Student Senate Meeting
February 24, 2016--8:00 pm, Kyle Morrow Room
I. Call to Order--8:03pm
II. Motion to reinstate McMurtry President -- passed
III. Roll Call
IV. Approval of Agenda & Minutes -passed
V. SA 100 years Working Group Legislation -- Sai
1. last month the SA celebrated our 97 year anniversary. here to advocate for the creation of the SA 100 year committee to document history of SA in past
2. two examples of big history this year:
a) SB#4: students advocated for their own wellbeing
b) Rice EMS: 20 years ago, students identified need for emergency services on campus. advocated for themselves again
c) Stories like this need to be identified and shared so we can appreciate how far we’ve come and use the stories to help inspire us in the future.
3. what the committee will address:
a) create an alumni network of student leaders on campus; how students turned out in the real world→ to show how leadership experiences led them to success in the real world
b) looking at achievements of student body
c) set a vision for next 100 years for student leadership on campus
4. members will be selecting by application process
B. Angela: Woodson Research center has a lot of valuable resources; Sai will contact them in
C. Griffin : will vision for next 100 years be different from what the SA came up with in 2012? yes, slightly different
VI. Campus Clubs Resolution
A. put together a working group to restructure how clubs are done on campus
B. previously only 4 people were a part of the approval process, we’re changing that
C. it’s hard for students to know what already exists, for people to sort through what has happened
D. contacted people from around campus who are involved with different types of clubs, involved wth different activities, have been working with them all year in conjunction with student center to figure out how to best reorganize clubs on campus
E. the actual resolution, if passed, would support these changes, but the student center office would be the actual ones to make changes, list of issues found are in the actual document
F. first issue - addressing sustainability of clubs, clubs need a plan for at least 4 years or justificaiton for the short term nature of the club
G. second issue - overlapping in mission
H. third issue - minimum number of members; 5 general members plus 8 community members must demonstrate interest
I. transition period - if in the fall, the person who graduates in the spring will leave sooner, so transitioning needs to be moved earlier
J. sort clubs into genres called “councils” to allow for more collaboration between clubs - council isn’t a club itself, just a leadership umbrella structure
K. emphasize the importance of leadership in a club and have student center expand its mid-year checkup with clubs to make sure clubs are achieving their goals and making progress
L. more details for office of student activities to oversee the clubs are included at the end
VII. QEP Results: Undergraduate Experiential Inquiry and Research at Rice: Dean Taylor & Dr. Oden
VIII. Quality Enhancement Program: every 10 years, we’re required to be reaccredited. We’re required to come up with a 5 year quality enhancement program. Last time, we created the CCL.
A. starting a campus wide program
B. curriculum based program
C. input from students was important all along. Madhuri Vankateswar and Jake Nyquist were on the committee. student voice was really important here.
D. Plan is to : Expand and enhance experiential inquiry and research opportunities for Rice undergrads and provide training opportunities for graduate students.
E. Clear pathway for undergrads in each discipline to participate in research
F. QEP is going to set up a clear process for students in any discipline to figure out how to participate in research. in some departments, it’s easy for students to get involved with research, while in other departments it’s harder to know how to prepare for research
G. set of proposed inquiry and research courses, opportunities, and modules
H. graduate fellows:trained to support courses
I. divided research process into chunks: inquiry, exploring, solving. hope is to give more students the opportunity to do inquiry, a little less to do exploring, and fewer to do the solving (but as many as who want to)
J. Inquiry: provide students with scaffolding necessary to do research.
K. Explore: students take the skills they have acquired in inquiry phase and participate in an authentic research project.
L. Solve: enable students to solve open-ended challenges and produce tangible work product
M. Key features of program:
1. communicate pathways to undergraduate research,
2. school or department freshman/sophomore courses
3. promote changes to existing courses to include open-ended experiential inquiry or research components
4. opportunity for some new courses
5. support for co-curricular programs and research projects
6. opportunities and funding for undergraduates to present their research.
N. some funds built into program to support students going to conferences to present work and build on their experiences in a specific way
O. specific learning criteria:
1. develop the skills and competencies necessary to participate in experiential inquiry and research
2. frame questions and develop research problems
3. apply theories or construct models to explore, address, and/or solve open-ended, authentic questions or problems
4. enhance communication skills
P. Institutional Changes:
1. develop a culture for undergraduates to actively examine and investigate open-ended, authentic questions
2. improve advision of undergrads about the pathways to inquiry and resaerch experiences
3. enhance the capacity of faculty to incorporate experiential inquiry and research oportunities into their courses
4. enable grad students to learn to teach and promote research
Q. Dean Taylor will be supervising a director and staff for this project, who will report to provost about implementation of this project.
R. Faculty council appointed by provost which will report back to QEP director that will give feedback on project progress
S. will use CTE and CWOVC
T. engi 120 example
U. elections systems course
V. Jerusalem class example
W. this will help differentiate a Rice education and build on existing strength at Rice
X. how will this tie into senior honors thesis, etc.
1. those efforts will become a part of this
2. maybe some of those projects can start in some of their earlier classes
Y. recent concern about decline in Engi 120
1. very high scoring in course evaluations and reviews
2. first semester has 100 people on the wait-list
3. second semester people don’t sign up for it because they see how much work it is for their first semester friends; has half the enrollment as in the spring
4. 10/16 teams re-enrolled for independent study this spring
5. plan is designed for faculty to replace some of their curriculum instead of adding onto already packed student schedules
IX. Thresher Reps speaking --tabled until next meeting -- all passed
X. Mentor Award/Senior Speaker Nomination Announcement: every year, the SA is responsible for nominating a faculty/staff mentor. form for mentor award will be emailed out. can be any mentor (doesn’t just have to be related to SA).
XI. Announcements
A. Changeover Banquet is March 12th 1-3 pm in Farnsworth Pavilion
B. Wellbeing Committee is starting a support group on campus right on the Wednesday after Spring Break
C. Second round elections: honor council junior rep, honor council sophomore rep, sammy the owl. petitions due two weeks from now.
XII. Adjournment--8:51pm