Senate Agenda
Friday, September 4th, 2015
I.
Call to Order: 12:00 Pm
II.
Roll Call:
Vikasini Mahalingam, Caleb Carr, Johnnie Nguyen, Avneet Chauhan, Alex Pong, Jaclyn
Fields, Tiffany Cung, Will Mundo, Ernesto Rodgriguez, Grecia Portillo, Akshay Kumar,
Maria Luisa Lins, Scott Cao, Amanda Ta, Shubeksha Shrestha, Pedro Ramos, Zach
Lubline, Allie Kriese, Will Card, Joe Halter, Rachel Cohen, Jeff Franklin, David Heisler,
Omer Sarwana
Guests: Morgan from the Advocate
III.
Adoption of Agenda: Approved
IV.
Approval/Correction of Minutes: 8.28.2015 Minutes Approved
V.
Guest Speaker(s): Jeff Franklin, High Impact Practices (HIPs)
He is with the office of undergraduate experiences. He is here to get the opinion about
how we can create more opportunities on the campus for High Impact Practices. January
of this year we created a HIPs task force to increase the availability of these to students.
The third goal of this action plan was to involve students in this action plan.
Discussion:
Someone mentioned that this program seems very faculty based, but the UHL program is
chosen by students. Perhaps if there was a capstone course, students could sign up for this.
Another piece would be to discuss this with advisors and getting them involved early on.
Another person agreed that the reason they take part in certain opportunities is because
their advisor told them to do so, and that they have the power to influence students.
There was a comment that they should focus on first years to really get early on
involvement. Continuity is a huge piece that factors in to looking professional on a
resume.
Jeff said that they are trying to do this, and a full third of freshman now take FYS
classes.
Someone else mentioned that if there was flexibility in classes that students could take,
there would be easier integration of this program.
Jeff said that this is hard to do because each professor feels very strongly that
their class is important, so how do they decide whose classes to cut? By adding
HIPs, he does not mean adding another requirement, but transitioning what they
do to include the HIP goal.
Someone commented that helping students create their own internships or program
would be very beneficial to their leadership development. Students often think GPA is
the end goal, but often times that is not the case, so we need to stress how important
different programs are.
Something that Obama has mentioned is the need for innovation in freshman seminars.
The need for this is the focus towards student involvement based on their ideas.
Identifying HIP champions and showing students where they are is important and more
empowering. Making their stories more available would be a way to communicate this
and encourage new students.
Someone mentioned that their friend at a different university is in a sorority and has
several mandatory things they need to do year to year, like internships, etc. Maybe if we
made these requirements more people would do that.
Jeff answered that he wants to do this, but more so incorporating HIPs into what
is already required. He wants to make these courses designated so they show up
on transcripts.
If people want to get involved in the symposium, how do they do that?
They need to apply. They cannot take everyone, but would love to have some
students. He would also like for SGA to decide on about 15-20 students to send.
Faculty are the main priority.
The Undergraduate Experiences Symposium for 2015 will be October 2nd. Jeff is looking
for students who have had HIPs experience on this campus to speak at the symposium.
VI.
Financial report: Scott Cao
a. Last Week: $31, 740.85
b. This Week: $31, 740.85
VII. Unfinished Business: None
VIII. New Business:
a. SB-005-Fall Fest
i. Fall Fest is the time for our student body to meet student orgs and offices. Our
table will be near St. Cajetans. The goal is to get the best outreach for SGA. They
are asking for candy for an activity that will have prizes assigned to different
prizes by color. The decorations are to make the table look presentable. Mini
cupcakes are for good on the go take away food. They are asking for 42 dozen in
CU Denver colors (250 black, 250 gold). This cost is because King Soopers does
not bake onsite. The 4.99 price is from them. We can reduce this cost by ordering
less if you’d like.
ii. Discussion:
1. What is your plan for decoration?
a. We will get sparkles and paper for the box we’re putting the
lollipops into.
2. With decorations, we do have extra stuff in the back.
a. For sure. We just wanted some wiggle room, but understand if you
want to decrease this.
3. Could you maybe see if we have these supplies?
a. Of course.
4. Can you justify the amount of cupcakes?
a. We decided on 500 because it is a 2 day event. We don’t want to
have leftovers, and we really do just want to give them out and
have fun with students.
5. We have had conversations about SGA branding, so are you looking at
other SWAG?
a. Yes. We will be handing out leftovers that we have. Those will be
the prizes we have for lollipops.
6. What is the SGA engagement piece to expand our brand besides the school
colors? Will they be liking our Facebook page for cupcakes?
a. We discussed this, and thought it might be hard to track this.
b. We have pages with encouragement to like our Facebook, and will
have members going down the line to ask them to do so.
c. It will be much like block party, but simpler than the dart game.
We had way more than 500 people at our table there, so we hope
this will be enough. We are out of everything but socks.
7. Can you please emphasize the Facebook? From Block party we had 50
more people, and the more likes we have, the more influence we will have
and easier communication.
a. If they say they have liked it, have them pull it up on their phone.
Also, you should set up a goal to get a certain number of likes in
the day to really get a big number.
8. If you tell them to like the page tell them what’s on it, so they know why
they should and they will be more likely to do so.
a. We will make sure to incorporate social media into our program.
9. How do you intend to keep the cupcakes fresh for the second day?
a. They are small and don’t need to be refrigerated.
10. How do you intend to get them?
a. I can pick them up. Or depending on price, we could get it
delivered.
Motion and vote to add a finance and funding chair to the budget: Approved
Vote on SB-005: Approved
b. SB-006-Show Your Pride Jamba Juice
i. This is the budget for show your pride day. This is an extension of spirit Thursday.
Basically if you are wearing school pride, you will get free Jamba Juice.
ii. Questions
1. Can you give us the logistics of handing it out?
a. It will be in north classroom and we will probably have them like
our Facebook to get one.
2. Will there be a line?
a. Yes. It will be a faster pickup, so it should not be that bad. We can
wind them around if needed. We can put in que lines if needed,
too.
3. How are you going to keep them cold?
a. It’s going to be delivered pretty close to the time we’re handing
them out. We do have coolers, and I think they deliver them in a
way that they stay fresh. It hopefully won’t be out that long for
them to go warm.
4. Is that going to be in large portions or cups?
a. They will be in 8 oz individual cups. So it will serve 300 students.
5. With the line, having someone to facilitate this to engage them is a good
idea.
6. Maybe even have them tell us something from our facebook page and
liking it so they actually look at it.
7. Every event we do is meant to improve student outreach, community. Etc.
to some degree so this should be in mind at all times.
8. How do you plan to verify they are CU Denver students?
a. See their ID.
9. Do you have another idea for social media? We could have them take
pictures and post it.
Vote to approve SB-006: Approved
c. SB-007- Legislation & Outreach Marketing
i. We are planning for our town halls: September 3rd and November 10th. We found
that having giveaways got students excited to come to them. Having promotional
items will hopefully increase attendance. The idea is that the battery packs are the
ones you can carry around. The USB hub is a five port hub that plugs into
computers. We would raffle those two things off every 30 minutes to keep them
involved. Since we consistently see people leave after getting food, this will
hopefully get them to stay. Sticky note flags are the little booklets. I have a couple
amendments: 1. Battery packs to change it down to 8 2. The USB port needs to be
8, not 4 3. Add 250 items at $187.50 (beverage wrenches) for another swag item
with a “got a complaint?” sentence, not the SGA logo. We wanted to be
resourceful with SWAG that would be used more often than a Frisbee. This would
engage them more since they keep them over time and will use them at a higher
frequency. This is for 2 town halls.
Motion to amend the 4 on USB amounts to an 8: So moved by Will Card
Ii .
Discussion:
Do you find this useful?
Yes
Will it have the SGA logo?
Everything will.
Vote to amend the budget to have 8 USB ports instead of 4: Approved
Motion to amend the budget to have 8 Recharging docks instead of 100, and to add $187.5 for 250
Beverage Wrenches: So moved
d. Discussion:
i. We wanted to have water pong at Block Party, but there was too much concern
about alcoholic implications.
1. With this, there is not any sort of other use of this game. With the
wrenches, they have other non-alcoholic uses. There are also other schools
who are doing this with no issue.
ii. Thank you for being creative, and not having chapstick. However, I do not
support the beverage wrenches because just because someone else is doing it
(Boulder) does not mean that we should, too. Is that the message that we want to
send about drinking?
iii. Do you have something else to give students instead? I like that these can be
carried out wherever.
iv. What is the average age on our campus? 23. I also think that we need to look at
other campuses and see what works and adopt these. This is why we go to
conferences. We need to incorporate best practices.
v. Their concern was that even if you change the name, another person will say what
it really is. There are flashlights and other keychains besides bottle openers.
vi. I like the idea of this because we need something that will be carried around. I
think there’s a difference between condoning something and advertising with
something people will use. Some people put their logo on condoms, and don’t
necessarily condone sex, but they know that they will use them. You don’t only
use a bottle opener on a beer. I used them before on cider or other things before I
could drink.
1. I would also add that our cups that we give out could be used for alcohol.
If we have multiple utilities for an item, they will use it.
vii. The reason we are having this discussion is because of the alcoholic implication.
There will be people who look at them and associate them with alcohol.
viii. Just because other universities implement it, doesn’t mean that it will be relevant
for CU Denver. It’s good for Boulder’s campus but you didn’t explain why.
1. I would say that the implication is that a lot of students use it and it would
result in people seeing our logo.
ix. We do want a keychain item, so we could maybe change beverage wrenches to
misc. keychain on the budget
Motion to Amend “Beverage Wrenches” to “Miscellaneous Keychain”: So Moved
x. Could this include beverage wrenches?
1. Yes, but the implication is that they will no longer be included if this is
passed
xi. So they cannot be used as a fallback item?
1. Correct
xii. What other options are there besides flashlights?
1. If you go online to ordering different keychains, there are several options.
xiii. Earlier this week, several of us got custom keychains. And I was talking to the
person who got them made, and we could do something like Milo’s head or
something that is not specifically SGA, but CU Denver and promote student
pride.
1. We could even put a link on the back
xiv. If people are into this, we could amend the budget to specifically say Milo head or
otherwise.
Motion to Amend the name “Beverage Wrenches” to “Miscellaneous Items Excluding Beverage
Wrenches to not exceed $187.50”: So moved
Back to discussion on amending the battery packs
xv. I would keep the 100 battery packs. So we could keep that many to give out at
future events
xvi. Do you know how long these will last?
xvii. About half of an iphone battery. It was the cheapest option.
xviii. We should keep it lower so that we can keep the amount small and be a raffle.
xix. That is the purpose of the miscellaneous item to have a giveaway
Vote on “Miscellaneous Items Excluding Beverage Wrenches to not exceed $187.50”: Approved
Vote to amend 100 recharging docks to 8: Approved
xx. Will you have iphone and android compatible cords?
1. They don’t come with a cord for this so people will provide their own.
Vote on SB-007: Approved
e. Attendance Appeal: Caleb Carr
i. An attendance appeal is for when you know you will have multiple continuous
absences. The senate has to approve you being late or not attending.
ii. Caleb stated that these meetings will get out at noon in the President’s Office, so
he needs the time to walk back. He has been chosen to be a part of EPUS, and
being able to do both will allow him to still be a part of SGA and EPUS
iii. Who appointed you?
1. The vice president of academic affairs
iv. Discussion:
1. I would have liked to have seen some sort of proof. This is more just to set
a standard for all appeals.
a. This document was made last year, so if you have improvements
like this, please let me know.
2. As long as he stays on his duties in a timely manner, I do not see an issue
with allowing this.
Motion to amend the appeal to have the stipulation to provide evidence of proof: Approved
f. Discussion on this amendment.
i. Will he need to resubmit this?
1. No it would be approved with this.
ii. We should just have them have a 2 week timeline to submit this to the Chief
Justice.
iii. We could also have them sign a form at the bottom.
iv. Really we could use an email, or other proof as needed.
v. His next meeting is September 11th, which is within the two week timeline.
1. This would be brand new. He followed what we allowed, so we should
give time for the change. He could turn in an absence report for next week
if need be.
vi. For some perspective: we have had members of senate in the past who couldn’t
make senate meetings, but did make committee meetings.
vii. But what will this already look like?
1. We can have them send an email or something. But because this is new,
we need some flexibility because that may not work.
viii. I think we should table this for later because it is a future creation
ix. Last year did you have to provide proof?
1. No.
x. We should vote on the contingency for future attendance appeals in general to say
that you have to have evidence of your reason to be tardy.
Vote to amend the appeal to have the stipulation to provide evidence of proof: Approved
Vote to approve Caleb Carr’s Attendance Appeal: Approved
IX.
Presidential Update:
We just interviewed a college council interview for Business, so we will have someone
chosen today. Freshman Council interviews are happening, and we will have people next
week in here being confirmed. With the advising survey, we are now changing it to a
focus group to get a comprehensive opinion. We will section them to transfer students,
freshman students, and all other students by college. We have a SPA representative.
X.
Vice-Presidential Update:
It’s campus safety month. The Phoenix Center does the red flag campaign to bring
awareness to red flags in relationships. They have asked us to help plant flags. So please
stop by. Let us know if you want to go to the symposium. Senate housekeeping: Please do
not enter the room during a guest speaker. Wait until they finish and then come in. It is
disrespectful, and we want to present ourselves well.
XI.
SACAB Update
No Update
XII. From the Floor:
A.
Standing Committee updates
a. Legislation and Outreach: Working on CU-411, which is next week. We
will send out doodle polls for shifts. We will have more on the first town hall
soon.
b. Events and Planning: The t-shirts and tank tops should be here next week.
We will play volleyball on 9/10 in front of the church and will send out a
doodle.
c. Finance and Funding: Please send receipts at once, not individually. Outside
our door we have the events that were approved each week.
B.
Judicial update
Bylaws are due today!
C.
Outside committee updates
a. SFRC: We heard SGA and Club Sports today. We will have deliberation in a
couple weeks.
b. Greek Life: We have our presentation to Raul on the 21st.
c. College Council: No Update
d. Wellness Center: No Update
D.
Ex-officio
Kudos to Morgan on the articles in the Advocate for tuition and the food
pantry. Reminder that we want you to send in an article. Thank you for
sending in profiles.
E.
General business from the floor
a. Amanda Ta: Please keep the office clean. Especially the table in the middle
of the room
b. Will Card: Pedro and I are planning CU Gold Fest on November 5th. It will
have a silent disco, music, and other activities. We are working with Events
and Planning and CU Denver Live to put it on. The budgets will be here soon.
Pedro added that if people want to join, please contact them.
c. David Heisler: The design group will present next week at SGA. So it is very
important that you come with ideas and feedback from them. They will be
coming the 25th of September to show the finalized design.
XIII. Thought for the day: Allie Kriese
a. “Many men go fishing all their lives not knowing it is the fish they are after” –Henry
David Thoreau
XIV. Adjournment 1:51 pm