STUDENT GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION AGENDA
March 7, 2017
I. ROLL CALL: Daniel Chamberlain, Brandon Donahue, Ryan Gonthier, Samantha Simpson, and Corey Parkinson were absent. Andrew Morin, Geoffery Gichuhi, and Lindsey Crain were excused. Katherine Lindberg, Gabrielle Knight and Branden Garvey sent alternates.
II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM: February 28, 2017
III. PRESIDENT'S REPORT: Brendan McKee
A. We have a couple of speakers today. First we have John Ohotnicky, Registrar, here to speak about class registration as well as other news from the Registrar’s Office.
1. John Ohotnicky: For those of you that don’t know me I’m John Ohotnicky, the Registrar for the University. As you know advising and registration is coming up very soon and I just want to be able to say a couple of things that I’d like to share with you, that I hope you can get out to your friends and community across campus. I’ve got two strong bits of advice for you: Be informed and be your own advocate.
a. Be informed; the booklet has a tremendous amount of information for you. Registration days, step by step information. Check your holds. Know when to go for you advising appointment. Know when to sign up for your advising appointment with your advisor. Review your degree evaluation. The same steps that are outlined on the course offerings booklets are the same steps on the mywestfield screens on your registration portal page. Read the information.
b. Prepare for your advisor meeting. Know what courses you think you need to take next. Be ready to meet with your advisor and be your own advocate during that advising meeting. If you think something doesn’t feel right or sound right it is ok to question that with that advisor. Make sure you leave those appointments knowing what you exactly need to do on your registration day and feeling comfortable with that information. There’s a tremendous amount of support services across campus, in addition to your advisor, your department chair, the peer advising program and academic advising, and of course the registrar. If at any point anybody has any questions make sure you’re asking someone those questions so that you can get an informed answer that you are comfortable with and clearly understand.
c. Check your holds early and often. It is possible that holds could go on your account the day or two before a registration period. So, make sure you’re checking those frequently between now and the day of your registration period. Also, the week of your registration, go online after your advising appointment and look at the courses that you’ve selected. See what the enrollments are. If that course you’ve selected is close to full or half-full, make sure you have alternates, have several alternates. I suggest to students have 5 other courses that you know are necessary to your degree. Have a lot of alternates, which will help that day go much better. Also, breathe on that morning. Be patient, take a breath. There’s a lot of activity happening in those first 10 minutes. If you get into trouble take a break, check in a few minutes, and come to the registrar’s office. It’s also great to take a day or an afternoon and check back. Just because something is not available at 7:02 doesn’t mean you won’t be able to solve that problem at 10. So, be patient, be patient with us at the registrar’s office, and be patient with other administrative support services on campus. Our goal is to help you all through the advising and registration period. We want you all registered in the right courses that you need, but it takes some time.
2. Advising will take us through about the middle of April and then we will really change our focus to graduation and finishing the end of the semester so that’s kind of where we are at this point in the registrar’s office. Then as soon as graduation is over start focusing on the next incoming class over the summer months with orientation. That’s about where we are.
B. Next we have Sue LaMontagne, Dean of Students, here to talk about policy changes regarding the Smoke Free Campus and Alcohol and Other Drug Policies.
1. Sue LaMongagne: Update on the Alcohol and Other Drug Policy. Just wanted to clarify the marijuana further for students, in terms of its prohibition on campus. It’s always been banned on campus and will continue to be in any form because the Federal Government still has it unlawful. Until they change their minds along with the states, given that we are a federal institution we have to follow federal guidelines and the Federal Drug Free Schools Act. We’ve always had a ban on marijuana, but we’ve just added additional sentences in there or captions such as “and marijuana and prescription drugs,” to just reemphasize that these things aren’t allowed. So, no changes, just reemphasis on what is fact.
C. You all noticed pieces of paper on your tables, these are to provide me and Karina Sallaway information about each of you for hyour Wo’s Your Senator posters. If you could please put your name on these and fill them out, that would be much appreciated. You can hand them to either me or Karina after the meeting as we take the pictures for the posters. That being said, please don’t run out the door after the meeting. Pictures will be quick and painless, so please stick around and get those done so we don’t have to chase you all down.
D. The Career Center is hosting a Job and Internship Fair Tomorrow, March 8 from 1:30pm until 4:00pm in the Scanlon Banquet Hall. It is open to all majors, dress code is business professional, and it is highly suggested to bring a resume. This is a fantastic opportunity to market yourself and potentially get your foot in the door as an intern or a professional, so take advantage of this wonderful opportunity.
E. If you plan on leaving your car on campus during Spring Break, you must go to Public Safety by Friday, March 10 to register your vehicle and receive parking information. Please don’t forget, I don’t want any of you to get ticketed.
F. Westfield State University will be joining the City of Westfield in the annual Holyoke St. Patrick’s Day Parade on March 19. There will be a bus leaving from Woodward Center at 10:00am, so if you are interested in marching and need a ride, let me know after the meeting and I’ll get you all the information you need.
G. SGA will be hosting another Town Hall Meeting on Monday, March 27 from 6:00pm until 8:00pm in the Loughman Living Room. This serves as an opportunity for those who attend to discuss any issues they either see or have heard about, and the goal is for these discussions to lead towards improving the campus community altogether. Use this as an opportunity to not only voice your concerns, but the concerns of your constituency. I hope to see you all there.
H. Massachusetts State Representative John Velis will be speaking at our next SGA meeting. Representative Velis represents the 4th Hampden district, which includes Westfield State University. Please come prepared to this meeting with questions. Furthermore, this meeting will be a dress code meeting, so please dress business formal. I’ll be sure to send a reminder as we’re returning from Spring break. If you have any questions regarding dress code, feel free to ask me after the meeting.
I. Items not listed on Agenda:
IV. BOARD OF TRUSTEES' REPORT: Brandon Trafford
A. All University Committee: No Report
B. Neighborhood Advisory Board: No Report
C. NEASC Steering Committee: No Report
V. VICE PRESIDENT'S REPORT-STUDENT LIFE: Arielyss Santiago
A. Student Affairs Committee: No Report
B. Diversity/Inclusion Committee: No Report
C. Food Services Committee: Rehana Yusif
1. As many of you may know the chicken poster from the DC was stolen, thankfully the perpetrator returned the chicken in one piece.
2. Unfortunately the DC was experiencing a moldy bread issue, it was not their fault. The people in the warehouse were shipping out expired loaves of bread. The DC quickly snipped this issue in the butt.
3. The soups are now made from scratch so please enjoy. Also, we have freshly made hummus and salads on the salad bar.
4. Please be sure to keep an eye out for promotions, because we will be having many once we return form break.
5. Rynell Christopher asked about putting the calorie count on all foods in all eateries. Morgan is on the issue, Bistro and Ely will definitely have calories shown, just remember that if you do decide to add an extra item on your meal for example bacon, the calories will increase.
6. There was also a concern regarding the price changes in the Market Place. What was happening is that the providers gave the Market Place a pricing list, but Morgan also gave the Market place a pricing list, so different supervisors were going by different pricing lists. Over spring break they will be getting a scanner to fix this issue.
D. Parking Control Board: No Report
E. Student Athletic Advisory Board: No Report
F. Substance Advisory Committee: No Report
G. Community Relations/Fundraising Report: Marissa Cremin
1. I have some updates to report tonight on behalf of Health Services. The Health Fair and Fresh Check Day, a suicide prevention initiative, will be Thursday, March 23 in the Ely Campus Center from 11:00am until 3:00pm. Last year about 400 people attended. There will be lots of free food, activities, prizes, t-shirts and raffles.
2. Health Services has been sponsoring Baystate Community Health Center to offer free STI testing biweekly. Testing is free but the Dept. of Public Health is requiring that insurances be billed so that the grant money for this service doesn’t run out. This does mean that an Explanation of Benefits (EOB) could be sent to the insurance subscriber, which is typically a parent. They are testing for HIV, Hepatitis C, Chlamydia, Gonorrhea and Syphilis. A number of people without symptoms have tested positive for Chlamydia, a common bacterial STI in college health. Health Services has condoms and dental dams.
3. Recently there have been patients with the flu, a viral illness. You can help to prevent the spread of the flu by frequently washing your hands, keeping your hands away from your face, avoiding sharing drinks, having good coughing etiquette, and keeping your distance from ill people. Please stay out of class if you have a fever.
4. Please read Student Health 101 that comes in your email. This month there’s a chance to win $2,000.00.
5. People traveling for spring break to warm climates should remember sunscreen.
H. Veteran’s Affairs Report: No Report
I. Advisory Committee on University Infrastructure: No Report
VI. VICE PRESIDENT’S REPORT-ACADEMIC LIFE: Jacob Lotter
A. It was announced on Friday that after a thorough search the University will be welcoming Dr. Parviz Ansari as the new Vice President of Academic Affairs and Provost. Dr. Ansari will be coming to us from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, and will begin in July. Dr. Ansari will be taking the reins from Interim VP of Academic Affairs Dr. Marsha Marotta, who I hope you’ll thank for her service if you see her in the coming months.
B. Academic Policies Committee: No Report
C. Curriculum Committee: No Report
D. Enrollment Management Committee: No Report
E. International Programs Committee: No Report
F. Academic Technology and Information Services Committee: No Report
G. Writing Liaison Committee: No Report
H. Advisory Committee on Academic Planning: No Report
I. Advisory Committee on the CURACW: No Report
J. Guest Lecture Committee: No Report
VII. VICE PRESIDENT'S REPORT-PROGRAMMING: Madeline Dexter
A. Programming update: No Report
VIII. VICE PRESIDENT’S REPORT-FINANCE: Marcus DiBacco
A. Finance Report: Marcus DiBacco
1. I have three finance proposals for you all today. Before we dive into them I just want to remind you that every time you approve a finance proposal you help to sponsor important activities and opportunities for our fellow students. On that note, I just want to thank you all for your excellence in helping to support our clubs and organizations thus far.
a. Our first proposal today is coming to us from the Graphic Design club. Every year Graphic Design and art students take a trip to NYC to visit either the Met or the Whitney Museum. This year, the group will be going to the Whitney Museum during the biannual art exhibit. I do not need to tell you all that this trip provides a unique opportunity for 53 students to see and learn from historic and beautiful pieces of art. The proposal will cover half of the $1550.00 bus to the museum as well as all of the $16.00 admission tickets for 53 students and the two $20.00 tickets for chaperones.
i. Rehana Yusif: Have they raised any money?
ii. Marcus DiBacco: I know that they have been doing fundraisers throughout the year and they currently have $770.00 in their budget.
iii. Rehana Yusif: Are they going to be using that toward the trip?
iv. Marcus DiBacco: Yes they will. They still have to pay $775.00 for the bus so that’s $5.00 more than they have.
v. Ashely Deleon: Are there 52 active members or is that how many they can take?
vi. Marcus DiBacco: Those are the students that are going. They open it up to the Art students as well. So, students from both majors will be going and they have filled all their seats.