14 February 2007

Residence Life Commission Report

Greetings, all.  I hope you’ve had a wonderful 7^th week of the quarter.  Senator Pollard and Senator Golby both attended the Dining Services Development Committee Meeting last evening.

Sen. Golby is also meeting with David Trinise and is continuing to explore options with the smoking policy.  He and Senator Pollard also helped to promote the Student Trustee position.  Sen. Finical met with the Copeland Scholars group as well as other organizations within the College of Business to promote the Student Trustee Selection Process. 

Senator Kostiha has finalized the dining hall petition and is still planning on gathering signatures on the 24^th.  Senator Smith along with V.P. Crites finished the elections rules change which is going to be up tonight.  She and I also attended the University Curriculum Council meeting yesterday, which was a blast.  Senator Noble

Our interns are looking into possible names for the new residence hall on south green, as we all agree that “63 South Green Drive” is rather generic. 

I attended the Read-Johnson Think Tank seminar on Cultivating Leadership last night.  There was a lot of stimulating dialogue about the role of leaders on campus and ways for students to get more involved.  Of course, I mentioned Student Senate. 

Finally, the work Senator Smith and I put in last quarter on the committee reviewing the upperclass housing policy has culminated in the resolution before you tonight.  I urge you all to read it over carefully and ask any questions you may have.

END OF REPORT

7 February 2007

Residence Life Commission Report

Howdy.  I hope you’re all having a wonderful week and are ready to go to the intern dinner tomorrow night. 

Due to midterms, projects, and a certain city council meeting, Res. Life did not meet this week, but I did receive reports from a few Senators.  Senator Noble spent the weekend in Washington D.C. and presented our concerns regarding the athletic cuts to Congressmen Charlie Wilson.    Sen. Kostiha met with Chief of Staff Gargulio and they created a rough draft of the dining hall petition.  Senator Smith has finished the rules change proposal regarding voting changes and has submitted it to Rules and Procedures.    

Our interns are doing a fabulous job, as they compiled a great deal of information regarding Title IX, which I plan on forwarding to Senator Bell for use by the Special Committee on Athletics. 

Those are all the people I’ve received reports from, so if your name wasn’t mentioned, shame on you. 

I spent the majority of the week helping Senator Bell follow up with the Athletics resolution and Senator Fardy look into the Worker’s Rights Consortium..  I also attended a meeting with Commissioner Heery, Assoc. Provost John Day and Dr. Kirch regarding the incident last Fall with the Accounting 101 exams. 

I have received feedback from Jenny Hall-Jones, Matt White, and Rich Carpinelli regarding the resolution that was passed two weeks ago in support of the RA compensation increase.  They were all very encouraging and thanked us for our support

Finally, Assoc. Director of Housing, Beverly Wyatt, has sent me a final draft of the proposed Upper Class Housing Policy.  Senator Smith and I helped to draft this last quarter and Dir. Wyatt has requested that Senate review it so we’re hoping to have a resolution up next week.  If you’re interested in being on that, either send me a note or see me after the meeting. 

END OF REPORT

31 January 2007

Residence Life Commission Report

Good evening all.  Senator Noble is still awaiting word on the Halloween Fee Implementation Team meetings.  Senator Smith is continuing to work on updating our rules so that we can have electronic voting this spring.  She plans to wrap up her research within the next week or so.  She, Senator Golby, and myself also took part in the lighting walk this past Sunday. 

Senator Kostiha is set to meet with Chief of Staff Gargulio this Friday to discuss the dining hall petition.  Her new target date is Sat. Feb. 24.  Senator Finical has arranged to have Dean Hogan come and give a presentation to Senate about the Implementation of the new alcohol policy on Feb. 14. 

Senator Golby and Senator Pollard are gathering contact info from tRAC and the Learning Communities about hall councils and classes we can visit to give a presentation on the Student Trustee Selection Committee.

Interns Catie, Jen, and Joni are doing research on MAC and Peer Institutions’ Athletic programs and their respective budgets.  They are also looking into the specifics of Title IX and statistics regarding the number of institutions currently in compliance, as well as the penalties associated with non-compliance. 

On Sunday, I met with Sen. Cataline and Commissioner Heery to draft preliminary survey questions for the Semesters v. Quarters issue.  I also met with Senator Bell and helped to draft the Athletic Cuts resolution that is before you this evening.  In other news, we’re trying to schedule a meeting with Barb Harrison to discuss disability room selection.

END OF REPORT

24 January 2007

Residence Life Commission Report

Hi all.  Res. Life has stayed rather busy this quarter, as we have yet another resolution up tonight.  I hope you’ve all read and have questions about the Halloween Guest Fee Resolution. 

In other news, Senator Kostiha is still working with our three interns to formulate the dining hall petition.  They’re toying with the idea of delaying the signature gathering until late February, as Senator Pollard informed us that Rich Neumann projects that most students will run out of dining dollars around Feb. 20. 

During our commission meeting, we discussed ideas regarding the University’s smoking policy.  The general consensus seemed to be that the Res. Life model is the most practical.  Senator Golby had a meeting with Terry Koons yesterday and they discussed the idea of putting up signs on academic buildings asking people to please be courteous and not smoke directly outside the doors or underneath windows.   They’re also looking into offering classes to students who want to quit smoking.

As I mentioned earlier, Sen. Pollard attended the DSDC meeting along with Senator Golby.  All seems to be going well on that front.  Senator Smith assisted with the writing of the Guest Fee Resolution and is also researching changes to our election rules which would allow for electronic voting. 

Our interns; Catie, Jen, and Joni, in addition to helping with the Dining Hall petition researched RA compensation at peer and other MAC institutions.  As was reported last week, we rank in the bottom 5 of the 32 state institutions in Ohio.  Should the funding request be approved, we would move up to around 15^th. 

This week, I attended the General Fee meeting where we went over Treas. McKinney’s application draft and set the dates for our funding interviews.  I also attended the Enrollment Management Advisory Committee Meeting earlier this afternoon with Sen. Cataline.  Just an FYI, admissions are up 420, admits are up 80 and average ACT score is up .1 (to 23.4). 

END OF REPORT