2011 09 22 Minutes
The New School
University Student Senate Minutes
Thursday, September 22 @ 8PM
6 W. 16th, 1009
Present (9 voting): Chris Crews, Michael Kaplan, Melissa Holmes, Divya Khandelwal, Hajir Sailors, Bronwyn Lewis, Katherine Towell, Santiago Posas, Voltaire Veloso.
Absent: Victoria Lee, Christin Pettibone, Rachel Housle, Kathy Litchfield, Mimi Clitus, Fernanda Ormeño
Guests: Nick Krebs (OSDA/Student Leadership Retreat), Chris Hooks (Free Press), Rey Mashayekhi (Free Press), Lauren and Tyler (AID), Hamid (ISAB), Hillary (BoB), Eulalia (Milano/NSPE)
AGENDA
- Call to Order
The meeting was called to order at 8:09 PM by co-chair Melissa, who facilitated the meeting.
- Introductions
Group shared a “rose” and a “thorn” about their week.
- Additions to Agenda
No additions were made.
- Guest Introductions
Guest were primarily here to request funding, as well as Free Press observers.
- Approval of past meeting minutes (minutes from 9/7/2011)
Minutes were approved with the addition of Kathy Litchfield to the absent list from the 9/7 meeting. Motion to approve by Melissa, second by Chris. All members voted in favor but Voltaire, who abstained. Motion passed.
- Officer Reports (Co-chairs, Treasurer, Secretary)
Melissa gave an update on the recent Social Justice Committee (SJC) meeting, noting that the committee decided to create a new 3 co-chair structure with 1 admin/staff, 1 faculty and 1 student. Elections are currently taking place for those three seats. Melissa also mentioned that the SJC still needs to find 2 students to replace the graduating students from last year.
Bronwyn and Katherine met with Linda Reimer (VP for Student Services) last week, and will be meeting with Michael Joy (Facilities) about holding a tour of the new student study space, and had a conversation about potential office locations in the future once 65 5th opens. Also noted that in meeting with President Van Zandt that he would like to come to a USS meeting.
Katherine also noted they have been in communication with Provost Marshall and Amy Minter–also in Provost Office–about setting up a visit as well to the USS. The issue of the new Lang bell schedule was also discussed, the recent tabling about Gmail for students, reminder of ongoing “service initiatives” on capus, and the details of setting up both Special and Regular elections soon. Nick Krebs in OSDA has been tasked to help with research on voting options and alternatives by Student Services.
- Student Funding Proposals/Funding Requests (Hajir)
Hajir presented the latest info on our budget for this Fall semester. We currently have a total balance of $53, 923 but only an available balance of $47, 980 as there were still some outstanding costs being covered from the Spring of 2011. Karen Connor-Wilson did not have final rollover budget numbers yet, but projected they would be approximately $30,000, making out Fall operating budget approximately $78,000. Another $50,000 will become available in the Spring of 2012.
After a discussion of these numbers and the chart breaking down costs was presented, Hajir proposed an operating budget with the following breakdown for the Fall semester:
65 % General Student Fund or ($31,000)
20 % USS Programming Fund or ($9,600)
15 % Emergency Fund or ($7,200)
Hajir also suggested that we create a funding cut off date, at which point any unspent money will return to the USS general fund, so we do not have extended costs from an earlier year showing up in a current year, as has happened in the past if all expenses are not reimbursed or expensed out before the end of the university fiscal year. Also suggested starting some sort of internal audits to ensure accountability in expenditures from funded groups or events.
Nick Krebs suggested the USS might want to set some money aside in a “rainy day” fund in case of emergencies, or for future capital needs, like a new office, equipment, etc. Hajir mentioned he had raised the idea of setting up a USS endowment with extra funds with Karen Connor-Wilson, but this is a discussion that also requires the Comptroller higher up the chain of command. It was suggested that perhaps 15% of the emergency money (or about $1,100) could be set aside in an endowment to earn interest.
Eulalia suggested this was a good idea, and would help to build long-term support and resources for the USS. Hamid asked if there were currently any limitations on the uses for the emergency fund, and if it could be used to help students in need, especially given the problems with the way TNS handled emergency funds at present, esp. for international students. Michael asked if this budget breakdown was similar to last year, to which Hajir said yes it was.
Chris motioned to accept the proposed 65/20/15 budget for the Fall of 2011. Santiago Second. All Senators voted in favor except Voltaire, who abstained. Motion passed.
Hajir also discussed trying to get purchase cards for the USS (aka p-cards), which are essentially fixed limit debit cards which can be used for office supplies, and other small purchases (excluding food) which the USS can take care of directly, rather than having to get a purchase order through Student Services or the Financial Office. Hajir will let us know as this effort progresses.
- Student Funding Proposals (Guests)
The following proposals were made to the USS by students at this meeting:
~Association for International Development (AID) – Funding for a Nov. 10th Price of Sex film, and an Oct. 7th Rights and Responsibilities conference. $1,240 requested.
~Sisters on the Runway – Funding for an Oct. 15 event to raise money for women in need. $600 requested.
~Battle of the Bands – Funding requested to support first-ever BoB event at TNS. $6,483 requested
~International Student Advisory Board (ISAB) – Funding requested to support monthly Tuesday forums for international students to discuss problems and share ideas. $200 requested
~OSDA/Student Leadership Retreat – Funding requested to support Nov. 4-6 leadership retreat at Greenkill YMCA for campus leaders and organization leaders. $2000 requested.
~Jewish Student Union (JSU) – Requested funding for Shabat dinners in Fall and Spring semesters. $3,000 requested.
After presentations the following motions were made to approve funding with the listed amounts for each project:
~ Assoc. for International Development: $1,140
~ Sisters on the Runway: $600
~ Battle of the Bands: $ 2,075
~ International Student Advisory Board: $200
~ Student Leadership Retreat: $2,000
~ Jewish Student Union: $1,500
All motions were approved unanimously. All motions passed.
- Race Crisis Speaker Series (1964) Archival Funding (Chris)
During the Spring of 2011 Chris had been doing research on MLK and came across a reference to him speaking at TNS in 1964 as part of a speaker series entitled “The Race Crisis.” Through additional research it was discovered that a group of faculty was involved in archival research on a different but related project and had discovered reel-to-reel audio from some of these events, possibly also including MLK’s speech in the 12th St. auditorium. $800 funding was sought to help convert the reel-to-reel to high quality digital audio, which would pay the costs of conversion from analog to digital that the faculty group had secured.
Motion to approve $800 of funding for digital conversion costs by Chris, second by Melissa. All in favor. Motion passed.
- Special elections for the 2 vacant seats–Parsons+Drama (Bronwyn)
See earlier officer report. Bronwyn and Hajir are working on getting this going with Tom McDonald in Student Services.
Motion by Voltaire to create an Elections Committee to help Bronwyn and others move the election planning forward, seconded by Santiago. All Senators in favor. Motion passed.
- Committees Update and Organizing (ACIR, more) (Chris)
Chris reminded people of the earlier proposal to create a committee to help develop a process for nominating students to serve on various university committees (he had sent out a list earlier in the week from Amy Minter in the Provost office). As there are a number of committees waiting on the USS to make student recommendations, we need to move on this as soon as possible. Mimi had volunteered to convene this committee over e-mail.
Motion by Santiago to create the Committee on Student Appointments with Mimi as convener, seconded by Voltaire. All members in favor except Hajir and Katherine, however as Divya had left at this point, there were not enough votes to pass the motion, so it went to an online vote. Online vote ended on Sunday Sept. 25th at midnight with the motion passing. Rachel, Victoria, Divya and Kathy also voted in favor of the motion once online. Motion passed.
- Panel recommendations process (Bronwyn)
This was the same as above item.
- Impeachment (Voltaire)
- Constitution (Voltaire)
- USS Google group + Official emails (Voltaire)
Voltaire said he was not sure if this was the best time to talk about these, and asked that they be tabled until a future meeting.
- Smoking ban in Lang Courtyard (Katherine)
- Lang misc (Katherine)
Lang is considering a smoking ban in the courtyard between the 11th and 12th St. buildings, and the Lang Senators are working with students and administrators to determine if there is sufficient support for this to change the policies. Earlier issue of bell schedules was also raised.
- Outreach / townhall meetings (Bronwyn)
- University wide initiatives–community garden–and events—unconference (Bronwyn)
- Campus updates and student email outreach (Michael)
Discussion about how to improve our outreach, including a suggestion that we reconvene our Communications Committee to help with outreach and publicity. Michael volunteered to begin drafting an all-campus letter to be sent out to students. Voltaire volunteered to help with room booking, so we can confirm room locations along with meeting times for campus e-mail.
We also discussed possibility of hosting a Town Hall in each division, as well as a larger all-campus one. Chris suggested that we should try to get onto the agenda of the already planned Town hall with the President and Provost, instead of planning a separate one on our own. Melissa also mentioned she will help re-start the existing committees already empowered under the Constitution to help with all of these efforts.
Hamid asked about ways to work more with international students, and about the potential of having some sort of formal international student representation on the USS (perhaps linked to ISAB?). A possible Committee to address international students was proposed, and Chris offered to help keep this issue going within NSSR, where many of the international grad in ISAB students are located.
- Moving Office Locations (Chris)
Chris noted he had been approached by a Parsons admin while working in the office recently about possible swapping rooms with the Parsons Student Senate, which currently has an office in the far corner of the 7th floor of the same building, 66 Fifth Ave. The room is somewhat larger and has a better view, as well as a glass window, so people can tell if w are in or not. The group expressed interest in this option, and Chris volunteered to follow up with the Parsons Faculty contact about the possibility of this happening.
- Revisiting the SafeConnect wireless policy (Chris)
Chris discussed the earlier issues with Safe Connect, the wireless third party software the university forces users on campus to use, and the various past and new concerns dealing with this software, and the necessity of it at all. There was another recent incident reported where the entire wireless network went down due to major software problems with a code update, causing a campus-wide disruption of internet, and more concerns about the necessity of this. Faculty Senate had made a weak statement on the issue last year, but may be revisiting it again this year. Chris offered to continue exploration of this issue, and to forward the past research that had been conducted on this be the USS and other parties at TNS.
- Statement on Troy Davis (Chris)
A request had been forwarded to the USS as to whether or not we would be making any statement about the impending execution of Troy Davis in Georgia. Motion by Chris to draft a letter against the murder of Troy Davis and to ask the Faculty Senate to co-sign, seconded by (?), All in favor by Katherine, however motion did not have enough votes to pass, so went to online vote. Online vote ended on Sunday Sept. 25th at midnight with the motion passing. Divya and Kathy also voted in favor of the motion once online, while Rachel, Victoria abstained along with Katherine. Motion passed.
Motion to adjourn by Chris at 22:59 pm. All in favor. Motion passed.
The meeting was officially adjourned at 10:59 PM.
Meeting minutes respectfully submitted by USS Secretary Chris Crews.
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