[In these minutes: 1. Duluth Trip, 2. Election Results, 3. Discussion regarding Minnesota Higher Education Services Office, 4. U-Pass Resolution 5. ABTS Meetings 6, GPT, 7. Student Representation on Committees, 8. Freshmen Council, 9. Students knowing their senator, 10. April 20 Student Senate Docket]

STUDENT SENATE CONSULTATIVE COMMITTEE (SSCC) MINUTES

APRIL 6, 2000

[These minutes reflect discussion and debate at a committee of the University of Minnesota Senate or Twin Cities Campus Assembly; none of the comments, conclusions, or actions reported in these minutes represent the views of, nor are they binding on, the Senate or Assembly, the Administration, or the Board of Regents.]

PRESENT: Jason Reed (chair), Sabeen Altaf, Meggan Ellingboe, Reid LeBeau, Kevin Poppel, Chaz Rice, Tiffany Stedman, Aaron Street, Mark Uszenski.

REGRETS: Jed Ipsen,

GUESTS: Bob Poch, Steph Polly.

1. APPROVAL OF THE MINUTES

The March 2, 2000 minutes were approved.

2. REPORTS

CHAIR
Jason Reed reported that Wyatt Johnson, a COAFES senator, has accepted the student position on the Student One-Stop Advisory Committee.

STUDENT SENATE CHAIR
No report

CROOKSTON
Kevin Poppel said that student evaluations on the web were a pilot project for three classes Fall Semester. While the web evaluations worked well for students, faculty were hesitant. If this option is used for all classes, revisions will most likely need to be made.

DULUTH
Mark Uszenski reported that the UMDSA elections have been postponed until April 25 - 27 because of restructuring in UMDSA. Presently, there are 11 executive positions. Following the restructuring, there will be a President and three Vice Presidents. The nine University senators and 12 campus senators will remain. Applications for all these positions will be available next Monday.

April 29 - 30 will be a retreat for all UMDSA members at the residence/golf course of Mark Uszenski's family. It will be the last event for all outgoing members.

MORRIS
No report

MSA
Aaron Street reported that MSA met last week, but adjourned before a vote could be taken on the U-Pass resolution. New members will have a meeting in two weeks to elect the 2000-01 officers.

GAPSA
Sabeen Altaf reported that GAPSA is sending a representative to the founding meeting of the Workers' Rights Consortium (WRC) tomorrow. This is also Graduate and Professional Student Appreciation Week on campus. At a recent GAPSA meeting, President Yudof attended and discussed the capital bonding request, graduate assistant compensation, and the student fees decision.

3. FINALIZE DULUTH TRIP

Mark Uszenski said that April 27 was the planned date for SSCC to visit Duluth. It was decided that the vehicle would leave from Northrop at 2 p.m., the UMDSA meeting would take place at 6 p.m., and SSCC members would return by midnight. It was decided that an e-mail would be sent to inquire how many members could attend.

4. ELECTION RESULTS

MSA - Matt Clark and Rachel Boeke were elected President and Vice President. Student senators for most colleges were also elected. SSCC elections will take place on April 18.

GAPSA - Ben Solomon and Philip Cole were re-elected President and Vice President. Sabeen Altaf and Paul Enever were elected as SSCC members.

Morris - Elections will be held later in the month for all positions.

Crookston - Shane Roers was elected President and Lori Lucken was elected Vice President. Campus senator positions and the SSCC position will be decided later in the month.

Duluth - Elections will be held between April 25 - 27.

5. MINNESOTA HIGHER EDUCATION SERVICES OFFICE

Bob Poch, Director of the Minnesota Higher Education Services Office (HESO) distributed a packet to the committee including the mission statement. He then detailed what HESO does for Minnesota, which includes getting students, including lower income and first generation students, to the door of college, providing an accurate cost analysis for college since parents tend to overestimate the amount, and providing information on available aid.

Some HESO programs that Bob Poch detailed included:

• Minnesota College Savings Plan which will start in one month to let parents start college savings account with as little as $15 per month and have the state match up to $300 per year. Minnesota will be the only state with a matching program.
  
• Low-interest (SELF) loans which are offered at rates lower than those at banks
  
• Licensing and registering of private colleges in Minnesota. For out-of-state colleges, especially internet education providers, an aggressive ad campaign is being planned to protect and warn Minnesota residents
  
• A web site is being developed that will allow people to view enrollment reports from colleges
  
• Network being worked on to connect all state libraries to one system so residents can browse catalogs from across the state

Q: Who is the author of the bill?

A: Gene Pelowski from Winona is the author, and he also authored the bill five years ago to replace the state coordinating board. Peggy Lepik, Len Carlson, and Marty Seifert have also added their names.

Q: Was the bill introduced because of partisan lines or regarding the decoupling of financial aid?

A: The main reason seems to be that everyone has a different idea of how financial should be administered.

Q: If HESO were abolished, which agencies would receive additional duties?

A: Parts would be distributed to two main agencies: Children, Family, and Learning and Higher Education System. If this happened, I would worry that financial aid would become more institutionally focused rather than student focused and that students would lose their advocate.

Q: In 1995, the central higher education board was restructured into the Council. Why did this happen?

A: While this was a year before I joined HESO, the sentiment was that overall state-wide restructuring was needed and that the Twin Cites were insensitive to the needs of out-state areas.

Q: What is HESO's budget?

A: Of the total budget, 99% is flowthrough money and only $2.5 million is retained.

Q: Does HESO handle PSEO students?

A: No since they are included under the Children, Family, and Learning agency.

6. U-PASS RESOLUTION

Jason Reed stated that the President's Executive Committee will be meeting today to make a decision regarding participation in the program. Yesterday, the Student Affairs Committee approved a resolution, which was distributed to members, which stated that the committee approved the concept of this program.

SSCC made a motion to approve the same resolution, but just have it for information at the April 20 University Senate meeting. The motion was approved.

7. ABTS MEETINGS

Jason Reed reported that following the ABTS meeting in Michigan and the Washington D.C. lobbying trip, representatives from MSA, SSCC, and SLC met to discuss future trips. Since the ABTS meeting are not geared towards graduate students, it was decided that two spots would be available for members of MSA, SSCC, and SLC only. In regards to funding, MSA would need to find its own funding for the campus trips since they do not involve lobbying.

Aaron Street questioned whether the two spots previously designated for GAPSA could be opened to the Twin Cities undergraduate Student Reps to Regents. He did note that funding would need to be found if these students were to attend.

8. NEXT STEP FOR THE GPT

Jason Reed said that he was prepared to wait for a decision from the President regarding the resolution that was forwarded to him. If SSCC needs to rely on CLA's dean to make a decision, he will likely pass that back to the Associate Dean or the Committee on Second Language Education. He then asked if members had any other ideas for how to proceed.

The committee made the following suggestions:

• Topic should be worked on by SSCC throughout the entire next year
  
• Another opinion piece could be written for the Minnesota Daily
  
• An information campaign needs to be organized to make all CLA students aware of the issue
  
• There is student support for this effort
  
• Collaboration with MSA might be needed
  
• Planning should take place over the summer

Jason Reed informed the SSCC of student appointments on the following committees:

Advisory Committee on Athletics - Jenny Carrier and Meggan Ellingboe

Bookstore Advisory Committee - Adam Lyche, Peter Davich, and Bryan Donaldson

As for the new Diversity Committee being discussed, there are only four student positions, which is not enough to represent all students of diversity on four campuses. He then addressed the issue of a Student Diversity Committee to fill this need and asked what other campuses had.

Chaz Rice said that Morris has a Minority Experience Committee, but it mainly addresses classes that deal with minority issues. There is no actual diversity committee, or discuss to form one.

Kevin Poppel reported that Crookston also does not have a committee, but this does not seem to be an issue for campus or for CSA.

The structure for the proposed Diversity Committee was explained, including the extra students who can participate through the various subcommittees being proposed.

The committee decided to see how the full Diversity Committee works, and have the option to recommend a student-focused committee next year.

10. FRESHMEN COUNCIL

The committee made the following comments regarding a Freshmen Council:

• Morris has one, but that its main function is to raise freshmen scholarship funds
  
• Some campuses have freshmen class presidents, which gives this person a position on campus student organizations
  
• Process seems to work better on a campus basis
  
• Hard to relate freshmen council to the Senate
  
• For the Twin Cities, this might seem redundant to Resident Hall Advisory Boards
  
• MSA seems a more logical place for freshmen involvement

A: This would be a possibility since it would only require a constitutional change.

11. DISCUSS HOW STUDENTS CAN KNOW WHO THEIR SENATORS ARE

Jason Reed said that he would like to be able to inform students of who their senator is, and for bigger colleges, assign students to a senator. One way to do this is by advisors distributing this information to their advisees each year. He then asked the committee for any ideas or general comments:

The committee made the following suggestions:

• Presentations should be made at orientation
  
• Information can not just be included in a packet or students will never read it
  
• E-mail and newsletters could also be used to reach students
  
• Information could also be included on MSA and other campus groups
  
• If students are given too much information, they will not remember any of it; therefore one name is better
  
• Program should be directed towards all campuses

A: They would have a person to contact on campus if they had problems, questions, or concerns. It would also make more people aware of the process.

Q: Could a survey be conducted to see how many students know about the Senate?

A: There is no need for a survey since the results are that most do not. Also, most surveys are used by students to discuss what they do not like about campus or student government.

12. FINALIZE AND APPROVE APRIL 20 STUDENT SENATE DOCKET

The docket was changed to add a discussion with President Yudof and to remove all the college reports and leave just the campus and student organization reports. The docket was then approved as amended.

The committee then discussed potential candidates for the 2000-01 Vice Chair of the Student Senate.

13. OTHER BUSINESS

Jason Reed distributed a flyer regarding an information session on sweatshops at the University since the University has conditionally joined the WRC. With no further business, he thanked all members for attending and adjourned the meeting.

Becky Hippert
University Senate