2011 10 12 Minutes
University Student Senate
Thursday, October 12, 2011 – 8PM
Location: E 16th Street #1009
Agenda
Present (13 voting): Hajir Sailors, Bronwyn Lewis, Melissa Holmes, Katherine Towell, Santiago Posas, Voltaire Velos, Chris Crews, Michael Kaplan, Rachel Housle, Kathy Litchfield, Mimi Clitus, Fernanda Ormeño, Divya Khandelwal
Absent: Christin Pettibone (suspended from voting)
Special Guests: Daniel Bustillo (NSPE), Joseph Eulo (NSGS) – Student Film Collective, Alex Moscato (NSPE), Amanda Ruxta (sp?) (Jazz/Lang), Todd Kesselman (NSSR), Nima Moinpour (NSPE -media studies), Catie Joy (Lang), Saffo Papantonopollou (NSSR), Elandre Dedrick (NSSR), Jonathan Castro (NSGS)
Call to Order
The meeting was called to order by co-chair Bronwyn Lewis at 8:19 PM.
Introductions
Group shared one thing they were looking forward to this week.
Guest Introductions
Several guests were representing the Student Film Collective to request funding. Students from NSSR, Lang and MSPE were here seeking funding for events. Two other NSSR students were here to talk about gender problems and trans discrimination on campus.
Additions to Agenda
Kathy asked that improving orientation be added to next weeks agenda. No other additions.
Approval of past meeting minutes (from 10/12/2011)
Corrections to be made regarding wording on Troy Davis letter and vote discussion. Voltaire and Mimi abstained. All other members in favor. Motion passed.
Officer Reports (Co-chairs, Treasurer)
The co-chairs meeting this week with DVZ was cancelled and is being re-scheduled to 10/13 at 10 AM. A recent meeting with NSPE students about organizing an Undoing Racism workshop or training at TNS was discussed, and Melissa and Mimi are involved in ongoing planning around this through the Friday group at Milano. The executive board met with OSDA staff to try and clarify and streamline and improve funding for student orgs, as well as payment processing and event planning. More work is happening on this, so stay tuned for more updates. Shannon, Tom, Nick, Erin and Karen from OSDA were at the meeting.
Hajir showed the charts for the latest allocations of USS funding. The purchase card (P-card) applications are being worked on now by Karen Connor-Wilson. Hajir will be meeting with the Comptroller to further discuss endowment investment options from the last meeting.
Chris said the USS letter on Troy Davis had not been sent out yet, but not sure why? Co-chairs will ask in meeting with DVZ about this. All-campus e-mail about our Friday Dinner and Discussion was sent out on 10/10/2011.
Old Business
Troy Davis letter and CEA. Co-chairs will look into this at meeting with DVZ.
(Note) Chris talked with CEA post meeting–said they never received our letter for posting. Chris is following up.
New Business
Funding proposals (Amanda – Brazil culture and music event)
Proposed event for Nov. 15 to celebrate Brazilian culture in NYC. Would include live music, Brazilian food, possible dance performances. Event would also tie into International Student Festival. Requesting $6,208 for food, events, honorarium and prizes. Santiago asked about including a vegan option for food. Mimi stressed this is a great way to build support across campus. Other participants felt this was a great idea, and were excited about Brazilian food and music! Melissa raised the question of a high honorarium ($4000). After discussion, it was decided we would approve everything but the honorarium fees for now, as them to look for other support, and they can come back if they still need more. Motion to approve $2,208 by Hajir. Motion second by Bronwyn. All members in favor except Katerine, who voted against. Motion passed.
Student Film Collective (Joseph Eulo)
SFC has a number of events coming up. Oct 21st Filmmakers of color event with Reel 5, 72-Hour Challenge (Nov 4-7th), Killer Film short-film festival and collective premiers (Nov 7th). 72-hour film fest will be a film contest with students using a set of props, locations or other items given to each team at the start of the contest. Festival will highlight those films, as well as other student projects. Proposal reduced to $4,850 after removing photo and prize support. Motion to approve $4,850 by Bronwyn. Seconded by Kathy. All in favor. Motion passed.
Philosophy Dept Workshop with Slavoj Zizek (Todd Kesselman)
Philo Dept. is planning a workshop to feature Slavoj Zizek and other well-known philosophers in 2012. Asking for honorarium support and advertising. The reason they are asking now for next year is because we need a guarantee of funding to secure Zizek. All other speakers are already confirmed. Request for $4,025. Motion to approve $4,025 by Hajir. Second by Kathy. All in favor. Motion passed.
Critical Themes in Media Conference (Nima Moinpour)
This is a yearly student conference organized by Media Studies students. This year will be a two-day event focused on student generated, “multi-modal” media. We have funded them for several years, and the event always has a good turnout. Amy Goodman from Democracy Now was a keynote speaker 2 year ago. After discussion, proposal was modified to $5,000. Motion to approve $5,000 by Katherine. Second by Hajir. All in favor. Motion passed.
Workplace hostility and Google group
Katherine raised concern that the USS google group can be overly stressful due to debates and personal politics. She introduced a proposal that would limit all google group e-mails to only “official business”, including proposing agenda items, meeting updates and other USS reports or official business information. Debates around politics and other issues would not be allowed.
Kathy raised concern that Katherine is being overly hyperbolic in her characterization of the google group. Mimi raised concern that this proposal seems like a form of censorship. Santiago agreed we could have a better e-mail decorum as a group. Rachel spoke in favor of all of us working to improve e-mail communications as a group, but was against imposing some procedural restrictions on the googlegroup as a way to achieve this. Michael also agreed we can be more friendly on e-mail, even when we are having heated discussions. Kathy suggested we try to have more productive discussions to solve this over email. Chris spoke very strongly against the proposal, and argued he saw it as an attempt to silence opposition and was “crass censorship” against political discussion, like Troy Davis letter and death penalty, that some senators don’t want to debate on the list. He suggested the main reason we have a USS googlegroup is for political debates and discussion, not procedural business and agenda items. Hajir also raised some concerns about the proposal, and did not think this proposal would help us move forward as a group. Melissa reminded us we have a diversity of views and voices on the Senate, and that sometimes makes communication tough, be we should all do our best.
Following the debate and discussion, Katherine withdrew her proposal.
Gender issues and bathrooms
Elandre and Saffo from NSSR Anthropology Student Association (ASA) presented ongoing concerns about the lack of equal access for transgender students on campus, especially in the 6 E 16th building that NSSR students use. Saffo, who identifies as a trans student, said that although the administration has made some minor changes to accommodate–keycard access on lobby and 5th floor–the larger issue of discrimination and policing of transgendered students needs to be addressed, and asked the USS to help work on this at the highest level.
Various ideas were discussed, from making all of the New School bathrooms gender neutral to having at least one on every building. Some of the ASA students have been working with the GFSS to draft a letter on these issues, and they will send it to us once it is approved. Saffo said in discussion with Tim Sheldon in facilities the basic response to these issues has been that it is out of his hands, so students are trying to go above facilities to address this.
Chris mentioned that Linda Reimer of SS had asked the Social Justice Committee to take on this issue in the Committee, and that the co-chairs were area of the issues and working to get movement going on it in the Committee. Santiago asked if we could add the issue of gender access to our Student Agenda as an official new item? Chris responded yes we could is we wanted to. Voltaire suggested one of the students might be able to get on the facilities committee (UFC) to help push this issue across the university. Michael raised the concern that some students would be opposed to gender-neutral bathrooms for many reasons, from safety to political timidity. Saffo responded we should not accept cisgender privilege as a given, but challenge it, so it’s a good think to make straight students uncomfortable to have to use a gender-neutral bathroom–we should not just take their privilege as a given and support it. Santiago suggested maybe gender awareness should become part of freshman orientation.
New School Basketball Team
Melissa said she had been approached by the coach of the TNS basketball team. They are looking for funding support to rent court space for practicing. They were interested in Chelsea Piers, but other raised a concern that asking for $4000 to rent Chelsea Piers for a handful of students didn’t make sense, and there are lots of free parks they could practice in around the city. Melissa is going to suggest they look into McBurney YMCA on 14th as TNS already rents space for intramural sports there.
Structure for Friday Dinner and Discussion
The USS draft letter will be passed out at the Friday Dinner and Discussion to get feedback before sending something. Chris and Melissa agreed to bottomline the Friday event, but encouraged everyone to come and help. Group decided to keep the structure pretty informal, but we would bring flip charts and markers to make notes and write on if we want it, and will have food (pizza) and A/V setup for the event in case we need it. We will also ask for other topics at the meeting from those in attendance. Hajir will talk with Karen Connor-Wilson to get some easels and markers ordered to have for Friday.
Political Role of the USS
Tabled
Occupy Wall St. support letter
Our draft letter is finalized, and we will hand it out on Friday to get feedback from students, then revise and send out to campus.
Occupy Wall St. All-Campus Forum (Oct 20th ?)
Chris and Bronwyn have been helping facilitate this. No date secured yet, but hopefully soon. Either Oct 20th or Oct 22/23rd as possible dates or times.
Student Involvement & Building Community Across Divisions
Tabled
New School -v- Corporate Greed
Tabled
Logo contest
So far only 2 submissions. Chris motioned to move to an end of semester deadline, so we can try and get more submissions. Second by Kathy. All in favor. Motion passed.
Community garden
Tabled
Unconference
Tabled
Common vision
Tabled
Motion to adjourn by Bronwyn. Second by Kathy. All in favor. The meeting was adjourned at 11:41 PM.
Respectfully submitted by USS Secretary chris crews.
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