RESIDENCE HALL STUDENT ASSOCIATION
Associate Council Meeting
November 23, 2015
LeFevre Hall
CALL TO ORDER 9:03 PM
MYSTERY ACTIVITY 9:03 PM
We went around the room and said our favorite Thanksgiving food.
ROLL CALL/HALL REPORTS 9:05 PM
Bevier / 1 / 1 / had their Thanksgiving program
Bliss / 3 / 2 / discussed upcoming events and their Thanksgiving program
Bouton / 3 / 1 / had their Thanksgiving program
Capen / 3 / 3 / had their Thanksgiving program
Collango / 2 / 0 / discussed programs, had their Collangsgiving
Crispell / 4 / 3 / discussed getting a snapchat geofilter and upcoming programs
Deyo / 1 / 0 / had an event where they decorated mason jars
DuBois / 5 / 5 / discussed programs and had their Thanksgiving program
Esopus / 1 / 0 / discussed upcoming programs
Gage / 1 / 0 / discussed their upcoming Christmas program
LeFevre / 5 / 3 / discussed December event with cookie decorating, had their Thanksgiving program today with Crispell and DuBois
Lenape / 3 / 3 / finalized their programming schedule and their Thanksgiving program (thanks RHSA for coming!)
Ridgeview / 1 / 1 / finished their Rhino Week where they had a bunch of programs, had Thanksgiving program
Scudder / 4 / 4 / reviewed an event, had hall appreciation, and discussed future holiday events
NRHH 9:08 PM
Some of them volunteered at the pickle festival yesterday, and it was super fun! After that, they had a super long (but fun!) meeting where they decided new chapter members!
They are: Ashley Cummins! Chante McKenzie! Breanne Casucci! Rui Gomes! Audrey Terwilliger! Katie Herman! Michael Hebert! Catherine Callan! Diana Suarez! Molly Poniatowski! Sarah Moran! Nicole DeRobertis! Melysa Arguello!
They also voted in their new honorary member, which is RD Tony from Gage Hall! He will also be the keynote speaker at induction.
DANCEATHON UPDATE WITH RACHEL:
Thanks everyone who came out to the preview event! The website is officially up, so like the page “SUNY New Paltz Dance Marathon”, and you can find the link in the “about” section. Sign up and fundraise!
We are encouraging everyone to make a team with their whole hall, not a bunch of teams within the same hall (so instead of “Bevier Hall Gov” and “Bevier Night Hosts”, just make one for “Bevier Hall”). This will also welcome residents who are not involved in your hall to join the team! Your RD should’ve gotten an email about it, so go bother them.
They might have a fundraiser in December; keep your eyes open for it!
SENATE 9:11 PM
Justin Holmes, a former SA president from like 10 years ago, came and spoke to them about his fight for student rights. If you’re interested in learning more, look up Campus Coop on YouTube. Grad students also came and spoke to them about the “Green Revolving Fund”. It’s a fee of $3 used to fund sustainability efforts on campus. There used to be a $15 fee that came out of tuition, but now there’s an option to lower it to $3.
NYPIRG’s free tuition petition got 1600 signatures, and they’re sending it to Albany.
OLD BUSINESS 9:12 PM
Motion to Open- Lenape
Second- Bouton
New Paltz Unplugged
FINAL RESULTS ARE IN!
Scudder: increased by 1.9%
Lenape: decreased by 3.5%
LeFevre: decreased by 2.1%
Gage: increased by 3.6%
Esopus: decreased by 3.75%
Deyo: increased by 2.9%
DuBois: increased by .7%
Crispell: increased by .4%
Capen: decreased by .9%
Collango: decreased by 3.2%
Bevier: decreased by 2.2%
Bouton: decreased by .6%
3rd place: Collango
2nd place: Lenape
1st place: Esopus
Molly will be in touch with Esopus about the prize. Thanks for all of the effort you guys put into this!
Palisades Mall Trip
It’s in ‘Old Business’ because it was supposed to happen on Saturday but the buses never showed up. Life happens and it goes on. [The AC seems interested in a redo.] The new date is tentatively December 12th, which is 3ish weeks from now. Think of it as a de-stressing before finals.
Crispell: Can people who didn’t sign up for the last one go on this one?
-We have to give priority to people who signed up for the last one, but you can still sign up.
-If you signed up for the last one but don’t want to go on this one, come to our office and let us know.
Ridgeview: What time?
-It would still be 9am-5pm, meet at 8:50 at HAB circle.
Ashley (RBD): Do we have to repay?
-Yes, but it’s still just a placeholder so you will get it back again.
NCC
No new updates. Mike had his meeting with the NEACURH 3 year strategic plan committee, so there’s some stuff on that.
News to come later on Minis 2017.
CCC
It’s nearing the end of the semester, so if you still have PUP sheets you want to hand it, Angelique needs them by November 30th. The final results will be announced at Banquet on December 7th…and the winner will get $250 added to their Hall Gov budget! You can drop PUP sheets at office hours or bring them to the next meeting.
Motion to Close- Scudder
Second- Collango
NEW BUSINESS 9:17 PM
Motion to Open- Bouton
Second- Capen
Amendments
So, this procedure is kind of like election procedure. Two people can vote, and they can either be your two AC reps or a different documented Hall Gov member. You can’t use electronic devices or your vote is taken away. You are influencing the constitution that your hall has to abide by, so take this seriously.
When Ariana starts reading, someone say “I waive the reading of this amendment” so that this whole thing goes by quicker. When you say that, Ariana will stop talking and whoever wrote the amendment will start explaining it and why they think it is important. They have 3 minutes to talk, there will be a question/answer period, and then a discussion and a vote. The discussion period and the voting period both have to be opened, question/answer does not.
People who can’t vote can still make motions.
FIRST AMENDMENT [1.2.1].
Constitutions and all…
Capen: I move to waive the reading of this amendment.
PRESENTATION:
Angelique: This amendment is saying that you hand in your hall’s constitution whenever the CCC asks for it. In the constitution, it currently says that you have to hand it in during the first 7 days of the semester or the last 7 days, which is very specific. I want to change it to whenever the CCC asks for it.
QUESTION/ANSWER:
Move to close Question and Answer: Bouton
Second: LeFevre
Move to open Discussion: Crispell
Second: Lenape
DISCUSSION:
Capen: Woohoo!
Lenape: I think this is beneficial, especially if a Hall Gov is mostly freshmen. They could have a hard time finding the constitution and it could take them a while to go over it. I think a greater amount of time to make necessary changes is beneficial.
Move to close Discussion: DuBois
Second: LeFevre
Move to open voting by closed eyes/hands raised: Bouton
Second: Scudder
VOTING:
Yes, I want to pass this amendment: 20 people
No, I have no confidence in this amendment: 0 people
Abstain for some personal bias: 0 people
The AC voted to pass the amendment!
SECOND AMENDMENT [1.2.2].
To make changes to…
Bouton: I move to waive the reading of this amendment.
PRESENTATION:
Angelique: The constitution says that you have to meet with your whole hall and your RD if you want to make changes to your constitution. Meeting with your whole hall is kind of crazy, and it slows down the amending process. Also, most constitutions don’t even mention residents, so it’s a bit excessive to have everyone vote on something that doesn’t really mention them. You should still meet with your RD, but not with your whole hall.
QUESTION/ANSWER:
Move to close question/answer: LeFevre
Second: Crispell
Move to open Discussion: DuBois
Second: LeFevre
Crispell: I think it makes sense, there’s no way you’re going to get your whole hall to discuss amending the constitution.
Bouton: Angelique said most of the constitution doesn’t even mention residents, so it doesn’t make sense to get them all together to approve it.
Move to close Discussion: DuBois
Second: LeFevre
Move to open voting by closed eyes hands raised: Bouton
Second: Lenape
VOTING:
Yes, I want to pass this amendment: 20 people
No, I have no confidence in this amendment: 0 people
Abstain for some personal bias: 0 people
The AC decided to pass the amendment!
THIRD AMENDMENT [4.4].
Lenape: I move to waive the reading of this amendment.
PRESENTATION:
Mike: Ok, so I’m a huge policy nerd, and one of my goals is to get the RHSA/Hall Gov policy more aligned with regional policy. In NEACURH Section 2, it says that NCC’s cannot participate in Pro/Con and Discussion if someone from their school is bidding. This amendment would take speaking rights away from a hall that has someone running for a position on the e-board.
QUESTION/ANSWER:
Meryl: I move to amend the wording of the legislation to read: Representatives may participate in Question and Answer but not Pro/Con and Discussion if the candidate is a member of that hall, but they still have a vote.
Move to vote by closed eyes hands raised: LeFevre
Second: DuBois
VOTING [Will we see Meryl’s amendment to Mike’s amendment?]:
Yes, we will see the amendment to the amendment: 13
No, I have no confidence in the amendment to the amendment: 6
Abstain for some personal bias: 1
The AC voted to see Meryl’s amendment to Mike’s amendment.
Move to open Question and Answer: LeFevre
Second: Bouton
QUESTION/ANSWER:
LeFevre: Why shouldn’t they be able to talk?
-Mike: If a member from your Hall Gov is running, there’s a lot of bias there. You have a relationship of working with them for the whole year, and if someone’s running against them, there’s a good chance you will favor the person from your hall. This amendment is just to even the playing field.
Bouton: Is it just for the one position that you can’t participate in?
-Mike: Let’s say someone from Bouton is running for PR, you wouldn’t be able to participate in the PR election only.
Scudder: Is there a particular incident that led to this?
-That is outside information.
DuBois: Let’s say in your made up election, someone from Bouton is running for PR and so is someone from Bevier. Can someone from Bouton give discussion points about the person from Bevier? Or they can’t talk at all?
-Mike: In mine, they can’t talk at all. In Meryl’s, they can talk during question and answer.
Capen: What if there are 2 people running from Bouton?
-Mike: It still applies, Bouton cannot talk.
Bouton: This one’s for Meryl: They can participate in question and answer, but not in Pro/Con or Discussion?
-Meryl: Yes, and they can vote.
Ashley (RBD): Point of Information: Meryl’s amendment is taken directly from the NEACURH policy book.
Move to close Question and Answer: DuBois
Second: LeFevre
Move to open Discussion: Lenape
Second: Bouton
Bouton: I don’t think that a school not being able to talk is comparable to a hall not being able to talk. I think we would be missing out on a lot of valuable points in an unbiased manner if we pass this amendment. We will miss out on a lot if we bar people from speaking. I don’t agree with this amendment at all.
DuBois: I think it’s good as is because during an election, you can only use the same information that everyone else could use, whether it be from the application, the speech, or the question and answer. They can’t contribute any more than anyone else could.
Scudder: In reference to a previous comment, they can’t use outside information anyway, so I don’t see why we need this.
-Ariana: For future reference, if someone already makes a point that you were going to make, you can just say “Yield to redundancy”.
Bliss: Yield to redundancy.
Move to end Discussion: Scudder
Dissent: Bouton
Bouton: If you’re trying to stop bias from happening, I feel like it’ll still happen because the hall can still vote. If they can still vote in a biased manner but can’t talk, it’s not really changing anything.
Ashley (RBD): The point of taking it away is that when I say something, I’m swaying your opinion. Even if you’re only using information from someone’s application, there is still a subconscious bias either for or against them. Someone from the same school and someone from the same hall are totally comparable. You may not know another delegate like you know someone you worked with on a Hall Gov, but you can relate to them in some way and that’s where the bias comes from. You can still ask questions to have everything clarified for yourself. The point of not being able to speak is so that you cannot sway anyone’s opinions. You can still vote so that your opinions are still honored. Let’s say Maria is running for something. I can pull something out of her application and expand upon it in a biased way. I can’t do the same for Nicole because I don’t know her. I urge you all to vote for Meryl’s amendment.
Capen: Biases will always be there. Tons of people can be friends; there can be tons of things to sway biases, not just what hall you live in. What if someone has a valuable opinion to contribute, but we can’t consider it because they’re not allowed to talk? Anyone can be swayed on anything at any time.
DuBois: Even if you live in the same hall as them, that doesn’t mean you want them to be elected.
Ridgeview: With NEACURH, just because someone’s from your own school doesn’t mean you know them more. This school is small enough that I could know someone from a different hall more than I could know someone from my own hall.
Bouton: It’s also different with NEACURH because you stay in the same school from year to year. People change halls all the time. No one’s pushing their hall to win because they probably won’t even be in the same hall next year. It’s not like “Oh someone from Bouton has to be on the e-board next year!”, because the other person as well as myself may not be in Bouton next year. It’s not only biased by hall, there are so many other biases and you can’t take them all away. Hall biases are just irrelevant by the end of the year.
Move to close Discussion: LeFevre
Second: DuBois
Move to open voting by eyes closed hands raised: Bouton
Second: Crispell
VOTING:
Yes, I want to vote for Mike’s amendment: 1 person
Yes, I want to vote for Meryl’s amendment: 9 people
No, I have no confidence in either of these amendments: 7 people
Abstain: 3 people
The AC did not come to a 2/3 decision.
This means we have to reopen discussion. Fight for whichever way you want this to go. Also, you should only be voting “abstain” if you have a personal bias against the amendment, not because you don’t understand what’s going on.
Move to reopen Discussion: Scudder
Second: Lenape
Bouton: There are people in other halls who you are closer with than people in your own hall. It’s possible to be more biased to other halls. Friendship is stronger than a Hall Gov.
Bouton: Passing this amendment will only limit valuable discussion points.
Capen: If you don’t know the candidate and are voting blind, this amendment won’t help you.
LeFevre: A hall should be able to question their candidate to see how they answer, and they can do this without swaying the opinion of others.
Ridgeview: If 4 people are running for one position, that could mean 4 halls can’t participate at all.
Scudder: If you have someone from your own hall running against people from 3 other halls, you can’t ask anything to the other 3 candidates. There’s no chance of you trying to figure out how the other candidates feel about topics.
Move to close Discussion: Bouton
Second: LeFevre
Move to vote by closed eyes hands raised: Bouton
Second: Scudder
VOTING:
Yes, I want to vote for Mike’s amendment: 2 people
Yes, I want to vote for Meryl’s amendment: 11 people
No, I have no confidence in either of these amendments: 6 people
Abstain: 1 person
The AC did not come to a 2/3 decision.
Move to reopen Discussion: Scudder
Second: LeFevre
Capen: Biases will always happen. Anyone can sway anyone. It’s not beneficial to bar people from talking. If 4 people are running, 4 halls can’t talk.
Bouton: This amendment really limits discussion. Even if you do know a Hall Gov member, you are only allowed to reference off of their application. If you know them outside of their application, you are not allowed to talk about it anyway. You can’t bring in outside information.
Bliss: You can say good things, but you can also say bad things and weaknesses. It won’t always be a positive bias that a person has. It really limits conversation.
Bouton: If they’re from your hall and you don’t think they’re the right person, you can point out a weakness if you feel they’re not right. Everyone wants the right person in that position.
Move to close Discussion: Bouton