ASNAU SENATE MEETING
TWENTY-NINTH SESSION
OFFICIAL MINUTES
Date: April 25, 2017 Number on council: 21
Date of Senate Meeting: April 20, 2017 Number present: 14
Prepared by Shanlie Blair
Lauren L’Ecuyer, Vice President of Academic Affairs, called the Senate meeting of the 2016-2017 Associated Students of Northern Arizona University Senate to order at pm in the Havasupai Room A and B, University Union.
Roll Call
Senators:
Senator Lee
Senator Carpenter
Senator Brown
Senator O’Reilly
Senator Anderson
Senator Carr
Senator Holditch
Senator Claus
Senator Nielson
Senator Olas
Senator Martinez
Senator Beghtol
Senator Davis
Senator Overturf
Senate Clerk- Shanlie Blair
Parliamentarian- Alyssa Cox
Absent: Senator Claus, Senator Olas, Senator Anderson, Senator O’Reilly
Executive:
President Pomeroy
Chief Gavin
Vice President Schrandt
Vice President L’Ecuyer
Vice President Stogner
Absent: Vice President Schrandt, Vice President Stogner, President Pomeroy
Approval of Minutes
Senator Martinez: I move to approve last week’s minutes.
Senator Brown: I second.
Chair L’Ecuyer: Any discussion? All in Favor? Unanimous, last week’s minutes are approved.
Call to the Audience
Unfinished Business
New Action Business
Chair L’Ecuyer: For all the clubs that are here today when I call your item. Come to the podium and if you are here for recognition tell us about your club: number of people, what you do, what you wish to accomplish. If you are here for funding come up and tell us what the funding is for, how much, how will this impact the college.
Item A- Club Recognition: Chinese Culture Club
Speaker: The Chinese student population is an estimated 300 students, making our population the second highest among international students. We want to create more interaction between the domestic and international students, and this is something that the Chinese Culture Club wishes to promote and strive for by sharing our culture. This will bring cultural diversity and interaction.
Item B- Club Recognition: Girls Teaching Girls
Speaker: We are an organization that will go to schools as an afterschool program. Our mission is to be a mentorship program that provides lessons and hands-on activities that promote leadership, community activism, empowerment, and STEAM and STEM related skills with the goal of fostering female leaders of the future. Our goals are to empower young girls to be proud of themselves, help them be strong leaders, make a difference within their local community, and to immerse them in STEAM and STEM fields.
Item C- Club Recognition: NAU Synchronized Swimming
Speaker: I’m really interested in starting this club because when I was in highschool I competed, and so when I came to college I was disappointed that we didn’t have a club like this. We already have five other girls who are interested, and three of them have done synchronized swimming. When we go to compete, we’ll be representing NAU and I hope that we can get this club started because I’m very passionate about it and think it’s a unique sport.
Item D- Senate Funds Allocation
Speaker: We are nearing our $200,000 limit. We’re actually technically over it, but that’s due to requesting t-shirts and stuff like that that comes out of different lines from the ASNAU budget. I’m requesting that we allocate $50,000 more to the line just to make sure that we don’t go over it, we do have it in our rollover right now. The total rollover is $176,000, so we’ll just be taking $50,000 and moving it. This is temporary and will be voted on next week.
Item E- SB 29-130: Phi Sigma Kappa
Speaker: We just wanted to apologize for not being able to make it last week, that was just due to miscommunication, and we feel as though our representative that we sent two weeks ago didn’t explain our event thoroughly enough. So we brought our chair who is coordinating the event to answer any questions that you may have.
Speaker 2: We are doing this with the Mayor, and from the picture that was sent out, all the red is going to be fencing and that includes four feet off the gate in between. There’s going to be two security guards that are provided by the Mayor at both the gate and at the end of that fence. One is going to be checking people that are going into the Mayor and checking their legal age, the other is just making sure that they people are not passing drinks back and forth. If we get in trouble, the Mayor will also get in trouble. So we have to make sure that we are doing our job so they don’t get fined as a business. We are also going to be providing security as well padding down and making sure people aren’t taking in water or gatorade bottles, etc. because we are offering water inside the event. We’re really coming here asking for any money we can so we have more money to donate to the Special Olympics, which is our philanthropy. Our landlord for our house also owns that lot, so they are donating it to us in exchange as a tax reduction for them.
Item F- SB 29-142: Badjacks Dance Club
Speaker: Recently on April 14th, we held our free event showcase. However, to host the show in Ardrey, it was about $3,000 to pay for the rent as well as labor for the workers.
Item G- SB 29-143: James Boothrowd, Angela Rukon and Hannah Combs
Speaker: We’re requesting money to go to the joint conference called the Evolution Conference of the American Society of Naturalists, the Society for the Study of Evolution, and the Society of Systematic Biologists. It’ll be held in Portland, Oregon and we really want to do this because we want to showcase the undergraduate research that is being done here as NAU on a national setting. It’s a pretty prestigious event, so not only would we be representing NAU, but hopefully bringing in new undergraduates to NAU as well as networking for our future careers. We are receiving credit for the lab, however this is not included in that class. I also have a page from our professor stating that as well with his signature.
Item H- SB 29-144: NAU Elevation
Speaker: We’re seeking $1,000 for the rental of the auditorium as well as some equipment for an end of the year concert for the acapella. The audience for the concert will get to see one of the best schools in the country for acapella perform. NAU is the only group to send four groups to the international competition, where two of our groups took first and second place. It’ll be a great opportunity to showcase the music department as well as the talented individuals in the performance.
Item I- SB 29-145: NAU Alpha Phi
Speaker: We are requesting reimbursement for the cost of t-shirts for an event that we held this past semester. So once you bought a t-shirt, you bought your entrance into any event that we held throughout the week. The reimbursement of the costs will go to the same event next year.
Item J- SB 29-146: NAU No More Deaths
Speaker: WE are a humanitarian aid group on campus. In February we had an event called Build Bridges Not Walls that aimed to bring other social justice clubs together and make a coalition and stimulate conversation of current events. We also invited students to be a part of our event of discussion and diversity. We are asking for a reimbursement of our Sudexo catering from this event.
Item K- SB 29-147: NAU Composition Club
Speaker: Last month, we had our Spring concert in the Ardery auditorium. We paid for this concert and one back in the fall semester. The auditorium charged us about $600 more in fees and we are requesting reimbursement for those extra charges that we didn’t know about.
Item L- SB 29-148: NAU Choral Union
Speaker: We have 62 members and we are going to be going on an international tour to Sweden, Latvia, and Estonia. We have already raised a few thousand dollars, and are asking for $3,000 to subsidize the cost of flights. While we are there, we are going to be collaborating with choirs from those areas. Not only will this give NAU national recognition as we will be representing NAU, but our members will get to share their cultural experiences and awareness with the student body when we get back.
Item M- SB 29-149: NAU Club Tennis
Speaker: We’re requesting this funding as reimbursement for transportation and lodging costs. We represented NAU very well this year, as in the last two tournaments we finished first and winning the Spring invitational got us our spot in nationals. Our club membership has also increased over 50 members.
Item N- SB 29-150: Alpha Omicron Pi
Speaker: We recently raised over $2,000 that went to the Juvenile Arthritis Foundation, so we’re just requesting money from the shirts for those that came and participated in this event.
Voting Period
Item A- Club Recognition: Chinese Culture Club
First: Senator Brown
Second: Senator Davis
Discussion: None
All in Favor: Unanimous
Pass/Fail: Pass
Item B- Club Recognition: Girls Teaching Girls
First: Senator Brown
Second: Senator Overturf
Discussion: None
All in Favor: Unanimous
Pass/Fail: Pass
Item C- Club Recognition: NAU Synchronized Swimming
First: Senator Beghtol
Second: Senator Martinez
Discussion:
Senator Carr: Have you sought out coaching for the club?
Speaker: We do have someone, but it would be a few hours a week.
All in Favor: Unanimous
Pass/Fail: Pass
Item D- Senate Funds Allocation
First: Senator Nielson
Second: Senator Brown
Discussion: None
All in Favor: Unanimous
Pass/Fail: Pass
Item E- SB 29-130: Phi Sigma Kappa
First: Senator Beghtol
Second: Senator Martinez
Discussion:
Senator Beghtol: Didn’t we already pass the bill?
Chair L’Ecuyer: We did, but it’s going back through because there were questions if we were able to fund it or not because of our bylaws. So this is the chance to see if the senate revokes its funding. So we’re voting to revoke it, and if it didn’t pass with ⅔ it would stay.
Parliamentarian: A ‘yes’ vote would be to revoke it, a ‘no’ vote would be to not revoke it.
Senator Brown: Who sent this back again?
Chair L’Ecuyer: Our executive council and our advisors. We all decided that this was the best course of action from the new information we learned about the gates.
All in Favor: Majority votes ‘no’
Pass/Fail: Funds not revoked
Item F- SB 29-142: Badjacks Dance Club
First: Senator Overturf
Second: Senator Behgtol
Discussion: None
All in Favor: Unanimous
Pass/Fail: Pass
Item G- SB 29-143: James Boothrowd, Angela Rukon and Hannah Combs
First: Senator Beghtol
Second: Senator Overturf
Discussion: None
All in Favor: Unanimous
Pass/Fail: Pass
Item H- SB 29-144: NAU Elevation
First: Senator Overturf
Second: Senator Davis
Discussion: None
All in Favor: Unanimous
Pass/Fail: Pass
Item I- SB 29-145: NAU Alpha Phi
First: Senator Beghtol
Second: Senator Overturf
Discussion: None
All in Favor: Unanimous
Pass/Fail: Pass
Item J- SB 29-146: NAU No More Deaths
First: Senator Nielson
Second: Senator Overturf
Discussion: None
All in Favor: Unanimous
Pass/Fail: Pass
Item K- SB 29-147: NAU Composition Club
First: Senator Overturf
Second: Senator Martinez
Discussion: None
All in Favor: Unanimous
Pass/Fail: Pass
Item L- SB 29-148: NAU Choral Union
First: Senator Beghtol
Second: Senator Overturf
Discussion: None
All in Favor: Unanimous
Pass/Fail: Pass
Item M- SB 29-149: NAU Club Tennis
First: Senator Overturf
Second: Senator Davis
Discussion: None
All in Favor: Unanimous
Pass/Fail: Pass
Item N- SB 29-150: Alpha Omicron Pi
First: Senator Lee
Second: Senator Overturf
Discussion: None
All in Favor: Senator Beghtol abstained
Pass/Fail: Pass
Executive Reports
- President- Vanessa Pomeroy
Absent (no report).
- Vice President of Student Affairs- Parker Schrandt
Absent (no report).
- Vice President of Academic Affairs- Lauren L’Ecuyer
The Green Fee increase is moving forward and their survey will be open on Monday and close that Saturday, so it’ll be open for six days. They’re going to be sending me an online copy of their marketing, so I’ll send it to you guys to send it to your clubs. The survey looks really good, our initiatives board approved it today officially, so we’re excited to move forward with that. Congratulations to all of our Gold Axe and President’s Prize winners. We have an amazing staff, and it was exciting to see them recognized at the awards. For the end of the year reports, it’s coming upon the time where you need to send in your end of the year report. It can be as simple or extravagant as you’d like. Please make it about a page if possible, so this is the time for you to share what you did this year, what kind of advice you have for the incoming people, recommendations, what you hoped to get accomplished, what didn’t, etc. anything else that you would deem necessary to put into that that you would think future people would like to know. I attended the strategic planning committee, I know I went over the results that we were going to talk about last Friday, so I just want to talk about what the stakeholders said in the meeting. Everyone walked away from it a little beat down I would say. It wasn’t an overwhelming favor in support of it, and so we didn’t really know where to go from here. So I think it’ll be an interesting semester working on it again next semester. The strategic plan is the vision, mission, goals, and values that we went over. Connecting the budget with the plan, how will we allocate money to the things that we’re putting on here? Who is this plan for? Is this face value or it really a missions, values, and goals that we are going to stick to? There’s a lack of communication and clarification for whose job it is to roll out this plan, and I think we came to the conclusion that it’s everybody’s sole responsibility. People feel that they don’t have a voice, so this goes all the way up to faculty and staff too in that if they said something for this plan, it won’t really matter because the people that make the decisions aren’t going to care anyways what they think and how do we change that. Something that was really concerning was that none of the multicultural clubs or organizations showed up for their strategic planning committee where they got to look over the plan, and so I voiced the concern that I don’t think this data is necessarily valuable if we don’t have a key component from the people we need to hear back from and who oftentimes feel that their voice isn’t being heard. So I offered that the student government could do something in terms of gathering them together and hearing those concerns just because I don’t understand how they didn’t show up and nobody reached out to them. Nobody really responded to it, so we’ll see who I can talk to or how we can move forward doing this in the future. I also went to the undergraduate curriculum committee and we talked about predictors of student success. Predictors of a student’s GPA, prior academic performance is the best predictor, so their high school GPA coming into college will predict their college GPA and it continues every year. Being female is a predictor of success. Being an ethnic minority is not a predictor of student success. First generation also is not a predictor. Pell eligible is not a predictor. The amount of attempted credits is a good predictor. Participation in Peer Jacks supplemental instruction in NAU 100 are key factors that lead to student success.
Senator Brown: How do they come to these conclusions?
Chair L’Ecuyer: It’s basically all retention. They will survey people once people leave the university, talk to students in the NAU 130, or if students who have completed their first or second year. Those are where they draw all of their numbers from. It’s good to have this data so that we can know the areas we need to focus on too and we can see what can the student government do for those students with low success rates.
Senator Brown: Realistically looking at our senate, how are we going to speak and connect with them if we’re not actively trying to retain these students? I think I just want to say that there’s a noticeable difference in the students we hear from, the scales are being tipped to one side more than the other. If I wasn’t here, somebody would be here in my spot that probably wouldn’t look like myself. So I think we should do a better job in recruitment and getting people to run for these positions.
Chair L’Ecuyer: I totally agree, and if you guys have more tangible ways that we can recruit people, I’d love to hear them if you just want to shoot me an email.
Kristine: The data is based on an aggregate of all students, so I think it’s important for faculty and staff to know as well as you guys. We’re not talking about individual students or stereotypes, but helps us know how to support individuals based on how they might act based on the past. But it’s not like a label on students or an assumption.
Senator Brown: Definitely, and I can say as a past Perr Jacks mentor, we’d use that information to pamper an individual student or how to act differently towards them in way so they can achieve success since each person is different.