April 25, 2006
Ninth Senate
Call to order
The meeting was called to
order at 4:39 p.m.
Roll Call
Present: Senators Bautista, Bybee,
Hanson, Mewes, O’Harra, Ojeda, Rawson, Riggers, Sherpa, Smith. President
Racich, Committees Director Bloomsburg, Media Relations Director Rohde,
Associate Justice Vaughan, Associate Justice Astle.
Excused
Absent: Vice President Ambriz, Associate Justice Wittman.
Audience: Ernie Williams, Ron
Smith, Brandon Lytle, Joe Curd, Eric Giddens, Sarah Evans,
Senate Secretary Myndie VanHorn.
Approval of Minutes:
Motion to Approve the minutes
for April 18, 2006 Senator Hanson second Senator Bautista. 9 Yes, 0 No, 1
Abstention (Senator Riggers).
Student Government Advisor
■ Ernie Williams- Nothing at this time.
Student Activities Coordinator
■ Brandon Lytle- Softball tournament
coming up deadline is the 27th at 5pm contingent on number of teams
that are received, need at least 5 teams.
LCSC Administration Communications
■ Ron
Smith- “I’m a little disappointed in the results of the election board result,
it seems like there’s a lot of improprieties pointing here and there and less
cooperation than probably I would hope that there would be. With that I think
there are some technicalities that need to be worked out and people probably
should be looking at those.”
Executive Communications
■ President
Racich- Read a note from Vice President Ambriz announcing that there will be a
graduation banquet meeting after Senate tonight. Need to get together with the
President, Vice President, Senator Majority Leader, Senate Pro-Tem to decide on
the 2006 ASLCSC Leadership Award.
Reported on the SBOE meeting last week. Reported
that Senator Sherpa represented the Senate very well to the SBOE addressing the
non-resident tuition and the out-of-state tuition. Wanted
to thank her for doing that it took a lot of courage to do it. SBOE went
into executive session immediately in the morning and the meeting didn’t start
until about 9:30 am. Senator Smith, Senator Rawson and she were at the meeting
until the end at about 9:30 pm. LCSC was addressed at about 7:30 pm. The SBOE
felt that because the Legislature awarded a healthy increase last year they
should keep the fees as low as they could to encourage the Legislature to
continue funding higher education. The SBOE was very picky about what they gave
all of the colleges and universities. LCSC landed at 5.9%, LCSC was given all
$15.00 of the line items. LCSC fared out better than everyone else. The actual bottom
line increase was 4.9% to make tuition $1948.50 per semester. The part-time
fees for Intramurals etc. were all approved. Informed the
Senate that Senator Smith spoke in front of the SBOE and “spoke eloquently.”
In fact his suggestion of calling a “reactivation” made it to the newspaper and
the SBOE thanked him for coming up with the term for the Arts and Architecture
at the U of I. Brandon Lytle thanked the Senate for their efforts to contribute
to Student Activities.
Informed the Senate that she and Committees Director
Bloomsburg went to
There
is a student survey available. They incorporated a lot of the survey committee’s
ideas into the survey.
There
is news on the Student Health Insurance front. PIA has been fired. The students
will now be covered by the Administrators of Consolidated Health Plans located
in
■ Vice-President Ambriz- absent.
■ Media Relations- Nothing.
■ Director of Committees- Graduation meeting after this
meeting to decide on decorations.
Judicial Communications
■ Associate Justice Astle reported for
the Election Board. Reported on the official results of the
election. Had over 500 votes in the election.
Academic
Senators:
Mike
Bybee: 272 votes
Matt
Smith: 263
votes
Jimmie
O’Harra: 257 votes
Eugenia
Ojeda: 220 votes
Tiffany
Fragnella: 207
votes
Maria
Rodriguez: 20 write-in votes
Pasang
Sherpa: 7 write-in votes
Reported that Pasang Sherpa declined the position.
Technical
Senators:
Homar Mendez: 102
votes
Cliff
Rawson: 99 votes
Brett
Arnzen: 91
votes
Still awaiting acceptance from some of the candidates as a reminder.
Reported
that the Presidential and Vice Presidential results are still unofficial. “We
have had a disqualification and so at this time they are still unofficial.”
President
Racich asked who was in line for the Senate seat. AJ Astle reported that Kent
Johnson is in line and if he declines it will then go to Sheldon Allen.
President Racich asked if Kent Johnson has been contacted. AJ Astle reported
that they have not as the Election Board has been “swamped.”
President
Racich asked if they had received the copy of their memo to the election board.
Stated that this might be a good time to discuss the memo.
Stated that according to the Bylaws in order for the Election Board to be an
Election Board they need to have eight student members and the Election Board
only has six. “Therefore they are not an official election board and therefore
the disqualification that they are talking about we respectfully decline any
further action from an election board that is not an election board.”
Senator
Hanson stated “if we don’t have an election board we didn’t have an election
did we?”
AJ
Astle responded “there would be no election.” Explained that they had no Chief
Justice and they assumed that they were exempt from the rule that they had to
have eight members.
Senator
Bautista asked who the disqualification was for. AJ Astle responded that the
disqualification was for Laurie Racich and Cody Bloomsburg. “That’s our ruling
now.”
Senator
Rawson stated that if there is no Chief Justice the Vice Chair fills in as
chairman but you are still required to have eight members. “Lacking a Chief
Justice does not exclude you from any Bylaws, Constitution, Policies and
Procedures or anything like that.”
AJ
Vaughan stated that the vote was 5-1 for disqualification. “Therefore, no we
did not have eight members, but we did have a quorum because it was 2/3 vote.
With the other two members there, even if they voted against it it still would have been 5 to 3.” President Racich stated
that “if you had two more members on the election board, perhaps they would
have different viewpoints than you that they could have explained to the rest
of the membership therefore nullifying the quorum.”
Senator
Mewes stated that “all that’s besides the point, I’d
have to agree with Senator Hanson on this. If they had eight election board
members it would been just to judge that way but you can’t even think that way
since their weren’t eight election board members the entire time and the
election itself should be null and void.” AJ Astle stated that he wanted to
“note that there was no complaint.” Senator Rawson stated that he thought
Senator Mewes and Hanson could be right and “we could have an actual election
that could be null and void.”
President
Racich stated that one of the complaints was the posters in the windows of her
office and Cody’s office. Pointed out that over the last couple of years there
has been several different entities on the campus that have advertised for
things in the windows of the SUB. Stated that two days before she put up her
signs in the window AJ Vaughan came and asked her if she could put up the
Judicial Branch sign up advertising the elections. Stated that she told AJ
Vaughan that she would only put it up until she got her posters and offered to
put it out in the windows of the ASLCSC offices. Stated that her posters were
date stamped and “the judicial branch was notified ladies and gentlemen.”
Stated that she does not think the complaint is valid because there is not an election
board.
Senator
Bybee reminded the Senate that if this discussion becomes heated and emotional
the Senate will have to go into Executive Session.
Ernie
Williams stated that he saw those posters and it “never dawned on me to say
anything about removing them or taking them down. I accept my share of that
responsibility. In hindsight it can be seen as the ASB supporting certain
candidates with that up. I have talked to the Election Board and Judicial
people about meeting ASAP…not waiting until the next election to fix that in
the code so we do not have and signs posted within the ASB office. That was
certainly an oversight on my part and I do apologize and have apologized for
that.”
AJ
Astle clarified what policy this complaint was pertaining to. Read the SUB
policy regarding posting of posters in the windows.
Senator
Bautista asked if there were any other complaints about others. She stated that
AJ Astle had told her he had taken down signs that “otherwise probably wouldn’t
have put them down…you should probably disqualify them too because they didn’t
do it either.” AJ Astle responded that “that case is pending.” Senator Hanson
stated there is a complaint pending against he and Sheldon Allen and they
haven’t answered it yet.
Senator
Rawson stated that “the whole idea of that is null and void because I had it in
the window and there’s no complaint against me and you cant pick and
choose…because of the improprieties of the election board I think this election
should be null and void and keep the present administration in.”
Senator
Smith responded that the complaint depends on the students. It doesn’t depend
on the Election Board, it’s the students who file the
complaints. AJ Astle stated that the Election Board wouldn’t have a problem if
there hadn’t been a complaint. “When a complaints filed we’re forced to make a
decision…we’re open minded. We looked at every alternative. We tried to be as
fair as we could, we’re subject to what we have, that’s
how we looked at it.”
President
Racich asked if the Judicial Branch realized there was another form of
punishment besides disqualification. AJ Vaughan responded that they looked at
numerous other punishments such as letters of apology to the Senate and
Pathfinder, stipends, probation. Disqualification was the only thing they could
agree on.
President
Racich asked if the Judicial Branch had a comment about their signs being
posted in the windows of the SUB advertising the election.
AJ
Astle stated “it is the responsibility of all organizations to abide by all
policies that govern them, precedence is not deemed appropriate in regards to
the Student Unions general policy and therefore the ruling of the election
board is final.”
Senator
Ojeda moved to go into executive session. Senator Rawson seconded. Senator
Ojeda stated that everyone who was in the room currently would be allowed to
stay for Executive Session. Senator Hanson No, Senators Bautista, Bybee (and
someone else whom was not named) abstained.
Senator
Hanson moved for five minute recess to consult “Roberts Rules of Order” in
regards to the executive session, second Senator Mewes. Unanimous.
Five minute recess from 5:10 to 5:15 pm.
Senator
Bybee stated that “Roberts Rules of Order” states that the motion only takes a
majority vote. Senate moved to executive session 5:17 pm.
Reconvened at 5:40 pm.
Committee Reports
Finance: Senator
Rawson reported that they had clarified and voted on stipends.
Student Tech Fee: Committees Director Bloomsburg stated that they allocated $100,000. See
President Racich, Committees Director Bloomsburg, Senators Mewes, Rawson or
Bybee for more information.
Ways and Means: Senator Smith asked if they could meet regarding the
Old Business
None.
New Business
■ Senate Bill 06-S055: Stipends. Motion for friendly
Senator Riggers, second Senator Smith. Change line 5 from “F055 to
S055,” and change line 11 to read “from the scholarship account.” Unanimous. Motion to vote Senator Bautista
second Senator Riggers. Roll call vote: 7 Yes, 2 No (Senators Sherpa,
Smith), 1 Abstentions (O’Harra). Bill passed.
Senate Information Reports
■ Senator O’Harra reported that the 911
scholarship has been dissolved. Reported that there was $195.00
left in the account which means that $97.50 could have been the ASLCSC portion
of the scholarship. He informed the Senate that the money has been moved
to another foundation scholarship account. Discussion ensued about the funds.
The general consensus of the group was to let the money remain in the other
foundation scholarship account.
Audience Time
■ Ernie
Williams commended the group. Reminded the group of what his role is as
advisor. Stated that this is a “living classroom. This is democracy in
action…it ought to be our Senate working together as a team for the benefit of
the student body whether they voted for you or not, whether they voted or
not…you sometimes have to just get down and hammer it out.” Reminded
the group that it’s not personal, “its business.” Appreciated it that
the group closed the door to discuss the issue “nobody likes confrontation
that’s not a fun thing for people but it can be done in a spirit of
cooperation.”
■ President Racich asked if there was any
way to get those together that are the most interested in dealing with this
issue. There was some interest and talk that it will be more of an “informal
thing.”
Adjournment
Motion to
adjourn Senator Hanson, second Senator Mewes. Unanimous. Meeting adjourned at 5:55 pm.
Respectfully Submitted by:
Myndie VanHorn
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Senate
Bill 06-S055 Roll
Call Vote |
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Y |
N |
A |
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Bautista |
X |
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Bybee |
X |
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|
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Hanson |
X |
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Mewes |
X |
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|
O’Harra |
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|
X |
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Ojeda |
X |
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|
|
Rawson |
X |
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Riggers |
X |
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Sherpa |
|
X |
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Smith |
|
X |
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