Meeting Minutes #1
I. Call to Order
Mercedez Jones, President, called to order the regular meeting of the Undergraduate Student Government at 5:05PM on Monday,January11, 2016 in Fort Dearborn Room.
II. Roll Call
The following persons were present: Christian Goddard, Ahmad Albanna, Kiana Narvaez, Pari Shah, Peter Varughese, Mercedez Jones, Christen Lee, Gabriella Bedolla, Flordalia Rodriguez-Garcia, Ryan Chiu, Jashaun Bowens, Sun Choi, David Lin
III. Approval of the minutes from last meeting
There was a motion to approve the minutes made by Peter. The meeting minutes were approved.
IV. Approval of the agenda
Motion to move IRC report to the end of the agenda made by Peter. Approved.
Motion to add 2016-1S-800 to New Business made by Ryan. Approved.
Motion to rename 2016-1S-4001 as 2016-1S-801 and move to New Business, naming Chris as chief sponsor. Approved.
Motion to approve the agenda made by Peter. Approved.
V. Ceremonial Induction(s): None
VI. Guest Speaker(s): None
VII. Reports
Executive
Advisor / Dean DuJuan Smith / Have a good first meeting!Student Member of Board of Trustees / Jauwan Hall / Not present.
President / Mercedez Jones / Over break we had a student leaders meeting with the President of GSC, HPSC, Jauwan, Dean Deanna, Dr. Henley and J Rex Tolliver.
Talked about budget cuts with members of the administration – currently expect 6% reduction in UIC’s working budget. The university will simply be cutting certain services, while leaving the essential services untouched.
International tuition will increase 1000 above out of state tuition and individuals in the college of business will also experience an increase. However, other than that for undergraduate students, tuition will remain the same for in state and out of state.
Over break I also met with Marissa McCord and until Lobby Day, there will be bi weekly meetings between her, myself, Joanna Thompson and a few other individuals.
I am working with Ryan and Kyle from Athletics in order to get a student org night that is co-hosted by USG at a basketball game similar to Greek Night.
Will be in the Fort Dearborn room for meetings during the months of January and February. Future meetings will likely be moved back to our usual location at the CSRC.
Evelyn has resigned from the assembly, and Christian has assumed the role until the next meeting, during which an election for CRC director will be held.
Vice-President / Flordalia Rodriguez-Garcia / Members have gotten back their office keys that they turned in prior to going on break.
Planning on sending a MASSMAIL regarding USG and the upcoming student elections, to spark greater interest for these positions.
Speaker of the Assembly / Gabriella Bedolla / Please update your office hour availability in the google doc as soon as possible.
I had sent out a doodle poll at the end of the semester. I will send it out again this week and we will resume kiosk hours when that is figured out.
Since there has been so much fluctuation with members I would really appreciate it if the directors would send me an updated list of who is in their committee via email. Or if that information could be updated in the google doc.
Treasurer / Christen Lee / Welcomes Peter and Nancy to the Treasury committee!
Will be sending out a mass mail to inform student orgs about USGs funding capabilities this week. And EVERY week, for the rest of the semester. The email is designed, in part, to get student orgs that have not considered the option of traveling off campus; to start thinking about it. I also want to work with CRC to get this message out.
Will also be working with Sun as soon as possible to prepare for this year’s “Lobby Day”. I would like it if I could get advice from Gabriela (Fmr Treasurer ) and Mercedez (Fmr URC Director) for advice on how they prepared for last years’ lobby day. I want to know what worked for them, as well as what they would like to have done better.
Director of SIC / David Lin / Will wrap up initiatives from last semester, and will gear our initiatives this semester to helping commuter and on-campus students directly.
Deliberated on possibility of getting a torch in the quad.
Director of IRC / Asha Binbek / I made a team for Undergraduate Student Government for the Dance Marathon on April 5. We have to fundraise for the event, I made our goal $300 which I think we can do. To sign up, all you have to do is go to the website, make an account, when you do join the Undergraduate Student Government team. I will send an email with all of the links after tonight’s meeting. You have a fundraising goal of your own (minimum $50) and your goal money goes into the team’s goal, so it would literally only take 6 of us raising $50 to make our goal! So far we have already raised $10!
I will be meeting with my committee this week to discuss our activities for this semester. It’s going to be a busy, but exciting semester! If you are interested, please stop by our first committee meeting and always feel free to contribute any ideas you have if you’d like!
Anyone interested in coming to my meetings, they will be held Wednesdays at 10am. Our first meeting will be in the USG office at 10am this Wednesday, as per tradition, I will bring donuts! If this time doesn't work for you all, please let me know, I will send another doodle out this week!
My report on the National Student Leadership Conference will be prepared for the meeting on January 25th.
Director of URC / Sun Choi / Project progress from the last semester:
- Non-smoking policy – It seems like the project is on the administrative process.
- Metra discount for UIC students – Jauwan will have some updates either in this week or next week.
- Textbookaffordabilityinitiative – had meeting with Linda Naru about the OER and open textbooks; both policies have to go through the Senate, and will propose to them within the next few weeks.
- Lobbyday – the tentative UIC lobby day date is March 2nd
- ConsolidatedUICtutoringresourcewebsite
- Deadweek
Director of CRC / Christian Goddard / Our meetings will be held on Wednesdays at 10am. Please come if you’re interested, and if you can’t make it, let me know and we’ll work something out. We would love to hear any ideas you may have related to CRC.
Plenty to come from CRC this semester. Recruiting new members will be our top priority. Our first meeting on Wednesday will be focused on planning out our semester and trying to include many opportunities for recruitment events and ideas.
Last semester’s recruitment efforts were lackluster, and we aim to broader our efforts this semester to a significant degree.
VIII. Resolution Proposals. None.
IX. New Business
- Resolution 2016-1S-800: Spring 2016 Semester Meeting Dates- Brought forth by President Mercedez Jonesto set 10 meeting dates for the Spring2016 academic term.Passed.
- Resolution 2016-1S-801: Dead Week Designation - Brought forth by URC Director Sun Choi in order to designate the week before finals as “dead week” in which no other assignments may be given (with exceptions), in order to relieve student stress and allow students to focus on studying for their end-of-the-year exams. Passed unanimously.
X. Service hours: None
XI. Items for discussion.
- Ryan appoints Pooja as Assistant Secretary, to assume the temporary role of Secretary in the event that the Secretary is absent.
XII. Public Forum and announcements. None.
XIII. Voting in New Members: None.
XIV. Adjournment
There was a motion to adjourn. Speaker Bedolla adjourned the meeting at 5:53 PM
Minutes submitted by Secretary Ryan Chiu