STUDENT GOVERNMENT ASSOCIATION AGENDA
April 18, 2017
I. ROLL CALL: Jasmine Bobbitt, Marissa Cremin, Alexis Finn, Brandon Donahue, Colleen Coakley, and Branden Garvey were absent. Andrew Morin, Danny Chamberlain, Rhynell Christopher, Suwayne Rowe and Aleixa Gagnon were excused and Emmett Witherspoon sent and alternate.
II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM: April 11, 2017
III. PRESIDENT'S REPORT: Brendan McKee
A. I hope you all enjoyed your long weekend, caught up on sleep, and are ready to gear up for finals.
B. We have a few speakers tonight first off, we have Julia Nedry from the counseling center to present data for Fresh check Day. Welcome Julia Nedry.
1. Julia Nedry: Fresh Check Day, as you all know, happened in March and thank you all for volunteering. At the end of this meeting I will be around to collect feedback from volunteers and we have cookies for you.
2. Everybody loves Fresh Check day. We collected 120 surveys from people leaving the event and they gave us all positive feedback. We had 500 plus students attend Fresh Check Day. The results we got were really amazing. I’m very happy that we had Fresh Check Day on this campus and I hope this makes you excited to volunteer again next year!
C. Thank you Julia. Next we have Cynthia Siegler, Director of International Programs and Student Exchanges, here to talk about Peace Corps Preparation. Welcome Cynthia.
1. Cynthia Siegler: What we have in International Programs are study abroad, study exchange, short-term travel courses, national student exchange. We also do the intake and care of our international students who are here and now we have added Peace Corps Prep.
2. Peace Corps Prep is a roadmap to service. If you are interested in serving in the Peace Corps then this is the program that prepares you for that. If you are not interested in serving in the Peace Corps, but want an additional credential or you are interested in doing some kind of service work then this is the program for you. We have crafted the program so that most students won’t have to take additional coursework on top of their major and core work other than one foundation course. The way the program breaks down is that there is a training and experience in the work sector section. There is a foreign language skill section. There is an intercultural competence section and in that section you have to take one of two political science courses. One is international relations and the other is politics in developing countries. Those are the only required courses and you need to take one of the two. The last one is professional and leadership development. In that area you would want to have your resume reviewed by the Career Center, you would want to set up an interview with them, there is a requirement of 50 hours of service.
3. We have tried to craft this so that many of our students have completed most of the work already required for this credential. Once we certified to the Peace Corps that you have completed this work they issue a certificate to you. It is directly from the Peace Corps and we will have a ceremony for you on campus. It’s a credential that you can list on your resume. It is an area of civic engagement and service learning. I want you to think about studying abroad or a short term course. I will leave for you the brochures of all the programs we offer.
D. Thank you Cynthia. Next we have Andrew Mankus the Director of Dining Services.
1. Andrew Mankus: I wanted to just give you all an update as the where we are. But I do first want to introduce our new Executive Chef, Chef Mary Riley. We are very pleased to have her here on the Westfield Dining Team. She’s going to provide the university with all of her knowledge on local food systems as well as continuing to provide culinary excellence to our dining program.
2. I want to give you some statistics on our survey that was done last December 2016. We had 482 responses, which is a response rate of 19% and that is really good. I’m very pleased to see the positive outcome. We have a 6.51 out of 10 average satisfaction rating. That’s not where we want to be, we want to hit 8. We also asked what the students’ most important factors were when it came to food and humanely raised and local were the top two. We are going to continuously ask that. Things may change overtime and we want to listen and understand what is important to you all. We will be sending out a new survey by the end of next week with some of the same questions, but getting more in depth.
3. We saw an increase from last year in student meal plans. Last year was at 63% and we are at 67%. We have future goals to increase that.
4. We are in our final stage of full-time employment hiring, we have three phases. I know that was a big concern of some folks when we first came in about the staff members. Now we are actually finalizing full time positions and we have hired 63 full-time positions that we were able to fill. Our student hiring has been a huge success for us. We have 60 student staff members and that is something we are going to continuously use over the years.
5. I just wanted to highlight some things we have done in the Dining Commons this year. We’ve done apple weeks, cookie decorating, Halloween specials, International education week, local dinners, dietician series, global awareness lunches, Mardis Gras, tailgate parties, other numerous events, and this Thursday most importantly we have a big guest chef.
6. Some things to come are our wings delivery program. More information will come out this Thursday. We are also looking into a text and tell program. So rather than the comment cards you will be able to text a certain location so it goes right to the manager and can get instant feedback. Potential future projects we are looking at the Marketplace as an area of opportunity to maybe have our own creamery or make our own gelato on campus and then a food truck on campus.
a. Madeline Dexter: Have you considered donating any of the extra food we produce to local shelters in the area?
b. Andrew Mankus: Yes, it is something that we would like to do. We have started working with Common Goods.
c. Geoffery Gichuhi: Do you pay attention to student schedules when it comes to switching out meals?
d. Andrew Mankus: The breakfast to lunch switch is the worst case scenario, but I think we have a decent balance. What we try to do is put as much lunch stuff out at 10:30am. At least if you come at 11:00am, there will be pizza and pasta, but you will still be able to get breakfast. We have two omelet lines, one that closes at 10:30am and one that closes at 11:00am. It takes about 30 minutes to switch a station over. We look at student schedules for that lunch period and then we also look at trends.
e. Rehana Yusif: Just a point of information Maria Lees is working with the Sustainability Club to have students deliver food to pantries and something like that. She hasn’t gotten around to it yet, but there is talk of it.
f. Molly Lucey: I wanted to know if there are any plans to bring back an entrée for students with food allergies other than the gluten free option.
g. Mary Riley: We are definitely exploring that. Earlier this year we did not have the staffing to do it in a way that I felt students would be safe and now as we improve our staffing we will move to a place where we can do that.
h. Karina Sallaway: I was just wondering if you were looking into expanding the hours of the grab and go.
i. Andrew Mankus: Grab and Go is going to be during the class hours Monday through Friday. So, if Monday is a holiday there won’t be grab and go. It’s something that we can look into
E. Thank you Andrew Mankus and Mary Riley. I want to thank you all for participating in the lockdown drill today. As I’ve stated before, the drill was to evaluate the University’s readiness for if it is ever necessary for a lockdown to happen on campus. If there are any questions about the process, feel free to let me know after the meeting.
F. We are looking for volunteers to help with both the undergraduate and graduate commencement is taking place on Thursday, May 18 at 5:00pm at Symphony Hall in Springfield, and undergraduate commencement is taking place on Saturday, May 20 at 4:00pm at the Mass Mutual center in Springfield. If you are available and interested in volunteering, please see Barbara Hand after the meeting, we’d really appreciate it.
G. I hope you all have a great week: please vote, get involved in Owl Bash, and I’ll see you all at our last SGA meeting of the year next week.
H. 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: Aaliyah Mercer
1. The Multicultural Student Association is holding its third annual Black Excellence on April 19 in Scanlon Banquet Hall it starts at 7:30pm with a $2.00 minimum donation.
a. This is a Dress to Impress all black attire event. It is a celebration of the diversity in Art through various performances and displays. Also an open Mic.
2. Top Flight Steppers is having a fan bus for their event on April 23 at 10:00am. It cost $10.00 to get into the competition. Please see Kim Morgan to sign up for the bus and sign the Travel Waiver.
C. Food Services Committee: Rehana Yusif
1. This Friday, April 21, at the DC its student choice dinner. There will be your favorite fried foods, as well as other foods highly requested by students.
2. This Thursday, April 20 from 5:00pm until 8:00 pm in the DC we will be welcoming special guest Chef Neela Paniz. She will be blessing us with various Indian cuisines, so I expect all of you to be there and bring a friend.
3. Hoos wings will officially be starting on Friday, April 21 from 9:00am until 1:00am. How do I order my wings? To order your wings you will need to swing by the Market place during the day and place your order and pay there. The delivery orders are broken up by building and half hour delivery times. So, let’s say I want wings on Friday at 11:30pm, that means that earlier that day I will go to the market place and place my order, ant the wings will be delivered to me at 11:30pm. Food committee understands that this may be a little tedious, but this is a trial run, and it was put together in a short amount of time, so please be patient with the process.
a. Sharleen Varghese: Can you use dining dollars to pay for these wings?
b. Rehana Yusif: No.
D. Parking Control Board: No Report
E. Student Athletic Advisory Board: Delaney Gembis
1. Jerry Gravel meet this past Saturday, April 15, the women’s track came in first place and the men’s track came in third.
2. The Baseball team is on a 12 game winning streak with the next home game on Wednesday, April 19 at 3:30pm vs. Keene state then on Thursday, April 20 at 3:30pm and on Friday, April 21 at 3:30pm.
3. Men’s golf placed third as a team overall in their last MASCAC event and Women’s golf also came in third at their latest tournament.
4. Women’s lacrosse are 8-4 overall and 3-0 in MASCAC. Their next home game is Friday, April 21 at 7:00pm.
5. Women’s softball is 11-13 overall and 5-3 in MASCAC. Their next home game is Monday, April 24 at 3:30pm.
6. This Wednesday, April 19 Athletics will be doing a clinic for boys at the Boys and Girls club. They held a clinic for the girls back in February.
F. Substance Advisory Committee: No Report
G. Community Relations/Fundraising Report: No Report
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. Academic Policies Committee: No Report
B. Curriculum Committee: No Report
C. Enrollment Management Committee: No Report
D. International Programs Committee: No Report
E. Academic Technology and Information Services Committee: No Report
F. Writing Liaison Committee: No Report
G. Advisory Committee on Academic Planning: No Report
H. Advisory Committee on the CURACW: No Report
I. Guest Lecture Committee: No Report
VII. VICE PRESIDENT'S REPORT-PROGRAMMING: Madeline Dexter
A. Programming update: Madeline Dexter
1. The campus is hopping with programming this week.
a. A quick reminder that Owl Bash is starting on Thursday morning, April 20, with pet therapy. Please go check out and share the Facebook event. Everything is helpful. Also it is never too late to volunteer. If you didn’t know your schedule last week and you wanted to sign-up this week, you can see me after the meeting tonight.
b. On Wednesday night, April 19 at 8:00pm in the Owl’s Nest, CAB is hosting Sports Trivia. There will be free pizza as always so please come check it out.
c. The Women’s rugby team has a game on Saturday, April 22 at 8:00pm at the Westfield Alumni Field. Please try to take some time to support those ladies against Smith College.
d. Spring Awakening is this weekend starting tomorrow, April 19. The performance dates go as follows. April 19 at 8:00pm, April 20 at 8:00pm, April 21 at 8:00pm, April 21 at 8:00pm, April 22 at 2:00pm and 8:00pm and April 23 at 2:00pm. All performances are in the Black Box. If you would like to purchase a ticket you may do so online at: Westfield.ma.edu/tickets. The tickets are $10.00 for students, seniors and fac/staff and $14.00 for general admission.