82nd MSSA Senate
September 10, 2014
I.
Call to Order by 82nd Speaker Ben Shakespear
II.
Roll Call
PJ Piotrowski 5-0-0; David Schieler 3-0-1; Elizabeth Anderson 3-1-1; Dillon Petrowitz 5-0-0; Arnold
Bagamba 5-0-0; Fred de Ruiter 5-0-0; Noel Leul 3-1-1; Nolan Brinkman 5-0-0; Sarah David 3-1-1; Kyler
Schoner 5-0-0; Tyler Conlon 4-0-0; Connor Martin 5-0-0; Ashley James 5-0-1; Miesso Wako 4-0-1; Marshall
Tromborg 5-0-0; Shah Arnob 5-0-0; Patrick Riesterer 4-0-1; Becky Wegscheid 5-0-0; Elizabeth Jacobson 5-00; Michael Hanson 5-0-0; Blake Asbury 4-1-0; Nick Kragness 4-1-0
III.
Presentations
IV.
Open Forum
 Ryan Berndt – The Reporter
I was a former A & H senator last year and am currently an editor for the Reporter. I’m here to speak to
you about something that has bothered me, and a lot of other peers, about an article that was published
this week entitled, Gender Dysphoria or Dysfunction, formerly known as gender id disorder. As a
journalist I don’t believe in censorship, however, when I read an article and the first paragraph starts out,
“There’s one LGBT group (famous for their questionable morals)…” This is bad and wrong. When I read that I
was highly offended. We have a very strong LGBT on our campus and I am very proud to say that I
stand by my friends. The article is huge in popularity and we are even getting comments from the
University of California siting this article and how horrible it is. This is okay, however, they are starting
to affiliate this article with the University as a whole. That is a problem. One comment, “On a campus that
is so supportive of a diverse population and individuals, I am surprised that an article like this with such derogatory
and negative connotations was published. It is disappointing that this article is associated with this university.”
There are many other comments that echo this statement. I think it important that the senate address this
article and speak on behalf on other students saying that we do not tolerate hatred or condone the
damnation of individuals’ sexual orientation or beliefs. I also ask the senate, to the best of their ability,
ask the Reporter for better oversight of articles of spiteful speech never get published.
V.
Approval of Consent Agenda
Appointments: Nicole Marella, Arnold Bagamba, Sam Al-Mohamadi, Noel Leul (CSU Board), Dillon Petrowitz
(Planning Sub-Meet and Confer), Arnold Bagamba (Athletics Advisory), Nicole Marella, Ashley James, Patrick
Riesterer (PR Committee), Michael Hanson (Environmental Committee).
Commission on Ethics & Standards:
Student Allocations Committee:
Recognized Student Organizations: Tau Kappa Epsilon, Student Association of India, American Society of
Mechanical Engineers (ASME), American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Undergraduate Affiliate
Network, Men’s Club Volleyball, Consulting Group, Badminton Club, Habitat for Humanity at MSU, Sport
Management Association, MNSU Law Enforcement Bible Study, College of Rivenwood Tower, Chemistry Club,
Society of Women Engineers, Gamma Phi Beta, MSU Triathlon Club, College Democrats, Field Ecology Club, Ski
and Wakeboard Team, On Par Connections, Lambda Sigma, Academic Computer Center, Corrections Club,
Women’s Rugby, Pivot Hosanna Highland Campus Ministry, NafME - Mankato
Approval of Minutes: 9.3.2014.
VI.
Vacancies
a. Residence Hall At-Large (2)
b. Arts and Humanities (1)
c. Allied Health and Nursing (1)
d. College of Business (1)
e. College of Education (1)
f. Student Body At-Large (1) - Abdul-Hafeez Nakumbe - Elected

I to be part of the group of people on campus who are making an impact. I want to join the team.
I’ve got my resume for all of you to look at so you can see some of the other organizations that
I’ve been part of.
Hanson: How will you achieve the goals you have as a senator and how will you address concerns?
Nakumbe: I’ll communicate with the student body to learn their concerns. For example, I’ve already
heard concerns with transportation and bus route #2 on campus.
Petrowitz: Will you be able to handle the time commitment of being a senator?
Nakumbe: I currently work three jobs and time management is one of my strengths.
Haffield: Can you tell us about any leadership experience you had?
Nakumbe: I’m currently an Undergraduate Recruitment Advisor for the Institution of Diversity on
campus, I serve as VP for the Black Student Union, I’ve been involved in ASA, and am an active member
in B.I.G. (Black Intelligent Gentlemen).
Wolf: Can you share your strengths and weaknesses?
Nakumbe: My strengths would be networking with people and communicating. A weakness, possibly,
could be that my leadership skills could be greater. I feel that MSSA would help me with that.
Brinkman: If you are elected and then become bored with it, would you resign or follow through?
Nakumbe: No, I would stay and ask about things I could be working on and follow through on things.
DeRuiter: I feel like he is highly motivated and would be very good.
Hanson: As many years as I’ve been, this is the first time someone has actually brought in their resume to
show what they’ve all done. I think he is very motivated and would be a great fit in senate.
Abdul-Hafeez Nakumbe – Elected (unaminously). Sworn in
VII.
President Haffield
 Distribution of MSU ties/scarves given the 82nd by President Davenport & Alumni Relations,
Kent Clark.
 Meet & Confer meeting update:
o City of Mankato, armed, police officer to be dedicated to campus during 2nd shift. MSSA
will be discussing further during City/University meeting tomorrow evening. The City
will be picking up the cost for this position.
VP Jones: Given the series of incidences on campus recently, we are looking at what it would mean
to have an established partner right here on campus. As the City is responsible for safety of the
whole community, they could do this without us so we appreciate them making us part of the
conversation. The position would begin in January. This is experimental. If it is successful after the
first year, MSU would then incur the cost of the position.
o Tobacco Policy Update (MSSA)
o A two-prong approach will be necessary as it involves both students and staff.
o Existing tools such as Student Conduct Board and employee discipline measures will be
utilized.
o Update on Integrated Academic Planning from Marilyn Wells
o Mapping shows how students can complete their degree in four years.
o As of Sept. 3rd, (63) undergraduate programs have been completed and (43) are in draft
status.
o Undergraduate maps can be accessed on the Academic Affairs website.
o AgileGrad software will be the next phase with maps being imported for students’ use as
a technology tool.
 Technology Roundtable Committee. We are still in need of one more student representative.
They meet from 2-4 pm, once a month.


Students also needed for the Library, Bookstore Advisory, and Student Health
Committees.
Shout out to Elizabeth Jacobson for her wonderful job on PR this year.
Vice President Wolf
Upcoming Town Hall meetings are scheduled for the following dates: Transportation (with
David Cowan) -Sept. 16th, 12-1pm; Academic Mapping (with Provost Wells & Kim Greer)-Sept.
23rd, 12-1 pm; and Q & A with President Davenport-October 14th, 11-12:00 pm.
 We are still in need of committee members so please see Mariah or me if interested.
 Clinical Sciences groundbreaking ceremony is scheduled for September 26 th, 1:30 pm., near Ford
Hall.
Speaker Shakespear
 No real updates to report.
 Job well done by senators with office hour reporting.
VIII. Senator Reports
a. Fred De Ruiter (CSET Senator) - handouts
 Technology Roundtable Committee member.
 Committee’s objective is to develop strategy action plan as to what happening on
campus.
 Overview of Office 365 and One Drive conversion. Both programs are accessible
to students on MavMail.
 IT website has all of this information available.
Ryan Berndt (gallery): I actually put the guide together so if there are more needed please let me know.
The guide is actually intended to direct you to the website where there is even more information.
Petrowitz: As a Teacher’s Assistant, how will this affect us?
De Ruiter: Your current system as it is right now, will still work so there shouldn’t be any problems.
a. Michael Hanson (Graduate Studies)
 Clinical Sciences Building – (From an environmental standpoint-PPT)
 Meant to maximize natural sunlight up to 83%. Goal is to have all LED lighting.
Light censors will also be installed.
 Construction will begin in December, 2014. Anticipated completion date of 6/16.
 Design was meant to minimize as much of the environmental impact as possible.
 A lot of the materials to be used are from recycled products.
 There will be three floors to the building.
 A total of (19) trees will be removed and either transplanted or replaced.
Anderson: So, will that whole area be blocked off during construction?
Hanson: I’m sure they’ll try to minimize the impact to students and staff. As this new building will be
connected to Ford Hall, that portion may be blocked off at some point.
Schieler: I’m concerned about the uprooting of trees there when you have a space called an arboretum
and that space was protected.
Hanson: We were told that any trees cut down would be either relocated or replaced. Storm water
management was also taken into consideration when determining plantings.
Riesterer: I’ve in this type of business for over four years and can tell you that trees need to be less than
6” in diameter if transplanted otherwise, they’ll die.
IX.
Old Business
 Charting the Future

Haffield: I hope that all of you have had a chance to think about all of this. However, I just learned that
the Chancellor has pushed back his decision on a re-start of the process so we will not be taking a vote on
it this weekend at MSUSA Board of Directors. We can still take a senate vote here today, but essentially,
it won’t change anything.
Hanson: I thought we had talked about having the MSUSA State Chair, Kari Cooper, possibly Skype into
one of our meetings to discuss this?
Shakespear: I said no to that as this is our vote and shouldn’t be influenced by what someone at Bemidji
State may feel about it or representing another University tells us.
 Senate apparel:
Haffield: We’ve another polo option to consider. This one runs $25.
Schieler: As we’ve just invested a lot of money into senate nametags, would we have the option of just
getting a plain logo and then putting our name on it?
Hanson: I like the idea better of paying $25 instead of $40+
Haffield: This up to you guys on how you want to do it. Whether you want to have each senator pay $5
or whatever all of you want to do.
Brinkman: I suggest that a poll be sent out to senators to find out how much we should be spending as
far as student fees and what people want to pay towards the shirt. This way we get an idea as a group
how we want to handle this.
X.
New Business
82 MM 01 09.10.2014 – Hanson/Wegscheid
Be it Resolved:
The Minnesota State Student Association believes the language of the September 4, 2014 Reporter article,
‘Gender Dysphoria: a growing dysfunction’, to be inflammatory and offensive and in no way indicative of
the open and inviting culture of Minnesota State University, Mankato. Furthermore,
The Minnesota State Student Asoociation would have it noted that the language in the article in no way
reflects their opinions or the opinions of the student body at large.
Motion passes: 23 aye, 0 nay, 0 abstain.
Hanson: I don’t want to try and censor the Reporter but when Ryan Berndt, an actual Reporter writer,
comes in and says that there are people citing this from across the country and that it is tarnishing our
University and its’ constituents, along with the community, we can’t, based on our ethics, morals and
plain common sense, support anything that is discriminatory in any fashion. Basically, this is to get a
public apology and help avoid something like this in the future.
Schieler: Did someone get paid for this article? Was it authorized by the editor- in-chief? Even though I
don’t support the things in that article, when it is in the opinion section, it is just that, an opinion. There
is nothing wrong with free discourse as long as you are not getting paid. What I would condemn is their
getting paid for an opinion piece. They have the right to be wrong.
Conlon: I don’t think we have a right to ask the Reporter to remove their opinion. I agree with the first
part but not the second part of the motion.
Haffield: My rational was that it fell under the freedom of speech act. However, if you’ve read it, it is an
underlying hate speech. It has a very derogatory language and the tone that is used is very rude.
Because this was done by a representative of the school and people are viewing it as such, something
should be done about it.
Hanson: This is a misrepresentation of our University and I feel that something should be done. We
have a very strong and supportive LGBT community on campus. I think the article should be recanted.
Jacobson: I don’t agree with the article at all and think that people are getting confused as to where it is
coming from. The editor-in-chief should have been aware of this before publishing it.
Schieler: I am not supportive of this resolution and feel that it is rather rash. I don’t think we want to
ruin the years of hard work that we’ve put into our relationship with the Reporter. A better solution
could be that the article be retracted and a new one released and the person who wrote it not be paid.
However, it is an opinion article. These views are the views of the submitter, not the Reporter or of
MSSA or the University. In the future, maybe it should be made clear that that be considered.
Tromborg: Is there currently any sort of disclaimer in place?
Berndt: No, there is not.
Shakespear: How does she get paid?
Berndt: I do not know if she is salaried or gets paid per article. That is something you’d have to ask the
editor-in-chief. What I talked about is not necessarily her opinion but was her words used.
Hanson: The idea of someone getting paid to do the article, we pay the Reporter approximately $60,000
and ultimately, the LGBT is helping pay this person’s salary. The idea behind this motion was to have
some kind of apology for how it was written.
** (Article on doc-cam)
Martin: I think we should focus more on the national aspect of it. We need to repair our image instead of
making it about the Reporter.
Anderson: Considering that student fees go to the Reporter I think that an apology is needed stating that
this is not representative of the majority opinion and then make a motion to require the Reporter to
publish opinion by a specific person and so not associated by the University.
Schieler: I’m against this resolution as it is inflammatory to an inflammatory issue. It is adding fuel to
the fire. I just don’t want us to take a stance on a topic we don’t understand. This is literally the first time
I heard of gender dysphoria. What we want to pass is that we are not supportive of the hurtful wording
used in this article.
Schieler: I do not condemn the Reporter for the actions of one individual. That is not necessarily fair. It
definitely doesn’t take everyone on staff at the Reporter to get an article published. I don’t agree that we
are asking someone to apologize for their opinion. I have a resolution to take care of this strategically in
the future. I think we need to focus on the damage that has already been done. It does not say that we
have an opinion on gender dysphoria but does say how it does not represent the use of appropriate
language.
Berndt: The reason that this was published is because she was the news editor and no one on the news
board knew about this. When I asked the editor-in-chief if he knew about this, he was oblivious. He was
upset too. She was somehow able to get through the editorial approval process and get this published.
Therefore, I feel that the last statement about needing oversight is incredibly important.
Schieler: Could we ask about what the process is to get an article approved to print?
Berndt: Most the time it is up to the individual editor’s discretion. However, it is a controversial piece,
the editor is supposed to sit down with other staff members and decide whether to print or not.
Schieler: I’d suggest that we move ahead with this amendment and then write up another one and refer
it to the Newspaper Advisory Board so that we can talk more seriously about developing a process to get
articles printed. This is so we know that it is not just the topic of gender dysphoria, or LGBT topics, that
we have an issue with but that it is every topic that goes through some scrutiny. And that it is every
article, not just opinion articles.
Anderson: I agree that all articles should have a process that they go through.
82 MM 02 09.10.2014 – Schieler/Brinkman
Whereas;
The Reporter publishes an opinion section.
Whereas;
The views expressed in this section are not necessarily in line with the values of the MSSA or Minnesota
State University, Mankato.
Be it resolved;
A disclaimer is added to the beginning of the opinion section.
Be it further resolved;
No one receive financial compensation for the submission or publication of an opinion article.
Motion passes: 24 aye, 0 nay, 0 abstain.
Schieler: I find it important to have an issue, a resolution, and then a permanent solution. I think this is a
solution that is not issue-based but we are now addressing our concerns with the over-arching opinions
article. Perhaps this should be referred to the Newspaper Advisory Board, which is composed of Reporter
members, so that it is politically more favorably received. If not, we can possibly take care of this one
here today too.
82 MM 03 09.10.2014
Whereas;
There has been continuing discussion (excluding MSCSA) with the different bargaining units and
MnSCU’s Chancellor Steven Rosenstone concerning the Charting the Future Implementation Teams.
Whereas;
The bargaining units (excluding MSCSA) have asked the Chancellor to restart the implementation
process.
Whereas;
The MSUSA Board of Directors have been discussing how to respond to the Chancellor should he not
agree to restart the implementation process.
Be it resolved;
The Minnesota State Student Association supports a vote by President Haffield to withdraw from the
implementation process if this is the position taken by MSUSA and the other bargaining units.
Motion fails: 13 aye, 4 nay, 6 abstain.
Wegscheid: I just want to reiterate that there is no Mankato student involvement on the implementation
teams in this process.
Conlon: We should support President Haffield’s recommendation on this.
Haffield: Since that failed, I’ll be voting that MSSA will not be agreeing to drop from the implementation
process. I’ll let you know what that vote ends up being.
82 MM 04 09.10.2014 – Schieler/Anderson
Whereas;
There is no apparent process by which articles are published by the Reporter.
Be it resolved;
The Minnesota State Student Association encourages the Newspaper Advisory Board to formalize and let
become known to the student body a review process for articles seeking publication.
Motion passes: 19 aye, 1 abstain.
Roll Call
Senators Present:
Elizabeth Jacobson, Taylor Conlon, Rebecca Wegscheid, PJ Piotrowski, David Schieler, Dillon Petrowitz,
Arnold Bagamba, Fred De Ruiter, Nolan Brinkman, Ashley James, Arnob Shahriar, Miesso Wako, Kyler
Schoner, Noel Leul, Blake Asbury, Bassam(Sam)Al-Mohamadi, Ashley James; Abdul-Hafeez Nakumbe
Senators Absent:
Patrick Riesterer, Marshall Tromborg, Connor Martin, Nick Kragness, Sarah David, Michael Hanson,
Elizabeth Anderson
Executive Leadership Present:
Mariah Haffield, President; Ben Shakespear, Speaker
Executive Leadership Absent:
Joe Wolf, Vice President;
XI.
Adjournment
Meeting adjourned @ 6:00 pm.