March 17th, 2010 Meeting

Agenda can be found here. Do we have quorum, it appears so but just barely. Hopefully we're not making too many controversial decisions.

Announcements
There will be a debate between County Board candidates next Monday at 7:00 PM. Please attend.

Open Forum
Colin thinks that amendments shouldn't be debated outside the meeting and voting decisions should be made in the meeting. (Editor's note: we should be knowledgeable but open to debate)

Jonah Zinn and Peter Lorenz are talking about getting a Textbook committee set up. Hoping for student council members to petition faculty and professors.

Brandon Williams is discussing the Tenant Support Services.

Carl Fergus talks about the removal of Union South from the naming list.

Agenda
Beemsterboer adds something to the agenda. Erik will probably be mad I didn't know that there wasn't a vote and should have questioned this. Maybe it's not such a big deal because of the legislative reading bylaw that requires student council to read legislation into the record before voting.

Chair Reports
Lots of stuff happening. Chair Zinn talks about Academic Affair issues (working with RSOs and textbook issues)l Steve Olikara discusses the Diversity Dialogue for student leaders tomorrow; Adam Johnson wrote up a comprehensive report from his committee on his trip to D.C., the debate on Monday, and the ARLC; Matt Beemsterboer is doing operations grants and has a few large books; Melissa Hanley is talking about the removal of members from Shared Gov. committees, she's encouraging people to have conversations about getting better information out on referendum; and Tyler Junger included his report in the student council packet, he thinks we shouldn't put W.A.S.T.E. on the ballot and thinks we should remove Union South (Editor's note: Tyler claims that this is because it's a terrible name and no one supported it but Alumni at the meeting, but I'm super confused because it will go to THE STUDENT VOTE), and we're going into closed session around 11:30. Wow there's something interesting going on here. Melissa and Tyler are debating about the process of selecting the names.


And Chair Junger says:

"I would prefer to not have it on the ballot for my own reasons; I think it's a bad name..."

Reading Legislation
Brandon Williams is discussing the tying of SSFC stipends to tuition. Chair Williams is discussing the SSFC intern legislation. Jonah Zinn is discussing legislation for creating a Textbook Affordability Committee Shared Governance Standing Committee.

Agenda legislation to move chair reports up to the front, Kurt says it was switched to the way it is now back a few years, and Eric Heywood believes that since we didn't legislate any penalty for not writing the chair reports that we shouldn't move it up to the front. (Editor's note: I can't agree more, Eric, why didn't I meet you earlier)?


Matt is introducing event grants including $8,000 for Move If You Want It and $20,232 for Breakin' The Law.

Old Business
Union Naming is on the docket. We're moving into debate. Carl Fergus moves to add Varsity Union, Randall Union, and Discovery Union to the ballot. I'm confused as to why he just doesn't leave it as it is if he wants Union South to be on the ballot but he says he will address it in a future amendment. Amendment fails. Motion passes to have ALL FOUR NAMES on the ballot.


Allocable Segregated Fee Sweep Negotiation legislation is being debated. I want it amended so that we speak with legal counsel to see if there was a violation. Adam Johnson motions to reword so that it says "explore the possibility of seeking free legal counsel". I motion to reword to "ASM Student Council discusses with legal counsel the legality of the Auxiliary Fund Transfer".


This passes. All remaining language was stricken.


Jonah makes a "supercilious" amendment that would say "students don't support the raid on segregated fees". (Editor's note: a perfectly reasonable bit of language that Brandon Williams feels isn't necessary). It fails.

Seat Allocation is being discussed. Matt Beemsterboer says:

"Graduate students don't care what goes on at the undergraduate level..."

Or in other words, we can't fill the graduate students so we shouldn't allocate to them despite the allocation process. Kurt thinks the Student Council should apportion the seats and not the Student Judiciary.

Closed session.