Session Of February 20th, 2020
Minutes Recorded by: McKenzie Craycraft, Secretary
Visitors:
PPT Murphy Speaker Chair
Call to Order at 11:05 AM
Senator Zebe prays
Roll Called
Approval of Minutes
Minutes approved at 11:07 AM
Officer Reports
None
Committee Reports
Senator Welch: For elections, we have all the signature packets done. Election chapel is tomorrow, please come to support. It is a good experience. All candidates will speak for about four minutes each.
Special Business
None
Old Business
None
New Business
Senator Aschoff: Motion to bring bill Club Funding Bill of Spring 2020 to the floor.
Senator Avent: What is the percentage breakdown of what the clubs got compared to what they asked for?
Senator Aschoff: A rough staminate, clubs asked for $20,000, the most some would get is around 99% of what they asked for.
Senator Welch: What are the delight ministries?
Senator Kessler: Girls Bible study.
Senator LaQuey: A discussion point, I am wondering if the FAC committee can explain why they allocated the specific funding to each club.
Senator Aschoff: Would you like me to go through each one and explain why?
Senator LaQuey: I am asking for a broad picture of what we are funding?
Senator Aschoff: The clubs getting a lot of money have a lot of people interested in them. We want to supply people with means to fundraise. This year is taking most of the food funding out of the picture.
Senator Welch: What is the La Mesa de Espanola?
Senator Mathews: That is the table of Spanish. We meet together and speak in Spanish over food.
Senator Aschoff: Motion to bring to a vote.
Bill approved
Senator Aschoff: We were supposed to have STING come today in order to pass it. Should we table it?
PPT Murphy: STING was coming to say why they were requesting this amount of money. Do you know why they aren’t here to speak? We should postpone this until they can present their case. We should hold off until they can present. Any other new business?
Announcements
PPT Murphy: Chris Chapman was going to be here, but he is coming next week to speak about improvements to be made around campus. Tomorrow and Saturday is a huge engineering preview and open house. Senate is not doing anything, but we do not have a booth. I would recommend that you try and serve. A lot of hands are needed for helping. Any other announcements?
Senator Mathews: If we were to direct our floor to help, where would we send them?
Senator Aschoff: Contact Alec Wier.
Senator LaQuey: Senate ice cream at 3:30 we will set up for ice cream. We will serve until 4:30. This week will be just senate. I do believe we are arranging for Dr. Gowing and LOX to come out.
Senator Gowing: Point of clarification, Mrs. Gowing, my mother does not have her doctorate.
Open Forum
Senator Willis: So far following up with the gaming room suggestion sheet, most people have requested a Nintendo Switch. We are looking into a funding bill for the Switch, we will be coordinating with Marty Lane about that.
Dean Conn: Dr. Morgan wanted to make an announcement during open forum, I believe she is on her way. I will read to you a section of the handbook; I’m just making this up.
Senator Anderson: My idea is to have an event where senate could have a takeover event. We could use a dorm lobby to hang out and invite the dorm to join us and have food or games or something. This could help us to be more apparent on campus. This would be an opportunity to recruit for senate.
Senator Gowing: I like your idea, from what I have seen a lot of people don’t really what we do or who we are. This might be messed up by South and Tyler hall. People don’t know who they should talk to. I think it would be a good idea to wear your senate pull overs to give ourselves a more recognizable face. People used to say we were useless, but now they are saying who is senate? We are supposed to be the public face and the one people talk to. Even if we are not going out and hanging out in mass at the very least wear your pullover from time to time.
Dean Conn: The idea of going into the different lobbies is very specifically the same thing that YAC used to do. They would go into different halls and have coffee & cookies. They would get people to do something fun in the lobbies. Sometimes people would really like it and sometimes people wouldn’t come. This is something that senate could revive and do.
Dr. Morgan: I wanted to let you know that next year we are going to institute a fee. I think it is good. You used to have to get quarters all the time for laundry. The coin machines don’t work well. We want to do away with coin laundry. We are instituting a $25 per semester fee for laundry. You can use it all you want. Senator Gowing: First off, sounds like a great idea. Secondly, I have a quick question, there are a couple of places that already have free laundry. Do these places have to pay?
Dr Morgan: I’m not sure I will find out.
Senator Ascoff: Many people are annoyed that they have to pay.
Dr. Morgan: We are not making money off of this, ETBU pays $75 per semester. We are charging exactly what you have already been paying.
Senator Welch: I know that is about how much you spend per semester washing laundry. I know on my floor many of the international students are coming in and are confused on what a quarter is and trying to figure out how to pay for laundry.
Senator Miles: On a more serious note, $25 seems very reasonable. I would suggest this be clearly labeled so people know what they are paying for.
Dean Conn: I want everyone know that this is not a money-making opportunity. Remind people about this.
Dr. Morgan: We will make sure to communicate this out. No more quarters.
Senator Gowing: When will this start?
Dr. Morgan: It is for the fall of 2020.
Senator LaQuey: What do I do with all my quarters now?
PPT Murphy: There are many comminutors who use the facilities for their laundry. Would comminutors be able to us the laundry services here?
Dr. Morgan: We could look into that. If there were enough students, we could look into that. If there is a lot more usage it will become more expensive. Maybe you guys should get us some feedback on that.
Senator Miles: Could it be an optional fee for some commuters?
Dr. Morgan: We could look into it.
Senator Welch: If we do have an option to opt into it and maybe we could have them just go to specific ones.
Senator Anderson: There is a laundry room behind Tyler hall that is code access. We could give specific people the codes.
Senator LaQuey: Speaking as a commuter, the Tyler hall would be ideal because it is close to the commuter parking lot.
Senator Miles: As a senator I am pleased that you came to share this specifically with us. I hope this degree of communication continues.
Dean Conn: Point of clarification, earlier speaker of the house Murphy said that she was filling in for the ill VP. I would like the record to show that VP Reid is sick but has not adopted the rapper name of ill VP.
Senator Anderson: That would be a pretty sick rapper name though.
Senator Mathews: I am going to present my findings on the rock-wall. The business in Dallas would charge $1,325 for six hours. That is for a 32-foot wall, which is the tallest option. The other group I found is $1,450. This is right over six hours. They provide everything. They might be able to get a discount if it was on a weekday. I would like to see that your floor would think about this.
Senator Gonzonal: I have been talking with many people, many people wonder what the point of getting a rock wall is? I am not saying it shouldn’t happen, but we need to know who wants this. Will we get a trailer one or can we repurpose something?
Senator Mathews: The one I have looked into is just for a one-time thing. If we owned it, we would have to look into insurance, this is for a single time event.
Senator Anderson: From discussion within student life, the idea is to test to see how much interest there is in a rock wall from the student body.
PPT Murphy: Point of clarification on the prices?
Senator Mathews: It would be $1,325.
Senator LaQuey: This is to see if there is an interest, this is also about coordinating this project with YAC.
Senator Miles: I defiantly don’t see getting a long-term rock wall as possible because of the cost of insurance. There will need to be some certifications and training and people on site.
Senator Gowing: In response, one thing I have noted is a lot of people do not want tuition to increase. A few people might enjoy it, but it is not something people do a lot of time.
Senator Ascoff: I know we don’t have a bouldering wall nearby. If there was one on campus people would use it every day. It is a good way for people to work out. If there was one on campus you would have to think about legality. We could invite the public to see how they would use it.
Senator Livingston: You have to have multiple people there to monitor the people using the facilities. I would like to hold up the example of the pool. The school struggles to have lifeguards. I feel like the rock wall will end up in a similar situation.
Senator Miles: If we opened this up to the public, we would have to consider the business licenses. We would have to make sure there are trained personal people on site.
PPT Murphy: Lets wrap this up, speak with your floors.
Senator LaQuey: As far as the rock wall goes, we should just pray a business comes. I think we should look into having an actual wall. There are a lot of zombies outside so be prepared.
Senator LaQuay motions to adjourn.
Senator Anderson seconds.
Meeting Adjourned at 11:49 AM