Student Association Meeting, November 17 2015
Start Time: 7:00
Roll Call
Invocation
Father Mike: Please be careful driving home and back. Lord, make me an instrument of your
peace. Where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is
doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness,
joy. Oh, Divine Master, grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled as to console; to be
understood as to understand; to be loved as to love; For it is in giving that we receive; it is in
pardoning that we are pardoned; it is in dying that we are born again to eternal life. Oh Mighty
God, we thank you for the chance to be here. We pray for the people of Paris. We pray for us to
be safe, our world safe, our campus safe. Bless our meeting this evening. We ask all of this in
Jesus’ name.
Chair Remarks
Shannon McQueen, Student Association President: I got responses back from the questions
that weren’t answered that were asked during the Neuhauser meeting. An alumnus from the class
of ’59 is looking for assistance over Thanksgiving break. He is visually impaired and looking for
someone to read to him for two hours a day, and will pay $15 an hour. He arrives on Tuesday
Nov. 24 and is visiting family in Burlington during the week. If someone is staying, please call
Tara from the President’s office. The climate survey ends on the 20th; it is about sexual assault
on our campus.
What is the school’s response to sexual assault? (From Lou DiMasi) Besides an
investigation being launched with Title IX regulations and workshops on campus, Catherine
Welch and I have presented on reporting practices. There is a presentation at 5 pm in the Roy
Room on recording processes. The 2-911 is the on campus emergency number which dials
switchboard and campus safety. 211 can be dialed for the state number on health.
Does school insurance include contraception? Since emergency contraception is available
for purchase, there are no insurance companies that cover it. The school’s insurance does cover
birth control.
There was another question about bus hours. The bus schedule is on the portal, and Gary
and Dragan’s hours have not been cut. They are both full time groundskeepers who help drive
the shuttle a few hours a day to help cover faculty shortages from Green Mountain
Transportation. Once those shortages are covered, they will go back to their jobs full time.
We have Constitution’s available in the SA office. Please look over them, they contain all
of the information on how we run our meetings, and Senate member responsibilities. Please
reach out to anyone if you need support, we know this is a tough week.
Tylik Williams-Prince, Student Association Vice President: Today is Greeting Card Day,
Homemade Bread Day, National Take a Hike Day, and the Little Mermaid Day. Please turn in
club leadership forms. Budget re-allocations will be December 4 and 5, if you do not come, there
is a 5% budget decrease. We have a sign-up sheet up here, and paperwork to be filled out ahead
of time.
Committee Reports:
Victoria Barnum, Secretary of Academics: good luck with registration. I will be contacting
Sodexo regarding study snacks in the library during finals.
Anthony Lopez, Secretary of Athletics: Men’s Ice Hockey is playing right now. They play
again Friday. Saturday Men’s and Women’s basketball play, and Men’s Ice Hockey.
Colin Giebner, Secretary of Finance: the general reserves are at $9,180.00. After we get back
from Thanksgiving break, only my purchasing card will be available for use; if you want to use
it, you will have to contact me ahead of time.
Richard Bernache and Zaire Peoples, Co-Secretaries of Programming: December 2 at 8 pm
we will be decorating the Christmas trees in Dion, we invite everyone to come join us. On
December 5 at 7 pm we will have the first annual Holiday Market. It’s operating under a similar
model to Friday Night Dry; interested clubs can host their own holiday event.
Andrea Demos, Secretary of Student Life: This week we had an alcohol task force meeting
and a student life committee meeting. Our next Student Life committee meeting will be
December 7 in the SA office.
James Baker, Secretary of Student Policy: If you will have a class or sport that will interfere
with SA next semester, please see me so we can work to get a proxy. Clubs, please come to the
office to check over your club constitutions.
Meaghan Diffenderfer, Secretary of Communications: Diversity & Inclusion met last night,
and you will hear from us later in the semester. Our next meeting is Nov. 30 (Monday after
break) at 7 pm in the SA office. President Neuhauser released a statement with the presidents of
UVM, Champlain College, and Burlington College to the media after the events of Mizzou
condemning racism and intolerance on all four campuses. It was sent out in the Daily Digest on
Monday. I will forward the document out on the list-serve.
Approval of the Minutes:
Shannon McQueen, Student Association President: This brings us to approval of the minutes.
Alex Ho, ‘17: I move to approve the minutes.
Sydney Rybicki, ‘18: I second.
Shannon McQueen, Student Association President: Discussion? All those for? Opposed?
Abstentions?
In Favor: 65
Opposed: 0
Abstain: 8
Minutes passed.
Announcements:
Common Ground: Nov. 20 is Transgender Day of Remembrance. This year we have badges
that have the names of trans women of color who have been killed this year, because Black trans
women are subject to the most violence. On Friday we are hosting a vigil between Dion and
Alliot at 4:30 in honor of those killed in the US in the past year. If there are any questions, email
asherman2@mail.smcvt.edu
Feminists for Equality: tomorrow at 7 pm in the International Commons there will be a
communicating consent workshop. It is a You Count event.
Peace and Justice: tomorrow in the Roy Room at 7 pm we are hosting a panel on the death
penalty. Members of the panel include Professor Grover, Professor Tumulty and Professor
Brennamen.
Kate Messitidis and Sarah Morse, ’16: We are tabling from tomorrow from 11-2 for a
nonprofit organization called chill(?), raffling off items. The winners will be announced at Jib
Fest.
Chorale: we =have a concert on Sat the 21 at 3 pm in the Chapel. We are singing several
different Magnificats.
Spanish: We are meeting tomorrow at 8 pm in St. Eds 106
Open Forum:
Doug Babcock, Public Safety
Doug Bubcock: I am the new director of Public Safety. Our mission is to increase our
involvement in public safety and increase the connection with the students and the community.
We often think “What can the college do to best serve the community?”. We have hired 3 people
to replace Peter Soons, and are focusing how public safety and the community interacts and how
public safety becomes part of everyone’s life. The mission is public safety not to give out tickets
and get people in trouble. We want to Start educational programs for students.
Marissa Keleman, ’18: When you say silent witness, do you mean anonymous?
Doug Babcok: Yes on website type in the information about what you saw and put it in there so
your name isn’t involved but they have somewhere to start –on website
Taylor Winchester, ’18: Is anything being done about the spider stealing incident?
Doug Babcock: there are cameras in buildings—policy is going to take a little longer to know
about that. We have to balance how intrusive they become with cameras; we do not want
cameras everywhere have to find the balance on where they would be. It will be more about the
teachers knowing if they need to be secure and establishing that with public safety, adding more
locks and key pads
Jack Loomis, ’16: St mikes entrance road by Cumberland farms is very dark, do we own that
strip? Have you thought about adding more lights there, between the construction and the white
fence.
Joe Mendes, ’18: After 10 and 11 academic buildings only have one knightcard reader , could
we get more on other doors so we don’t have to walk around to the only one?
Doug Babcock: I can check, that would be with house keeping. I will ask to make it more
convenient and more safe to get around.
Class of 2017, Open Position
Class of 2017: We are Jill Kahn, secretary and Jackie McLavey, Vice President. We would like
to recommend Caroline Staples to be SA rep for 2017
Joe Mendes, ’18: What position
Class of 2017: SA representative
SLAM
Shannon McQueen, Student Association President: I would like to invite SLAM down to
present
SLAM: We’re Conor Disher, Olivia Nestro, Sammi Stolar, Amy Garlesky and Sammy
Sidorakis, and we are currently the senior most member of SLAM
You’ve probably heard that about a year ago the adjunct faculty on campus won their
union vote, very similar to how the custodial staff did two years ago. Like the custodians, the
adjuncts are still in the bargaining process. We will show a brief video about an adjunct at St.
Mike’s, Sharyn Layfield.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7jqLM-SMgo
We have been working closely with several adjuncts and faculty and we are here to do exactly
what we did two years ago with the custodians. We are not here to actually accomplish tangible
change, the SA does not have that power. We are here to propose a statement of support by the
student body. We have quotes from the Defender and The Nation. We are here to present this
resolution which is a statement of support from the student body that we would like the process
of bargaining to be completed as soon as possible and fairly. I am going to read the resolution.
Resolution Supporting Fair Wages for Adjunct Professors at Saint Michael’s College
WHEREAS, St. Michael’s adjunct professors are paid between $3,000 and $5,000 per course on
average and receive no health benefits.
WHEREAS, Recent studies show that 22 percent of part time faculty live below the poverty
line.1
WHERAS, St. Michael’s College adjunct professors won their union on 1 December 2014.
WHEREAS, Adjunct professors and administrators have had 13 (soon to be 14) meetings to
discuss a fair contract that today remains unsettled.
WHEREAS, The administration has offered a pay increase of only 2% which is a $22 per credit
raise and has recently offered a 3.5% wage increase.
WHEREAS, Saint Michael’s College states that its vision is to:
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to be an academic community that promotes the pursuit of truth, the development of
virtue and high levels of excellence in all its academic, social and religious programs
with a view to bettering the human condition;
to conduct its various programs in accordance with policies that are consistent with the
principles of the Catholic faith, especially those of truth, justice and charity, and to
promote these principles, in fulfillment of its mission throughout the world; and
to enrich the knowledge of Catholicism in its various dimensions and in relationship to
various disciplines and fields of knowledge and to promote the moral and spiritual
development of the entire College community.
BE IT RESOLVED, That the Student Association supports a substantial pay increase for adjunct
faculty, one which provides a living wage for all adjuncts and places them on a pathway towards
parity with their full time colleagues
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, That the campus community will actively support adjunct
professors to further foster a community that cares about social justice issues.
It was recommended that we clarify what parity means. Parity implies equal pay for
equal work. This is not to suggest, as President Neuhauser brought up at the Q&A meeting, that
adjuncts do the same amount of work as full time faculty. It does suggest that adjuncts should be
proportionally paid the same. This means that full time faculty that have responsibilities like
sabbatical research that adjuncts do not. If say full time faculty do 30% more work than
adjuncts, adjuncts should be paid 70% of what faculty are paid. That is not the case right now.
If the SA decides to vote this resolution in, none of these things that want to happen will
necessarily happen. This is just saying that we as the student body would like to see it happen
and the fact that this has been dragged out this long seems like a repeating of history.
If this passes it will put pressure on the administration to follow through. This happened
two years ago with the custodial staff and absolutely had a noticeable affect on the
administration and bargaining sessions. Even if this is voted against, it is important that the
student body’s voice is represented. This is about as consolidated as our collective opinion can
get so even if you disagree, still vote.
Questions?
Torin La Liberte, Editor of the Defender: Just to clarify, can we go back to the Defender
quote. Just to clarify, I’m not disagreeing with this quote, but I feel that this quote is being misinterpreted as being quote from the Defender, because it was in the form of a letter to the editor
written by Sammy and Olivia who are standing in front of you.
Joe Mendes, ’18: I know that a lot of financial information is very hush hush, do we know what
the salary of full-time professors are?
SLAM: We don’t have that information and it’s not accessible to students.
Jacqui Duffy, ’18: So if an adjunct teaches one class they get $6000 for the whole year?
SLAM: Different credit courses get different amounts of money, but if they did one each
semester it would be around that.
Greg Hamilton, ’16: I’m guessing you have thought about this, but I was curious about the
phrasing of substantial increase because that can mean different things to different people.
Shannon McQueen, Student Association Prsident: Also, note that the wording of the
resolution can be changed
SLAM: Also, we didn’t want to put an exact figure that the whole student body would be tied
to. We figured that when we say that we want a living wage for all adjuncts along a pathway
towards parity with their colleagues was pretty specific.
Tommy Friedman, ‘16: I think that this is awesome, some of my best professors have been
adjuncts. I just had a question more about why the meeting is happening off campus?
SLAM: We can only speculate, but at the last meeting the student body had a very large, loud,
and colorful presence in support of the bargaining side and we think that they are trying to drag it
out. Also, again we can only speculate but we think they are trying to drag it out until students
are gone for break and they are waiting until it gets colder and people don’t want to be outside.
They, meaning both sides. Not trying to point fingers, but a lot of big decisions have been made
during St. Mike’s breaks when the student body is not present.
Jay Swartz, Active Minds: I was wondering if the meetings are open to the public.
SLAM: The meeting itself is not, but you are welcome to be outside of it, and SLAM will be
holding some sort of event on campus this Thursday
Jack Loomis, ’16: Just to clarify, did you want us to change it from mission to vision?
SLAM: Yes, we want to change it.
James Baker, Secretary of Student Policy: If it is a typo, Meaghan can just change it now.
SLAM: Just to clarify, the vision is something found on the campus website and these three
bullets are direct quotes from the St. Mike’s website.
Xana VanRooyen, ’18: I was wondering who this goes to on campus?
Shannon McQueen, Student Association President: It would be the role of Ty and myself to
send this out to the departments that are involved, probably Human Resources. But that is
something we can talk about if this passes to make sure we aren’t missing anyone.
SLAM: Even if nobody reads this, it is important that the symbol of the SA saying where we
stand matters.
Old Business:
Shannon McQueen, Student Association President: There is no old business.
New Business:
Jay Swaqrtz, ’17: I move we accept Caroline Staples as the Class of 2017 Representative
Jacqui Duffy, ’17: I second.
Shannon McQueen, Student Association President: Discussion? All those for? Opposed?
Abstentions?
In Favor: 60
Opposed: 0
Abstain: 8
Motion Passes.
Shaelyn Cavanaugh, ’18: I move to approve SLAMs Adjunct Resolution
Marissa Keleman, ’18: I second.
Shannon McQueen, Student Association President: Discussion?
Alex Ho, ’17: I was wondering if anyone had any concerns about the wording of “substantial” in
the resolution.
Greg Hamilton, ’16: I appreciated SLAM’s answer, and I think that substantial makes sense in
this setting.
Jacqui Duffy, ’17: So we don’t have to vote for a friendly ammendmetn because Meaghan fixed
it?
Shannon McQueen, Student Association President: Correct.
Taylor Winchester, ’18: Would the approval of the ammendment also approve any changes to
cost in tuition as a result of higher pay for adjuncts?
Jay Swartz, ’17: I feel like we are not voting on any numerical changes to anything, it is just
purely symbolic of our support.
Conor Disher, ‘17: It is not like even if we voted on this and it would happen we would know,
because we don’t have access to the budgets.
Shannon McQueen, Student Assocation President: Mext semester President Neuhauser is
coming in to show us what he showed the trustees in regards to the budget.
Victoria Barnum, Secretary of Academics: Do you want the Student Association in the last
section capitalized?
James Baker, Secretary of Student Policy: Because we are in the voting stage this has to come
as an ammendment.
Sarah Terry, ’18: I propose a friendly ammendment to capitalize Student Association in the
final section.
Shaelyn Cavanaugh, ’18: I accept the ammendment.
Shannon McQueen, Student Association President: Discussion? All those for? Opposed?
Abstentions?
In Favor: 65
Opposed: 0
Abstentions: 8
Marissa Kelemen, ‘18: I move to adjourn
Torin LaLiberte, ‘17: I second.
Shannon McQueen, Student Association President: Discussion? All those for? Opposed?
Abstentions?
In Favor: 73
Opposed: 0
Abstain: 0
Motion passes.
Meeting Adjourned.
End Time: 8:04