

Call to Order by 82 nd Speaker Ben Shakespear
Roll Call
PJ Piotrowski 23-0-0; David Schieler 19-3-1; Elizabeth Anderson 15-7-1; Arnold Bagamba 19-3-0;
Fred de Ruiter 23-0-0; Noel Leul 16-6-1; Nolan Brinkman 21-2-0; Kyler Schoner 23-0-0; Tyler
Conlon 22-0-1 ; Connor Martin 18-4-0; Ashley James 20-1-1; Miesso Wako 17-4-1; Marshall
Tromborg 18-3-1; Patrick Riesterer 12-11-0; Becky Wegscheid 23-0-0; Elizabeth Jacobson 23-0-0;
Michael Hanson 23-0-0; Faical Rayani 16-2-0; Karli Heroff 15-2-0; Wayland Hunter 8-1-0; Abdul-
Hafeez Nakumbe 19-1-1; Siavash Sadeghi 5-2-0; Josh Atencio 0-0-0; Scott Hartman 0-0-0
A.
Presentation
B.
Open Forum
C.
Approval of Consent Agenda
Appointments :
Recognized Student Organizations:

Student Allocations Committ ee: Recommend allocation up to $275 to Phi Upsilon Omicron to
 support the expenses (with the exception of t-shirts) to promote a health and wellness programming event to be held on-campus March 18, 2015 in Meyer’s Field House during
National Nutrition month which may include food samples.
Recommend allocation up to $300 to the Marketing Club to support on-campus professional development seminar on March 31, 2015 in Morris Hall where students will attend 3 small seminars titled: How to Check the Companies Resume, How to make your online presence help your job search, and How to create your Own Brand. The seminar will also include a networking event with food and resume editing.
Approval of Minutes: 3.4.15
Approved.
 Vacancies
 President Haffield a.
Hope you had a good spring break. b.
Next week’s meeting in Hearth Lounge. Business professional dress. c.
Steve Smith – Stipend issue – Can have all stipends on student payroll.
Will be discussing. d.
Cabinet meeting last Monday. They have some cool ideas. Can’t share all. e.
Passed on diversity requirement feedback to Booker/Dean Morris. Also mentioned to IFO and will be talking about on Monday. f.
Dean Morris offered to come in again. g.
MSUSA Elections coming up. Plan on delegation to attend. Becky & I attended the MSUSA Internal Affairs Meeting on March 7 th . Still working on policies. Didn’t have quorum but had an informal discussion. Spring meeting will not be held at Kragen’s so will have it in the Cities somewhere. Also won’t be doing D.C. trip this year but probably in the fall. h.
Meet & Confer tomorrow: (Mariah, Joe, Michael, Abdul).

Schieler: With such a budget surplus, what are their plans for it?
Wegscheid: They will go through deficits and surpluses at each board meeting.
Schieler: Presumably, they had one big cost of hiring an attorney for these conduct affairs. Is there anything else? Also, what is the full budget impact of this incident?
Haffield: We don’t know that but will find out.
 Vice President Wolf a.
Senator of the Week – Elizabeth Anderson b.
Hope everyone had a great spring break.
 Speaker Shakespear
 Senator Reports a.
Senator Schieler
 Realized I never did an about-me to this senate. o I’m a 5 th year Sr., RPLS.; Have been Impact events chair; was formerly pursuing pre-med major however, after joining campus fraternity I changed my major when I realized I was in it for money. From very small town Toma, WI. o SAC: The next three weeks will be busy; afterwards students should feel confident where we put your student fee dollars. o This is one of several fee advisory committees; last few weeks every single student act. Fee dept. came in to present their budget request every single line; this has not been done in the past; there is only one more week of presentations this Friday. On March 21 st , the SAC membership will meet @ 10-4 pm; afterwards a narrative will be published and given out on April 1 st to MSSA.
April 8 th we will be talking about all areas. Currently, looking at a $1.13 increase which represents 3%. We’ve been asked to keep it to 2%. Asking how you want this narrative written?? In the past, I’d give it to you line by line. However, the past has sometimes been a blood show, so am wondering what you want this year? Budget Hearings are on April 8 th so please spend equal time reviewing as
SAC has spent a lot of time on this.
Nakumbe: I think a whole narrative would make it easier to digest.
Haffield: I would encourage Tech. Fee and Athletics, give us enough time like the others. As far as narrative, would like to see it broken down.
Conlon: I like the holistic approach. As to narrative, I would prefer that if it is an increase, an explanation as to why.
Schieler: Traditionally, SAC has provided a narrative on all depts., whether it was a decrease or increase.
Shakespear: I feel like many don’t know what has been done in the past.
Bulcock: I think that as you’ve done all this work, it may be a good time to share all of that info.
Bernie: Is all of this SAC info online?
Schieler: Yes, online and past reports are also in the binders in the office. b.
Senator Sadeghi
 The Candle Vigil won hearts. It was a learning curve for me. Got some help from
Hanson, Wolf, Haffield, and Farah. Thank you.
 Starting to work on mental health issues. Working with lady at Counseling Dept. and trying to get help out there for students.
 Thinking of promoting a class for personal health.

 AA – three goals: lecturers from each class sit in on others. Provost says hard to do but still working on it. Also would like feedback on every lecture, integrate tech. more in our classes. Someone from center of teaching exc. Will be coming in to talk to us. c.
Senator de Ruiter
 Few weeks ago talked about bringing back Computer Science program back. There have been others working on this. I started my own work on it and have even created a petition on it. o There was a split of IT and Comp. Science depts. when campus was experiencing budget cuts. MSU was the only one to cut and we still don’t have one. It is a greatly growing field with 400,000 graduates for 1.4 m. jobs. The question is will people come if offered? I came here as I was mistaking comp. science with comp. engineering. There are talks to bring it back. It would require one more faculty member. CIT/Intg. Eng. would integrate it sep.; infrastructure is available.
Would not be its’ own dept. I have approx.. 250 signatures and background on why it was cut. My goal is to have referendum in spring election to bring this back.
Martin: I applaud you for doing this as feel it was a mistake in dropping the program as anything related to computers is growing. I think we should go ahead with it.
Conlon: Will this be a motion?
De Ruiter: Yes, probably today.
Wegcheid: What is your goal of signatures for the petition?
De Ruiter: I already have 250 but my goal is for a referendum.
Bernie: I applaud you for doing this. There are actually IT majors that don’t believe in this but would prefer a major overall on the program. There are many frustrations and some even talking about excessive actions. If you’d like to hook up,
I can put you in touch with some of those students.
De Ruiter: As we are in a current budget situation now, it wouldn’t seem fair.
However, classes have increased in size. Feel we should support these growing programs.
Schieler: Thanks for doing all of this work. Did you find out if any other programs had been cut at the same time?
De Ruiter: Astrology was one. The formula used was based on high cost/low enrollment.
Haffield: Do you have a ballpark price for an additional faculty member?
De Ruiter: I talked to Straka and he only gave me the cost of the program ($1.4m). A faculty member ballpark may be around $150,000/year.
Anderson: I talked to Academic Affairs about this and would like to hear from you about some of the cost-savings benefits.
De Ruiter: Due to the split in three departments’ resources it went from one to another. Computer technology is the foundation for computer science. When it was first canceled, the equipment costs went under the Computer Science Dept. so it seemed expensive.
Wegscheid: Have you heard any of same opinions of other programs that were cut?
De Ruiter: No.
Schieler: Looking at the matrix, there are clearly programs listed that are still in place.

Akey: The metrics that were used were in 2009-10. They used five different criteria used by MnSCU cost study. There were other components considered along with the high cost/low enrollment formula. I can talk to you more about the metrics and
Institutional Research data, d.
Senator Hunter
 Theatre Dept. success – every yr. went to Kennedy Center and largest rep. from our region; talk with Dean and centralized advising. A & H advising quite strong; professor/peer evaluations already being done; pep band is back in Music, full routines will be coming; April 24 th , 7:00, band concert.
 Jacobson: Campaigning began on last Monday. No campaign talk allowed in the MSSA office. If you want a referendum on the ballot you can go to Constitution Commission.
We would ask for it a week in advance. There are a lot of rules meetings going on; filing deadline reminders.
 Old Business
 New Business a.
Discussion on MSUSA election candidates coming to speak to senate.
Haffield: I want to make sure you’re ok with them coming in, especially Matt Hatle. My thought is if we let one in we should let all in.
Wegscheid: Personally, I’m interested in what others have to say, especially Matt Hatle.
Conlon: Technically, does this go against our suspension?
Haffield: No, as we specifically said that we’d participate in elections.
Conlon: I think it would help us in our interactions with them. Think it’d be cool to hear out.
Schieler: I feel that this is under the proprietary of the speaker so if ben wants to come then let them come.
Shakespear: I see no problem, even though I wasn’t afforded that same when I ran.
Jacobson: think they should but we should have good questions ready.
Bernie: is FB group public knowledge?
Haffield: It is general knowledge, however, transcripts have not been publicized by the media or anything.
De Ruiter: Is he the creator or alleged?
Bernie: Is this stuff still occurring?
Haffield: Yes, messages aimed at me and Ben. We talked about it at the BOD but don’t have absolute proof that they are for sure.
Shakespear: As we’re participating in elections now, attending their conference, etc., it seems like the not participating has turned into participating. We want to make sure we’re not coming across immature and picking only what we want to participate in
Haffield: I also brought up the suggestion of providing an agenda beforehand. I agree that it does seem we are participating.
Shakespear: I feel the time has come to make the decision 100% now as we’ve been teetering on the edge. Need to take a stand one way or another.
Farah: I feel that as we are still a member, our voice is being wasted by not fully participating.
Business keeps going without us so why not let our voices be heard.
Schieler: I still think that this organization is tainted and so many members still doing what they’re were doing.
Hanson: I think only if the legislature changes the statute, it is important we still have a voice.
We are being charged $3.50/semester so should have a voice. I feel we’ve made a statement but feel we need to be voice for our constituents.

Wegscheid: I’m sure this is getting really old to some of you. April is extremely important and
MSUSA can do great things, however, I would hate to see those people who have been so negative be in leadership at MSUSA. This would discredit the organization even further. Still love the organization even though it failed this year.
Heroff: The Ad-hoc committee found that universities like Harvard as they cost a lot of money.
So, we put this aside. Given the expense, it would have to be a temporary situation.
Anderson: I feel we made our point and should stay strong. It has been some of the leadership that was bad and not the organization. I feel it important that we be involved in picking the new leadership. Having a lobbying group on our side is important. If someone can write a motion to this it would be appreciated.
Bernie: As a proxy, I can be a very jaded person at times. Personally I don’t like the organization. I do feel that our university can afford to have a lobbyist to be on our side. I don’t feel MSUSA has done a good job in that. Most students don’t even know who they are.
Haffield: I asked SCSU and theirs’ is actually one of their administration staff. I haven’t been able to find that we have someone similar to that. Also, SCSU is talking of doing all business as well. Since we’re pushing for Internal Affairs meetings we should support voting on stuff their talking about now.
82 MM01 03.18.15 – Restart full participation in MSUSA Schieler/Wegscheid
Be it resolved: Minnesota State University, Mankato will resume full participation in MSUSA pending the election of non-former Minnesota Higher Education Illuminati (MHEI) members to all executive positions in MSUSA.
Motion passes.
Aye-19; Nay-2; Abstain-1
Schieler: For .43 cents a credit, they haven’t done anything for us. It is only dividing MnSCU by doing this. We have made our point loud and clear. We won’t participate in all business this year.
Farah: I’m not in support as it ties our hands in the future and theirs’ as well. I think it is being too restrictive and harsh. For example, if I don’t like the leadership at MSSA, it is not a reason for me to walk out. I feel it is my responsibility to still participate
Hanson: Could it be considered discrimination against a particular group? If so, maybe we shouldn’t specify or mention in the motion.
Jacobson: I won’t be here next year but if the person who did this got elected, you’re giving them more power to do it again. I don’t feel they’re taking this seriously and shouldn’t support those individuals.
De Ruiter: Earlier we said it ok to come to speak to us but now we’re saying if elected we will be withdrawing.
Bernie: Good point. We don’t want those individuals to run. I believe in MnSCU and Charting the Future but we feel we need to hold them accountable.
Schieler: I think that is a good point. I feel we should extend the invite out of respect. It is not saying what we’ll do if elected. Everyone has the right to be elected fairly. Let’s separate that from this issue and motion.
Anderson: How did it affect all of the different schools? Do we know that?
Shakespear: It damaged the reputation of our lobbyist for all of our universities.

Haffield: I get the brilliance of this amendment but maybe too vague to accomplish what we want.
 Announcements
Haffield: Dayton’s recommendation; Tri-Sigma’s Taco feed
Jacobson: Cupcake Wars tomorrow, 11-1.
Wolf: Africa night this weekend. It was a lot of fun last year.
Anderson: Women in Business event this weekend. Free tickets are available.
Hanson: Hockey team brought home McNaughton cup. This weekend MSU is playing for
NCHA. Tickets are available at a reasonable cost.
 Roll Call
Senators present:
Elizabeth Jacobson, Tyler Conlon, Rebecca Wegscheid, PJ Piotrowski, Jessica Farah, Ashley James,
Alexander Johnson, Michael Hanson; Kyler Schoner, Karli Heroff; David Schieler; Nolan Brinkman;
Connor Martin, Wayland Hunter; Abdul-Hafeez Nakumbe; Fred de Ruiter; Katherine Gibson; Will
Malloy, Jessica Farah, Noel Leul; Faical Rayani; Josh Atencio; Siavash Sadeghi; Miesso Wako, Arnold
Bagamba; Marshall Tromborg; Scott Hartman; Josh Atencio
Senators Absent:
Executive Leadership Present:

Mariah Haffield, President; Joe Wolf, Vice President; Ben Shakespear, Speaker
Executive Leadership Absent:
 Adjournment
Meeting adjourned @ 5.45 pm.