Session of March 30, 2023

March 30, 2023

Minutes Recorded by: Sean Koay, Senate Secretary  

Visitor(s): Dr. Conn and Kimberly Shumaker

Call to Order at 11:04 AM

Senator prays

Roll Called

Minutes Approved at 11:07

Committee Reports: 

Chairman Byrne:  So, we have a request from Go Kart society for a little more money as the Go Kart Races becomes bigger they are needing more supplies and resources. I have invited them to come to share in Senate so they should be coming next week.

Special Business:

PPT reassigns committees.

New Business:

PPT. Gonzalez: Motion to bring a bill to the floor. 

Constitution Amendments of Spring 2023 is brought to the floor. 

Senator Farmer: Does it mean that each society can have 8 senators each? That would mean that AO themselves would be able to have 8 senators themselves.  

PPT Gonzalez: All residential society should be grouped as one, that is a writing error that I will correct. 

Senator Farmer: For elections, and election chapel, would it be possible to make it so that students that do not vote won’t get chapel? 

PPT. Gonzalez: That is out of our control, it is something that one would need to talk to Dr. Mays about. 

Senator Stanard: Would Tyler Hall East and West be under the same, if so, it would remove a lot of the Tyler senators. 

VP. Crowder: We have written in the constitution to have Tyler Hall as both separate districts. 

Dr. Conn: About the primary elections, do you have to have primary elections even if you only have two or three members? 

PPT. Gonzalez: Yes, there would need to be primary elections. 

Dr. Conn: If you only have two candidates for president, and others are running unopposed do you have to have the elections? 

PPT. Gonzalez: No. 

VP. Crowder: The purpose for the primary election is to eliminate all the candidates till it is down to only two members. 

Dr. Conn: Is it necessary for the source code being made available? What would be an example of a non-third-party app. 

VP. Crowder: It is there to clarify when someone had programmed their own code to help tally the votes. 

Senator Ko: Could it be possible that we just say that the methodology be provided? 

VP. Crowder: The example was because Wesley Anderson wrote his own code to help Senate tally up the votes. 

VP. Crowder: Due to this being an Amendment to the constitution, there is a ten days waiting period before we can vote. You are able to review this amendment in this time and let us know if there are any changes to be done. 

Legislation is tabled until two weeks’ time. 

Announcements:

Chairman Hoekstra: There is going to be Senate Friday ice cream, I would appreciate if I can get help. 

Senator Dennis: I was told to say this, it is best to have senate helped with Chairman Hoekstra for Senate Ice Cream instead of outside help. 

PPT. Gonzalez: PPT election is next week, and if you been a senator for a semester you are eligible to become PPT. 

VP. Crowder: Tomorrow Matthew Strong will be at the Chat with Matt from 8-10 so if you want to have a chat with them you can be there at ASC. 

Open Forum:

Mrs. Shumaker: I came here to introduce myself, I am the assistant director at the achievement center. I try to assist anyone that comes into our department, and we help students with all the free aids to help students be successful in school. SI Blitz is happening, and it is on Saturday, April 29th ,from 1- 5 pm and it is in the Glaske area. As I been going through the note in the office, I realized that the senate play a big role of sponsoring the pizza for the event. I would also need some helpers to help set up and tear down. I started January 3rd,and it's been great working here. 

VP. Crowder: Senate has helped with SI Blitz in the past, for the new senators, this event happen before the end of the semester. Senators usually go to help with tables and pizza to help make sure the pizzas are there and everything is functioning well,  

Mrs. Shumaker: I definitely need help with set up and tear down. 

Dr. Conn: There is a survey going out on mental health. Dr. Mason has four objectives he wants to work on and one of them is campus engagement, which consists of student mental health. What we want to do is to get an assessment of how our student body is doing currently. There were two options. We have chosen to use a simpler survey. We did not do the very long survey as it is very complicated, and we don’t think people will complete them. DAS-21 is the survey that we are sending out and it is very publicly used. We hope as many people will take it, I know it might be weird to answer question about your wellbeing, but there is an all-campus email being sent to help explain it. The basis is that we care about this and would love to be able to get data to see where we are at.  We will not link it to an individual, but to a group. We will scrub the data before anyone looks thought the data so that can be as anonymous as possible. The email should come out in the next few days.  Do understand that it is optional for anyone to take it or not take it. 

Senator Kushner: I am still confused about the attendance policy in senate, and someone could explain it to me. 

PPT. Gonzalez: The attendance is kept by Sean and removal is by my discretion.  If you email me or Cameron an hour before session that you won’t be able to make it you should get an exemption. If you are absent for 3 session per semesters, you are removed from roster. 

Motion to Recess. 

Recessed at 11:41