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Student Government Association MinutesOctober 27, 2015

I. ROLL CALL : Kelsey Butler and Tara Lambert were absent and Alaina Bracken sent an alternate.

A. APPROVAL OF MINUTES FROM October 20, 2015 : Minutes were approved. 1. Jocob Lotter: I move to edit the minutes to include

Xavier Carmona’s absence from the first roll call only. Motion carries.

II. PRESIDENT’S REPORT : Evelyn DinaA. Tonight we have Nicole West to talk a bit about Academic

Advising and answer any questions you have because registration is creeping up on us. 1. Nicole West: I was instructed to talk briefly about

some of the stuff that we do in advising. Many of you already know what we do, like Evelyn said, registration is upon us. Advising is already under way, we’ve had numerous first year students come in to be peer advised, some of our peer advisors who are in the room can attest to that. We’ve done a great job of reaching out to all of our first year students to make sure that they’re aware of the process.

2. This semester, like every Fall semester in the past, we offer advising and registration information sessions. Last fall we offered five and hit around 512 first year/transfer students. This semester I offered six, and we’ve reached 885 first year/transfer students, so I saw a huge increase and I appreciate the work of Jon Cubetus, who got the word out about the sessions, as well as OLs, who got the word out about sessions, and just everyone in general. Faculty were great as well.

3. We want to make sure that students are aware that they should be coming in to meet with a peer advisor, they don’t have an assigned peer advisor, we have a lot of first year students under the impression that they have one peer advisor that they meet with, and that’s not the case. A first year student can walk into our office and say ‘hi, I need to be peer advised’, and they can be assisted. We want to make sure that our students are coming in right away to take care of that so they can be prepared for registration days. Seniors, you all register Friday, October 30; hopefully it’s your last one. Any early registration candidates, early registration through Banacos are actually registering tomorrow, October 28 at 7:00pm , I have a student sitting in my office right now being

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advised for that. It’s truly under way; juniors will register next Friday, November 6, followed by athletes, first and second year athletes. We really want athletes to take advantage of the early registration, it took athletics many years to get early registration for first and second year athletes, so please don’t discount that opportunity. That’s for spring athletes, so any athletes participating in a spring sport. If you’re in a fall sport like football or soccer, you don’t get early registration until the spring.

4. It’s important that you’re all prepared for registration days, we have a lot of students that wait until the last minute to take part in that, and registration is an experience all on its own. If you wait until the last minute, and try to get all these things accomplished the day before you register for classes, you’re just making it that much more difficult. Please utilize this time period to get things accomplished when it comes to that. I can’t speak to the quality of advising you receive from your faculty members, hopefully you’re engaging them in meaningful conversation and that’s opening up the dialogue with them. If you’re feeling frustrated about that experience, don’t hesitate to come see us and discuss it with us 1-on-1 so we can hopefully fix that situation if possible.

5. I want to talk a little bit about the last day to withdraw from a fall semester course, it’s November 18, so if any of you are feeling like you might be struggling in a course, it might be affecting your overall GPA, and for those of you that belong to a specific major, you may have GPA requirements, it’s important that you know that you have the ability to withdraw from the course. Yes, it can affect your standing, and there are consequences so to speak, but I will tell you that it is better to withdraw from a course, than to fail a course. If you’re feeling like you might need to do something about that, don’t hesitate to come speak to professional advising staff. Our peer advisors are great, and they can handle many situations, but when it comes to discussing the processes of dropping a course, we would prefer you talk to a professional staff member.

6. The last thing I really want to touch upon is a new program, it’s not technically new, but it’s WSU 360. It’s similar to degree audit; you have a degree evaluation, degree works, it’s all the same thing. This is something that we adapted last fall, and the reason that we had this particular program is for progress surveys. There are five particular populations on campus that require that we receive

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progress surveys on them. All of our first year athletes, through NCAA regulations, are required to have progress surveys completed on them. All of our UrbanEd, Trio, services students, learning disability students, or students enrolled in the learning disability program within the Banacos Center. Not disability services, there are two separate programs and we focus primarily on the learning disabilities program. The fifth and final one is probation. All five of those populations of students require progress surveys. Five to six years ago, the University was sending out paper surveys. However, now they’ve decided to go electronic so that professors do not have to fill out multiple progress surveys for the same student. That’s what WSU 360 is, it’s a retention software solution that allows faculty to report on how students are doing in their courses back to the support staff in those five areas in academic achievement so that we can maybe be doing some intervention work with that student to make sure that they’re accessing all of the support services that they may need. That particular program, WSU 360, isn’t specific to those five populations. You all have access to WSU 360, you may all have gotten a kudos or flag, some of you may have received an email from me in the last month or so saying kudos or way to go, and you may have been thinking how the heck do you know that I’m doing well in that class? That’s your faculty member saying kudos, keep up the great work. So faculty are able to give kudos, raise flags, or create tracking items on students even if they don’t belong to those five populations because we want faculty engaging the student more if they aren’t being successful, plus if there are ways to be introducing some new support systems to promote academic success. Over the next couple of weeks, it’d be important for you to start accessing this. You all have access to WSU 360 through the academics tab on myWestfield, click on that link and you can surf around. You have access to your current instructors and their contact information, your primary advisor and their contact information is in there as well.

7. All the support services; tutoring, academic achievement, advising, you can be accessing all the support services right there at your fingertips. It’s a really great system, when you log in, you can set up a personal profile through the institution. We already have photos created for you as profile photos; unfortunately for some of you, your ID photos. You do have the ability to upload a new photo, but keep in mind that people can see your photo.

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a. Nickalena Richards: If you’re not in a major, sometimes the courses you register for are major restricted. Where do you receive the forms to get past the restriction?

b. Nicole West: That’s the permission to enroll form, which allows a student to enroll in a course that they may be restricted on based on their major, class year, missing prerequisites or co-requisites for the course, or just needing permission from the instructor. This form can be found online on the Registrar’s home page, in our office with each of the professional advising staff members, as well as the Registrar’s office. The Registrar’s office has been trying out some new ways where if you get the permission to enroll form signed by your faculty member prior to your registration date and give it to them, they may be able to lift the restriction. Most times, if you bring it to them after registration has passed, they’ll retroactively put you into that course. The instructor of the course should sign it; if the chair of the department has the power to sign it, they can sign it too.

c. Evelyn Dina: Regarding the forms to request a class to be pass/fail, can you make a non-major online class pass/fail?

d. Nicole West: I don’t believe the instructional method matters that would be up to the instructor to determine. In the past, that has never been the case. If not, clarify with the registrar’s office.

e. Rebecca Kennedy: Where can we find the advising and registration form this year?

f. Nicole West: Typically, academic departments are supposed to go to the registrar’s office to receive a packet of the forms to then disperse to their faculty members that advise. We do have a stack of forms, but we have to hang on to them so that we don’t run out of them. If a student needs one, you can access them at the Registrar’s office. Most faculty use the practice sheet in the book, I stress the importance of using the carbon copy sheet as the yellow part goes into your registration file and can be used when tough situations occur to show accountability. We use somewhere close to 1200 sheets per semester, so whatever we get our hands on, we tend to keep so that we don’t risk running out.

g. Haley Batchelder: If I’m working with a professor to make a course an honors-leveled course, do I go through the registrar or is that a separate matter?

h. Nicole West: I would assume the honors program would know what to do, I know they’re very limited in the amount of times they can do that for a

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student, if you get the honors program to sign off on it, I’m sure they’ll communicate to the registrar’s office that what you’re doing is an honors course. The registrar’s office doesn’t really keep track of the number of honors courses that you take, it’s mostly the honors program that takes care of that to make sure that you’re satisfying commonwealth honors or just honors requirements.

i. Sharleen Varghese: Since I declared a concentration, do I have to see a specific advisor for the concentration or do I just see you?

j. Nicole West: Your Liberal Studies advisor will advise you for both your concentration and the rest of your liberal studies courses.

B. Thank you Nicole. Please remember to take the online mandatory HAVEN Sexual Assault course; the deadline to take it is this Friday. There will be a hold on your account if you do not complete it and you will be charged $50.00.1. Tyquan Robles: Is there a specific time that this part

of HAVEN is due on Friday?2. Sue LaMontagne: First off, part one is the only

mandatory part. Part two, you’ll get after 45 days and it will take 15 minutes to do, we’d like you to do it so we can compile information. Furthermore, not completing HAVEN by this Friday, October 30 won’t put a hold on your registration for this upcoming semester, but it will hold your Spring registration or graduation. I’d just like to say one more thing, the first line of the email that I just sent says if you are receiving this email and have not completed the first part of the HAVEN course. I got a lot of emails from students worrying that they shouldn’t have received the email since they completed it. Please tell your friends that if they completed it, they’re good. We just don’t have a way to separate the names out.

C. Also, a quick reminder for those who may not have been here last week, SGA bonding is going to be after our meeting on November 10. We are going to order pizza and play Minute to Win It. The next day is Veteran’s Day so we will not have classes and can stay late and have lots of fun.

D. For everyone who was not here for our last meeting, please come up after and have your “Who’s Your Senator” photo taken. I will also have you fill out a slip with the information that will be going on the posters.

E. “Owl Madness” is going to be 9:30pm – 11:00pm in Woodward Center; it’ll be a pep-rally to kick off the Winter sports season. There will be performances by student groups like the Cheerleaders.

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1. Dr. Carlton Pickton: Just a clarification for Owl Madness, it’s not just for winter sports but also to celebrate the season of the fall sports that are wrapping up by the end of November.

F. Items not listed on the agenda.

III. BOARD OF TRUSTEES’ REPORT : Justin ConnollyA. Tomorrow, Wednesday, October 28 from 9:30am until 10:30am

the Board of Trustee’s Finance and Capital Assets will meet to discuss the Phase one and Phase two funding of Juniper Park.

B. At 10:30am the full Board of Trustees will convene for a special meeting to pick the 20 President of Westfield State University. It is scheduled to last two hours but I am not positive how long it will actually run for. Both of these meetings will take place in the Presidential Board Room.

C. I am starting up the “Save the Globe” initiative once again for this year. I am asking for a representative from each council, as well as anyone who is interested in joining this initiative; please see me after the meeting so I can get your contact information. I will be meeting with Dr. Preston, Dr. Pickron and the Advancement Department tomorrow, October 28, and we will be making updates on our next move then.1. Ashely Deleon: For those who don’t know, where is the

Presidential Boardroom?2. Justin Connolly: It’s in the second floor of Horace Mann

to the right through the double door.3. Jacob Lotter: Point of Information: the Board of

Trustees meeting tomorrow is a unit opportunity.4. Rehana Yusif: What do you need Representatives for in

the save the glob initiative? 5. Justin Connolly: I’d like the initiative to be a bit

more organized this year, I’d like a representation of students on campus and each year essentially to give input on what that council or class could do to help us achieve our goal.

6. Rehana Yusif: So you want us to fundraise within our council?

7. Justin Connolly: It’s up to you guys; I thought this would be a great opportunity to not just fund your own initiatives, but also our campus goal itself.

8. Marcus DiBacco: I have a commentary on the globe: normally, people would support a proposal like this for the memories and stories they’ve had, maybe about hanging out with friends or how on a dark night they can see the light in the center and think about how awesome it is. I’m a freshman, I have no stories like that and I’ve never actually seen the globe. I think that this proposal gives us a chance; I think it’s absolutely something worth fighting for. I fully support Justin in

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his efforts to save the globe, especially so it gives us all to make memories that will last in college.

9. Ivana McGlinchey: How soon will we be informed of the presidential decision after the meeting concludes?

10. Justin Connolly: As soon as possible. 11. Andrew Morin: Is the meeting dress code?12. Justin Connolly: It’s an open meeting, so no. You can

come in flip flops and a bathing suit if you want.D. All University Committee: No ReportE. Neighborhood Advisory Board: No Report

IV. VICE PRESIDENT’S REPORT-STUDENT LIFE : Matthew Carlin A. Student Affairs has meet this past Friday, October 23,

with a multitude of agenda items we will be looking at.1. We discussed the smoking policy, for it seems that

many of us have either forgotten or have not read it. In a quick summary, everyone should not be smoking on campus, but if you must the Gazebos located behind New Hall/ Mod Hall and next to Ely is where you should be smoking. I should remind you that there is no electronic smoking devices allowed on campus. The gazebos are for tobacco cigarettes only. a. The committed is looking into ways to better

educate the campus about smoking and its harms as well as information regarding the new trends of electronic/vapor.

b. I am currently looking to obtaining more signage on campus to remind everyone of our policy and I am looking for ideas on good locations for it.

2. We are talking about possible renovations to the Commuter Café in Wilson or known as “The Grill” and trying to make the space more comfortable for those who use it.

3. The next item was regarding trash and pollution on campus. There has been an increase in the amount of trash and debris around campus and especially south lot and the residence halls. Please pick up after yourselves, and in order to help out efforts, I am looking into increasing the number of trach barrels around campus and South lot to promote proper disposal. I am looking for ideas on possible locations for these new barrels as well.

4. On behalf of ResLife I beseech you to please look at the emails and take the surveys regarding your spring intention forms and the ResLife survey that has just recently gone out. These are important survey’s because they are being used to make new decisions in ResLife and Dinning services. If you have deleted your emails please see me after the meeting.a. Rehana Yusif: Is there any news about the parking

situation that was brought up last meeting?

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b. Matt Carlin: We talked about it in parking control board, and the end result is that we’re not going to entertain the idea since we collectively agreed that it was a bad idea.

c. Ashley Deleon: For the dining services email, there was no link to click, but there was just a picture with the link on it, which was very inconvenient. I didn’t know if that was by mistake or if there was a different email with a link.

d. Andrew Manchino: It was just a mistake on Sodexo’s part for the email, so I’ll talk to them about fixing that mistake.

e. Ivana McGlinchey: Is there any way to look at bringing back Lammers and Dickinson parking for the weekend?

f. Matt Carlin: We’re waiting for the Rules and Regs parking to come back to us, and once we get that, we’ll review that and see if there are any changes we can feasibly make. As of now, it’s not on our agenda, but I can bring it up and see what we can do about it.

g. Andrew Morin: What’s the parking situation behind new hall regarding commuter parking and fac/staff parking?

h. Matt Carlin: It is confusing, half is fac/staff and half is commuter, the spots closest to the building are fac/staff and the ones on the other side are commuter. You cannot park in the fac/staff areas at all.

i. Andrew Morin: Neither of them are really labeled too well, and people are going to think that they’re in a commuter spot when they’re actually in a fac/staff spot.

j. Matt Carlin: I’ll bring it up when we talk about signage, I can definitely talk about the current signs over there.

k. Karina Salloway: Is the smoking policy on campus going to be just for students or everybody?

l. Matt Carlin: It’s for the whole campus, keep in mind that the policy is designed for community enforcement, so if you see someone smoking on campus, you should direct them to either put it out or to go to a gazebo.

m. Karina Salloway: I see a lot of the Sodexo workers smoking in between the DC and the maintenance building and it just smells really bad when you walk by.

n. Dr. Carlton Pickron: I know a lot of the Sodexo workers do go over to the gazebos to smoke, but I understand the issue. Also, I know sometimes when we’re not around during the weekend, the policy can

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be a little lax, but we’ll make sure that gets taken care of

B. Student Affairs Committee: No ReportC. Multicultural Committee: Ivana McGlinchey

1. Last week the Diversity Council met with CAB and discussed the possibility of having a spring week and sponsoring with different student partners with CAB.

2. LAFE is hosting the Express your colors: Tie Dye Event tonight, October 27 at 7:00pm in the Owls Nest.

3. DISA is hosting a bus for the event of Janet Mock Redefining realness: a discussion with Janet Mock on race and gender. For those who don’t know who Janet Mock is she is an American writer, transgender rights activist, author and the former staff editor of People Magazine’s website.

4. Also Greek Life is October 29 from 4:00pm to 7:30pm in Dever Stage.

5. November 3 is Westfield State’s coming out day.a. Lizette Rivera: We’re going to have an event

regarding national coming out day on November 3, QSA is going to be in the gallery upstairs and there will be an actual closet for people to come out of if they want to. There is also going to be dialogue and conversations with it, so just giving you guys a heads up. November 12, the day after Veteran’s Day, there will be a film festival held regarding the 65th Infantry from Puerto Rico, the only entirely Hispanic Infantry in the entire US Army. They were awarded a congressional gold medal last year, and they’re a highly decorated military unit that also experienced racism and segregation. The film will talk about the war, the struggles, and I hope the university will get behind this to show that Westfield State supports veterans.

6. Our next scheduled meeting is November 4 at 5:00pm in the Unity Room.

D. Food Services Committee: No ReportE. Health Committee: No ReportF. Parking Control Board: No ReportG. Student Athletic Advisory Board: No ReportH. Substance Advisory Committee: No ReportI. Community Relations/Fundraising Report: Marissa Cremin

1. I am super excited to be talking about the Turkey Drive tonight. This has been a very successful charity effort for several years due to the ongoing support and generosity of the Westfield State University Community. a. Last year we raised $1,855.63 and were able to

purchase 114 turkeys to donate to the Westfield Chapter of the Salvation Army for local families in need. I know we can do even better this year, and our goal is to raise over $2,000.00. Each Class Council will collect for an assigned building, and

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each Hall Council will collect for their Residence Hall You will go around your assigned building room-to-room or office-to-office collecting spare change, as well as turkey coupons people may have from shopping at Big Y. If you would like you could also try setting up a table in your building. Do whatever works best for you and get everyone involved.i. Executive Board will be collecting in Woodwardii. Class of 2016 will be collecting in the

Apartment complex.iii. Class of 2017 will be collecting in Parenzo and

Mod hall.iv. Class of 2018 will be collecting in Ely.v. Class of 2019 will be collecting in Harace Mann.vi. Commuter Council will be collecting in Wilson.

vii. Reps at Large will be collecting in Bates.viii. Our 8 Hall Councils collecting as well means we

have 15 groups collecting.ix. Lammers will also collect for the

Career/Counseling Center and Scanlon will collect for Residential Life.

b. If your group raises more than $140.00, everyone on your council is all set with units for the month of November.

c. You will deliver what you have collected to Me, Barbara Hand or Kim Hosmer in the SGA room by Monday, November 16. We will then be using this money to purchase Thanksgiving Turkeys through the Big Y in Westfield, and the Salvation Army will distribute them to families in need in the area.

d. The Turkey Drive has been a very rewarding and successful event that we have put on in the past, so I hope to keep it going strong this year.

2. Best of luck collecting. The group that raises the most money will win a pizza part sponsored by SGA. If you have any questions at all do not hesitate to email me or come down to the office and ask Barbara Hand or Kim Hosmer. a. Morgan Suddeth: Does the $140.00 include coupons?b. Marissa Cremin: Noc. Dr. Carlton Pickron: When do the halls go around

campus?d. Marissa Cremin: It’s really up to the Hall Council,

we should be starting next week and we’ll have until Monday, November 16 to bring back the money.

e. Barbara Hand: Point of information: Marissa already has the email sent to me that I will send out to fac/staff on Monday.

f. Shannon Cullinane: Are we going to get envelopes to keep the money in a safe place?

g. Marissa Cremin: Yes, you can pick them up in SGA.

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h. Justin Connolly: I urge that everyone participates this year. Last year I had the honor of d oing this as well. A lot of the halls really went into it, and a lot of the halls and councils didn’t put as much effort in. It’s a great cause, and it’s a lot of fun to get to know the campus community since they’re your constituents. Raising this money reflects on how well you work as a senator, and I strongly urge that you participate and try to win the pizza party.

V. VICE PRESIDENT’S REPORT-ACADEMIC LIFE : Jon CubetusA. Today, Matt Carlin and I are here to talk about the

Physician’s Assistant Program and the new Health Sciences Department. For the people who were not here before, Dr. Marsha Moratta, Dr. Holly Noun and Dr. Jennifer Hixon came down to talk to SGA in mid-September about the programs. To supplement and clear up any other questions, we have a few key talking points and facts about the program.1. When the Physician’s Assistant program is fully

implemented in September 2017, it will be the first and only program of its kind in New England. This is particularly important because this includes both private and public schools; in this respect, Westfield is pioneering the movement. Some students have also expressed concern regarding the cost of the program, both on the side of the students and the University. The initial development of the program will not use money from the state, only funds raised by the Division of Graduate and Continuing Education. And after the second full year of its existence, it will be fully self-sustaining and raise $2 million for the school as a whole. Of that, $400,000 will be coming directly to the University. As far as money goes, this program is extremely profitable.

2. The other aspect of this is the Department of Health Sciences. The department will be housed within the undergraduate day school and also be the home of the new Health Science Degree. The need for this Bachelors of Science is important because we currently have around 300 students forming a conglomerate of courses to eventually go into medical school or other medical professions.

3. As far as the current status of the program and department, it is going through the University governance system. On Wednesday of last week, the Graduate Education council met to discuss the proposal. This proposal has been tabled until their next meeting in November.

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4. With respect to the GEC meeting, the faculty union has already submitted a grievance against the process of the program. Matt Carlin can speak more on this.

5. The Health Sciences proposal is now on the agenda of the Curriculum Committee. More on the discussion will come later. a. Andrew Morin: Is the grievance for the program

itself b. Matt Carlin: The grievance has been filed because

the governance regarding the program should not be going through the graduate education council; they think it should be going through the all university committee and then the curriculum committee for governance. So the process, not the program.

c. Andrew Morin: When we add a master’s program to any other major, would they go through AUC and curriculum?

d. Matt Carlin: Common practice for the last 13 or so years has been going through graduate education council. They are claiming at this point that has been wrong, and this is holding up the current program because they’re questioning the process.

e. Jon Cubetus: The grievance itself won’t hold up the program completely, it’ll still go through; it may just slow it down a little.

f. Jeremy Forgue: Does the grievance also deal with problems with already implemented graduate programs?

g. Jon Cubetus: It’s a mix of sorts, the MSCA is claiming that they are challenging the process itself and not content, but that’s just the surface of it.

h. Matt Carlin: Keep in mind while we’re talking about the PA program, even though they are separated, there is an association between the PA program and the health science department that’s going through. Student government has representatives on Curriculum Committee, we do not, however, have representatives on Graduate Education Council for it is for graduate matters.

i. Ryan Losco: If I understand this right, we currently in Curriculum Committee have health sciences. Since the grievance is for the PA program, as far as Health Sciences goes, it is still going through AUC and Curriculum, correct?

j. Jon Cubetus: Yes, that is correct. As for Curriculum, I know it was on the agenda today to discuss, but I wasn’t able to go to the meeting. I can provide an update on that next week.

k. Ryan Losco: As far as SGA making a recommendation, I think that’d be a great idea to assert our opinion as the voice of campus and to be able to hear a little bit more about this.

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l. Tyquan Robles: For those of us who don’t know, why does this whole process matter?

m. Matt Carlin: We need to perform in the best interest of students here on campus. This program would provide a great opportunity for future students here on campus, which is in our purview. Essentially, we’re looking at our first public PA program in the state at a reasonable cost that would not only help the students, but would also help the community around the area. Hampden County has one of the worst health care stats in Massachusetts, if not the worst. This program is designed in mind to address this issue, so I guess this program has no negatives for students, so we should not be allowing this to be fought without fighting for it ourselves.

n. Tyquan Robles: What can we personally do as SGA in order to push this forward?

o. Jon Cubetus: The most formal way would be a letter of recommendation to the president’s office or to one of the committees, that’s why we’re here right now to look for the content and arguments for the recommendation from you guys. We’re looking for why students actually want it, not just because we want to do it to do it.

p. Matt Carlin: Because we have a Health Services department in curriculum, our representatives should be bringing the opinion of us, which in turn means they should have the opinion of our constituents. This is a great opportunity to take your job beyond these meetings; we’re not asking for an answer right now, but in the next few weeks, you should be going out to your constituents and pulling opinions of fellow students here asking what they think of this, then bringing it back here when we ask for questions, comments and concerns.

q. Jon Cubetus: That was the basis of the 10 fast facts you all received, so that everyone has some sort of general knowledge to share. Rather than making an argument against a student that doesn’t necessarily favor it, just present them the facts and let them form their own opinion so you can hear it.

r. Morgan Suddeth: The recommendation that we formulate, is that going against the grievance or for the program?

s. Matt Carlin: That will be for the program itself, recommendations can only be made on proposals sent through the governance process, so we wouldn’t be talking about the grievance, but we’d recommend them to approve/not approve, whatever the opinion of students is.

t. Sara Palis: I was in Curriculum today, the problem with the PA program that’s different for any other

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graduate degree is that the Health Sciences hasn’t been established yet, so part of the problem was that we cannot have a PA program if it’s not housed in a department. Compared to adding any other master’s program to an already established department, they’re both happening at once, which complicates the process.

u. Andrew Morin: To speak to that point, I would bring to curriculum that you can apply to PA school without having a health science degree. You can go to school for nursing and then go to PA school if you took the right classes, same thing for movement science or biology. Just the argument that we don’t have a health science program yet doesn’t fit that argument.

v. Sara Palis: There’s also the post bac program, so if there are people that need to pick up the necessary sciences, they would have to wait until that program passed to take the required courses.

w. Sandra Mercer: Is the recommendation process from SGA as a whole, and is senate just giving quotes regarding how they feel about it?

x. Matt Carlin: The recommendation is by the elected officers of SGA; from my understanding, that would be the Executive Council, but obviously we do not act without discussing with senate as a whole. The recommendation itself could be anything from a simple approval to an in depth argument as to how it should be approved or not approved. Realistically speaking, we do not have a precedent to follow because as far as I know, I’m relatively one of the first students to have addressed the issues in the contract. From here, I think I would reiterate that we should be going out to our constituents to get an opinion from them so we are truly representing students on campus. Committees should be asking when they have an agenda item up here the same thing we’re talking about, basically getting general opinions to bring back to their committees.

y. Andrew Morin: Where does the post bac program stand as of now?

z. Jon Cubetus: I’ll look into it and get back to you. aa. Shannon Cullinane: I think it’s a good idea to

pass everything, but I’m confused how they see a negative aspect to this. Plus, you’re handing us a sheet that’s all positive things, so how can I go to my constituents and throw all the good things at them without making it seem one sided?

bb. Matt Carlin: I guess the best response is that you have to analyze the actual program itself. The facts that we have are based off of the program itself; realistically speaking on my personal

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opinion, I could not find anything negative with it, but that being said, I also am an undergrad student so I don’t have much experience in graduate programs. A short answer would be I don’t see a negative, but if you can find one, feel free to bring it up.

cc. Shannon Cullinane: If the negative aspect is the process, then how do we give a valid opinion since we’re not in those committees seeing if the process is working or not?

dd. Matt Carlin: When you’re talking to your constituents, the grievance should not be a talking points regarding the program, but instead the aspects of the jobs and quality of education for students that would take this program. Compared to other schools, our program would be about $15,000.00 less than the nearest competitor. I really don’t see anything negative about it, but I cannot assess the quality of a program that doesn’t exist yet.

ee. Evelyn Dina: Point of information – Vice President Marsha Marotta will be down here at 4:00pm next Tuesday, November 3 in passing, for students addressing any questions or have conversations with students. She would be the best person to ask any questions about this program, both positive and negative. I know it’s difficult because we don’t have the actual layout of the program right now, but she’ll be down here at 4 so feel free to ask her questions.

ff. Matt Carlin: To address the proposal, I can send the raw proposal itself, which entails the programs, the classes in the programs, and the outline of goals.

gg. Jeremy Forgue: To add onto finding negatives, it seems like we should try to look for the more realistic aspects of it. I remember I took a lot of notes when it was first reported, and the things that you don’t have on this sheet that you should bring to your peers is that there is a lot of clinical experience along with the fact that health care in Western Massachusetts isn’t doing too great.

hh. Evelyn Dina: If we find that students are in support of this program, we’re going at it in the way to give the chance to new students. I see this grievance as a hindrance to getting the program started, and in order to benefit the students, I think it would be important to voice the students’ opinions. They may be negative, we might not have enough support from students to make this recommendation, but if we are talking to our constituents and the general campus community feels that they’re in support, we should make the

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recommendation so the grievance doesn’t prevent the students from having what they want.

B. Please check for holds on your accounts, before registration.

C. Academic Policies Committee: No ReportD. Curriculum Committee: No ReportE. Enrollment Management Committee: No ReportF. Campus Technology Committee: No ReportG. International Programs Committee: No ReportH. Library Advisory Committee: No ReportI. Writing Liaison: No Report

VI. VICE PRESIDENT’S REPORT-PROGRAMMING : Haley BatchelderA. Programming update: Haley Batchelder

1. I have some CAB events coming up to inform you of, so mark your calendars.a. Tomorrow, October 28 from 7:00pm to 9:00pm we will

have Pumpkin Carving in the Owl’s Nest. Although it won’t be half as exciting as Al Fava’s Pumpkin carving, it will still be a good time, so be sure to come by. All materials and pumpkins are provided for free and the winners of a variety of categories will receive Owl Bucks. Teams may not exceed two people.

b. On Friday, October 30 we have Brown Bag Bingo at 10:00pm in Scanlon Banquet Hall. We will be partnering with Orientation to participate in Oksoberfest, so expect a fun time. Also, be sure to wear your Halloween costume, as anybody with a costume will receive an extra Bingo card. The best Halloween costume should expect to win a price, so goal out.

c. Tomorrow CAB will be back in the Owl’s Nest for our general meeting at 5:00pm.

d. On Halloween night at 6:00pm DISA will also be showing “The Shining” in the Wilson Auditorium. They will be giving away free candy.

e. Cosponsored by CAB and DISA we will be bringing comedian Helen Hong to campus on November 13. Seen on New Girl, Parks and Recreation and Pretty Little Liars, she is bound to provide lots of laughs at 8:00pm in the Owl’s Nest.

f. Keep an eye out for the Leadership Compass Program sessions. These classes can be found by contacting DISA and don’t require a pre-registration. Come to me after the meeting if you want to see the Compass Programs coming up. And remember that attending a program counts as a unit.

VII. VICE PRESIDENT’S REPORT-FINANCE : Brandon TraffordA. Finance Report: Brandon Trafford

1. The Finance Committee has met and decided that $10,000.00 of the $11,952.85 operating budget will be

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used to support our student clubs in the form of Finance Proposals.

2. The Communications Club has come forth and requested that our Student Government supply $200.00 to help pay for Honoraria speaker fee in bringing the noted Indian Documentary Filmmaker, Karan Bali to campus on November 3. Karan will be heading a discussion and providing a partial screening of his latest works. This event will be open to all students and will cost a total of $400.00. the EGST Department is pitching in $200.00 to cover half of the event.

3. The Finance Committee has met and recommended the approval of these funds from senate. We have the pleasure of having Emily Butynski here to represent the Communications club and answer any questions you have about the event itself.

4. I move to allocate $200.00 from the SGA Operation Budget to the Communications Club to help pay the Honoria speaker fee for Karan Bali. Motion carries.a. Jeremy Forgue: Is the operating budget for the

semester or for the year?b. Brandon Trafford: This money is for the year. c. Marcus DiBacco: Can you please explain some of the

documentaries he has worked on?d. Emily Butynski: President Communications Club: His

most famous work has been presented at various film festivals, I’m not a film connoisseur, so I’m not very familiar with his work, but I do know that he created a documentary that was presented at many famous film festivals and it’s about an American man who moved to India and lived in India for several years back in the 1920’s and 1930’s. He worked in the Indian film industry, Bollywood, which is much larger than Hollywood. It’s about his experience in India.

e. Jon Kelland: Where do you stand in your fundraising account?

f. Emily Butynski: The Communications Club started the year with a balance of $3.50 in our budget. We hosted a fundraiser, a bake sale upstairs in the lobby, and raised $125.23. Now we have around $128.00, and we raised it in the hopes of going on an overnight trip to Washington D.C. in the Spring, last year presented I worked with Matt Carlin to do a Finance Proposal for a trip to NYC for the Communication Department, so the plan is that we’ll expand on that trip by going to DC for the night.

g. Molly Lucey: What does the Communications Club do?h. Emily Butynski: The club is part of the Communication

Department; most of our members are Communication Majors. The club is open to everyone, but that happens to be where most of our members come from. The department has several different concentrations

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where various students pursue different types of communication for their own benefit.

i. Andrew Morin: I just want to voice my support for this motion, I think this sounds like a very educational event that should benefit all students in campus that are interested in film or Indian culture.

j. Ryan Losco: I think that it’s great that you’re working with EGST to cut the cost, from my personal experience, dividing and cutting the cost is a great way to put on events and it makes it much easier for us.

k. Brandon Trafford: One thing I’d like to remind senate about as well is that these are the types of events that this money goes for. We’ve created this operating budget out of the student activities fee and that’s what this program is going towards. It’s made by student activities and paid by students so that activities like this can be held on campus. This does have the recommendation of the Finance Committee to pass.

5. I need to see Marissa Cremin after the meeting.6. The next scheduled Finance Committee meeting is on

Friday, October 30 at 2:00pm in the SGA Conference Room E020.

B. Foundation Report: No Report

VIII. SERETARY’S REPORT : Brendan McKee/Jacob LotterA. Executive Secretary Report: Brendan McKee

1. I’m here to report the Senator of the Week. These two students have recently gone above and beyond in their volunteer efforts. They extended their time to volunteer at Homecoming Day and were the only student volunteers helping with clean up after 5:00pm. Their help was extremely appreciated by the Advancement, Alumni and University Relations Department. Therefore, our senators of the week are Christian Capalbo and Rehana Yusif. Congratulations. Just a reminder, the nomination forms are over on the table with the agenda and such, so please take a little bit of time to nominate your fellow senators and show them all some love for the hard work that they’re doing.

B. Legislative Secretary Report: Jacob Lotter1. I’m sure everyone read my unit “how-to” email, I know

it was pretty lengthy, but it had some valuable information in it, especially if you’re a new senator. I know we have people in the room who have already done units, but I figured a refresher couldn’t hurt. However, I did forget to include the precaution for not doing units. If you fail to send me your units by midnight next Tuesday, November 3 you’ll receive a half-absence from SGA. That being said, four units are due for the month of October on November 3 by 3:30pm.

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send them whenever you see fit. I already have units from some people. Email me if you are not sure something is a unit and I’ll let you know. The only people exempt from October units are Michael Guertin, Nicole Orlando, Tyquan Roberts Ariel St. Germaine, Molly Romano, Lindsey Crain, Matt Matos, Gabby Knight, and Nathan Moreau as well as anyone who’s appointed tonight.

2. If you didn’t have a second committee last week and have one this week, please see me after the meeting.

3. I also need Emily McKenelley, Andrew Morin, Kendall Dunbar, Danny Chamberlain, Jeremy Forgue, Sandra Mercer and Presley Mahanna to see me about committees, you can see me after the meeting or you can email me with what committees you’re sitting on.

4. I need to see Molly Lucey and Daisha Serrano briefly after the meeting.

IX. PARLIAMENTARIAN REPORT : Ryan LoscoA. Rules and Regulations Committee: No Report

X. COMMUTER COUNCIL, CLASS AND HALL REPORTS : A. Commuter Council: No ReportB. Senior Class: No ReportC. Junior Class: Andrew Morin

1. The Class of 2017 Social Media blast is in full effect. I hope you have all been able to follow us on Facebook and learn a little bit more on the Class of 2017 officers.

2. We have a few designs picked out for our class t-shirt and we will be having our class vote on Facebook next week.

3. In terms of Mr. Westfield, we are still in the process of confirming judges. Hopefully we will have them all confirmed by next week.

4. We hosted our first round of interviews, last night, and had about seven potential contestants come down and answer some questions for us. If you missed these interviews but are still interested in competing, we will be holding interviews tonight, October 28 from 7:00pm to 9:00pm in Ely 003.

5. Our next scheduled meeting is Thursday, October 29 at 4:00pm in Ely conference room E003.

D. Sophomore Class: Maddie Creamer1. The Class of 2018 has posted out t-shirt designs in the

Facebook page and we are going to send out an email as well. As of right now, we have had a great response from out classmates.

2. We are also hard at work planning the Buzz Off for Cancer event which out tentative date is Sunday, April 10. I will have more information about the Buzz Off

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within the next few weeks once I hear back from our representative from One Mission, whom I just got an email from this afternoon.

3. Our next scheduled meeting is Monday, November 2 at 5:00pm in the SGA conference room E020.

E. First Year Class: No Report F. Apartment Complex: No ReportG. Courtney Hall: No ReportH. Davis Hall: No ReportI. Dickinson Hall: No ReportJ. Lammers Hall: No ReportK. Lansdowne Hall: No ReportL. New Hall: No ReportM. Scanlon Hall: No ReportN. University Hall: No Report

XI. UNFIISHED BUSINESS :.

XII. NEW BUSINESS :

XIII. ANNOUNCEMENTS :A. Justin Connolly: Council Reps and all interested people

please see me after the meeting regarding the save the globe initiative, and Board of Trustees meeting at 10:30am in Horace Mann Presidential Board Room for a unit.

B. Jon Cubetus: Can I see Sara Palis and Rose Ferraro after the meeting?

C. Ryan Losco: Rules and Regs meeting right after SGA in the Conference room E020.

D. Matt Carlin: Please talk to your constituents about the program.

E. Marissa Cremin: for the Turkey Drive, Exec will have Woodward and Reps at Large will have Bates.

F. Dr. Carlton Pickron: Thank you to SGA for supporting the Rays of Hope Walk this past Sunday; it was a wet day but a really great day.

G. Andrew Morin: Can I see Hall Council Presidents after the meeting?

H. Evelyn Dina: For “Who’s your Senator”, I need information from whoever was not here last meeting and we are talking our pictures by the podium.

I. Brandon Trafford: Can I see Marissa Cremin after the meeting?

J. Michael Janchuk: 206 days until commencement.

XV. ROLL CALL : Kelsey Butler, Tara Lambert and Tyquan Robles were absent. Morgan Suddeth, Teresa Aloi, and Lezlie Campbell were excused. Alina Bracken sent an alternate.

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XVI. ADJOURNMENT : Meeting adjourned at 7:10pm.