Associated Students of Cabrillo College
Aptos Campus, 6500 Soquel Dr., Aptos, CA 95003
Watsonville Center: 318 Union St., Watsonville, CA 95076
Scotts Valley Center: 104 Whispering Pines Dr., Scotts Valley, CA 95066
Voice: 831.477.5677
Fax: 831.479.6172
http://www.cabrillo.edu/ascc
Total on Roster: 16Votes needed for simple
majority vote: 50% + 1 = 9
Votes needed for 2/3 majority: 10 / Location:
Aptos Campus
SAC East RM 225 / Date and Time:
Thursday, April 5th, 2012
3:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Student Senate Minutes
NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that the Cabrillo College Student Senate held a meeting on Thursday April 5th, 2012.
These are the minutes reflective of that meeting.
Item / Motion / Yeas / Nays / Abstains / ResultVII B / Motion to approve $275 from the Programs Account for a donation to the
English Department’s Awards Ceremony / 12 / 0 / 0 / Passed
VII C / Motion to approve $500 from the Cultural Events Account for the presentation
Semillas will be giving during Earth Week / 11 / 0 / 0 / Passed
VII E / Motion to approve renovation project plans for the cafeteria, including but not limited to increasing the visibility of the food services area, change lighting and color of interior, purchase new tables and chairs, alter the entrance ways and coordinate with the VAPA department for decorations inside and outside of the Cafeteria by students.
In addition to this, the Student Senate yields the decision making authority to the Café Committee and its members / 9 / 1 / 1 / Passed
VII G / Motion to increase the Student Activities Card fee from $8 to $10 / 11 / 1 / 0 / Passed
VII I / Motion to approve $100 from the 73 Equipment Account to purchase a
timer to be used during the senate meetings / 6 / 4 / 0 / Passed
I. Call to Order at 3:11pm
A. Roll Call
President: Charlotte Achen- Present Vice President: Oleksii Chuiko- Present
Treasurer: Joseph Gomez- Present Legislative Representative: Gaby Avila- Absent
Student Trustee: Joseph Watkins- Present Inter-Club Council Chair: Ivan Sumano-Vargas- Absent
Watsonville Representative: (vacant) Scotts Valley Representative: (vacant)
Senators-At-Large
Stephanie Petrillo- Present Laura Hunerberg-Present
Sharon O’Connor-Present Darwin Constantino- Present
Chris Steele- Present James Williams- Present
Steven Culver- Present Sarah Davies- Present
Kyle Logan- Absent Aimee Cornett- Present
Advisors
Sesario Escoto-Present
Flor Chacon- Present
II. Adoption of the Agenda 3 minutes
New Business Item D will no longer be an action item, and will be information only. New Business Item E will no longer have $40,000 on the item. New Business Items J and K are tabled.
Senator Petrillo moves to approve the agenda, and Senator Steele seconds the motion. The agenda for April 5th, 2012 is approved by a vote of 10 yeas.
III. Approval of the Minutes 3 minutes
A. March 29th, 2012
Treasurer Gomez moves to approve the minutes from March 29th, 2012, and Senator Petrillo seconds the motion. The minutes are approved by a vote of 9 yeas, 0 nays.
IV. Public Comments
This time is reserved for members of the public to address the Senate on issues not already appearing on the agenda. There will be a limit of five (5) minutes per speaker.
Diane, an employee of the art department, who works half time in the evenings and is also a teachers’ assistant for Jamie Abbott has been identified as one of the positions that will not be renewed. As of the end of June, she will no longer be working here and she was present in the meeting to ask the senate to help her fight for her job.
Kaitlin Foster, from the Women’s Health club was present to remind the senate that April is Sexual Assault Awareness month. There is a Walk-A-Mile-In-Her-Shoes event taking place at Lighthouse Point on West Cliff Drive on April 21st, which is the same day as the Social Justice conference on campus. This will be a family friendly event where people wear red high heels and flip flops with flowers and march a mile on West Cliff.
Sonya Newlyn was present to tell the senate that the ICC voted yesterday to approve $975 for Earth Week, including $250 for the Semillas hosts. Sonya thinks it would be wonderful to give them more money to have access to these students. They will be in room 450 on Tuesday, April 14th at 4:30pm. There will be an interpreter but another is still needed, so if you are fluent in Spanish, please volunteer to help. These students speak Mayan as their first language and Spanish as their second. You can email Sonya at and she will put you in contact with Kaitlin and Chelsea, the main hosts.
Karen Lacey was present to ask the senate if they would support chalk drawings to advertise the Social Justice conference, as other groups are using this to promote their events (i.e.; sexual assault awareness) and Karen thinks that it is a good idea.
V. President Announcements 5 Minutes
Next week is Spring Break, and there will not be a meeting. The week following, we will meet at Watsonville and the meeting will begin at 3:20pm.
VI. Special Items
A. Update on Involvement with S.J. Conference Info. / Discuss. L. Hunerberg 10 Minutes
This item is up for discussion regarding an update on the Student Senates involvement with the Social Justice Conference, along with an update from Yaming Shen, whom is one of the conference coordinators.
Yaming and Jackie were present and showed a tentative schedule of the breakout sessions. Student presenters are the majority; however there will also be faculty and other community members. It is asked that we try to get raffle donations to raffle off, as there will be prizes. If you are able to do this, you can get a donation letter from Flor. There are also minor tasks that volunteers are needed for, including stapling programs together. There is also a cover design contest happening that we should promote to our constituents. The winner can receive $400 and the deadline is April 10th. Darwin and Laura volunteered to help as hosts and beforehand as well. Senator Hunerberg moves to extend time by 3 minutes and Senator Constantino seconds the motion. The senate approves an extension of time by a vote of 7 yeas, 3 nays. Time is extended by 3 minutes. There are many people that are needed to help assist, both to prepare for the event, and at the event itself. The opening and closing ceremonies will be where the most help is needed. Yaming is no longer able to help Sharon prepare for her presentation at the event, and someone needs to step in to fill her shoes and listen to Sharon’s speech and provide constructive and friendly feedback. If you would like to volunteer meet with Jackie and she will give you the details of what you should do. Please be sure at the least to help promote this in your classrooms, and consider asking your teachers to provide extra credit to those in attendance. There are many documents that were presented during this discussion that are available to view in Dropbox.
B. Guest Speaker: Michael Mangin Info. / Discuss. C. Steele 30 Minutes
Faculty Senate President Michael Mangin was present to discuss issues with us. He spoke about Santa Monica City College, and how some students who were protesting upcoming registration fee hikes were pepper sprayed. These students were frustrated about outrageous fees that would charge a student $450 for classes they really wanted, as opposed to usual registration fees. There are proportions of students who will be going to colleges like University of Phoenix. Some people will get through these schools, but the people who always win are the stockholders who own these businesses. The stockholders get paid unbelievable profits that are funded by student loans. The State Academic Center is responding to them be letting the government know we are more interested in seeing student loans go to colleges that are not-for-profit. It is difficult to find what to cut and how to balance when there are cuts that are inevitable and happening across the board. It’s brutal times, but we believe in Community College and want to have our voices be heard. The state is decreasing our funding again, as they have in the past, and they expect fewer students next year. The Journalism Program has survived another year, and the Welding Program has been cut by 1/3. The Real Estate Program is basically suspended, and could be brought back in the next few years but virtually there is no demand for people taking real estate courses in this economy. There have been a lot of cuts in the training for firefighters and cops, and the history department is cutting 2 sessions also, even though all sessions were fully enrolled this semester. The Teacher’s Initiative and the Millionaire’s Initiative have been combined, so you will need to sign the ballots again. It proposes a 25 cent increase in sales tax for 7 years that will provide about 12-14% of the money that this initiative will raise. The rest will be from an additional income tax on the rich, who make more than $250,000 a year. This is called the Temporary Taxes to Fund Education Initiative. If you are registered voters, it is asked that you help generate signatures to get this on the ballot. It won’t solve the budget problem, but will make it easy to navigate. The Student Success Task Force was discussed; it was proposed in 2010 that some radical reconstruction of Community Colleges takes place. This includes providing funding for students who successfully complete classes, but not to those who are unsuccessful. A task force was put together, and they came up with a report that was approved at the end of January 2012. It is opposed by the State Academic Senate and all the faculty unions also oppose the report. In February, legislation started to be introduced, which you can look at online at htpp://www.asccc.org/1143. SB 1456 is the main bill on matriculation, and the faculty senate is hoping this is amended. Most of the emphasis is around orientation, assessment and educational planning, which is absolutely wanted. Everyone in the state would have the same assessment test, and there would be an accountability score card that measures how well we are serving lower income students, and whether different types of people are getting through the programs here. There are many pros and cons to all of these issues that were discussed. The faculty senate would like to see us writing letters to support the faculty senate and their opinions on these issues. A handout was distributed to the senate which includes information about contacting the Assembly Higher Education Committee.
The Faculty Senate mostly asks us to inform students of what is going on. Come speak your voice about these issues at the Faculty Senate meetings every other Tuesday at 3pm in the Sesnon House! It is a great chance to speak directly to the faculty, and there is great food! Joseph Watkins wants to work together with Chris and Michael to put together a letter that the senate can use to send to the Assembly Higher Education Committee.
VII. New Business.
A. Appointment of New Senators 3 min. for Speech, 3 min. for Questions
1. Scotts Valley Representative
2. Watsonville Representative
3. 2 Senator-at-Large Positions
B. English Dept. Awards Ceremony Info. / Action O. Chuiko 5 Minutes
This item is up for discussion / possible action regarding the approval of $275.00 from the Programs Account for a donation to the English Department's Awards Ceremony.
Virginia Coe was present to speak on behalf of the English Department. They will be having an event on April 27th where nominated students from the writing and literature classes who have demonstrated excellence in writing will receive awards. These funds would help to cover refreshments, the horticulture department is going to lend floral arrangements, and it will be hosted at the horticulture center as well. The students come and are presented their awards, and they usually recite or read something from their papers. The nominating instructor presents the awards to the recipient, and it is a lovely occasion. Last year there was a lot of money that was spent out of pocket, which is why they are asking for more funds than in the past. All food and vending will be in-house with Taher. Trustee Watkins moves to approve $275 from the Programs Account for a donation to the English Department’s Awards Ceremony and Senator Hunerberg seconds the motion. This is a family-friendly event, and at least 15 faculty members are present, with total attendees around 100 people. Around 40 people will be receiving awards. It is well attended and held on the weekend because of limited parking, and it is a formal event that people dress up for. It is not encouraged to open this to the public; however senate members are welcome to join. The senate unanimously approves this by a vote of 12 yeas, 0 nays.
C. Supporting Semillas Info. / Action J.Watkins 5 Minutes
This item is up for discussion / possible action regarding the approval of $500.00 from the Cultural Events Account for the presentation Semillas will be giving during Earth Week.
Everyone is encouraged to speak to Multi-Cultural classes, including Sociology and Anthropology, and try to get other people involved in this event. People will be coming from the Yucatan and the budget committee approved this to come from the Cultural Events Account. The DigIt club also supports this. Treasurer Gomez moves to support this by approving $500 from the Cultural Events Account for the presentation Semillas will be giving during Earth Week and Senator O’Connor seconds the motion. Pretty much all the clubs are in support of this and are willing to give funds for this as well. Everyone is encouraged to attend and be present for Earth Week. There will be interpreters also. The senate passes this by a vote of 11 yeas, 0 nays.