Student Senate Minutes

I. General meeting of the Student Senate was called to order by Speaker Mozaffar at 6:00 PM.
	A. Absent from the meeting were members:
	B. Also attending the meeting was:
II. Preliminary Items
	A. Roll Call
	B. Corrections/Approval of the minutes
	C. Gallery introductions/business
	D. Guests of Honor
	E. Membership Issues
	F. Appointments/Administration of the Oath
		- Esfeld - Tina Schutter as Student Rep to the Staff Council. Closed 			Session. Approved.
	G. Changes/Approval of the agenda
III. Executive Reports
	A. Secretary
	B. Treasurer
	C. President
IV. Auxiliary Reports
	A. Faculty Advisor
	B. Staff Advisor
	C. BOG
	D. Speaker
V. Committee Reports
	A. Academic Affairs
	B. External Affairs Chairwoman
	C. Student Affairs
		i. Campus Diversity
		ii. Campus Environment
	D. Technology
	E. Other Reports
		i. Historian
		ii. Communications Director
		iii. Webmaster
		iv. Ethics Justice
		v. Recruitment
		vi. Legislative Director
		vii. Constitutional Review
VI. Old Business
VII. Money Motions
	A. Mozaffar - Moves $30 to be spent on election publicity to be spent no later 	than September 23, 2008.
		- Mozaffar - Will only print posters to advertise. The rest will be all 			electronic.
		- Approved. 
VIII. First Readings
	A. Hayes - Moves first reading of the Student Initiated Courses (SIC) Resolution
		- Hayes - Wants to review this and pass it in a timely manner. Looked for a 		passage in Arete that supported SIC. Will be adding more info to it as it is 			found. Comments and suggestions.
		- Russell - Grammatical issues.
	
IX. Discussion Items
	A. Hogan - Moves discussion time on constitutional revisions.
		- Hogan - 1. Should FAC operate independently?
		- Hayes - Motions to suspend standing rules to allow people to speak more 		than twice. Passed.
		- Givogue - Why do we have control over FAC? 
		- Hogan - FAC is an independent council of Senate. Senate was tired of 			having people/groups coming before the body to ask for funding. FAC was 		created to handle those groups but we maintained a check on their funding. 
		- Wiley - What was the budget review committee’s recommendation?
		- Hayes - Surveyed the students and found that the majority of students 			didn’t know what FAC was. Those that did, decided Senate needed more 
		oversight over the FAC.
		- Flanagan - Need more oversight with our new VP position. We should 			have a full roster of FAC members and more contact with the Chair.
		- Russell - Do they need the control? Or do we want to just keep it?
		- Hayes - We should keep the oversight we do have. The major problem 			with FAC is communication. 
		- Flanagan - We should have a presence during their selection and hearing 			process so Senate has more insight into the process.
		- Russell - Should the rep have a say in the vote?
		- Flanagan - They should be able to comment but not vote.
		- Crump - If we relinquish oversight now, we might regret it later on. 			Having a nonbiased external oversight would not be intimidating. It would 		be beneficial if their habits ever get out of hand.
		- Allan - Does not believe we should have control over their affairs. Our 			funding comes from a different place than theirs. If they mess up they can 			be held accountable for their own actions. It puts additional unnecessary 			work on the body when they already have things under control.
		- Givogue - We used to have oversight over SAB and let it go. No one has 			oversight over us. 
		- Wiley - We don’t have oversight because student’s can request a refund. 			If we don’t oversee FAC, should they offer a refund to students?
		- Flanagan - Has anyone been on the FAC selection committee? No. 
		- Givogue - Has no problem keeping oversight if it is necessary.
		- Hogan - 2. Does the purpose or charge of the SOCC need to be changed?
		- Allan - What does the acronym stand for? Student Organization Center 			Council.
		- Hayes - We discussed their mission statement last year because we had 			issues as to whether political issues fell under the SOCC. They should 			focus primarily on service or things that benefit the Truman community as 			a whole.
		- Esfeld - Where is the charge of the SOCC found?
		- Hogan - The constitution just states that we are allowed to having 			standing councils.
		- Bates - Dr. Alberts has a copy of the SOCC constitution. Dean Gilchrist 			explained that the SOC was created to help focus on diversity issues. As 			students’ interests have changed, so has its purpose.
		- Hayes - The mission should be a topic for another day. We should 			continue to have the same amount of oversight we do now. We should 			look at their constitution eventually.
		- Hladky - There is a clause in the constitution that states we can have 			independent councils but does not list which ones exist?
		- Hogan - In the standing rules, there are small clauses scattered 				throughout that mention them. Does not think they are enumerated 				anywhere.
		- Crump - Maybe we could make a separate clause to make it less 				ambiguous. 
		- Givogue - Take out all mention of FAC, SOC from the constitution and 			just leave it as independent councils and then hold reviews of their 				constitutions.
		- Russell - Moves to limit discussion to 10 mins per topic. Passes.
		- Flanagan - Thinks SOC should chose their own chair. We need more 			communication.
		- Esagnbedo - Should talk to the FAC/SOC and ask their opinion.
		- Hogan - 3. How can the position of Ethics Justice be changed to 				encourage people to apply?
		- Hayes - Position should be absorbed/spread across several current 			positions. Feels the speaker could do their duties because both are 				supposed to remain impartial.
		- Russell - It is difficult to fill the position. We should utilize what we 			have.
		- Allan - Would it be a lot more work for the speaker?
		- Mozaffar - As long as they know ahead of time that extra work is 				involved. The position is only necessary twice a year and is not that time 			consuming.
		- Hayes - This would be a natural addition to the speaker’s role.
		- Hogan - 4. What should be the role of the legislative director? Should the 		position be granted more autonomy? Does it need it’s own committee?
		- Hayes - Feels the LD should have their own committee. A lot of people 			would be interested on working on a LD committee. They could do a lot 			more that way.	
		- Hogan - If they have their own committee, what would Senate charge 			them with?
		- Wickell - Feels like a committee is a good idea because it would allow 			them to get more involved in local affairs. (ie: city council meeting 			attendance)
		- Schutter - EA Chair and LD should stay well connected. They should 			stay with state items and have EA take care of local business.
		- Flanagan - Does not feel EA and LD have enough events to need a 			committee.
		- Crump - Agrees that both EA and LD need to cooperate. There need to 			be concrete lines defining which committee deals with what issues.
		- 
X. Other New Business
XI. Announcements

Respectfully submitted by Secretary Piel on