Associated Student Government
Senate Minutes × September 12, 2011
I. Call to Order at 7:02pm
II. Pledge of Allegiance lead by Sen. Trexler
III. Swearing in of Elected Senators
A. Sen. Wilkerson is sworn in.
Vice President Roemer takes role manually due to clickers not working. 41 out of 47 senators present.
IV. Orders of the Day
A. Sen. Holley moves to add item C under new business C. S. B. F. 2011-2012/4 “Executive Cabinet Expansion”, Seconded by Sen. Chavez. Passed.
B. Sen. Ramirez moves to add approval of minutes after orders of the day, Seconded by Sen. French. Passed.
C. Sen. Gonzalez moves to have “Old business” and “New business” switched. Denied by Vice President Roemer.
D. Sen. French motions to approve the agenda, Seconded by Sen. Wilkerson. Passed.
E. Sen. French moves to have public forum before guest speakers. Seconded by, Sen. Jackson.
V. Approval of minutes
A. Sen. Skotak motions to approve minutes, seconded by Sen. Rohmer. Passed.
VII. Guest Speakers
A. Mr. Trey Hatt- San Marcos Communication Specialist
i. The City of San Marcos has a project called “Dream San Marcos” which has a main goal of making San Marcos a place where students who graduate from Texas State want to come back to San Marcos after they graduate and get involved. They have made a website that takes suggestions that will eventually be brought to the San Marcos City council.
ii. Handed out a flyer with the Dream San Marcos website.
B. Athletics
i. Tailgating starts at 9:00am on Saturday. You do not need a reserved spot, and you are also not limited to tailgating in Bobcat Ally.
ii. There is a bus route on and off campus.
iii. Promise to pride is back, all you have to do now is scan your ID and you will automatically get a point. They have a lot of prizes this year.
iv. Q: Sen. Jackson asks how she can get the points if she sits on the reserved side with her family. A: Go to the other side and scan in. Sen. Smith asks what kind of rewards are there. A: it starts off with a decal on your car to much more; there are details on the flyer handed out.
VIII. Public Forum
A. Freshman Council
i. Applications are due Tues. the 13th. Contact info 817-223-9913, 956-536-8892, if you have any questions please call them. The Application is online under executive agencies.
ii. Sen. Fulkerson asks if he could speak to the privately about some interested students.
IX. Appointment of Senate Clerk Aida Halebic
A. Sen. Kinney moves to confirm. Seconded by Sen. Blanch
B. Sworn in.
Sen. French moves to have 3 questions per nomination of any appointments from here on out. Seconded by Sen. Arnold.
X. Appointed Senators
a. Senate Selection Committee Chairman Sen. Stephen Brown report
i. Sen. Ramirez moves to have all rules suspended and have Sen. Brown sworn in, Seconded by Sen. Jones, Passed.
ii. Vice President Roemer calls for order.
iii. Sworn in
iv. Sen. Brown resumes with report: selection committee came up with 7 people to be added to ASG. Adam Brass, Chuck Lamar, Crysta May, Cody Reynolds, Justin Solomon, Adrian Tullock, and Mike Yates. They have more decisions that they need to make in regards to applicants. Q: Sen. Flores asks if this information was going to be sent out to the senate members. A: legislation says that it must be sent out a week before but with the discretion of the chair it can be sent out the day of.
b. Confirmations
i. Sen. Rohmer moves to confirm all 6 that are present, Sen. Applegate Seconds, Confirmed.
ii. Adrian Tullock is not present.
iii. Sworn in
Sen. Mishler moves to be added to the role, now at 55 senators present, Quorum is now 36.
XI. Senate Pro-Tempore Discussion
A. Last year’s Senate had a piece of legislation stating that it would pick the Senate Pro-Tempore for next year. It went through the Senate and was passed, but then found unconstitutional and was amended to say that in the beginning of each fall a Senate Pro-Tempore would be picked. The problem is that this piece of legislation was never signed by Dr. Trauth and it got lost over the summer with several others, therefore it is missing. Legislation is not official until it is signed by every person mentioned on the legislation that it would be forwarded to.
B. 2 Options
i. Vice President makes the nomination, Senate confirms the nomination
ii. Go off of what the legislation “presumably” says.
C. 2/3 vote is taken on what to do.
i. 15-33- vote fails, meaning we will go off of what the legislation presumably says.
D. Sen. Ramirez asks how can we go off of the hypothetical legislation, if we are a governing body that goes off of governing documents, but we don’t have a copy of this legislation and neither does our advisor? Is this wise? A: Vice president Roemer is not a loud to interpret the Senates governing documents, because she is not a loud to.
i. Sen. Skotak mentions that only 46 Senators voted therefore quorum was not met. A: Vice President Roemer assumed some people abstained.
ii. Sen. Yates asks why this piece of legislation was lost, or why it disappeared. A: Vice President Roemer does not know why it disappeared.
iii. Sen. French asks is it not proper procedure that everyone votes. A: yes, is there a motion on the floor to recall the vote?
iv. Sen. Ramirez moves to recall the vote, and allow no abstentions, Seconded by Sen. Barber, Passed.
v. Sen. Baker clarifies during the voting that those standing up for the second opinion want to go off of what should have happened but due to not having a record, how can we even vote on this? Because there is no legislation nothing can be done about it regardless. A: My point exactly. This is the best way I figured out on doing this.
vi. A senator asks if we don’t have the final version or if we don’t have the signatures for a final version? A: we don’t have a final version with the signatures.
vii. Sen. Fulkerson asks if it is possible to take a version that hasn’t gone through the senate and go through the process again. A: Would you like to make a motion to have that put on next week’s agenda?
viii. Sen. Fulkerson moves to have the original piece of legislation, from last semester on Senate Pro-Tempore, placed on next week’s agenda, Sen. Gonzalez seconds, Failed.
ix. Sen. Kinney moves to divide the house on a previous question, seconded by Sen. Brewer, Failed.
x. Vice President Roemer states that because of the stand still she will go off of what the constitution says and present her nomination. If the senate is for this person we will go with that and swear him in, if not then we will go forward after that.
a. Senate Pro-Tempore nomination: Sen. Drew Skotak
xi. Sen. Ramirez moves to confirm. Seconded by Sen. Brown,
xii. Vote: 51-3-1 Confirmed.
xiii. Sworn in
XIII. Standing Committee Chairs
A. Sen. Pro-Tempore Skotak moves to confirm Sen. Lamar as the chair of the University Affairs committee, Sen. Ramirez as the Student Affairs committee chair, & Sen. Arnold as the Community Affairs Chair. Seconded by Sen. Huggins, Confirmed 55-0
B. Sworn in.
XIV. Joint Commission Finance Committee appointments
A. Sen. Yates moves to confirm all 7 members, Sen. Mishler seconds, Confirmed 55-0.
B. Sen. Chuck Lamar is sworn in as Committee Chair.
XV. Executive Reports
A. President DeGarmo’s Report
i. Welcome back, talked about discussion in relation to the Senate Pro-tempore, purpose for that was to be as transparent as possible. Thank you for participating in that.
ii. From now on when a piece of legislation passes through the Senate, we will not operate by it or go by it until it goes across Dr. Trauth’s desk, and I signed.
iii. Appointment of a new committee, “Governing Documents Review Committee”. Members of this committee are as follows; Nick Franke, Adam French, Megan Trexler, Christian MacArthur. These members were asked to come up to the President after them meeting to establish a proper meeting time.
iv. Bobcat bricks will be promoted externally from ASG by a PR class.
v. LBJ Student center room availability, it has come to his attention and he is researching that situation.
vi. Special future committee appointments: Public Relations & Legislative Affairs committees, if interested please speak to President DeGarmo.
vii. Looking into changing up the ASG scholarship, if you have interest please speak with President DeGarmo.
viii. In reference to University committees you should have already gotten an email, but there has been some confusion about that, it will be looked into but expect those in your inbox soon. When you do get the email for your committee please email this information to the chief of staff so we can let students on campus know in order to be more transparent.
ix. Announcements:
a. First home football game this weekend! Participate in tailgate!
b. First meeting with Dr. Trauth is this Thursday. If you have any concerns that you want Dr. Trauth to know, let them know.
c. Vice President of University advancement: narrowed down search to 4 candidates. On sight interviews will be held once a week every week in October. I encourage you to attend, your say is very important.
d. Grad house was this week, very productive. Reach out to them, collaborate on ideas with them.
e. Student Foundation applications are out! I emailed the application out; I encourage all of you to fill out the application.
XVI. Legislative Reports
A. Sen. Fulkerson
i. Working on a project with the library achieves, to get ASG legislation achieved. Working on getting a guest speaker to come and talk to the Senate about all of the possibilities for ASG.
ii. Working on trying to figure out how to gage student opinion, possibility of creating a student org as a think tank for ASG.
B. Sen. Jones
i. Working on legislation that was never brought to the senate last year, but was passed in Freshman Council. Relates to more security, if interested please talk with Senator Jones.
C. Sen. Baker
i. Tailgate recycling starts this weekend! Last year we did an awesome job. Come out and help us. Spread the word. Community service hours are offered. Call me him if you have any questions, 512-787-9221.
XVII. Old Business
a. S.S.R.F 2011-2012/1 “In Loving Memory”
i. Sen. Bohanan moves to suspend the rules, and consider this piece of legislation already read, Seconded by Sen. Rueda, Passed.
ii. Questions:
a. Sen. Baker asks why does Sen. Fulkerson think she needs to remain on the books for the rest of the universities history as well as ASG’s history as Senator 60, when she was only just elected as a senator. A: She was a great person, who had so many great plans for ASG, and Texas State.
b. Sen. Bohanan asks would she be recognized forever or just this year? A: forever
c. Sen. Yates asks, 10 years from now a seat would be held during ASG, to represent her? A: Eventually students won’t know her; this is a way for her to be remembered.
d. Sen. Jones yields.
e. Sen. Yates asks were there any other ways Sen. Fulkerson thought of ASG remembering her? A: this is one of the ways thought of that won’t interfere with ASG to much because it’s only the first roll call of each semester.
f. Sen. Brown asks would Sen. Fulkerson want an actual spot to be held as the 60th. A: Because of the constitution we don’t actually have a 60th spot, so it’s more of a symbolic gesture.
g. Sen. Pro-Tempore Skotak asks if ASG keep growing and we reach over 60 members, would you still want that spot to be held. A: if it reaches that point I have faith in future members, that they will be able to amend the constitution and make that possible.
h. Sen. Ramirez asks has Sen. Fulkerson thought about sending out a memorandum to the family stating that ASG has recognized her as senator, so we won’t have a problem saving a seat. A: This legislation will be forwarded to her family.
i. Sen. French asks would Sen. Fulkerson accept an amendment to this legislation replacing senator 60 with Honorary Senator. A: Yes
j. Sen. Flores moves to adapt, Sen. Kent seconds. Confirmed.
k. Sen. French moves to friendly amend line 26, deleting “Senator 60”, and replacing it with “an honorary senator”. Sen. Fulkerson accepts the amendment.
l. Sen. Yates moves to add himself to the sponsors list. Seconded by Sen. Blanch, Passed.
m. Sen. French moves to suspend the rules, and upon an affirmative every senator be added to the sponsors list. Seconded by Sen. Jackson, Passed.
n. Sen. Baker reminds the senate that he feels this legislation has no effect on future senates. I encourage you to vote this down.
o. Sen. French moves to make a friendly amendment to add an S to representatives. Sen. Fulkerson accepts, Passed.