EXECUTIVE SUMMARY OF THE JOINT MEETING BETWEEN THE SENATE AND THE
PRESIDENT’S CABINET OF THE MARIST COLLEGE STUDENT GOVERNMENT
ASSOCIATION ON SEPTEMBER 17, 2014
In room 1207 of the Student Center, a joint meeting was held on September 17, 2014 from 11:05 am to
12:07 pm between the Senate and the President’s Cabinet of the Marist College Student Government
Association.
PRESENT
PRESIDENT’S CABINET
Timos Pietris – Executive Vice President
Joe Pugliese – Vice President of Academic Affairs
Mark Soranno – Director of Community Outreach
Tom Gonzalez – Director of the Elections Commission
Emily Lubrano – Historian
John DiBella –Parliamentarian
Robert Tognetti – Chief Pollster
SENATE
Joseph Theall –Senate Speaker
Elizabeth Peper – Class of 2016 President
JohnMichael Chiriyan – Commuter Senator
Ryan Kiggins –Resident Senator
Brian Lampert –Resident Senator
Gabrielle Revis –Resident Senator
OLD BUSINESS
APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES
After review of the minutes from September 10, 2014, the minutes were approved.
Recognized new guests: Brandon Heard, Samantha Sprague, and Tyler Robinson.
UPDATE ON F RESHMAN ELECTIONS
T. Gonzalez stated that Speech Night was last night and that it went well, approximately 40 to 50 people
attended. He noted that four candidates were running for president, one for vice president, two for
secretary, and zero for historian. T. Gonzalez planned on encouraging the elected president to consider
appointing a candidate whom wasn’t elected for the vacant historian position. T. Gonzalez stated that
there were two individuals whom weren’t interested in running for an elected position, but wanted to
become involved on a committee. Moreover, Meet the Candidates would be held in the café from 7:00
pm to 9:00 pm tonight. J. Theall moved to open the floor for questioning, G. Revis seconded. G. Revis
asked if the candidates were partaking in online campaigning and T. Gonzalez stated that there hasn’t
been much activity with online campaigning, but he has been monitoring Facebook and was working on
monitoring Twitter. He stated that the only requirement was that the candidates had to add or follow
Marist SGA.
Recognized new guest: Patricia Cordner.
T. Robinson moved to end question and commence discussion, E. Lubrano seconded. T. Robinson stated
that last year, after he ran for a position and wasn’t elected, no one from Student Government
approached him to see if he was still interested in taking on a roll within Student Government –such as
Junior Senate. He stated that Student Government members should make a collaborative effort to
attend each other’s functions and to reach out to those students! M. Soranno moved to end discussion,
B. Heard seconded.
PSA APPROVAL
J. Pugliese stated that he, B. Lampert, and M. Soranno filmed two skits on Wednesday and that B. Heard
helped him edit one of the skits. There were still other skits that needed to be recorded, therefore he
planned to schedule another day and time to film. G. Revis asked if J. Pugliese wanted her to ask if the
skits could be incorporated onto the Student Activities TV PowerPoint and was answered yes! At this
point and time, an edited skit was shown to those present. J. Pugliese stated that the rest of the skits
would follow the style as the one that had been shown. He noted that he would be showing this edited
video to AAC tomorrow for approval.
NEW BUSINESS
AD-HOC MISSION STATEMENT
R. Tognetti read his mission statement for the position of Chief Pollster: The mission of the chief pollster
and his committee is to gauge the public opinion of the students. We will do so through surveys. Using
these surveys our ultimate goal is to better understand our students and their concerns. J. Theall moved
to open the floor to questioning, S. Sprague seconded.
J. Theall asked how R. Tognetti planned on conducting the polls and was answered that R. Tognetti
would man tables outside of areas such as Champagnat, and would possibly conduct online surveys. S.
Sprague asked how this position differed from the purpose of the Town Hall meetings and if these
surveys would be targeting certain populations; moreover, she asked how R. Tognetti planned on
obtaining an accurate representation of the entire student body. R. Tognetti stated that it would be
quicker to operate surveys than Town Hall meetings and that he would move around to various
locations to ensure that he was obtaining a proper representation of the student body. T. Pietris added
that Town Hall meetings were in person and that the surveys were more focused on what each targeted
group’s concerns, etc. B. Heard asked if R. Tognetti had any other ideas in addition to online and paper
surveys and was answered yes, via focus groups to obtain more in-depth results. J. Chiriyan understood
the position as ‘the research arm’ of Student Government, thus if a Senator, for instance, needed to
obtain information, the Chief Pollster would conduct a survey to obtain the results for the Senator.
Moreover, he noted that the research methods would vary based on the information needed to be
gathered.
S. Sprague moved to end questioning and open the floor for discussion, E. Lubrano seconded. S. Sprague
stated that she felt the mission statement needed to be rewritten to include researching for members
within Student Government to ensure that we are using our resources correctly, as well as something
mentioning focus groups. On another note, J. Pugliese noted that he when to the Facebook class pages
and reached out to individuals to see if any of them were interested in being a member on his board. He
stated that directly contacting students was a good way to reach students whom were not involved. It
was also suggested to reach out to professors and FYS courses. J. Theall asked what the procedural
process for approving polls was and T. Pietris answered that R. Tognetti would send his surveys to T.
Pietris and C. Pietris, and then it would reviewed by Student Government members for approval before
being disbursed to the public. J. Chiriyan stated that it should be reviewed by the person who wanted
the survey in addition to T. Pietris and C. Pietris to ensure that unnecessary time wasn’t taken away
from the survey process. M. Soranno moved to end disucussion, B. Heard seconded.
CHIEF POLLSTER’S MISSION STATEMENT’S VOTE OF CONFIDENCE VERDICT
President’s Cabinet: 1-6-0
Senate: 0-7-0
B. HEARD MOVED TO TABLE THE DISCUSSION OF THE OFFICE OF SAFETY AND SECURITY MISSION STATEMENT UNTIL
NEXT MEETING , B. LAMPERT SECONDED .
BOARD REPORTS
T. Pietris – he thanked everyone for sending in their Board Reports on time. He planned on summarizing
everyone’s Board Reports and sending them out to everyone, so everyone may know what the other
members of Student Government were working on, and could possibly offer one’s expertise to assist
said member. P. Cordner suggested using a Google Doc and M. Soranno suggested a Google PowerPoint.
As a point of information, J. Theall stated that in the past everyone’s board reports were sent via email
with the agenda as a zipfile. If anyone had feedback on this, please email him.
J. Theall – he had been working with T. Robinson on his position and noted that a bill for the Rules and
Administration Committee would be presented soon. Moreover, he has connected with his committee
member to begin planning for the Transportation Committee. On another note, he emailed P. Cordner
last week after the meeting and learned that a committee was being formed to looking into the campus
becoming smoke-free and was informed that there could be student representation on this committee.
P. Cordner added that they are looking for a wide spectrum of individuals for this committee: smokers,
non-smokers, students, faculty, etc. She stated that for those interested in becoming a part of this
committee should email Deborah DiCaprio.
P. Cordner – she noted that she still needed a speaker that Student Government would like to invite to
the first Administrative Luncheon on October 1, 2014.
J. Pugliese – he has been working on his PSAs and was still trying to finish filling his board. Currently, he
needed two representatives for the school of science and one for the school of communications. He has
his AAC meeting tomorrow where he will present his PSA video and will ask to have a trial run of the
online course evaluations.
S. Sprague – she noted that the RHC eboards would be formed the day after elections and that the
leadership training would be held on October 1, 2014. She noted that Headless Horseman tickets would
probably be on sale for 20 to 25 dollars and that she and SLA have been planning Gartland Trick or Treat
which would be October 26, 2014. On another note, SLA was currently heading two advocacy initiatives:
placing hand sanitizers by trash room doors and a no honk campaign for the road behind Leo Hall.
M. Soranno – he helped with the PSA video and was drafting a bill for his deputy.
T. Gonzalez – yield.
E. Lubrano – she gave D. Gunter a flash drive with the Headshots she took of Student Government
members.
J. DiBella – he met with J. Theall and B. Lampert and discussed the Marist College Student Government
Constitution and Bylaws.
T. Robinson – he has performed some research and met with individuals to discuss the establishment of
his position. Moreover, he worked on drafting a Student Taught Seminar Self-Defense draft.
R. Tognetti – he worked on his mission statement and has been planning polls.
C. Bruckenthal (as read by J. Theall) – October 3, 2014 will be the Fall Fest, and November 18, 2014 will
be Mr. Marist, which is a male talent show that has been done in the past. They were still working on
finalizing the audition dates which will probably be October 4th and 5th.
J. Chiriyan – he reviewed the Bylaws and looked into plans for bike racks.
B. Heard – he stated that St. Jude was going well and encouraged Student Government to form teams!
Moreover, his was looking for a good time to present his Multicultural Relations Committee Bill. His
committee has great ideas (such as Unity Day) and planned on collaborating with CMA and International
Club.
R. Kiggins – he has something he would like to present when we weren’t pressed for time.
B. Lampert – he has worked on the PSAs, the discussed the constitution, and added 25 more people to
the Race and Gender Reading Group. Moreover, the Violence Prevention Program will be starting on
September 27th.
G. Revis – she planned on chairing a Sustainability Committee, but would like to have a committee
established prior to presenting the bill.
OPEN FLOOR
B. Heard stated that he would be posting the St. Jude event dates on Facebook that way other Student
Government members would not have events conflicting with these dates. J. Pugliese asked about the
restriction of having a Student Government member on another Student Government member’s board
and was answered that one was restricted from having two positions within Student Government. J.
Chiriyan noted that he had been working on the new Student Government website with D. Gunter and
that they plan on uploading forms to the site, that way students could just print them instead of coming
to the office to retrieve the forms. G. Revis noted that several students had approached Student
Activities asking about taxi numbers and J. Theall stated that he will check in with Steve Sansola to see if
the cab prices have been confirmed. B. Lampert asked when applicants would be interviewed for the
Chief Public Affairs position and T. PIetris answered next week.
ANNOUNCEMENTS
 Senators, please send your Board Reports to J. Theall, B. Heard, C. Pietris, and T. Pietris
 President’s Cabinet members, please send you Board Reports to C. Pietris and T. Pietris
(@gmail)
 Voting for Elections begins September 18th and ends September 23nd
 Family Weekend begins September 26th
 Club Officer Workshop in PAR NOW! Please Attend.
J. Theall moved to adjourn the meeting, T. Gonzalez seconded. The meeting was adjourned at pm.
Executive Assistant: Ariana McCumber