Virginia Commonwealth University
Monroe Park Campus Student Government Association
Student Senate Meeting Agenda
November 17, 2008
SENATE MEETING AGENDA FOR 11/17/08
I. Call to Order
a. Welcome
b. Roll Call
c. Approval of Agenda
d. Approval of Minutes
II. Introduction and Reports
Officer Reports
1. Chairman – Zack Ghahramani
- Your duty as a senator does not end when you walk out of a meeting, you have a full time duty
- Do office hours
2. Vice-Chairman – Stephen Straus
3. Clerk – Jessica Robertson
- Do office hours
- NAACP are hosting an event at 5:30pm today please attend
- Speak Out tomorrow!! 3-5pm in the plaza
III. New Business
a. Student Services Presentation – Delores Taylor
- The space they have been given is the first floor of Harris Hall
- It will include financial aid, records and registration (mainly registration), student accounting and cashiering
- These are the offices that students deal with the most during the semester
- It will allow students to have one location to conduct most of their university business
- They may be able to have it by Spring 2010
- They want our input in what we think is an important service they could add
- Bryan Brown is the campus planner if you have extra questions you can contact him or you can also contact Delores Taylor
b. VCU Tradition Bill – Jessica Robertson
- To make STRUT Fashion Show and Relay for Life a VCU Tradition
- Making it a tradition protects their funding
- Bill passes
c. Elections Committee Bylaws Update – Josh Ronk
- The bylaws are more for the elections itself not for what the committee does
- Senate does not vote on these changes but they want to update us
- We add certain restriction
- Increased expenditures $50
- Presidential campaign can spend $600
- Senate campaign can spend $200
- Cannot post anything in Shafer, commons, and library
- Extending grievance time to 3 days
- People running need to turn in a package
d. Appropriations Bylaws Changes- Justine Abais
- It was e-mailed about one hour ago
- Anything that is highlighted or scratched out it means that it was changed
- Article 4 was the biggest change that was made, SGA will fund certain councils and they will give the money to the organizations under them
- Also how they define student organizations has changed
- Highly encourages for senators to read through it all
e. Constitutional Reform Committee Update – Josh Ronk
- A brand new constitution will be rewritten
- Senate has to approve on it
- It will be a “cabinet” style
- Will get rid of branches to create more unity
- President and Vice President will still be elected
- President will be in every meeting, he can nominate someone from the pool of senate but not vote on issues
- Getting rid of the presidents cabinet
- The importance of it, we save A LOT of money
- Will go in effect at the end of Spring Elections
- Technically, at least 2/3 of this body has to vote on it
- Basically it will be in effect in May 2009
- Constituency rule was dismissed
- You will have a new constitution by next meeting
f. Siegel Center Basketball Seating- Josh Bark
- Student spirit is low and we want to fix it
- We cannot judge the spirit by 2 games
- The dancers are supposed to be sitting on the floor
- 240 out of 270 tickets are sold for season tickets
- We feel that we don’t have student representation in the middle
- Mr. Teague believes that we should give it a couple of games until we can fully judge the new system
IV. Discussion & Voting
V. Committee Reports
a. Academic Affairs (AA) – Stephanie Lynch
- They have finished their ground survey
- Peer mentoring has been extended to Tuesday
b. Appointments – Adele McClure
- Training went very well
- Committee assignments are still not finished
- Thanks to all the chairs, advisors, and senators elect that came
c. Appropriations – Justine Abais
d. Communications & Technology (CommTech) – Ana Sarshar
- Working on the Speak out
- Facebook group
- Sign up for book trading
- Wants to re-do pictures, make it to your meetings this week!
e. Legislative Issues & Civic Action (LICA) – Jon Ward
f. Student Life – Ethan Labowitz
- SPEAK OUT TOMORROW FROM 3-5PM SOUL FOOD! FOR FREE! COME!
- If anyone can come to help out please do and you will get food earlier than everyone else
VI. Bill Assignments
VII. Announcements
- Tomorrow at Qdoba come out and support dance team’s fundraiser
- There’s a game tomorrow come out
- Young Democrats at VCU have a meeting tomorrow, come out
VIII. Adjournment