorities to renovate buildings
3 and 4, which I believe are Skinner North and Skinner South, located next to buildings 1 and 2 with the
fountain right outside the Biology building. We are looking to add a 3rd floor to the building, and making
classrooms a little more new. These buildings were last renovated in 1970s. Some other projects affecting
UNF are as follows: the University of Florida is requesting $20 million to create a joint state university system
library storage facility. This will free up a lot of space across the state at all schools for study spaces in
libraries. The provost and deans across the state are proposing this idea. It would be built at UF and store all
duplicative volumes from UNF and from universities across the state so we’re all not carrying the same
volumes. This will digitalize information and make it available to find online. It’s estimated to store 5.5
million books and, just at the University of Florida, this will free up to 29,000 square feet of study space. We
do not have those numbers here for UNF, but we are looking forward to the addition study space.
I also have the report for the Judicial Branch: we have been interviewing candidates for 2 vacancies within the
judicial branch. Please forward anyone you know who may be interested my way. All the intitiavets that were
posted at the SG convention are being worked on by my staff & my executive cabinet.
Sen. Caudio – When does the Judicial branch meet?
President Fassi – The Judicial Branch meets on Mondays, but they have multiple meetings throughout the
week with it be for parking citation appeals, or to review any judicial information.
XII.
Legislative Cabinet Reports
a. Constitution and Statutes Committee – Chairwoman Kaitlin Ramirez (sgacsc@unf.edu)
If any of you see any problems with the Constitution or with the Statutes please schedule an
appointment with me or shoot me an email; I’d love to address any issue(s) that you see.
b. Budget and Allocations Committee – Chairman Fransua Estrada (sgabac@unf.edu)
Senate President Brady – Our B&A Chair can’t be here this week so, just to let you all know what
happened in B&A last week: 8 travel requests came forward in the committee. We have a lot of
requests coming through, and we’ll be hearing one of those today because not all members of the
organization were able to be there for the presentation; which is why you’re hearing them today in
senate rather than in B&A.
c. Elections and Appointments Committee – Chairwoman Emily Antworth (sgaesac@unf.edu)
If you don’t know the sample ballot is posted in rotunda if you want to take a look at it. Other than
that, elections are coming up soon so I have a list for you guys to sign up for polling stations. If you
are running in the election, please don’t sign up; if you are not running, please sign up for multiple
slots. You have to do 4 hours and you will be assigned 3 absentee points if you don’t do it. There are
2 locations so please take note of the date & the location.
d. Student Advocacy Committee – Chairman Aaron Anderson (sgasac@unf.edu)
Thank you all for helping out with the new Osprey Voice. It did not go as smoothly as I would have
liked it to have gone, but you did a great job helping out; I really appreciate it. We’ll be looking at
something else in the future, probably electronically and even working on maybe some iPads. We will
get back out into the crowds and not so much the tabling – it was hard to get everyone to do it and
the rain and cold didn’t help. Thank you all very much for participating; I’ll have the results by 5pm
today. You need those time stamped and turned into the rotunda. If you were able to get 35 at the
table that’s great, but otherwise there were paper Osprey Voices for you to fill out for them. Again,
they’re collecting them at the rotunda; timestamp them and put your name on them. Thank you very
much.
e. University Affairs Committee – Chairman Justin Turner (sgauac@unf.edu)
Senate President Brady – Our UAC Chair could not be here today so we will have an update next
senate
f.
Senate President Christopher Brady (sgasp@unf.edu)
Thanks for being here I know a lot of you have been sick recently. Thanks to all of you who emailed
me to schedule a meeting for availability. I had some unexpected personal things come up and was
not able to schedule those meetings since the last senate meeting but I will be in contact with you
starting next week for those meetings; we’ll do a bill writing workshop, where you want to go with
senate, what you see yourself doing in the future, and going from that. Thank you for those of you
that did that; if you haven’t sent me your availability please do so as soon as possible.
XIII.
Judicial Appointments
None.
XV.
Fiscal Requests
a. Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers – Sen. Chris Baker
Sen. Baker – The Society of Professional Engineers did not get to fully represents themselves last committee.
Please hear them out and ask good questions. Thank you.
Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE) – My name is Margarita Hernandez and I am the President
of the chapter this year and these are my e-board members: My name is David Bargus and I hold the
webmaster position this year, and I was the President last year; good afternoon I am the Treasurer; good
afternoon my name is David Castro and I am the Vice President of the Society.
Margarita Hernandez – One thing that I wanted to point out was that we were really unprepared last time, and
it was my fault due to work scheduling. But we are able to present today in front of you guys. What we wanted
to talk about today is outlined in this presentation. Whenever we looked at our mission statement, it was the
ability to be diverse among campus, the ability to go outside the campus and reach out to other organizations
were one of the main things. The SHPE vision is also on here. One of main things is to reach out to STEM
degrees, meaning we focus on the science, technology, engineering, and math degrees; we all know that’s one
of the main things the US has a minority in. We want to increase STEM degrees. We started as a club back in
the fall of 2012, and we were acknowledged by the national organization with only 5 members. In spring 2013,
we increased our national membership to 25. One of the main things we wanted to outline is that we’ve been
really involved on and outside of campus; we have outreach programs, we’re involved in fundraisers, we do
Relay for Life and Dance Marathon, and we also do other things like working on chapter development. One of
the things we’d like to talk about is that a lot of students have the ability to improve themselves; they can
improve in the professional manner or in education. We were able to get 5 people to go to a conference last
year; 80% got a great response back, some got interviews, some got the enthusiasm of becoming a bigger
person. We’re not just a club towards the Hispanic population but for everyone in general. The cost for
conference per person is about $250-270 for travel. This year, our national conference is in Indianapolis.
Whoever received the packet, on p. 5 are other comparisons the looked at for how much it will be. With that it
was estimated to be about $500. We looked at other prices as well until the cost per person was down to $250.
The main reason why it is so pricey is because it includes the hotel stay. A lot of prices only include the
conference and you have to book the hotel separate. The awesome thing about this conference is it books the
hotel for us. The main thoughts of going to this conference in 2013 is not only for the career fair offered but
it’s an opportunity for students to get students the extent of what it means to be a leader. In order to create a
chapter or anything to do with employment you need to show skills to do it; we can get that through the
organization. We suggested 5 people because those are the main 5 e-board members involved the most this
year. UNF will gain the following: we do a lot of outreach events. One of the main things we did was being
involved with ACE, sponsored by Haskell. For those who do not know, Architectural Construction and
Engineering (ACE) is a local engineering firm that reaches out to public schools and tries getting students to
be more involved in STEM degrees. We have kids work on projects in class with actual structuralists, engineers
and architects; we want UNF students to be involved outside of the university and involved in public school.
With expanding horizons there are workshops and partnerships between the School of Engineering &
Johnson & Johnson; through Vistacon there is a work outreach to younger girls to get them to lean more
towards STEM degrees with hands on projects. The students work on projects and go to monthly meetings.
The main chapter does a “Sub-Jr.” chapter, which is sponsored by the national organization and sponsored by
students. What we do is we go out and create chapters in high school so it’s the same club we have hear but
we reach out to students and influence them to come to not only a university such as UNF but we want to
influence them to come into STSEM degrees. We are not only putting the UNF name out there, but we’re also
engaging in more cultural influences and intellectual growth. Some recognitions are: We just started, barely, last
year, and have been able to keep up membership; we have a regional leadership retreat, with UF, FSU UCF,
USF, and they’re under a category called region 7. They give out awards based on performance. Last year we
won an award for being the small chapter here at UNF. We’re being represented her as a whole, and within the
School of Engineering. We received the Innovator Award; one member got the best idea for increasing
membership. The groups was presented with a case study as well as a certain situational problem, and were
given the task to create a budget and present that to the chamber there after the regional conference. I myself
represented UNF and was awarded first place. We got the opportunity to be on a national magazine that was
distributed throughout the U.S. We just got acknowledged within the national region as a chapter, so for us to
have a symbol of UNF in there with UCF, UF, these other schools that have a huge population, compared to
us being such a small university, that has a chapter that represents UNF is really big. The conference is 4 days
& 3 nights from October 30 to November. 2. One of the things we want to point out is that we did do a
bunch of fundraisers; we did some with California Pizza Kitchen, with a local organization called Southside
Caliente; we also got more students involved to get a percentage of it. We also collaborated with the School of
Engineering and also did a Dominoes fundraiser and sold t-shirts as well. Overall we fundraised about $1,000.
Sen. Pino – You said that was all the fundraising from last year?
Margarita Hernandez – I think of it in terms of the academic year, as in spring. Since 2013 started, that’s how
much we have fundraised.
Sen. Brown – Is that amount for this conference this conference?
Margarita Hernandez – Yes. We fundraised as much funds as possible. In the fall semester I told them if we
were able to attend we’d find a way to contribute and reimburse. This equals the funds from this year and last
year. In the spring, we received reimbursements from the School of Engineering who, in return, gave us partial
amount. On pg. 4, the total amount needed is about $3,600 and the amount we’re requesting is $2,500. We
want to be able to pay for some of it out of other funds as well.
Motion from Sen. Caudio to approve the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers for a total of $2,465.
Second. No objections.
Sen. Caudio – I see that SHPE not only is working towards bettering the UNF community by inspiring other
students in student programs but also by reaching out to the community. I believe they offer something unique
to UNF and I hope they get to go to this conference and bring back positive things.
Roll call vote. Passes 24-0-8.
XVI.
New Business
a. Legislation considered for 1st Reading
b. Senate and Joint Resolutions on 1st Reading
c. Legislation considered for 2nd Reading
d. Senate and Joint Resolutions on 2nd Reading
i. JR-13F-2717 Declaration of Support for Veteran In-State Tuition – Sen. Waychoff
President Carlo Fassi – I’d ask that the senate table this resolution, not because of the lack of support
but because the Florida State House actually just filed a companion bill for this for the same legislation
affecting the same outcome. However, they’re going to submit some studies which are gong to show
us more the implications of what this bill would actually incur on the universities. The next committee
meetings for the states legislature isn’t until November 5, and we’ll have a senate meeting before that,
so we’d still have the opportunity to formally endorse this bill. I would just like ot have as much
information as possibl and for whenever we do pass this resolution for it to be as impactful and as
close to the committee in which they pass the bill as possible.
Motion from Sen. Caudio to table JR-13F-2717 to the next Senate meeting. Second. No objections.
No discussion. Roll call vote.
Motion from Sen. Higdon for unanimous consent. Second. No objections. Moved.
XVII. Announcements
Sen. President Brady – Committee meetings are next Friday and Senate will be in 2 weeks.
XIV.
Final Roll Call - Senate President Pro-Tempore Kaitlin Ramirez – sgaspt@unf.edu
Quorum is reestablished with 32 voting members.
XVIII. Adjournment
Meeting is adjourned at 1:39 pm.