ASLCSC Senate Meeting Minutes

October 11, 2005

Ninth Senate

 

Call to order

The meeting was called to order at 4:32 p.m.

 

Roll Call

Present: Senators Bybee, Hanson, Johnson, Mewes, Ojeda, Rawson, Riggers, Sherpa, Smith. President Racich, Vice-President Ambriz. Chief Justice Allen, Associate Justice Schuster, Associate Justice Diaz, Media Relations Director Rohde.

Excused Late: Committees Director Brott.

Absent: Senator Ramirez (excused sick), Brandon Lytle (sick)

Audience: Ron Smith, Ernie Williams, Coeur d’Alene Executive Council members and advisors: Diana Whaley, Heather Erikson, Rosa Mettler, Wendy Hunter, Tony Parks, Heidi Wilkins, Rocky Owens. Senate Secretary Myndie VanHorn.

 

Approval of Minutes:

Motion to approve minutes of October 4, 2005, Senator Hanson, second Senator Sherpa. 9 Yes, 0 No, 0 Abstentions.

 

Vice-President of Administrative Services (Administration Communications)

          Ron Smith- The Provost asked him to bring forward a policy that has been proposed in the Faculty Senate on graduation honors and qualifications for honors. Would like student input by the end of the month.

          Ernie Williams- Informed the Senate that Brandon is out sick today. Co-curricular committee meeting Friday at 9 a.m. in SUB 143. There are 9 proposals, he has rating sheets and you can check the proposals online.  Tonight at 6 p.m. LCSC vs. Whitworth Volleyball.

          Brandon Lytle- Out sick.

 

Executive Communications

          President Racich- Welcome to the ASLCSC Coeur d’Alene and advisors. We appreciate your efforts. Warrior Zone has had low attendance compared to the amount of hands that go up during the meeting. She encouraged everyone to come to the Warrior Zone functions.

          Vice-President Ambriz- Welcome Coeur d’Alene

 

Judicial Communications

          Sheldon Allen- Welcome to Coeur d’Alene. Justice Schuster and he have conferred about the policies and procedures. Advised that the ASLCSC and Coeur d’Alene council need to be aware of the Policies and Procedures as well as the Bylaws of this body.

          Ben Schuster- The vote has been made official for the Constitution. Votes from the outreach centers did not reach this body within the time frame that was given. The Constitution has been ratified.

 

Committee Reports

Communications Board- President Racich reported that they met last Friday. Several students who signed up for the Comm Board did not show up, if she does not hear from those members she will be appointing new members to the Comm Board. During the meeting it was decided that Sean McCoy and Pam Laird will be co-editors of The Pathfinder. The Pathfinder presented their budget, everything appeared fine with the budget.

ITPG-13- President Racich offered official thank you’s to: Senators Sherpa, Bybee and Mewes for their efforts on that committee, they did an exemplary job. Appreciate all of the work that they did.

Diversity- Senator Sherpa reported that they met last Wednesday and discussed the plans and goals of the committee. Decided to bring Clubs and Orgs together and work with them. Next meeting will be Wednesday the 19th at 5:30.

Student Affairs- Senator Johnson reported that there was supposed to have been a meeting last week. Senator Johnson and Hanson showed up for the meeting and no one else on the committee showed up. Johnson received an email from Chairperson Crook, apologizing and trying to reschedule.

Clubs and Orgs- Senator Smith advised the Senate that there is a meeting scheduled on the 21st of October at 10:00 a.m. in the Library TCC.

 

Old Business

None.

 

New Business

          Resolution 05-F002: Midterm Grade Notices.  Discussion ensued. Ron Smith advised that it would be a good idea for Faculty Senate representatives take the Resolution to the Faculty Senate. Motion to vote Senator Rawson, second Senator Ojeda. Roll call vote: 9 Yes, 0 No, 0 Abstentions. Resolution passed.

          Senate Bill 05-F021: The Bylaws of the ASLCSC. Motion for friendly amendment by Senator Smith to change line 23 to read “This bill will pass upon a three-quarters (3/4) majority vote of the ASLCSC Senate and the signature of the ASLCSC President. Second Senator Bybee. 9 Yes, 0 No, 0 Abstentions.

Question from Senator Bybee, “Are we able to make friendly amendments to the Bylaws?” Ruling from Chief Justice Allen “Yes.” Motion for friendly amendment Senator Bybee, Page 36 under administration section 1.130 would like to strike “past.” President Racich defined the usage of “past” and the motion was withdrawn.

Motion for friendly amendment Senator Bybee, Page 24, 3.251 strike “of” Second Senator Hanson. 9 Yes, 0 No, 0 Abstentions.

Motion for friendly amendment Senator Smith. Page 34, 2.320, would like to add section on “the ASLCSC Secretary.” Second Senator Bybee. 9 Yes, 0 No, 0 Abstentions.

Discussion, Senator Smith has an issue with the stipends in the Bylaws. Informed the Senate that he has an issue with voting himself a “raise.” He agrees that there needs to be a stipend increase but doesn’t feel comfortable with voting himself a raise. Senator Hanson raised the point that last year they tried to have the Constitution changed but were unable to do so because the advertisement was not ran in The Pathfinder. According to Hanson the stipend issue would have been taken care of last year. Senator Riggers inquired into the grievance section. Was advised by Senator Johnson that this section is a “work-in-progress” and will be inserted into the Bylaws later.

Senator Smith, page 10, Definition of a Resolution, 2.200. The ASLCSC President has been added to that. The definition of a Resolution is that it is by the Legislative Branch and he didn’t see why the President should be part of that. Because a Resolution is the will of the Senate and a Resolution is not binding, it should not have to have the Presidents signature on it. Feels that this would defeat the purpose of the Resolution. Senator Rawson informed that a Resolution does fall under legislation and all legislation does have to be signed by the President to make it official. Discussion ensued.   

Motion to vote on Bylaws as amended, Senator Hanson, second Senator Mewes. Roll call vote:  8 Yes, 1 No Senator Smith, 0 Abstentions. Bill passed. Bill was signed by Senate Majority Leader Johnson and President Racich.

 

Senate Information Reports

          Chief Justice Sheldon Allen- Since Bill 05-F021 was passed there are some issues that need to be addressed. Allen informed the Senate and the Coeur d’Alene Executive Council that according to State Board of Education guidelines and the Senate Bylaws there is only one Student Government allowed per campus.

          Diana Whaley- Thank you to each of you for your time today. Informed the Senate that their group had a very productive day on the campus and look forward to visiting again in the spring. She wanted the Senate to know that they have a very dedicated group that are willing to follow the rules and work with the Senate. Want to avoid a rift like happened last year. One issue that has come up is the possibility of giving the Committee credit for the time they put in. The committee does not want to separate themselves from this body but she wanted the Senate to be aware that there are different needs for the Coeur d’Alene students. The committee is having some “growing pains” and having a hard time understanding what the expectations are. Are trying to put together policies and procedures and feel that they are “told” what to do rather than having things up for discussion. Wanted the Senate to know they are not seeking independence and “autonomy” is not exactly what they are looking for, more like “empowerment.”

Key points of Discussion with Coeur d’Alene:

à     Heather Erikson- “If we were able to make our own decisions, some of them very small, it would free up a lot of your time in order to focus on your students here in Lewiston.  Whereas we would be representing our students in Coeur d’Alene.” The campuses have very different needs. The committee is trying to follow the rules and they don’t want to separate from this group but they need some kind of focus to what they are trying to do. (Someone else spoke up from the committee, not sure who) with the suggestion that maybe there could be some kind of representation in the ASLCSC Senate from Coeur d’Alene.

à   Rocky Owens- Last year there was this great divide but it came together again. The first year that they functioned as a student government they had no idea what they were doing. This is the 6th year that they are doing this, and last year they got behind the classification of Executive Committee. This year there has been great communication between the two groups but he thinks the group is struggling to define how they function as an Executive Committee. On one hand they are trying to function as an Executive Committee and on the other hand they are trying to represent the unique needs of the Center. An ongoing issue is going to be is “how do we represent the ever-growing student body of the Coeur d’Alene Center, because as the President said (Dene Thomas) it could well be down the road that Coeur d’Alene will be a campus.”

à   President Racich- informed the group that Coeur d’Alene is now an Executive Council. Chairperson Diana Whaley is an Executive Cabinet member. That was done to empower the students of Coeur d’Alene and is something that did not exist until a few moments ago. Wanted the Coeur d’Alene people to know they have come very far just this year. Asked the question “what are we doing to stifle you?” Response from Diana- “it seems that every time we take a step to move forward and create a solid student government or organization we do it wrong, and that gets frustrating.”

à     Discussed how the Council can make a stand about issues. Senator Bybee informed the Council that they can write a bill or resolution and submit it to the Senate for sponsorship.

à     Talked about having a spot on the agenda for Coeur d’Alene communications.

à     Coeur d’Alene Council post their minutes on their website at http://www.lcsc.edu/cda/aslcsc.htm.

à     Stipends or credits are being looked into for the Coeur d’Alene people by Ernie Williams.

à     Coeur d’Alene people were advised to pay close attention to the Bylaws so they can become familiarized with what they can do and realize the strength that they have.

à     Possibility of a voting station being put up in Coeur d’Alene for elections.

à     Discussed opening up a spot on the Senate for a Coeur d’Alene student to run for Senate to sit in a legislative position.

à     There was discussion in regards to a Coeur d’Alene Senator sitting on the Executive Council. It was decided that would be a possibility.

à     Justice Schuster brought up voting and asked if there were any suggestions to getting more votes at the outreach centers. One suggestion that was made was that there should be more time given to get the word out and get the votes in. Coeur d’Alene members stated that it is hard to get the word out because a great deal of the students only have one class a week. There was also discussion about whether a “received stamp” from the office that deals with the absentee ballots would be sufficient or if it had to be the mail postmark. Justice Schuster advised that he would check into that. Online voting was discussed and the possibility of putting voting on WarriorWeb. Coeur d’Alene members advised that their administrative assistant was able to send out an email to all Coeur d’Alene students to let them know there were absentee ballots in the office and they did have two people come in to vote. Reminder from Senator Bybee that according to the Bylaws the votes have to be secret and the votes would have to be scrambled (encrypted) similar to how the SRI’s are done.

à     New email address for Coeur d’Alene cdastudents@lcsc.edu

à     Senator Bybee- drew attention to page 33 of the Bylaws “Eligibility for credits.” Outlining the eligibility requirements for credits for student government members. 

           

 

Audience Time

          Reminder to show up for Warrior Zone.  

          Senator Ojeda- concerns about what is going on with Sodexho. Senator Smith requested that Dale Askew (for Sodexho) and Tate Smith (for the Radio Club) be asked to the next Roundtable meeting.

 

Adjournment

Motion to adjourn Senator Riggers, second Senator Ojeda. Unanimous. Meeting adjourned at 5:50 p.m.

 

Respectfully Submitted by: Myndie VanHorn

 

Resolution 05-F002 Roll Call Vote

Bill 05-F021 Roll Call Vote

 

N

A

 

N

A

Bybee

X

 

 

Bybee

X

 

 

Hanson

X

 

 

Hanson

X

 

 

Johnson

X

 

 

Johnson

X

 

 

Mewes

X

 

 

Mewes

X

 

 

Ojeda

X

 

 

Ojeda

X

 

 

Ramirez

ES

 

 

Ramirez

ES

 

 

Rawson

X

 

 

Rawson

X

 

 

Riggers

X

 

 

Riggers

X

 

 

Sherpa

X

 

 

Sherpa

X

 

 

Smith

X

 

 

Smith

 

X

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

ES= Excused Sick