Eastern Connecticut State University
83 Windham Street, Willimantic, CT 06226 Phone: 860-465-0099
Student Government Association
General Board Meeting
April 7th, 2014
Present:
Executive Board: P. Bjornstad (President), A. Bullard (Vice President), M. Hicks
(BAM), K. Chrzanowska (Treasurer), Z. Yeager (Secretary)
Advisors: C. Ambrosio, M. Delaney
Senators: J. Ahern, E. Benoit, V. Cosma, E. Drouin, D. Dykstra, A. Fiducia, M.
Fournier, J. Garzone, C. Gosselin, M. Kandemir, E. McDonald, M. McFallGorman, E. Pelletier, R. Perry, J. Reid, R. Rivera, M. Silver, M. Styrczula
Guests: R. Labrie
Meeting called to order at 3:01 PM
1. Acceptance of Minutes for 03/31/14
a. Motion # 57 (E. Pelletier, J. Reid) Motion to accept the minutes from
03/31/14 (20-0-0) Motion Carries.
2. President’s Report:
a. Laptop Kiosk:
i. P. Bjornstad recommended that we move forward without polling
the students due to time constraints with the end of the semester
approaching
ii. M. McFall-Gorman asked about the location. The library is the
most academic place on campus where it would get the most use.
iii. M. Silver says the surveys are not required because IT and the
librarians both note that we need them. E. Drouin mentions that
students would approve of it because it is a new piece of
technology.
iv. M. Hicks mentioned that resources get cut with less funding, so
this kiosk would help bridge the gap.
v. J. Ahern mentioned that getting iPads for it would be useful
because they recently made Microsoft Office available.
vi. M. Kandemir believes the kiosk is not useful. We should spend
more money on actual computers instead of a kiosk. IT brought up
the point of the librarians having difficulty with managing the
current laptop rental system. K. Chrzanowska believes this is a
better safety measure that can help them better manage.
Eastern Connecticut State University Student Government Association
“Students Serving Students”
vii. R. Labrie suggested that we give a survey at our “Bucket List”
event. P. Bjornstad mentioned that this only reaches a few
students, but an online survey would reach more.
viii. A. Bullard said a survey would need to be live this week, closed
next week, and to look at the information to vote on in about two
weeks.
ix. R. Perry asked if the kiosk will still exist without our support. It
will not.
x. Motion # 58 (J. Reid, R. Rivera) Motion to spend no more than
$35,467 from Reserves on a 12-Bay Laptop Kiosk. (20-1-0)
Motion Carries.
b. Elections:
Everyone should be advertising elections the best they can.
c. Cleaning Campaign:
P. Bjornstad thanked everyone for attending.
d. Etiquette Dinner:
Office of Internships & Career Development reached out to us to cosponsor this event on Wednesday, April 30th. To become better
comfortable in dining situations for professional settings. They want us to
co-sponsor it. AMA usually funds it.
i. Motion # 59 (M. McFall-Gorman, M. Kandemir) Motion not to
exceed $500 to co-sponsor the Etiquette Dinner with The Center
for Internships & Career Development. (21-0-0) Motion Carries.
3. Vice President’s Report:
a. Legislator Visit:
A representative from the Higher Ed Committee will be attending our
meeting next Monday. E-mail questions to A. Bullard if you would like to
ask him. Don’t come late. Dress appropriately for the occasion, so do not
wear jeans.
b. Election Promotion:
Applications close on Friday. Each committee head will be assigning their
members a list of clubs to go speak to. A. Bullard recommended making
personal connections in order to get more people to run. M. Hicks
mentioned that if each person gets one person to run, there will be
contested elections, and a better student senate with better leaders.
c. Committees
i. Student Issues:
R. Perry gave the update for Student Issues on behalf of E.
McDonald. There was not a good showing at the Campus Safety
Session regardless of our advertising. P. Bjornstad said that it was
expected, but still disappointing. M. Delaney suggested doing it at
the beginning of the next academic year. M. McFall-Gorman
suggested targeting faculty and staff as opposed to just students.
This would motivate more students to go. E. Drouin suggested it
be a requirement for Freshmen to attend, similar to the Fire Safety
Session and the Library Session. J. Ahern suggested talking about
this during our first meeting next year.
ii. Public Relations:
Fliers to promote the Bucket List event were handed out. K. Mines
talked with the PR committee at their previous meeting. She had
ideas to promote SGA better including quarter sheets on what
SGA’s purpose is at the bucket list event and at the voting party. It
was also recommended that someone give a short speech about
what SGA does at the club/organization banquet. M. Hicks said we
could give a quick speech on what SGA does but that day is truly
about the clubs, so we would need to keep ours terse. In addition,
next year SGA will contact the FYI program to have Senators go to
the classes and give a quick presentation.
iii. Internal:
The Internal Banquet is on April 24th. The food has been ordered
and committee members are working on the centerpieces. The
invitations to the Club & Organizations Banquet have been sent
out to all clubs.
Campaigning also begins next week. Guidelines for elections will
be available at the next General Board meeting.
iv. BAM:
FRPs close on Thursday 4/10/14. Not many have been received
yet, so additional reminder e-mails will be sent out.
The committee members of BAM have sent out personal e-mails to
each club inviting them to the banquet. The deadline was short
however, so an additional e-mail will be sent out to remind clubs.
4. Treasurer’s Report:
Nothing to report.
5. Secretary’s Report:
Nothing to report.
6. Advisor’s Report:
7. Old Business:
8. New Business:
9. Open Floor:
a. Best Buddies:
C. Gosselin mentioned that the Dance-A-Thon went well however
members of SGA said that they were interested and did not show support
by attending. J. Ahern brought up the idea of having a donation can in the
SGA suite, but mentioned that we watch what we commit to because it
was a very busy day for SGA with the Cleaning Campaign and retreat.
b.
J. Reid brought up the idea of IT no longer fixing personal laptops.
c. President’s Breakfast:
The next President’s Breakfast is on April 24th at 7 AM in Hurley Hall.
Meeting adjourned.