2010 11 02 Minutes
The New School
University Student Senate Minutes
Tuesday, November 2 @ 9pm
2 W 13th St, Room 1204
Submitted by Kim Hurley, Secretary of the Senate
Present: Sean Elias, Anna-Karin Loureiro, Nicole Park, Chris Crews, Minju Bae, Kim Hurley, Melissa Holmes, Cordelia Eddy, Alex Cline
Absent: Shannon Lumpkin, Hajir Sailors, Fonzie Cuaycong, Jake Atchoo, Rachel Housle, Corey Mullee, Barbara DeLaleu
Suspended: Maggie Martin remains suspended for non-attendance under Constitution XII G.
Special Guests: Hannah, NSGS Bachelor’s program
1. Committee Updates
Anna-Karin announced that there is an open seat on the Social Justice Committee, as she is no longer able to do it. Minju will take her place. Also, it was confirmed that Alex and Minju are on the Facilities Committee. Sean confirmed that he is on the Tech Committee, and has a meeting on Thursday with Shelley, Senior Vice President of Information Technology to discuss SafeConnect and the current New School e-mail system. Anna-Karin will also follow up with Barbara on the Budget Committee.
2. Student Groups
Alex said that OSDA has a list of student groups, but it is not updated (about 3-4 years old) and does not include school/program-specific groups. Melissa suggested that we make our own list, going to our schools and collecting information from the students themselves. Kim will create a shared spreadsheet to compile the information.
3. Diversity Works
Sean asked about a clarification to the Constitution, as it states that programs must ‘serve’ either 3 divisions or the whole university. Chris stated that the 3 schools ‘requirement’ is not in the constitution and is rather something that the former treasurer put online on his own initiative. He further stated that if this was enforced, most funding would never be approved.
The senate started a vote, but will be moved online due to the absence of enough senators to pass the vote.
4. NSGS
Hannah, a NSGS bachelor’s program student, came to USS to bring up some complaints that students in the program have had about the school. According to Hannah, the program is very disconnected, there is no central space for students to meet, and there are problems with advising. She has been collecting students and will do a survey of them regarding these issues. Her group has also met with Dean Scobey to discuss the lack of a room or centralized space for students.
5. Scott Gassman
Alex believed on the issue of hiring Scott Gassman as a consultant that we should move into the idea of hiring students in support roles as our first priority. Hiring Scott, he said, would show that we are our own first priority. Anna-Karin followed by saying that she realized that so many things could be solved by having a student worker.
Melissa countered, saying that he will mobilize us to create a common vision for the senate as a whole. Also, there is potential in pulling us together quickly and efficiently, as there are processes that should have been formalized way before now that still don’t exist.
Sean suggested that senators pick what we want to formalize, work on it for the next week and a half, and bring it to the next meeting. Melissa also asked that if we do decide to hire Scott, what is the absolute maximum that we want to spend?
6. USS Budget
Chris presented a budget that he had drafted based on $100,000 and previous years’ budgets. He proposed $60,000 (60%) for a Student Activities Fund, $30,000 (30%) for a USS General Fund, and the remaining $10,000 (10%) for a USS Discretionary Fund. The Senate decided to vote to establish this as our official budget breakdown. The vote will be moved online due to not having enough members present to pass.
7. Working Group Report
Anna-Karin wanted to discuss the Diversity Initiative Report and our views on leaking it to the student body. She suggested leaking it to both student groups and New School Free Press, and also questioned about handing copies out.
Sean reported that he spoke to his Faculty Senate representative, who has never heard of the report and is angry that he has no knowledge of it. Anna-Karin asked if we should then include the Faculty Senate in this. Cordelia stated that it could create a liability for faculty members if they have the report. Minju asked, is it a liability if they just know about it but don’t take sides on it? Chris suggested that we ask to be on the Faculty Senate’s agenda to discuss this.
Melissa felt that the release of the document should lead into the Town Hall. Anna-Karin said she is inclined to release it to the student organizations first before releasing it to the Free Press. Minju agreed that other people should know about it first before releasing it to the Free Press.
Alex had asked about the Free Press’s print cycle; they have another issue on November 22, which would be good for releasing it before the Town Hall.
Chris stated that he also met with Jesse Villeobas about the report. They had talked about putting up a website and creating 5-8 minute videos using videos from the report as well as new material, so students can post it on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc. They believe that if we can put the information in a virtual, new media format, we can use it to direct students to the report.
Anna-Karin suggested forming a sub-committee to write an e-mail to send out with the report. It will consist of her, Chris, Melissa, Kim, and Minju.
Chris felt a useful strategy would be to buy pages in the Free Press to print an op-ed on why we released the report and why they should come to the Town Hall. It would also include pages from the report. He had received rates on advertisement space in the paper. The Senate put up for a vote on up to $2,500 for space in the Free Press. It will be continued online.
8. USS Logo
Sean reported that he has a student interested in designing the logo, but has questions. The senate decided that it has to include The New School, University Student Senate, or their acronyms. There will be no thematic or stylistic guidelines. Submissions will be sent to the USS e-mail account.
Kim suggested that we also set a deadline for submissions. The Senate decided on a deadline of December 20. Melissa said that with that deadline, we could possibly select a logo and have it printed on water bottles and other items over winter break.
9. Intercollegiate Collaborative Arts Project
Sean presented a proposal for a First Annual Intercollegiate Collaborative Arts Project. It will be a staged production of The Cradle Will Rock and will be a collaboration between all divisions of the New School. Anna-Karin noted that he will need a huge call for students to apply for positions.
Melissa noted that this could pull the university as a whole together as an Ashoka Changemaker campus. She stated that we are currently an Ashoka campus, but that it has fizzled out. If Sean gets this on the Ashoka agenda, she said, it could get some huge attention.
Alex suggested having a panel along with the performance, something along the lines of last year’s Tolstoy conference. Chris also asked Sean to look into the broadcasting license for the play, as we could have a live stream for online students, who have previously remarked that they have no opportunities to be involved with the university.
10. Adjourn
The meeting was adjourned at 11:48pm.
Respectfully submitted,
Kim Hurley
Secretary of the Senate