The fourth meeting of the Student Senate for 2003-04 was convened in 25 Mondale Hall, Minneapolis campus, on Thursday, February 26, 2004, at 11:36 a.m. Coordinate campuses were linked by telephone. Checking or signing the roll as present were 40 voting student members. Chair Dan Weiske presided.

Dan Weiske announced that the President will be attending the March 25 Student Senate meeting. Coordinate campus senators will be invited to attend this meeting in the Twin Cities. More information will be sent via email prior to that meeting.

MOTION:

To approve the Student Senate minutes, which are available on the Web at the following URLs. A simple majority is required for approval.

http://www1.umn.edu/usenate/ssen/031204stu.html

DISCUSSION:

With no discussion, a vote was taken and the minutes were approved.

Dan Weiske, Student Senate Chair, said that he had no information to report that was not contained in other agenda items.

Crookston – Cheryl Isder reported that plans are being made for the campus showdown, which is a series of events that pit faculty and staff against students. CSA had good success at Lobby Day. Other events being planned are a commuter student week and advisor week. A club is also having a grand opening for a coffee shop in town. Lastly, Bede Hall is in the process of being demolished.

Duluth – Sean Bell said that UMDSA defeated a recent city council ordinance on rental housing. Following this victory for campus, UMDSA hopes to be more involved with the city council.

Morris – Sara Kloek stated that MCSA is working on allocation of the student technology fee and Lobby Day.

Graduate and Professional Student Association – Kris Houlton stated that GAPSA has been discussing the proposed stadium.

Minnesota Student Association – Tom Zearley said that MSA did well at Lobby Day with 140 students present, twice as many as last year. A housing ordinance in St. Paul was also recently defeated. MSA is working on other ways to improve housing conditions.

Adam VanWagner, Chair of the Student Affairs Committee, stated that the committee has proposed changing its charge to institute a periodic review of the Student Conduct Code.

The committee has also been considering safe and affordable housing. A questionnaire was received from each of the campuses with information about campus housing, and the committee will be meeting with Laurie Scheich, Twin Cities Housing and Residential Life Director, at its next meeting.

A last item for the committee is a Student Services Fee Subcommittee which will be meeting this spring to review reports from each campus and looks at concerns and issues with the process, but not the actual fee allocations.

In closing, Adam VanWagner noted that a committee chair for next year is needed as he will be graduating in May. If any senators are interested, he asked that they attend a future meeting and then submit a letter stating their interest.

Michael Dean, Grassroots Coordinator from University Relations, said that he works with the Legislative Network, which is a coalition of students, alumni, faculty, staff, and community supporters who want to advocate on behalf of the University.

This year’s capitol request theme is ‘taking care of what we have’ and preserving the existing buildings. Many of renovations being proposed are for classroom space and improving technology, health, and safety. Students need to support this request since it is important to the long-term success of the University.

Lobby Day, the kick-off for activities, was just held, but there are many future events planned to continue the momentum. One ongoing event is calling nights to alumni and students, asking for their support of the request and for them to contact their legislators. Momentum this year can be used during next year’s request, when the state will be facing another deficit.

A second event being planned is Thursdays at the capitol. The goal is to have a sustained presence at the capitol throughout the session by bringing groups of faculty, alumni, and students to the capitol each Thursday to sit in on meetings and testify if necessary.

As student leaders, senators should encourage other students to get involved. One way to do this is by joining the Legislative Network at: http://www.supporttheu.umn.edu. The network sends out periodic capitol updates as well as action alerts when effort is needed. Another way to get involved is through the caucus process. Legislators tend to listen to people who attend the caucuses because they have power in the election process. A last way to get involved is to introduce a resolution at a caucus meeting, supporting the University.

Q: What has been the student turn-out at the Thursday capitol meetings?

A: Collegiate units have been sponsoring time to travel to the capitol, with the first one taking place today. There is only one student attending today’s event. Sign-up for this event can be done on the web. This body could also sponsor a separate lobbying effort at the capitol.

A senator said that Morris has scheduled a second lobby day for April 15.

Q: Last year there was no emphasis placed on working with faculty during lobbying. How might the Legislative Network accomplish this?

A: Traditionally, the network worked with each group individually. Since September, he has tried to broaden the focus and have groups work together. One example was this year’s Lobby Day, where alumni, faculty, and staff were also asked to attend. More emphasis will be placed on this event with all groups next year. Another way to work together is through the grassroots committee. He has asked each campus to appoint a member to the committee, which works to coordinate activities between groups. Only GAPSA has participated in this process. New student groups are also being formed to work on these issues.

Q: What approaches were most effective in recent efforts to lobby city councils?

A: At Duluth, reaching out to city councilmen and a mass propaganda effort were the most important. In St. Paul, testifying, contacting councilmen, and providing student input were effective.

A senator noted that he was concerned about the number of groups that were lobbying at the capitol on Lobby Day. He asked that Lobby Day be more organized and had students come in larger numbers on a smaller number of trips.

Dan Weiske introduced Shelly Nelson, Late-night Programming Director with the Twin Cities Student Unions; Ceci Martin, President of Minnesota Programs and Activities Council (MPAC); and Erik Stromstead, Late-night Programming Director for Duluth, to speak on this issue. He asked the Twin Cities speakers to address the issue first.

Shelly Nelson distributed a handout that would update students on where the Twin Cities campus is in its late-night programming plan and what the vision is for the future. She noted that discussions started a few years ago, but the efforts became more forceful last October when a group of staff and students attended a conference at Penn State, which has comprehensive programming each Friday and Saturday night.

Last night programming will occur, starting in fall, each Friday and Saturday from 10 pm-2 am, with the goal of providing diverse programming for a diverse student body. These programs will be offered as no-cost or low-cost options that provide a sense of community on campus while keeping students safe through the use of shuttles and free parking. This program will also be a student development and learning opportunity as students will be utilized as coordinators and planners.

Ceci Martin said that several pilots were done last semester, and it was enjoyable to see students relaxing and getting to know other students in an informal environment. Three previews are also being planned for this semester, with events ranging from films, games, crafts, dances, karaoke, musical acts, and hypnotists. The goal is to involve different departments from the University and showcase student organizations.

Shelly Nelson said that there are several opportunities for late night involvement, ranging from a student coordinator to joining the planning committee. Interested students should apply for these positions.

Q: How will the planning committee work?

A: Some focus group sessions will be held this semester with different student populations to ask what programs students would like offered, challenges to this program, and if this is something that students want. There have been rumors that students are excited about these events, but the focus groups should give a better picture. Planning for fall will begin after spring break.

Q: How is this programming being funded?

A: Start-up funds were allocated from central administration and MPAC funding has been reallocated for recurring costs.

Erik Stromstead, Late-night Programming Director for Duluth, then said that Duluth started its programming in 2002, but its events take place during the week, Tuesday through Thursday nights, from 5 pm-1 am. The same program is used each week, with Tuesday nights being a coffee house feel with an open microphones, bingo, acoustic artists. Wednesday night is used for bands and concerts. Thursday night is game night at the Student Center, with billiards and Xbox.

This is the fourth semester that programming is being offered and attendance is growing. It was a slow process to get students to come at first, until they could rely on programming being offered on a set schedule. Consistency is the key, since attendance at random events can be much lower. At open microphone night last fall, there were over 500 students in attendance. Free food was also offered last year, which helped attendance, but food is not available this year due to construction of the food service area.

Q: Does Duluth piggyback events to increase attendance?

A: This has been done only a few times, but it has not worked well since students get tired after a few hours and do not want to be in the student center for more than a few hours.

Q: Is there a difference in attendance between weekday and weekend events?

A: Most students leave campus on the weekends, or do not come to the student center. Weekdays work much better since students are on campus for classes and can just walk in.

Q: Are their any late night programming efforts at Morris or Crookston?

A: Crookston plans weekday events while Morris relies on student organizations to handle programming of events.

Q: What have been the biggest draws for students at Duluth?

A: Students come when they know the bands that are playing or who is performing at open microphone nights. Variety and food also help to draw students.

Dan Weiske said that the proposals will be discussed later at the University Senate meeting, but this item was put on the Student Senate agenda in case students have items that they want to discuss first. There are several options being proposed for the Senate numbers, which he highlighted; the faulty discussed these options a few weeks ago but did not have strong feelings about any proposal.

A senator then questioned why unionized employees are not being included in the proposals. She has read several collective bargaining agreements, and there does not appear to be any exclusions for participating in the University Senate. She has also spoken to several unionized employees, and they want to be involved since there are many Senate issues that are not covered by collective bargaining agreements. She does not feel that this is a closed issue and that one group should not be disenfranchised.

Q: Is there a reason that unionized employees are being excluded?

A: The working group is working in good faith and is not trying to actively exclude anyone, however these employees cannot advocate for themselves since they are not in the Senate.

Q: The proposal shows that academic professional and civil service employees serve on Senate committee. Will faculty and student members be added to academic professional and civil service committees?

A: All committee structures and memberships will remain as is with no faculty or student members being added to academic professional and civil service committees.

A senator noted that there should be parity in terms of committee service and questioned why administrative academic professionals will be voting members of the Senate.

Another senator stated that Senate committee charges may need to be revised to include all groups.

A senator noted that the handout shows CAPA and the Civil Service Committee, as well as their respective subcommittees, which will remain as they are since they will not become committees of the Senate.

Q: Is there was enough student and faculty support to continue spending time on these proposals?

A: The faculty just debated the proposals two weeks ago while students have discussed it all year. The Senate opinion should become clear soon so that action can be taken.

Q: Under the proposals, students will have less than one-fourth of the voting seats. Why were 50 seats given to CAPA and Civil Service?

A: They each asked for 25 seats to have enough diversity across their employee body.

Q: What should working group representatives be advocating for, on behalf of students?

A: The general consensus is more student representation and less CAPA and Civil Service members.

Q: How are Duluth graduate students being represented?

A: All graduate students are registered through the Graduate School, so all graduate students are under the jurisdiction of COGS. Duluth should speak with COGS to gain a representative from that campus.

Charles Stech provided an update from the Alcohol Task Force, noting that they have been discussing different ways to get alcohol on campus. Most emphasis has focused on Duluth and Twin Cities since their members were at each meeting. A discussion with staff from Boynton and Risk Management regarding public safety also took place last week.

Scott LeBlanc then noted that the Teaching Evaluations Subcommittee is discussing the actual questions to be asked of students and he would like feedback from senators.

The meeting was adjourned at 1:10 p.m.