Abby Bergren Executive Vice President Chairperson of the Senate

Senators Senate President ProTempore Michael Amesquita U-At-Large Elizabeth Kennedy Hugo Scheckter G-At-Large James Bonneau Jake Chervinsky CCAS-U Markus Batchelor Anthony Bucci III Daniel Egel-Weiss Omeed Firouzi Nick Gumas Ian Shetron CCAS-G Cara Bumgardner Amanda Castroverde Mike Naple SMHS-U VACANT SMHS-G Bob Kickish Jordan Werner Law School Elizabeth Barnes Meredith Dempsey Joe Yarbough GSEHD VACANT SEAS-U Neil Forquer SEAS-G Will Rone ESIA-U Michael Morgan Ross Rattanasena Alicia Rose ESIA-G Jonathan Kirk SoB-U Ryan Counihan Evan Kline SoB-G Shashwat Gautam Greg Viola SPHHS-U Alex Mizenko SPHHS-G VACANT CPS-U/CPS-G VACANT SoN VACANT Non-Voting G VACANT Non-Voting Freshmen Senators

Student Association Senate Meeting Monday, September 24th, 2012 Marvin Center Room 309, 9pm

I. Call to Order Madame Chair called to order the regular meeting of the Student Association at 9:10 PM on September 24, 2012 at GW-Marvin Center, rm. 309. II. Roll Call Secretary Hope Ajayi conducted a roll call. The following persons were present: Amesquita, Kennedy, Scheckter, Bonneau, Chervinsky, Batchelor, Bucci III, Egel-Weiss, Firouzi, Gumas, Shetron, Bumgardner, Naple, Kickish, Barnes, Dempsey, Forquer, Rone, Morgan, Rattanasena, Rose, Kirk, Counihan, Gautam, Viola, Mizenko
Kline-present by proxy (Counihan), Werner- present by proxy (Kickish) Dempsey5 minutes late, Barnes-5 minutes late, Castroverde- absent, Yarbough-absent

III. Public Comment a. Vice president of Public affairs for student Ass. On Executive side (Julia Susuni)- We are putting on a strategic plan town hall tomorrow 5:30 pm in rm. 309. I encourage you all to come out. The meeting is 1 hour long. It is important to get the word out and to advocate for student life in the strategic plan. This will impact students in future. SA advocates for student present and in future. Student Ass. Has talked to students in Kogan Plaza today. We will also be in Kogan tomorrow from 11 am to 2 pm to talk about the importance of the meeting. Please spread the word and share your opinion. An email invitation was given. Stop by if you can. You can leave your mark and make this University better for future students. b. Director of new students services (Ari Massefski)- Tonight is an awesome night because we have the freshmen here. 3 years ago, we had 25 freshmen applicants, 2 years ago, we had 42, and last year, we had 55. This year, we had 83 freshmen apply for freshmen position in SA. This year, of the 83 applicants, 41 percent of the applicants were women. In a moment the freshman senators will be introduced. We also have Ian here. We are thrilled to have Rowan (Assistant Director for New Students) on the executive side joining us. It was awesome to work with Senate leadership for the past couple of weeks. Thank you to all of them for their hard work. c. Grad student at Trachtenberg School (Cameron) I am one of 13 other presidential fellows. 6 from my year, 7 from the year ahead of me. The presidential administrative Fellows Program steers graduate students
Student Association The George Washington University Washington, DC Marvin Center 800 21st St., NW, Suite 427 Washington, DC 20052

towards graduate life at GW. It covers tuition, pays housing and gives good experience. The time to apply has begun. It is for seniors. There are 3 information sessions. Encourage every senior to go. Tell friends to go and find out more information website. Gwired.gwu.edu/paf. IV. Approval of Minutes from September 10th, 2012 Mizenko motions to approve. Seconded by Counihan. Passed unanimously 26-0* (2 more coming) Filling of Vacancies a. Freshman Senate Positions Senator Mizenko (SPHHS U)- I am glad to introduce our new freshmen senator, Ben Pryde. He is double majoring in political science and economics. He has a very impressive resume. That includes Eagle Scouts. He also was former class and student body president. He even designed and built a submarine in high school. As soon as he pulled out the picture, we were pretty much sold. Marshall Cohen is the Committee aide. He is a Political Science major. He has student government experience and has worked on political campaigns. He did a great job keeping minutes; we are excited to have them both. b. Senator Rose (ESIA U) We have selected Joy Dhar as our new freshmen senator and John Menges as committee aide. They are both exceptional candidates. We extend our thanks. c. Senator Kennedy (Elliot, U at Large) We just met and passed through Ryan Moorman as our freshmen senator. He has been an amazing candidate from the start. Hes really fun loving. I encourage you to introduce yourselves to him. As well as Shreya and Mariana, our committee aides. They are both amazing applicants. We expect great things out of them. They are already talking about initiatives planned. Shreya has shown interest in health and Mariana has shown student pride and spirit on campus. Its a great fit and were happy to have them. VI. Senate Staff Nominations a. Senate Secretary i. Hope Ajayi, Sophomore in CCAS, Major in Sociology and Communications Motion to vote by Senator Mizenko, Second by Senator Rone, Motion passes 28-0* No objections b. Parliamentarian i. Ian Mellul, Freshmen in CCAS, Major in Political Science, Minor in Sustainability Comment by Mizenko- When Ian came in for his interview, we were very impressed that Ian read through the financial org packet. I think he will do a great job of keeping us in check this year. Motion to vote by Amesquita. Second by Senator Egel-Weiss, Motion passes 28-0* Senate Committee Reports a. Leadership
Student Association The George Washington University Washington, DC Marvin Center 800 21st St., NW, Suite 427 Washington, DC 20052

V.

VII.

Amesquita- The Leadership Committee has met a few times now. Those in the committee, please raise your hand. We met for two Sundays going through remarkable applicants. These freshmen are amazing. GW is doing a really great job of picking them. Ari, Alex and Ryan did great jobs. We had 8 long hours of interview. Thanks to the committee. I got injured playing rugby and couldnt play a big a role as I wanted. On behalf of the leadership committee-- Ari, can you come up? The numbers are remarkable. He never quit and never got relaxed. This certificate is a small token of our appreciation. (* Applause) Thank you very much. The process was remarkable because of him. b. Academic Affairs (Senator Rose) I encourage everyone to go to the strategic town hall tomorrow. This will be an opportunity for us as student leaders to have input on something that will be permanent. Im meeting with Elizabeth Amundson (Registrar) this Friday. I mentioned extending off. Hours during registration as well as making class descriptions more available on ban web. Abby brought up working with the bookstore to create one deadline for add/drop period and Im working with Ari on GPAC requirements. A few senators from CCAS are meeting with dean Allman. We worked on Emergency response times. Shashwatsorry for using first names-- is working on health service proposal and working to make sure the School of Business students are not displaced with Duques being opened longer. Senator Viola is working on the same Duques issue as well as communication between administrations and ensuring student safety. Senator R is working on Elliott school dinner with deans initiative that Michael and I are working on. We are also working on mandatory list serve event Gumas. Working on list serve eventmandatory event req. Senator Rone is working on academic scheduling, making sure the Vern and Foggy Bottom classes are better incorporated. Senator Kirk is working on a survey for Elliott school grads and Gelman renovations. c. Finance (Senator Mizenko) This week, we allocated funding to 295 student groups. It went well. I will send Abby Tentative allocation. We have appeals Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. Appeals process is where org can come in and request funds. Orgs get more money if they show need and that they cant function without more money. We cant accommodate every org. getting more money. John Bennett, my predecessor, went for true-up of our budget. We received Budget true-up early ($39,495) for a total of $944,485. The Hatchet recorded $904,990, but that is no longer correct. Tech and space fees have been eliminated. Those were a huge strain on our budget. We will still be paying $8,000 a year for fees but thats a lot less. I think its a major win for students and student groups. They deserve round of applause. The SA was shouldering cost in past because we gave money to student orgs and they paid that to university. Now were doing it for them and paying a lot less. Were lucky to have free EMS service. DC Fire EMS is worst in country. This is good. Students dont have to pay. It prevents MPD from getting evolved 10 hrs. a night for EMERG. And yet the University wants us to pay cost if we dont fund them. $12,690 per uniforms, laptop $800, lease for ford explorer $5,854 among other costs. I wont go on but you get the picture. I think this is wrong and we should do something about them. d. Student Life (Senator Kennedy) We just had our meeting. We have it at 8:00pm SA conference room. Come by or hang out. Senator Bucci III is working on streamlining waitlist system as well as Continued effort on school spirit. Senator Bumgardner is working with J Street. Currently, there is
Student Association The George Washington University Washington, DC Marvin Center 800 21st St., NW, Suite 427 Washington, DC 20052

no power posting. Shes working on pro student dining issues and student health issues. Im talking with Senator Morgan about student dining issues. Senator Viola came up to me two weeks ago. I was talking about Tax services issues. He discussed VITA with me. I looked into it and it has proved to be quite useful. GW law has implemented VITA program in the past. With VITA, the IRS will come and train students to help with tax services for free. This is a benefit to student population and it is open to anyone in DC system (Undergraduate, Graduate, professors, anyone in the GW community). We are continuing to look into permanent housing and career services office. Senator Firouzi is also working on financial aid and looking into ways to streamline process. Senator Batchelor is working on having LSAT classes as elective on campus and working with senator Rose on that as well as outgoing mailboxes in dorm halls, bike racks and smart trips on GWorld. I think that is a positive thing and really cool. I just want to congratulate again Senator Morgan and welcome to new Committee Aides and Freshman Senators. I hope that you are happy to be here. VIII. Announcements on Initiatives Senator Gautam- Last Friday, we submitted a 17-page health review to GWs health services administration. We went through and identified loopholes. Suicide mentioned as preexisting condition met by health plan. Created issues amongst student body. Student health service is looking into it. Please ensure that your constituents if they are regulated on mad. By health serv. Let them know. GW administration has agreed to review except cases of health insurance. Pass on information. Noticed by Hatchet, article very critical. Old Business a. Student Organization Assignments Madame Chair: I will email student organization assignments to you after the meeting. I tried really hard to make sure requests were met. The ratio of grad and undergrad is more equal than orgs but you should be fine with the overlap. New Business a. SB-F12-02 2012 Student Association Bylaws Revisions A Bill to introduce Legislative Bylaws into the Student Association Bylaws sponsored by Michael Amesquita. Multiple Co-Sponsors. Senator Amesquita This summer, EVP, Senate CoS, and Iwent through bylaws, did house keeping with the senate rules. We discovered they never should have been rules. They are more procedural. They give definition of what standing committees are, attendance, etc. Rules should be pertinent to session. We found procedural reoccurring things. The bylaws had very little said about legislatively representing our branch. This way when each session comes in, you know how many absences; procedures and dont have to vote on senate rules. This is very foundational. It will make this a better SA from foundation. The purpose to establish something that will stay Senator Shetron Am I to understand that the version sent over email is the version we are voting on? The part about not having gender bias vocabulary. Notice in 502, section 10 sub section a. He/she is replaced with they, but 409 section 1 subsection b his/her is used twice and he or she is not changed. Is there a reason?
Student Association The George Washington University Washington, DC Marvin Center 800 21st St., NW, Suite 427 Washington, DC 20052

IX.

X.

Senator Amesquita Yes, they are the same version. And, no reason. We probably just missed it but thank you. Senator Rone I am confused by gender bias and what is meant. He/she is gender bias? They is not a substitute for he or she. I didnt realize he/she is bad. Senator Amesquita What it meant is that he could be a she, so we fixed it to disallow for ambiguity. Senator Chervinsky Was there not a clause saying use of first person pronoun should be used for both. It used to be a clause. Were not being sexist. Senator Rone This bill says introducing Senate rules into bylaws. Why are we making substantive changes to bylaws? Attendance policies? Why not add senate rules to bylaws and discuss amendments we want to make separately? Senator Amesquita It doesnt make sense to establish things that we will eventually change. We introduced it as bylaws because it was never a bylaw. Why not introduce a better product? Senator Chervinsky Ask Senator Amesquita to explain what was wrong, what he thinks were changing. Senator Amesquita The things we deleted are in red. The things we are adding/changing are underlined. The attendance policy said you could miss 53 % of senate meetings and still be okay. We thought that was ethically bad. Bad practice. Told your constituents you would be here for them. So, we thought that is ridiculous. So lets make it better. We changed it to you can miss four and still be okay. Went from 7 to 4. Still, 30% of senate meetings are missed. Still a C academically, a low C. At first, we had 2 full senate meetings you could miss. We voted 6-0 to it being 3 meetings you can miss. Now were saying you can miss 30% and be okay. Past that we think you should be suspended. Senator Bonneau Can we discuss other substantive changes? Reading bylaw as it was sent out today at 8:30pm. Madame Chair Correction. No changes made. We copied and pasted content into bill. No substantive changes made to content from one last week. Senator Rone Motion to table this until next week. Itemized list of substantive changes can be sent out so we can use it in meeting. Seconded by Viola. *15 in favor. 11 opposed motion carries. Passed on to next meeting. Parliamentary Ian Mellul Can someone submit proxy vote? Senator Mizenko Are we able to make motion to another meeting? Next meeting is the allocations meeting. This will be a long discussion. Senators should have a lot of time to review bill but they will be busy reviewing allocations. It is only fair to student orgs that we have good review.
Student Association The George Washington University Washington, DC Marvin Center 800 21st St., NW, Suite 427 Washington, DC 20052

Senator Amesquita Can you define substantive? I wont be here; I will be having surgery on knee. Madame Chair Motion was passed for next meeting. We will put it on next meetings agenda. Will have discussion at next meeting. Senator Mizenko Motion to un-table the table to October 1- Senator Mizenko, second by Counihan Senator Gautam If we are going to postpone, validity of bill will expire. Ensures that senator can abstain from senator meeting. Has no relevance. Senator Scheckter- Isnt Amesquita not going to be here for meeting? Doesnt it make sense for him to be here to answer questions? Senator Mizenko There are other people involved with the process. Senator Mizenko Motion to table to October 1, Second by Egel-Weiss. Motion passes. Senator Batchelor I have a question for Senator Amesquita. In terms of attendance Policy, if passed wouldnt it be retroactive? Senator Amesquita It applies to the entire session, which technically began this past Spring. So, yes. Madame Chair Because we tabled this motion for Oct. 15, we cant be talking about it. We can call special meeting to discuss spec. bill. Option available to cosponsors. Senator Kennedy I think it makes sense for people to want to take time to look over the bill. XI. Announcements from the Chair Madame Chair: There is a strategic Plan Town hall tomorrow night. This is very important. If we want student represented at the Continental Ballroom 5:30pm. We need your voices. Student space- really exciting things have been happening; I wont take that update from Ashwin. Big thing now is advertising spaces that have opened. We will look to you guys to assist. A big congrats to freshmen senators and committee aides. I am glad you can make it out tonight. Please dont leave without saying hi to us. One last thing, is there any new business? Senator Scheckter- There is a bill Gumas and I are writing. It is an Antidiscrimination bill that will hold student orgs more accountable. It is still vague, but we wanted to give the heads up. Senator Gautam- It has become a policy of GW administration and different schools to raise fees without informing graduate students. This is an alarming concern. I think if we
Student Association The George Washington University Washington, DC Marvin Center 800 21st St., NW, Suite 427 Washington, DC 20052

had unified voice in senate about the issue, we wont have to face the same issue in the next academic year. XII. Presidents Report Ashwin Narla: Hey guys. Able to open up Duques Hall from Sunday to Thursday. We increased building close hours by 4 hrs., to 2 am and Sundays, from noon to 2 am. I think its great, but I want to reiterate this is just beginning of larger conversation for graduate and undergraduate Population. We still have to make sure it is implemented properly. There is still a lot of work to be done. We want to make sure we hear what your concerns are. The tech fees are really huge. Eliminating a fee is very, very difficult and we got two eliminated. That speaks for itself. I want to stress the importance of the Strategic Town hall tomorrow. We are working on number of different things as well. We are working to add issues on campus right now. But we want to be part of future issues. Student wellness. Continued talks on gym and HIV testing. Calendar-sent up follow up email to external relations. See where we go with that. Think state of campus is good. Pretty exciting updates. Hopefully will see as many of you as possible at Strategic Plan Town Hall tomorrow. Public Comment I am here to represent my organization, which asked for safe funding AIESEC. I thought communication to student Orgs about funding was vague. It said, funding for conditional funding has been eliminated. What is a conditional event? Most of our budget consisted of conditional funding. My org got 5% of it. I am just seeking clarification. Senator Mizenko: I think I have been better with communicating with student Orgs. I had an Op-ed in the Hatchet. I have office hours twice a week. I wrote a 13-page finance manual that details appeals process, etc. We did conditional events did last year. We decided to eliminate that. Ive worked with Julia to make a PR video. We used any means possible to communicate to orgs. I dont see the validity of that concern. Madame Chair: That said, things could slip through the cracks. Please stick around if you have any questions on how we can improve. Make sure you speak with Senators Mizenko or Counihan, or Ashwin or myself. XIV. Pass the Gavel Congratulations to the Freshmen and thanks to the Leadership and Finance Committee! Adjournment Motion to adjourn by Senator Gautam, seconded by Senator Morgan, Motion passes 28-0* Next meeting is Monday, October 1st in the Marvin Center Continental Ballroom, 9pm.

XIII.

XV.

Student Association The George Washington University Washington, DC Marvin Center 800 21st St., NW, Suite 427 Washington, DC 20052