“Where there is no vision, there is no hope” – George Washington Carver
Student Government of Loyola Chicago January 13th, 2015, 4:00 PM McCormick Lounge, Coffey Hall, Lake Shore Campus Senate Minutes
1. Roll Call a. Call to order at 4:00PM 2. Visitors and Guest Speakers a. Sean Anderson, Illinois Board of Higher Education i. Sean: Student board member. Former Loyola student and USGA member. Currently at Roosevelt majoring in business management, senior. Purpose to explain what the board is and explain how Loyola can get involved. The board is the master planning and budget authority for the state. Report to governor about higher education policy. Prominent issue: Common Core and PARCC assessment. Making sure PARCC assessment will occur in high schools starting next year. The IBHE has varying levels of degree of authority, mostly over public institutions but private as well. Meetings about every other month. Much like Allocations, get a list of program approvals. Usually approve en masse. Planning and policy, budget and fiscal affairs. Look at things at a much more macro level. Board members loosely representative of universities, private business owners, etc. Board legally required to have two students on it. I represent traditional students and the other student representative (Tyler Solorio) represents non-traditional students. ii. IBHESAC (Student Advisory Council) – all the student government leaders throughout the state (public/private/community college) get together to make up the student perspective, controls my seat on the board. Student reps appointed by this body. SAC led by student at U of I. SAC legally required advisor to the board. Publishers/writers and universities get together to figure out how to approach the issue of textbook cost – ongoing right now. iii. IBHE-SAC Agenda 1. MAP Grants: asking for more money 2. Pay It Forward – Stafford loans on state level. 3. Shared governance – want to make it more uniform across universities. 4. Illinois ranks 25th for graduation in higher education, lower for underrepresented students. Not doing too well. Confident that the new governor will focus on higher education. Need a rep at SAC from Loyola. Would welcome someone joining our meetings. iv. Questions 1. Sen Torres: Where do you meet? 1. Sean: Hosted at various universities. Next one at ISU. 2. Sen Torossy: How often do you meet? 1. Sean: Tried to meet right before the board meeting itself. Next one at the end of this month and then in March 3. Sen Elhalawany: What kind of work do you bring at the table? 1. Sean: My second full year there. Sometimes, not many people show up and there’s less work to do. Depends on the leadership. Have really good leadership this year. Just getting started, getting to the meat of things for this session. Break it down by committee, reach consensus on agenda for the year and divvy up research. Goal is to put it in the form of a resolution so that SAC passes it legally and I present it at the board meeting.
“Where there is no vision, there is no hope” – George Washington Carver
Student Government of Loyola Chicago January 13th, 2015, 4:00 PM McCormick Lounge, Coffey Hall, Lake Shore Campus Senate Minutes
Resolutions researched, discussed at various campuses. Pass it and show it to the board. 4. Sen D’Onofrio: Any requirements? 1. Sean: That’s up to the university. Nominate someone, appoint someone, however process you want to do that. One person shows up. Fill out a voting form. 5. Sen Bosnich: Is there currently not a Loyola representative? 1. Sean: Not since I last heard. You tell me, have you guys heard about this? i. -Everyone shakes head1. Sean: So, no. 6. VP Fasullo: Would it be possible to have a student who isn’t formally in student government? 1. Sean: On the voting form, your student government president has to sign off that this person is representing Loyola. Whoever you want to pick, as long as it has Flavio’s signature. v. Sean: Took me 3-4 months to get Roosevelt to nominate someone to replace me. DePaul has two people who show up at every meeting, some of my most reliable colleagues on SAC. I spent two and a half years on USGA at Loyola, and I never heard of this, so don’t feel bad if you haven’t. 3. Approval of the Minutes a. Minutes approved. 4. Unfinished Business 5. Committee and Board Reports a. Allocations (Chair Black) i. Working with Brian Houze in SAGA about increasing transparency with what Allocations does. A lot of orgs concerned there might be orgs that might be favored over others, so they wanted to know more about the process. Working on the appeals process as well. Make things more clear and less gray. b. Facilities and Transportation (Chair Torres) i. Committee meetings Mondays at 7PM. ii. Want to finish with student storage. iii. Working with Nick, Transportation Director. He wants us to do more with 8-Ride, they changed their hours again. Doing some sort of social media campaign so more people know about it. c. Spring Elections Board (Chair Lynch) i. Spring Elections Board met for the second time last night. Have the dates (campaigning dates, voting dates). I see KC smiling back there… I’ll send them to you! Budget looking good. Solidified a marketing plan. Will start working on details, implementation on our plans and candidate outreach and recruiting. d. Justice (Chair Bunnage) i. Focusing on Just Leasing project with Facilities. Metropolis. Outreach Employee Committee, looking at relationship with contracts and the union. Aramark up for new union contract this year. Working on small projects relating to broader issues around our school.
“Where there is no vision, there is no hope” – George Washington Carver
Student Government of Loyola Chicago January 13th, 2015, 4:00 PM McCormick Lounge, Coffey Hall, Lake Shore Campus Senate Minutes
e. RCDC (Chair Winn) i. Didn’t do much over break, transitioning. Working on AFAC, Southside Market. Looking into more options (vegan, dietary restrictions). Commuter Appreciation event, working with Tina. f. Safety & Wellness (Chair Santy) i. On-campus smoking –Smokescreen: Clearing the Air on Smoking campus discussion, set in the Den. Rep from Wellness Advocates, admins from Wellness Center, someone from Facilities department. ii. Here For You marketing, newest ads up around campus (pink with iPhone/iPad designs that were designed by Michelle). iii. Gender neutral bathrooms, going to follow up on that. iv. Working with VP Fasullo and Sen Bunnage on peace circle. v. Meeting with FYE on Friday. g. Academic Affairs (Chair Bosnich) i. What’s up everybody, welcome back. Constantine is diligent in searching for Veteran’s office. With Veterans, looking into different options of how to connect better, make sure they know there is a community that supports them. ii. Meeting with department chairs who can use OpenStax. iii. The library launched a new program, Textbook Pilot Program. Textbooks for core subjects that have high enrollment and you are able to check those out for two hours at the library. Link on the Facebook page. iv. Waiting to decide on a meeting time. h. CRC (Chair Kelley) i. Members of CRC did research on specific areas of Articles of Governance that we as a body have agreed need improvement. Sen Cheng looking at CAN and how it fits with our overall governance. Sen McNelis looking at overall structure of our governance. Issue last semester with how many members could be on the election board. Reached out to officials from student governments around the country for their overall feedback. Will focus on consolidating into one mass amendment that will focus on fixing inconsistencies. If anyone is interested in that process, I’ll update you all on meeting times, they are always open. i. Employee Outreach Committee (Sen Bunnage) i. Will elect a new chair. Worker’s breakfast will continue to be organized every other Friday, may be adding more times. Contract work and looking into Just Employment Policy. Looking at how to integrate that more into Loyola. j. Advisor’s Report (Shannon) i. Extended hours for 8-Ride, read through that email. ii. Campus Safety Forum on Thursday, January 29, at 7 p.m. in The Den at the Damen Student Center. The forum is designed to bring together Loyola students, faculty, and staff to discuss safety efforts and is being conducted by the Chicago Police Department (24th District) and Loyola's Department of Campus Safety. Representatives will be present to share safety tips and listen to your concerns. iii. Reminder to keep focusing on academics this semester.
“Where there is no vision, there is no hope” – George Washington Carver
Student Government of Loyola Chicago January 13th, 2015, 4:00 PM McCormick Lounge, Coffey Hall, Lake Shore Campus Senate Minutes
iv. Quote: “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.” – Martin Luther King, Jr. v. Announcement: Because of staffing changes, both coordinators left at the same time, so I will play more of a backup role so you will not see me as regularly. I will miss you but I will still be available to you individually. vi. KC: Sorry, you’re stuck with me. I’m available if you need to meet with me. k. Executive Report i. President Bravo: 1. If any of you want to be apart of that board, feel free. 2. Peace circle event February 6th 6-8pm on LSC. Target attendance is 50-60 people. Advertise among your friends. 3. Textbook affordability – meeting with library official. Textbook Pilot Program can only be possible if they have funding. If there is more student interest, they said they don’t see why the Provost wouldn’t allocate more funding. 4. 8-Ride no longer picking up at the IC. Continue this conversation. 5. Board of Trustees luncheon in March. They only invite select students; we want others to be able to attend. 6. Want to work with SAGA to have Org Fair outside. 7. Want to partner with other local Chicago universities to make a statement on Chicago policing misconduct. How we feel for our neighbors. 8. Please continue to advertise for eight internal spots that are open. Three students have applied for our one Associate Justice position. Social media intern and CCO positions open. Spread the news. ii. CFO Chitkuer 1. $42 for each quarter-zip and one time fee of $40 that exec will cover. Exec will cover half of the cost so it will come out to $21. 1. Sen Bosnich: Cash or check? i. VP Fasullo: Cash. iii. ESO Brocklehurst: 1. TGIF is already rolling this semester. Looking for one more position on the council. Application due Friday. The following Friday is when project applications are due. Please tell your friends. Looking for student reps on new committee to discuss sustainable landscaping on campus. If you’re interested in being apart of that, meetings are the last Monday of every month at 1pm in IES. If you’re free, let me know. iv. VP Fasullo 1. Nice to have all of you back. We have a lot of work to do. Things are geared more towards what is going to happen next year. When one person isn’t stepping up to the plate, more work falls on others. Think critically about what challenges students are facing and how we can correct that as student government. v. Chief Justice Nasser
“Where there is no vision, there is no hope” – George Washington Carver
Student Government of Loyola Chicago January 13th, 2015, 4:00 PM McCormick Lounge, Coffey Hall, Lake Shore Campus Senate Minutes
1. Official articles are up with the new logo. Looking for new associate. Time commitment is two hours a week max. 6. New Business and Discussion a. Internal Elections on January 20th. Eight open seats – advertise! i. Damen MPR South. Speaker Murtaza will be tabling 1:30-3:30pm in Damen. They need to show up, give a two-minute speech about themselves, and answer some questions (1min each). You all send questions to Speaker Murtaza and Secretary Kamal. 1. Sen Bunnage: Can we reuse questions? 1. Speaker Murtaza: Yes, you can. 2. KC: Are we going to ask those that show up to leave after they give their remarks? 1. Speaker Murtaza: Yes, our Articles say so. i. Attorney General Lynch: Maybe delay start of the meeting so we can go over the procedure with the candidates. 3. KC: Random question – How many of you experienced Wi-Fi issues since you got back? 1. –Everyone raises handsi. KC: Thank you. ii. VP Fasullo: I plan on speaking in my classes about internal elections. Reach out to students about joining the organization. iii. Sen Baraki: Do people who are interested have to email you ahead of time? 1. Speaker Murtaza: No, they literally just come in. b. Veteran Student Affairs i. Sen Tsarouhis: More appropriate space for veterans to hang out in, talked to Dawn Collins and Brian Goodwin for spaces in Mertz. UNIV101 classes, disconnect between veterans and the freshmen in the class. Compromise that veterans will be placed in UNIV201, class for transfer students who are typically older. Will be efforts to get waiver for UNIV101 for veteran students. Engaged Learning requirement – they feel that serving the country should count as engaged learning. Serve on Council of Student Success, will be in contact of how to revise the curriculum for these students if possible. If anyone else wants to be in the loop about this, I will CC you in emails. 1. VP Fasullo: How many veterans do we have? 1. Sen Tsarouhis: 125 i. VP Fasullo: Do any suffer from post-traumatic stress? 1. Sen Tsarouhis: I would be inclined to say there are some who do. We did have a student who unfortunately took his life. Anita said the efforts of the Wellness Center have been pretty good. They have to list any diagnosed mental illness on applications, so I’m not sure how much is actually reported to the Wellness Center. 2. Sen Fleisher: Do we know whether or not these students are getting help from outside?
“Where there is no vision, there is no hope” – George Washington Carver
Student Government of Loyola Chicago January 13th, 2015, 4:00 PM McCormick Lounge, Coffey Hall, Lake Shore Campus Senate Minutes
1. Sen Tsarouhis: from my knowledge, nothing regarding referrals. Wellness Center has been “satisfactory.” 2. Sen Santy: If a student has exhibited behavior that flags that they may be a danger to themselves or others, there is an anonymous line they can call. The office contacts the student. Referrals to Wellness Center, Wellness Center refers to outside. 3. KC: Many campuses are not equipped to provide long term services. We do work with external clinicians that are specialized. They routinely do referrals. 4. VP Fasullo: I would suggest for this body to bring in some veterans. We would want to know how their treatment is going, speak about their experiences. Would be beneficial. i. Sen Tsarouhis: Will talk to Anita about asking current veteran students if they feel comfortable enough to come talk to us. ii. Sen Cheng: Great idea, but should make sure we are cautious about our language. Maybe have Anita come in first. c. CAN i. Sen Cheng: Have been working with CAN to reassess both organizations. Feel free to share my email kcheng2@luc.edu. Will be working with CAN eboard closely. d. 8-Ride i. Sen Tsarouhis: Since the shooting, lots of people talking about timeliness of vans coming to destinations. Heard people talking about how it is hard to support 8-Ride when they don’t come on time and people walk instead. 1. Sen Torres: Frustrating for me, too. Second year working with 8-Ride. Nick said that they are having trouble because they will take students from point A to point B and won’t pick up a student who is on the way, but they are trying to streamline that and make it faster. I don’t have a definitive answer, but I know they are still working on it. 2. KC: Very complex resource. Whole host of issues that contribute to delayed response time for student pickups. Part of that is a misuse of 8-Ride, not intended to be a taxi service. Should educate students about purpose of using 8-Ride. Increased service in light of events that occurred in the fall. Increased capacity, added more vans, extended hours of operation, added another dispatcher. All of these additions were put into place this past Monday, so I would expect that in the coming weeks we should see a decrease in the wait time. When students get frustrated and they leave, most times they don’t call and cancel that van, so that further delays other students from being picked up. We’ve taken steps in recent weeks to add additional services. Also working with a new vendor, have given them a lot of critical feedback and they pledged to meet our expectations. Conversations are being had and we have been proactive. 3. Sen Bunnage: Issue of effectiveness of 8-Ride and issue of safety in the neighborhood, two different issues though they are related. Phil Nyden was saying a Loyola student being shot hasn’t happened in the 35 years he’s worked
“Where there is no vision, there is no hope” – George Washington Carver
Student Government of Loyola Chicago January 13th, 2015, 4:00 PM McCormick Lounge, Coffey Hall, Lake Shore Campus Senate Minutes
here. We should mitigate the fear a little bit because there is a lot of fear and that’s dangerous in itself. 4. Sen D’Onofrio: I was using 8-Ride last semester about a month after the shooting, and the driver wasn’t aware of the shooting happening and he found out from a student. Driver was very uncomfortable that he didn’t even know about it. He was concerned for his safety as well, so not sure what we could do about that. 5. VP Fasullo: Communicating with the student body on our view. Work on a statement representing students, work with Maura and Jackson as a body. Vocalize our viewpoint on the situation representing students. 6. Sen Bosnich: KC, in the initial visioning of 8-Ride, was it strictly for universityrelated travel? 1. KC: I wasn’t here when it was initially created, but my understanding is that it was created for university business to get students from local residence to campus or back. Over the years, the use of 8-Ride has evolved. i. Sen Bosnich: I think it should be of that nature. Would take some volume out of the calls. ii. Sen Kelley: Talking about safety, a critical issue when we are less than two months away from a student being murdered a block away from campus. I don’t think a student calling 8-Ride to be transported from one apartment to another because they fear for their safety… we are in an urban environment where safety is an issue. Whether they are using it for “legitimate academic purposes” or not, I don’t think it should weigh on the policy regarding how 8Ride operates. Provided for safety. iii. CCRO Rocks: Invites an interesting conversation evaluating how 8-Ride is used by students. Different services? Big questions, but looking at different uses of 8-Ride might be helpful. iv. KC: Better understanding of how students are using 8-Ride, looking at what other campuses are doing. Other universities offer students service for non-academic purposes, but they charge them for that. 8-Ride was conceived for one purpose and funded for one purpose and it’s gotten away from it, and we’ve never discussed that. v. CCRO Rocks: I would argue that I didn’t know it was just for academic purposes. vi. Sen Bunnage: Look at 8-Ride as a serious privilege. Not everyone has access to something like this. vii. Sen Tsarouhis: need to take into account a couple things. How we can enforce it, maybe charging people as KC said would reduce the volume. Take into considerations the circumstances a student is taking the van for. Would also agree with Sen Kelley that it is an
“Where there is no vision, there is no hope” – George Washington Carver
Student Government of Loyola Chicago January 13th, 2015, 4:00 PM McCormick Lounge, Coffey Hall, Lake Shore Campus Senate Minutes
issue of safety. I would not feel comfortable walking at 1am or 2am. 7. Sen Keelor: Is 8-Ride funded through tuition? 1. KC: Through student development fee, not through tuition. But it comes from students. 8. Pres Bravo: Looking at other schools, I don’t know why money cannot be redirected to Campus Safety. If Campus Safety oversees the program. This can be a separate meeting with Kristen and Jackson. 1. Sen Kelley: I would be in support of Campus Safety being more involved in that. Does anyone here know what the deficit it between revenue from the student development fee and how much is spent on 8-Ride every year? i. KC: We don’t run a deficit. I can’t tell you exactly what the difference would be, probably a $400,000 difference. 2. Sen Shah: Have you looked into other options other than MV Transit? i. KC: Yes, but MV provided most comprehensive service at most competitive price. 1. Sen Shah: We could have an app that tracks the van route. a. KC: Many would argue it would occupy Campus Safety, not the best of their time. i. Sen Shah: Hire more officers instead of drivers for the same cost? ii. KC: The cost would not even be roughly the same. 9. Sen Torres: Have always had a close relationship with the transportation people. Nick is pretty open to our suggestions, cares about student opinion. Our meetings are always open. 10. VP Fasullo: I think anyone interested in this topic should meet. Possibly get someone from Transportation. e. Sen Bunnage: Leading stressful lives furthers institutional oppression, powerful way to think about how we use our time. f. Sen Chavez: Starting our new semester and I feel that we should be more energized and participate in our committee projects and show up to events so we are priding ourselves in our events and have a better outcome with students. We need to support each other. i. Sen Tsarouhis: Would like it if we got more turn-out in our University Senate meetings. There is a lot we can learn from sitting on these meetings. g. Sen Santy: Can my committee meet after? h. Sen Nowak: Tomorrow is the basketball game. Good opportunity for community bonding. It’s at 7pm. i. Sen Bunnage: We will be tabling twice this week on Wednesday and Friday. Will have free food samples. j. Sen Henry: Part of IFC now. They have an open house 5:30 in Bremner Lounge. k. Pres Bravo: Anyone interested in representing Loyola at IBHE, see me after. 7. Adjourned at 5:38pm.