Session Of February 27th, 2020
Minutes Recorded by: McKenzie Craycraft, Secretary
Visitors: Chris Chapman
Call to Order at 11:00 AM
Senator Avent prays
Roll Called
Approval of Minutes
Minutes approved at 11:05 AM
Officer Reports
Senator LaQuey: I would like to remind individuals that bandanas are not a part of the dress code.
Committee Reports
Senator Gowing: Constitution, in the near future, we will be going over the issues discussed for elections, writing quizzes, and finding the specific bill that states how many people can run in an election.
PPT Murphy: The bill constitution is referencing is from Spring of 2018, it was not labeled as passed and it was not updated, the actual bill that was passed is found in legislation under spring of 2018.
Senator Welch: The elections are done, the only other thing we have is the swearing in which is the week before heck week. I will schedule it with Pat Mays. If anyone has any questions on who was elected, I’m sorry you didn’t go to chapel.
Senator McClain: I am not at chapel because I am in the airport, who won?
VP Reid: Abbie Turner
Senator LaQuey: We are working on the rock-climbing wall, a permanent one is not possible, but will coordinate with YAC to potentially rent one for Hootenanny. We will have Joseph Wang speaking with Saga. If you have questions, please speak to him about that. We will continue to look into improvements for the game room in ASC.
Special Business
None
Old Business
Senator McClain: There was talk about the societies being charged for the free laundry update coming in the fall. Is there any response on that?
VP Reid: That is a good question, we will get to that in open forum.
New Business
None
Announcements
VP Reid: Administration has voiced that if you hear students saying that they can’t come because of finances, direct them to student life so they can try and work with them to come back.
Senator LaQuey: Senate ice cream will be at 3:30 until 4:30. We need volunteers. LOX will come and help. This afternoon the Mission Motorcycle team is hosting a fundraiser at Canes. 50% of all purchase will go to them.
Open Forum
VP Reid: Chris Chapman is here to speak to us.
Speaker Chapman: I would like some impute of improvements that could improve student life. One example is the walkway by Gilbert Hall. That has been on my list of things to get done. We are considering getting a fence, but I know that would not be attractive. The other idea is to make an intentional solution with a walkway with some steps. Another option is to put concrete steps and join the walkway with the concrete that already exists. Some polytechnic ideas are to incorporate a charging station somewhere on campus. We have worked with our utility to see about having one. What are your thoughts?
Senator Kessler: Have there been concerns about people driving electrical cars?
Senator Aschoff: Most people say that it is a wasted effort because you have to park your cars there. General concision is not now.
Speaker Chapman: This idea is mainly focused on guests. We could have this space reserved for them.
Senator Kessler: The walkway outside of Gilbert, we would prefer a walkway instead of steps for the convenience of longboarding.
Senator Aschoff: I don’t think a fence or bush would work; student would still find a way around it. are you thinking of having it to follow the dirt path or straight?
Speaker Chapman: We will look into it. The first issue is to address the problem we have now which is the exposed wire and pipe.
PPT Murphy: On the subject of the walkway, students have liked the idea of having a permanent area instead of the bush or fences.
Senator Gowing: Bouncing off of PPT Murphy, most people discuss that a walkway there would be appreciated. I think this would be the best of the options.
Speaker Chapman: I would like to hear ideas and see sketches. Another big area on campus are the trees. Sometimes they have to come down because they are diseased or causing issues. Our idea has been to take them down, but we have planted 14 pine trees behind Solheim. Unfortunately, they did not make it. This is one area that we have approval to plant trees, but a lot of places don’t have irrigation to sustain trees. We could have a dorm adopt a tree and take care of it.
Senator Mathews: I think that is a great idea to have students adopt a tree. So many people are interested in trees. Do you know what type of trees you would put in?
Speaker Chapman: There are five types, two variations of maple, pine tree, redbud and dogwood.
Senator Gowing: I will say on the topic of adopting trees, I would have to talk to my friends. Alpha Omega have been disappointed in the removal of trees, we would be more than happy to adopt at least one.
Senator Anderson: Could I get the list of trees again?
Speaker Chapman: There are two variations of maple, pine tree, redbud and dogwood, I would buy the trees and offer the location, we just need the help.
Senator LaQuey: What is the timeline on this, when do we need to have people adopting trees.
Speaker Chapman: I think we should come up with a timeframe.
Senator McClain: I know that the school’s 5-year plan is about to expire. Is there any way we could have access to the new one?
Speaker Chapman: Are you talking the university five-year plan, or the building five-year plan? They are different, we have a master plan and a strategic plan. Also, I don’t know if anyone has noticed that there is a section of sidewalk that doesn’t complete the loop.
Senator Avent: I think that putting the sidewalk around would be nice.
Senator Welch: I know as a person who runs around the campus, it would be nice to have it connect around and to complete the loop. Speaker Chapman: Recycling, what are your thoughts on it?
Senator LaQuey: Most RAs like that we recycle, but it often becomes the RA responsibilities. It sounds like something we would like, but there is not enough interest to keep that up.
Senator Lochridge: One possibly could be to have one repository by each dorm.
VP Reid: There is one in each dorm, right?
Speaker Chapman: There should be one small one per hall. There are larger trailers that are painted green around campus.
Senator Aschoff: Davis hall actually does not have one because people were throwing their regular trash in it.
Senator Mathews: Having read the plans, it does seem like downsizing the recycling is necessary. I love to recycle; I was curious is there a way to have at least one recycling receptacle available on campus?
Speaker Chapman: The smaller containers get carried to the larger one outside where the truck comes. My last thing is environmental things on water saving shower heads. Most of that has been done. There are still other areas that need that.
Senator Willis: From everything I have heard from the Trinities, there have been a lot of complaints about not having enough water pressure.
PPT Murphy: Some dorms have more water pressure than others, South Hall has better pressure than other dorms. Tyler Hall also has good pressure. A wide majority would prefer less water and more pressure. From athletes’ standards, it is like therapy to have good water pressure and girls with really thick hair it helps.
Senator Aschoff: I know some guys in Davis prefer more water because we have less hair and bigger bodies. I think it is based on opinion.
Senator Gowing: It is not only the girls who have thicker hair, high water pressure is nice, I used to live in the village apartments, and I will say the water pressure there is not great. People would also appreciate if the shower heads were higher.
Speaker Chapman: I have a few projects for this summer. We will put the plaque on the north west corner facing south. Is that a good spot? We plan on having that in by Friday of this week. I think that facility has been a huge improvement on campus. Another thing we are working on is having LED on campus. We are going to do part of the café, ELH, batting cages and a couple other places. Our local energy provider appreciates progress like this. We will continue this process. We installed a generator so that the café has backup power. Most of the cooking appliances and the LED lights will be on that generator. Also changing this summer will be how work orders come to facilities. We will make it more streamline. If a contractor is needed, we can track the price. Another question I had is over these chairs and changing them out.
Senator Willis: It is not necessary to lean back. It can make it difficult to stay awake in early classes.
Senator Mathews: It can be difficult to stay awake and if this is cost cutting it could be good.
Speaker Chapman: We can take away the leaning back feature from the chairs.
Senator Gowing: I like the rotating feature.
Senator LaQuey: I would like to ask about Glaske C103, I think the chairs are easier to stay awake in but some of them are damaged or missing.
Speaker Chapman: The discussion was mostly about this room.
Senator Livingston: Under your proposed project you have listed the commuter lounge door. Those who use the commuter lounge would really like the automatic door feature, so they don’t have to try to push it open.
Speaker Chapman: There are other doors that could be adjusted as well, we are working through that right now. Another thing I would like to speak about is the laundry situation, it is going to be a good change. There is going to be more communication and we will get those questions answered.
Senator Willis: This is definitely a change the students would like.
Senator McClain: Is there a timeline on that correspondents?
Speaker Chapman: Before the 17th.
Senator Welch: I have heard from different dorms that washing machines are not working well. What is going to happen to those machines?
Speaker Chapman: We plan on replacing the Gilbert and Thomas machines.
Senator Mathews: On a different subject, we have had people asking to fix the bell tower time, I think it would be a good idea to put it on time again. I didn’t know who to look to for answers on this.
Speaker Chapman: I didn’t know it was off. This is not a digital smart phone, so it is going to get off.
Senator Wang: Someone mentioned they would like a water bottle filler in Glakse.
Speaker Chapman: We have done some. The last we discussed is we are not going to do the entire campus with water fillers.
Senator Wang: I think that makes sense; the spots are useful. Glaske is a high traffic area and it would be used a lot.
Senator Lochridge: It can be used for filling water bottles.
Senator Anderson: I use that a lot. There are a lot of people who use it as well.
Senator Aschoff: Glaske does not have one but Longview Hall and Heath Hardwick do. We could bring that to our floors.
Senator Worrell: It is 11:51, could we wrap up conversation?
Senator Mathews: Is there an area on campus that does not have a lot light for stargazing, is there a good place for that?
Speaker Chapman: I do not know of any.
Senator Gowing: In response, there is an open field behind the pond.
Senator Lochridge: I was going to mention there are some good spots by the scrum gardens.
Senator Worrell motions to adjourn.
Senator Ascoff seconds.
Meeting Adjourned at 11:52 AM