Eastern Connecticut State University
83 Windham Street, Willimantic, CT 06226 Phone: 860-465-0099
Student Government Association
General Board Meeting
October 28th, 2013
Present:
Executive Board: P. Bjornstad (President), A. Bullard (Vice President), M. Hicks
(BAM), B. Rice (Treasurer), Z. Yeager (Secretary)
Advisors: C. Ambrosio, M. Delaney
Senators: J. Ahern, E. Benoit, A. Burns, V. Cosma, K. Cusano, A. DelValle, E. Drouin,
D. Dykstra, A. Fiducia, M. Fournier, J. Garzone, C. Gosselin, W. Malcolm, E. McDonald,
M. McFallGorman, E. Pelletier, R. Perry, S. Ramsay, J. Reid, M. Styrczula
Meeting called to order at 3:02 PM
1. Acceptance of Minutes for 10/21/13
a. Motion # 19 (A. Bullard, S. Ramsay ) Motion to accept the minutes from
10/21/13 (21-0-0) Motion Carries.
2. President’s Report:
a. One on Ones:
Some people still have not done them. There is a sign up for Thursday.
b. Black Student Union:
Motion # 20 (E. Drouin , E. Pelletier ) Motion to accept the Black Student
Union as an official club at Eastern. (21-0-1) Motion Carries.
c. West Indian Society:
Motion # 21 (M. Hicks, J. Garzone) Motion to accept the revisions to the
West Indian Society Constitution. (23-0-0) Motion Carries.
3. Vice President’s Report:
a. E-Board Update:
We are working on RU1.
b. Committees:
i. Student Issues:
The committee is working on their issues. They want to work with
PR to tweet/Facebook the solved issues. They also want to have a
table in Webb once a month to discuss issues for the students.
ii. Public Relations:
R. Labrie had the idea of promoting SGA by wearing our polos/pep
rally shirt for the day and having the entire Senate wear the same
shirt. E. Drouin will be working with E. Pelletier to coordinate this
day.
iii. Internal:
The internal retreat is next Friday, November 8th. A sign-up sheet
went around to see if Senators were bringing anything.
Eastern Connecticut State University Student Government Association
“Students Serving Students”
iv. BAM:
BAM is busy. The books have been updated and they have $497.95
left to allocate. They’ll be meeting with a new club: The Animal
Rights Club of Eastern, at today’s meeting. M. Hicks reviewed the FRP
process and how it is mandatory for clubs to go in order to get
money. There will be a club poster going into the open space that we
have and he will be advertising this at club council (Thursday at 12
noon)
M. Hicks mentioned the mentor-mentee program and he will be
meeting with the mentees to see where they stand.
4. Treasurer’s Report:
B. Rice has went over the budget and everything that has gone into the wrong
accounts are now going into the correct accounts. General Board will still be
negative, but only -$1160.21. This amount will be replenished with the BAM
rollback.
5. Secretary’s Report:
6. Advisor’s Report:
7. Old Business:
8. New Business:
a. External committees:
E. Pelletier mentioned the academic advising committee. Senate wants to try
to pass a bill to improve advising and the 4 year graduation rate. They are
requiring students with less than 45 credits to go to their professional
advisers and faculty advisers to get the code. The professional advisers
would make sure you get your general education requirements, while the
faculty adviser makes sure you get your major requirements. Some Senators
mentioned that they feel this is a hassle to register. Undeclared students that
are coming in will be grouped by general major disciplines, such as STEM
(Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) classes, social sciences, or
education. Undeclared students will pick a discipline, but it will now be
called exploratory. Some examples are: Exploratory with arts/humanities
and exploratory with STEM. It was asked if students can switch later, and the
answer is yes. You would take classes early on within the discipline and then
you can declare a major later within the discipline if you are exploratory.
This makes sure students with an interest take classes related to their
discipline, and can choose later on what they want to officially major in. This
will all start in Fall 2014, if passed.
9. Open Floor:
a. Dates to Remember:
i. Friday, November 8th, Internal Retreat, SGA Suite, 5 PM
ii. Thursday, November 14th, President’s Breakfast, PDR, 7 AM
iii. Thursday, November 21st, Town Gown, Johnson Room, 6 PM
b. ConnPIRG:
W. Allen and a ConnPIRG representative, Rachel, discussed ConnPIRG. They
are a non-profit group working to solve real social problems and achieving
solutions. Some examples include: global warming and textbook rip-offs.
i. They helped over 5000 students register to vote and passed a
mattress recycling bill as well. W. Allen is looking to start a chapter
here on campus. They are non-partisan, so they do not affiliate with
a political party. W. Allen is working on healthcare with students
currently.
ii. ConnPIRG currently has funded chapters with UCONN Storrs, Trinity,
and UCONN Greater Hartford.
iii. They do not have an idea how much funding would be needed for
Eastern, however it is typically $8-$10 per semester for each
student, however the fee can be waived if students choose to do so. If
we were to fund them, it would not come from SGA’s budget, but
would be added to the student fee or student bill. The money given
would be used for a trained professional to work with students on
the issues that arise.
iv. S. Ramsay asked the difference between ConnPIRG and just student
leaders. ConnPIRG has professional staff and combine it with
activism and idealism of the students.
v. J. Reid asked about the professional staff backgrounds. They are a
diverse group that has professional staff from many different
backgrounds of different majors that want to help assist.
c. Eastern Conservatives-Libertarians:
The club is having a Wings & Politics event with College Democrats in SC
Room 107 at 7 PM on Wednesday, 10/30/13. Some topics to be covered are
the increasing debt ceiling, the affordable health care act, and the race
between Rand Paul John McCain.
Meeting adjourned at 3:35 PM