Student Government Association

General Board Meeting

February 24th, 2014

Present:

Executive Board: A. Bullard (Vice President), M. Hicks (BAM), K. Chrzanowska (Treasurer), Z. Yeager (Secretary)

Advisors: None present

Senators: J. Ahern, E. Benoit, V. Cosma, E. Drouin, D. Dykstra, A. Fiducia, M. Fournier, J. Garzone, C. Gosselin, M. Kandemir, E. McDonald, E. Pelletier, M. Styrczula

Meeting called to order at: 3:04 PM

1.  Acceptance of Minutes for 2/10/14

a.  Motion # 41 (E. Benoit, D. Dykstra ) Motion to accept the minutes from 2/10/14 (16-0-0) Motion Carries.

2.  Vice President’s Report:

a.  People Helping People (PHP):
T. Erris and S. Madden were put in charge of “Beautiful Lengths.” This is an event where students can donate at least 8 inches of hair. Hair donated to Locks for Love goes for making wigs for cancer patients, but the wigs cost hundreds of dollars. The hair they collect at “Beautiful Lengths” goes to Pantene, which creates free wigs for cancer patients. They are looking to have the event in April (maybe April 6th) and are seeking donors, as well as help to promote the event. Senators are encouraged to donate hair. There will be stylists at the end of the cut as well, so there should not be any worries there. T. Erris mentioned that PHP is looking for at least twenty people total to donate. It takes 3 people’s hair to create 1 wig. E. Drouin will work with T. Erris on getting a poster in the poster case to promote the event.

b.  Yoga Club:
An informal meeting has already been held and are getting the process going. Their meetings are Wednesdays at 5 PM. The club has an instructor who will do a different kind of yoga (hot, energetic, relaxing, meditative, etc). The club is open to everyone at Eastern, regardless of yoga skill. 42 people said they were interested and arrived at the informal meeting. The club officers are looking for a room to hold that many people and are exploring maybe Niejadlik or Mead commons.

c.  Bowlathon:
Eastern’s annual Bowlathon is this coming Saturday, March 1. M. Hicks mentioned that all donations go to the Eastern Scholarship Fund. SGA usually sponsors 1 team at $120.00 per team. M. Hicks also mentioned having one E-Board team and one General Board team. General Board will consist of M. Kandemir, M. Fournier, J. Ahern, and C. Gosselin. E-Board will consist of Z. Yeager, M. Hicks, K. Chrzanowska, and A. Bullard.
Motion # 42 (C. Gosselin, M. Kandemir) Motion not to exceed $240 for Bowlathon. (16-0-0) Motion Carries.

d.  Committee Update:

i.  Student Issues:
E. McDonald gave an update on the Majors Fair. She has heard from a majority of majors and only 5 majors haven’t responded. The Committee will be contacting them in person and via phone to ensure that they are attending. All non-academic representatives have responded: Study abroad, CCE, Center for Internships & Career Development, and the Advising Center.
Members of the committee will be calling the residence halls this week to reach out and get it as a priority point event. E. McDonald will be contacting the remaining high schools that haven’t responded about if they are attending. K. Chrzanowska brought up the possibility of chalking to promote the event, but PR will be working on creating fliers to promote the event.

ii. Public Relations:
E. Benoit gave the report, stating who we still need the pictures from for the family tree. E. Drouin took A. Fiducia’s picture as well. E. Drouin brought up the structure of the tree as well, and it was agreed by Senate and E-Board that all of E-Board will be at the top, with committee heads underneath, and Senators below that.

iii.  Internal:
The suite is clean and organized. Thanks should be given to R. Rivera, M. Silver, and Z. Yeager for reorganizing. E. Pelletier also ordered more supplies from Margo in Student Activities.
Internal is also working on the logistics of the Delegate Program. Senators who have questions or input should send it to E. Pelletier.
E. Pelletier also mentioned that Best Buddies was in the suite and they are having a dance-a-thon on April 5th from Noon to Midnight. It costs $10.00 per person to participate and we can make a team of SGA. You can dance for the whole time or part of the time. All money goes to profit Best Buddies CT (Eastern’s Mother Organization). There are also raffles for every hour you dance.

iv.  BAM:
BAM is funding clubs as usual. M. McFall-Gorman is working on better tracking club events to keep tabs on active/inactive clubs. J. Garzone is working on BAM guideline revisions, and C. Gosselin is working on updating the BAM website to make sure it has up to date information.

3.  Treasurer’s Report:

a.  Account Update:
G-Board is at about $1377
E-Board is at about $19,640.

b.  President’s Breakfast Update:

i.  Parking concerns were brought up. If you see a snowbank covering a parking spot, let Chief Garewski know.

ii. Increased funding for CSUs was also brought up. There are more incentives being created to ensure students attend Eastern and complete their time at Eastern including “Going Back to Get Ahead” initiative, which means if you take a break for at least 18 months, you get 3 classes free upon your return.

iii.  Installation of a Genius Classroom is also in the works. It is an estimated $800,000.

iv.  Faculty pay raises are at a 5.5% increase due to the union contract. This poses a rough situation because tuition will only increase by 2%, so we will need to make cuts or increase funding to the State Universities.

v. Wi-Fi is also expected by all students in this modern age and Eastern is currently doing the 1.2 million dollar project to install Wi-Fi in all of the dorms. Southern is testing it out right now and will get back to us with results and data. There should be Wi-Fi by the end of summer.

vi.  Blackboard was also brought up: It is no longer hosted in Hartford because of a lack of resources, so there should be no more glitches.

vii.  The Fine Arts Instructional Center will have the outside shell done by October 2014.

4.  Secretary’s Report:
Z. Yeager gave an update on the Admitted Student Day and Junior Preview Day. SGA will have a table at both in order to increase future enrollment in the club and promote SGA to future students. Interested Senators should contact him, but he will have sign-ups at a later meeting.

5.  Advisor’s Report:

6.  Old Business:

7.  New Business:

8.  Open Floor:

a.  Admitted Student Day: Sunday March 29th 12 PM – 4 PM.

b.  Junior Preview Day: Sunday, April 13th 12 PM – 4 PM.

c.  Budget Resource Allocation Committee Meeting:
M. Hicks gave a quick update on his external committee: Tuition will go up by 2% next year and this is the lowest it has gone up in the last few years. Dr. Gray made this deal, but it hurts the students because the University has no way to make up the deficit.

d.  Town Gown:
M. Hicks said that the residents of Willimantic had nothing bad to say. It was a 20 minute meeting full of praise for the Cleaning Campaign and opposition to the parking regulations.
E. Drouin also mentioned that if anyone sees a cardboard cutout of a Snoopy, they should return it because it is a family heirloom and has gone missing.

e.  Social Media:
The event is this Wednesday in the BTR at 5 PM. Because we are sponsoring the event, it is encouraged of all Senators to attend.

Meeting adjourned at 3:30 PM.