February 28,
2006
Ninth Senate
Call to order
The meeting was called to
order at 4:30 p.m.
Roll Call
Present: Senators Bautista, Bybee,
Hanson, Mewes, Ojeda, Rawson, Sherpa, Smith. President Racich, Vice-President
Ambriz, Media Relations Director Rohde, Committees Director Bloomsburg, Chief
Justice Allen, Associate Justice Wittman, Associate Justice Vaughan, Associate
Justice Astle.
Audience: Ron Smith, Brandon
Lytle, Jimmie O’Harra, Jeremy Snyder, Senate Secretary Myndie VanHorn.
Excused sick: Senator
Riggers.
Excused late: Ernie Williams.
Approval of Minutes:
Motion to approve minutes of
February 21, 2006 Senator Hanson, second Senator Ojeda. Unanimous approval.
Student Government Advisor
■ Ernie
Williams- Excused late.
Student Activities Coordinator
■ Brandon Lytle- Free driving range at
Gateway Golf starts tomorrow. $5 golf at
LCSC Administration Communications
■ Ron
Smith- Has the counter–proposal for fee increases. Presenting a 6% fee overall
increase in full-time fees. Increase of $112 and includes the $15 student
requested increase. Passed out counter-proposal. Will be presenting this at the
student fee hearing on Monday. Also added that BSU is somewhere between 9-10%
and U of I is talking about 12%.
■ Motion
by Senator Rawson to go into Executive Session, second Senator Mewes. Senator
Rawson explained that he would like to go into Executive Session to discuss the
proposal from Administration. Unanimous. Ron Smith, President Racich,
Vice-President Ambriz, Judicial Branch, Committees Director Bloomsburg asked to
stay for executive session.
Senator
Bybee reminded everyone that the Executive Session is privileged information
and the information had to stay within the room.
EXECUTIVE
SESSION:
Meeting
resumed at 4:58 p.m.
Executive Communications
■ President
Racich- Reported on the State Board of Education meeting from last week. Most
of the meeting did not pertain to LCSC. One portion that did pertain to LCSC
was the Community College plan. This will have a huge impact on the college in
the future. Does not think it will be something that will happen right away,
Governor Kempthorne would like to see it happen by the fall but President
Racich does not think it will happen that quickly. They are hoping to get more
community colleges around the state to give two-year degrees for half the
tuition that LCSC students are paying with a state subsidy for the balance. The
point of this is to give more people access to Associates Degrees.
■ Vice-President
Ambriz- Nothing.
■ Director
of Committees- Radio club has a new president, Sarah LaChance. Comm board
meeting tomorrow at 4:15 in SUB 225.
■ Media
Relations- Informed the Senate that she has a new printer.
Judicial Communications
■ Chief Justice Allen- Elections are
proceeding as planned. Closing date was today at 5 p.m. The Justices are being
trained into the position and the new people in Judicial seem to be catching on
very quickly. Submitted his resignation, effective immediately to the Senate
Pro Tem. Cited running for Executive office as the reason for resigning.
■ President
Racich informed the Senate that on page 20 of the Bylaws under article 4
section 1 subsection 1.500 subsection 1.510. “A Letter of Intent must be
submitted to the President, the Chief Justice, and the ASLCSC Secretary at the
end of each term, upon resignation or final graduation from LCSC.” Informed the
Senate that she had not received a resignation letter. “At this current moment
in time, the conditions of his resignation have not been met and he is still
Chief Justice until they are.”
■ Chief
Justice Allen stated that he recalled a conversation that the intent behind
this section of the Bylaws was that the President wanted to have an idea for
who was going to be involved in the ASLCSC for the following semesters. Stated
that he thought this section was broad and vague.
■ President
Racich stated that this section did cover resignation. Senator Rawson concurred
and stated that because the Chief Justice is appointed by the President, “it
would be only fitting that the President should also receive any resignations.”
■ Senator
Smith asked if Chief Justice Allen would write a letter of resignation for the
President and ASLCSC Secretary.
■ Senator
Mewes reminded the Senate that the application deadline was at 5 p.m. for
applications. Chief Justice Allen stated that since this conversation happened
after 5 p.m. then there would have to be a ruling by the Judicial body as to
whether the application was valid or not. Senator Hanson stated that the
application was submitted before 5 p.m. President Racich stated that Chief
Justice Allen was still the sitting Chief Justice at the time the application
was put in and he was in violation. Senator Bautista stated that there were
many ways that this situation could have been resolved, it could have been put
at the top of the agenda and there were “all sorts of ways to go about it, I
don’t think it’s a valid excuse that it was after 5:05.”
■ Senator
Rawson stated that he thought the resignation should have been put in well
before hand if the intention was to run for office. He stated that he thought
there was an ethical question involved in this situation. Senator Mewes pointed
out that as Chief Justice part of his job is to know the Bylaws and know that
was what was required of him.
■ Vice
President Ambriz stated that he thought this was becoming too complicated.
■ Senator
Smith stated that he thought there wasn’t a violation or conflict of interest
as there hasn’t been anything more than applications submitted. Senator Sherpa
asked questions for clarification.
Senate Majority Leader Bybee handed over the gavel to
Senate Pro Tem Smith.
■ Senator
Bybee stated that he agreed with Vice President Ambriz. Stated that he would
like to see the Judicial Branch do a ruling on this situation. Said he didn’t
think that debate here was going to get anywhere. Senator Sherpa agreed with
Senator Bybee.
■ Senator
Hanson asked if the Judicial Branch would like to meet now. Requested a five
minute recess so the Judicial Branch could meet. The Judicial Branch stated
that five minutes would not be enough time to come to a decision besides the
fact that they need to issue a written ruling. Senator Bybee asked to set a
time limit for the decision.
■ Senator
Bautista asked if the sole reason Chief Justice Allen was resigning was because
of conflict of interest. Allen responded that there is a conflict of interest
and that is why he was resigning. Senator Bautista asked how long he has known there
was going to be a conflict of interest. CJ Allen responded “from the
beginning.” Senator Bautista asked why he decided to resign now instead of
earlier. CJ Allen responded “I was in a doctor’s appointment, my car broke
down, I was in the library studying, personal reasons.”
■ Senator Sherpa stated that she thought
the Senate should not be discussing this right now and that the Judicial Branch
should handle this issue. AJ Astle asked when the Senate would like the ruling.
Senator Hanson asked if the Senate could have this by Thursdays Roundtable.
Senator Bybee brought up the fact that the Judicial Branch may have to have an
acting Chief Justice in order for a formal investigation to happen. President
Racich stated that she would have to check the ByLaws to find that out. CJ Allen
concluded Judicial Communications.
Committee Reports
Graduation: VP
Ambriz reported that the Graduation Banquet Committee met last week. Talked
about doing a beach themed banquet. Informed the group that he and Myndie will
be doing a walk-thru of the building on Friday at 10 am if anyone is interested
in going.
Diversity: Senator
Sherpa reported. The committee will be meeting tomorrow at 6 pm in the office.
Asked the Senate to make suggestions about an amount for a bill that will be
presented to the Senate for Cezar Chavez Day. The committee that is putting
this on is asking for $500-750. Before writing the bill she wanted to ask the
Senate what they suggest. Senator Mewes suggested that the matter be decided
within the committee before being brought to the Senate. Senator Sherpa
responded that she wanted to know what the Senate would like to see and then
the Diversity Committee could come to the Senate with the final amount. Would
like to hear everyone’s suggestions.
Finance: Been
working on student fees and on Clubs and Orgs Funding. Will be meeting after
this meeting. Remind peers about the student fee hearing on Monday.
Student Health Insurance: President Racich reported that they did not get an RFP
in time for the upcoming year. Because of that they will be more than likely be
sticking with the same health insurance provider. As the students requested
last spring in a resolution the group is looking at letting the administrator
for PIA go out of that policy as they seem to be the culprit in a lot of the
problems. They do not have any information on cost increases or what they will
or will not be able to incorporate into the policy at this time but they are
checking into it and should have some answers within the next month.
Ways and Means: Senator Smith reported that he spoke to most of the committee members
Thursday after the meeting.
Legacy: Senator
Smith reported that they will be meeting next Tuesday after the Senate meeting.
Alumni Board: Senator
Hanson reported. Was not at the meeting but has the information from Renee
Olson. Talked about Parents weekend, some of the work has been done mainly by
Jimmie O’Harra. Have postcards and a website so parents can be contacted. Incorporating it into Dogwood Festival to get
parents involved in Alumni Board and involved in the school. The Alumni Board
also discussed getting involved in the Graduation Banquet and Barbeque. Also
discussed the Warrior Weekend reunion over Memorial Day weekend during NAIA.
James Marinelo spoke from Liberty Mutual who contracts with LCSC if someone
signs up for insurance the college sees some funds from that. Olson wanted him
to bring up fundraisers that are coming up. Usually students sign up to call
for donations. They are doing things a little different than previous years.
Divisions will be doing their own calls this year. Would like people to
volunteer to help with these calls, contact your division.
Directors Council: Senator Smith advised that there is a meeting next Tuesday if you have
anything that you would like to him to bring up or pass along email him or put
it in his box.
Old Business
None.
New Business
■ Senate Bill 06-S047: TRIO Day Funding. Senator
Bybee introduced the bill and informed the Senate that this money is to give
scholarships to essay contest winners. Contacted Susan Devlin, these
scholarships will be one $50 and 2 $25. Senator Bybee stated that he has a
couple of problems with this bill, the Senate funded it two years ago, Devlin
assured him that it was funded by the Senate last year as well although our
records do not show that. One of his concerns is that they are basically
considering this part of their budget. That is something that the Senate should
keep in mind when voting on it. Motion for friendly amendment Senator Bybee to
change line 1 to change it to “Spring Session”, second Senator Hanson. Friendly
unanimous. Senator Smith passed the gavel back to Senator Bybee. Senator Smith
advised that he knows the deadline for the essays was at least a week ago. He
advised that he thought TRIO was a good program but wonders where they thought
they were going to get the money from if not from the Senate. Senator Mewes
added that he agreed with Senator Smith about TRIO but this does seem to be
another case of people “treating us like the First Bank of ASLCSC.” Senator
Sherpa advised that she thought they should be reminded that this donation is
not guaranteed for next year. Motion to vote Senator Mewes, second Senator
Rawson. Roll call vote: 7 Yes, 1 No
(Mewes), 0 Abstentions. Bill passed.
■ Senate Resolution 06-S009: Increase Math
Lab Services. Motion for friendly amendment Senator Mewes. Line 30 change
“ACLCSC” to “ASLCSC,” line 11 add a period to the end of the sentence, line 1
change from “Fall Session” to “Spring Session.” Second Senator Hanson. Friendly
amendment Unanimous. Senator Bybee motion for friendly amendment, line 30 take
the “s” off of “supports” second Senator Smith. Friendly amendment Unanimous. Motion
to vote Senator Hanson, second Senator Sherpa. Roll call vote: 8 Yes, 0 No, 0
Abstentions. Resolution passed.
Senate Information Reports
■
Senator Smith: Asked why Math Lab 1 was dissolved. Stated that he was
involved in Math Lab 1 and was excluded from Math Lab 2 and wanted to know why.
Discussion ensued. Senator Smith stated for the record that he had volunteered
for Math Lab 1 and wanted to be on the committee.
■ Senator
Ojeda asked if she could be involved in the Finance Committee. Was told that
she could come to the meetings, and could be the first alternate for the
committee.
Audience Time
■ Senator
Rawson congratulated Senator Sherpa on a job well done for the International
Dinner. Wanted her to pass that on to the rest of the International Club.
■ Brandon
Lytle reported that the Outdoor Adventures Program has been getting a lot of
press lately. There was a press release and article in the paper and KLEW did a
piece on the program as well.
■ Jimmie
O’Harra wanted to say thank you to the Senators, President Racich and Senator
Smith for the non-curricular line item because it makes a big difference to
some clubs on campus. Senator Bybee advised that it hasn’t been officially
added yet.
■ Office
Door: Senator Bybee advised that the door has been left open at night. Reminded
everyone why the door needs to be closed whenever there is no one in the
office. Discussion ensued.
■ Senator
Sherpa reminded the Senate that everyone is welcome to the Diversity meetings.
■ President
Racich asked if Ernie had any idea when the next SUB board meeting was going to
be. Ernie advised that they are trying to get two more faculty people to serve.
■ Senator
Smith reminded of Clubs and Orgs meeting Friday at 12:15 in the Silverthorne.
Adjournment
Motion to adjourn Senator
Hanson, second Senator Rawson. Unanimous. Meeting adjourned at 5:55 p.m.
Respectfully Submitted by:
Myndie VanHorn
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Bill 06-S047 Roll Call Vote |
Resolution 06-S009 Roll Call Vote |
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Y |
N |
A |
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Y |
N |
A |
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Bautista |
X |
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Bautista |
X |
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Bybee |
X |
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Bybee |
X |
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Hanson |
X |
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Hanson |
X |
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Mewes |
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X |
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Mewes |
X |
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Ojeda |
X |
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Ojeda |
X |
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Rawson |
X |
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Rawson |
X |
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Riggers |
ES |
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Riggers |
ES |
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Sherpa |
X |
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Sherpa |
X |
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Smith |
X |
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Smith |
X |
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ES= Excused Sick