Adam C. Weiss, Executive Vice President

Ashley Carter, Secretary of the Senate

Senate Meeting Agenda

Wednesday, April6, 2016

9:10pm in LLC 006

  1. Call to Order: 9:10pm
  2. Roll Call
  3. Present:
  4. Absent/Excused:
  5. Non-Voting Officers Present:
  6. Public Previous Business
  7. Community Comment

Stephen Darby: History lesson on the word “cabinet”, and a reminder that when I spoke of a left-wing conspiracy of Adam Weiss, something about the Trojan Horse of Democracy, I support Alan’s broad vision of the school, but I prefer Trump

  1. Approval of Minutes

Approved by unanimous consent

  1. Executive Reports
  2. President -George Soussou

Thanks to everyone that came to the ABA town hall, we appreciate it – should have an update for Dean Molinengo

Make sure to pass on grad week events and events this week like Band Gig

Thanks for all your work this year, the university was very pleased with us and the work we did

We applied again for the SBA of the year award and the public interest event of the year for the public interest networking event

Yield the floor to Darby

  1. Vice President of Finance - Jeremy Buday

Yield to Darby

We pretty much hit our budget spot on – currently filing many reimbursements, we’re having issues because students haven’t been updating addresses on Banweb, which you MUST do in order to get reimbursed – other than that, FINANCE OUT

  1. Chief of Staff - Jesse Isleman

We have the student organization awards next week – will be much better this year

As far as tonight goes, we have received many of the transfer memos, waiting for a few more

Thank you guys for this year, thanks to George Soussou, he doesn’t get enough credit for what he does, for those of you who don’t know we receive 60-80 emails per day regarding this, he deals with more you can imagine, he can deal with some very dumb stuff, he’s one of the best Presidents we’ve ever had

APPLAUSE

  1. Senate Business
  2. Executive Vice President Report – Adam C. Weiss
  3. Welcome & Thanks

Thanks to you all – this has been a very passionate year with so many different opinions – when I spoke to 1Ls, I asked them to bring in their passion, and they’ve absolutely done that – this year has been extremely deliberative, it has been a good year to have opinions presented, and I want to thank you all for all the time and all the effort, especially to the chairs for making their committees work.

Welcome to the new Senators – you have very big shoes to fill, and with one final note, I’d like to ask the Chairs to send me their transition memos – please get them to me by Friday

  1. Senate Social (Saniya Ahmed)

Next Wednesday, April 13th, 7-9PM at Elephant and Castle

George: Is the new President willing to set up a meeting to ensure there are sober monitors?

Yes – we have some already.

  1. Committee Chair Reports
  2. Rules and Constitution: Michael Omboni

We have two bills tonight – Bill 68 and JR 13

  1. Facilities and Technology: Gil Landau

If something is broken, submit it

  1. Student Organization and Charter: Saniya Ahmed

We have a bill to combine two organizations – other than that, just asking organizations who haven’t submitted Constitutions to do so

  1. Wellness and Programming: Shane Miller

Working on transition memo

Mentoring training – 14th of April

  1. Academic Policy:Kevin Wiatrak

We got the evals website funding passed – however, we need to coordinate how to get the money to the person, hopefully after exams it will work

  1. Finance:Matthew Piscitelli

One bill – Bill 69 – and we also amended the finance policy, we don’t need to present it tonight because it’s a committee amendment but mostly it’s just fairness and this year’s issues with finance policy

  1. Audit: Caleb Raymond

None

  1. Appointments: Carrie Mobley

The appointments committee recommends that all of the nominations from President-Elect Weiss should be confirmed – memo provided for you

Except for John – wants to ensure efficiency, he’d like to avoid fragmented communication and ensure concision

Adam: Recognize Carrie’s effort in turning this around very quickly

5 minute Recess

  1. Confirmation Hearings
  2. 2016-17 Elections Committee

Appointments Committee

  1. Director of Elections -- Alden Diianni-Morton

Main goals – increase turnout, make committee more involved

  1. Asst. Dir. of Elections -- Brian Kang

Making elections more transparent

  1. Asst. Dir. of Elections -- Chloe Change

Provide incoming 1Ls with lists of alumni based on cities

  1. Cmte Members -- Vincent Glynn Jr.

Increase diversity in candidates and involve students

All four unanimously confirmed

  1. 2016-17 Executive Branch Leadership
  2. Chief of Staff – John McGeehan
  1. VP of Finance –Matthew Piscitelli

Scrutinize exec budget and track spending

  1. VP of First Year Students –Michelle Ramus

Give more autonomy to 1L board members and more training

  1. VP of Student Affairs –Sophia Luby

Work with directors of student affairs and have efficient and useful events

  1. VP of Outreach –Nicole Henry

Use networking reception to build stronger event next year

  1. VP of Programming –Alejandra Hernandez Irizarry

Host more/equally successful events than last year

  1. Special Advisor to the President – Benjamin Chase**

This will not technically be an exec board position but will work closely with Exec

George: Can we confirm them as a whole without Senator moving

Caleb: Should we be voting on them, since they’re not for this year? Shouldn’t next Senate do it?

Adam: As the Chair, I thought it would be more appropriate for the more experienced Senate to do so – the Constitution doesn’t specify which Senate does this. The confirmations here are pending the swearing in of the incoming President, wouldn’t take effect until swearing in, they are pending a current event

Mike: Move to confirm all appointees as a whole pending the swearing in of the new President

Confirm

  1. Introduction of New Business

Moving new business to old business – move forward on votes

  1. Bill 69 – Culleen-American Indians Science and Engineering Society
  2. JR 14–Grant Nelson Appreciation Act
  3. JR 15–Steph Williamson Appreciation Act
  4. Charter 05 – SIPLA IPEL Merging Act
  5. Res 06 – Elections Schedule of Fall 2016
  1. Consideration of Old Business(Currently on the Floor)
  2. Bill 68 – Bylaw; Flag Act (f.k.a. Patriot Act - FRIENDLY AMENDED)

Friendly amending to the “Flag Act”

Matt: We think this is a compromise that works for more people – we thought we’d ask for a flag flown above the Capital – we’d like to have an event to honor alums or current faculty/students who are veterans to present the flag properly, this is a worthwhile bill

Mike: Would also like to thank Adam for helping us to reach a compromise on this
Kevin: I wrote my thesis about how the flag was stolen from the East India Tea Company – want to make sure you’re trying to support patriotism

Matt: We think this is in the spirit of patriotism

Gil: While I think patriotism is lovely, and I think it’s ridiculous to add this to the Bylaws – there are great pictures here, but the point of the Bylaws is the operation of the Senate – we don’t need to amend the bylaws to do this, it’s just clutter

Kevin: I’ll plan on tearing it apart anyway - don’t worry about it

Approved

  1. Bill 69 – Culleen-American Indians Science and Engineering Society

Matt: Carrie has done a great job this year. Also, Chandos has written a great paper and wants to go to a conference, we should pass it

Approved by unanimous consent

  1. JR 13 –Constitutional Amendments of Spring 2016

Mike: Yield to Adam – these are the same amendments we presented earlier, except for the most controversial which changed the method for amendment

Approved

  1. JR 14–Grant Nelson Appreciation Act

Jesse: Grant has been invaluable as a our Director of Technology – he has done an amazing job, has supported us through the SBA and outside the SBA by creating the Schedule GW website, has assisted so many student organizations, and it’s time to recognize him for all the work he does that doesn’t receive appreciation

Gil: Will we be able to keep Schedule GW?

Grant: Shouldn’t be difficult to maintain after graduation – I’ll continue to keep it running for as long as people use it – I made it because people needed it

Jesse: Friendly amendment to make clear that Grant did this individually – “Whereas, prior to his time in the SBA, in his capacity as an individual student” before clause regarding Schedule GW

Approved

  1. JR 15–Stephanie Williamson Appreciation Act

Special Advisor to the President on Alcohol Policy – Steph deals with a lot of problems, two years ago our events were all cancelled because the former SBA administrations had issues – Steph has built back up our relationships with the administration and we’ve really benefitted from that – also has the job of working with organizations that don’t always appreciate the rules and give her a hard time, and she’s been one of the most important people with a very thankless job – the Exec branch would really not be able to hold our events without her

Adam: Both Grant and Stephanie – can’t emphasize enough how much these people have given up their time and their patience to the student body, want to echo Jesse’s comments, please stop them and thank them

Approved

  1. Charter 05 – SIPLA IPEL Merging Act

Saniya: Yield to Adam – realized that these two orgs were separate and they did not want to be – have asked to have the Senate merge them – so this bill withdraws recognition and requires this to occur only if the members of the organization amend their own constitution – would basically make IPEL part of SIPLA

Matt: While the new Senators are in the room – if students came to do this and wanted to dedicate to soft IP or non-science IP, I would highly encourage that because many of our finance policies are based on one grant per organization – many of the requests we have gotten have been for soft IP programs

Yield to Darby – basically this is just a way to move the organization under the other organization

Approved

  1. Senate Comment

Adam: Mentoring program is now live, signups are now up, and mental health training will occur on April 14th, 5 people who attend will win 200 dollars towards textbooks

  1. Swearing in of the 2016-17 President & Executive Vice President

Sworn in

  1. Swearing in of the 2016-17 SBA Senate

Sworn in

  1. Swearing in of the 2016-2017 Executive Board

Sworn in

  1. Consideration of Old Business(Currently on the Floor)
  2. Res 06 – Elections Schedule of Fall 2016

Senate sets election schedule for both the fall and the spring: we picked the best date based on the late date that we come back this year, we set the mandatory candidates meeting for August 31st, forms by Friday Sept. 2nd, election held Thurs. Sept 8th, should allow everyone to be sworn in by Tuesday, Sept. 13th at the very latest, even with runoffs

Mike – Friendly amend “Spring” to “Fall”

Approved by unanimous consent

  1. Senate Comment

Committee appointments – passed out now – chairs are in green

Alice: I hope you will consider that there are non-US students here, and I hope you will consider this and perhaps reconsider the bill next year

  1. Adjournment

Motion to adjourn

Adjourned

**Confirmation not required