Student Senate

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

6:00pm, 111 Harrison Hall
AGENDA
I. Call to Order
II. Two Minutes of Silence
III. Roll Call
IV. Announcements and Remarks by the Chair
a. Senator Introductions
V. Consent Calendar

VI. Student Concerns

a. Ideas For Miami Updates!
Mr.Frazier: Uncle Phils Deli- waiting to hear back from Nancy, only way to re-open is if
there is legitimate amount of support
Mr.Forrest: Working with Katie Wilson to allow sidewalk chalking to advertising
Mr.Horvath: Spoke with parking and transportation, bus route to Wal-mart likely next
fall; raise in fees through the department will be enough to support it
Mr.Herbst: puddles

VII. Reports
a. President of the Student Body
-T-shirts for Hawks for Haiti; Redhawk hunt coming up
b. Vice President of the Student Body
-Day at the State House Wednesday March 24th; OSGA constitution and bylaws;
green fund second proposal; relay for life
c. Vice President of Campus Activities
-Boston for national campus activities conference, madness coming up in March
d. Vice President of Student Organizations
e. Secretary for Off Campus Affairs
-Green Beer Day Forum tomorrow!
- meeting with student orgs who plan on doing things off campus Friday
f. Secretary for On Campus Affairs
- creator of evolution of dance video coming; programming position
g. Secretary for Academic Affairs
-No AAC meeting tomorrow; spread word about OPAs
h. Secretary for Diversity Affairs
- DAC meeting re-cap; nomination packets for Diversity Banquet will be going
out soon
i. Secretary for Public Relations
- elections advertising; shout out to Dylan, Miami Student
j. Secretary to the Executive Cabinet
k. Treasurer
-Student Initiative Fund funding theater project- “Glass Half Full”
l. Tech Director
-student tech fees
 m. University Senate - Changes to President’s and Dean’s List
-top 2% of each major except college of arts and science will be on presidents list,
following 18% will be on dean’s list; registrars in the process of showing
historical trends
Mr.McNamara: just major G.P.A’s or overall?
Mr.Hoffman: Overall by semester
Chair: College of Arts and Sciences will group the majors
Ms.Keefer: what if I have a minor?
Chair: It goes by your major, and if you have two majors it goes by your primary
major
Mr.Frazier: are they splitting the sciences?
Chair: no I think they’re all together
Ms.Keefer: what if you’re undecided?
Mr.Hoffman: that is still being debated
Chair: University Senate approved a certificate for grad students in undergraduate
teaching
n. Advisor
-Census update; Outstanding Professor Award

VIII. Special Business of the Day:

a. Census 2010 Signups and Information – Matthew Ciccone
-Student have been grossly underrepresented in the past
-Saturday and Sunday 2nd Floor of LCNB bank; arrive 5-10 minutes early, will
have a rout laid out with a team of senators and ROTC; 48 routes
Mr.Shanley: if you don’t volunteer for something like this no one will ever know,
but if you do, it is really important and makes a difference
b. On Campus Senator Elections
-Senators not here

IX. Old Business:

a. SR021008: A Bill to Support Miami’s signing of the ACUPCC
Mr.Forrest: Nothing changed, been in contact with Miami Sustainability
Coordinator
Chair: How big of a financial burden would this be if it goes into action?
Mr.Forrest: There is some financial burden by going carbon neutral, but it is up to
Miami to decide how to best do this
Mr.Miller: I think it’s a good bill and I support it
Mr.Harmon: this allows us a great deal of flexibility to closer examine something
a lot of people are passionate about, so I don’t see why we wouldn’t go
forth

SR021008 passes by voice vote.

X. New Business:
a. The 2010-2011 Associated Student Government Budget Request
Ms.Hrnjak: Why is the 3,000 in the change column?
 Mr.Ferguson: I will add language that its just being moved not requested
Mr.Senko: What is the club sports agreement?
Mr.Ferguson: they get a certain percentage of the budget and it continues for another two
years at which point we will evaluate our options
Mr.Horvath: if we don’t get all the money we ask for, what are some of the main
problems?
Mr.Ferguson: they will be felt by the student organizations directly; ASG is requesting
this amount but it is solely for the organizations, and cutbacks already have impacted
these orgs
Mr.Zwayer: I like this budget, it gives plenty of room for them to cutback what we have
requested but still give us enough breathing room; student orgs will continue to request
more money so maybe we could encourage a fundraising program for funding
Mr.Jacobson: I agree with what Mr.Zwayer’s saying about not encouraging more
requests with more money
Mr.Cowles: Why did we wait 3 yrs for an increase instead of an annual smaller increase?
Mr.Ferguson: Earlier funding wasn’t set up the way it is, but since Mr.McNabb has taken
over, we’ve done a better job of making sure people are getting money they can use and
decreasing cutbacks; fewer requests and economic climate factors
-after first semester and summer we sweep the accounts to pay down our debt, we still
have about $100,000 of debt left to the university
Mr.Senko: with the plan as it stood last year, every org owed $100/semester and we
would match double what they put in, how long would it take for debt to be cleared?
Mr.Ferguson: off the top of my head about 10 yrs

Passed by unanimous vote.

XI. General Announcements

a. Green Beer Day Forum – Harrison 204 @ 7:30PM
b. Senate Reception at Lewis Place – April 20th

XII. Adjournment
Main Budget Points:
- Student
Organizations
requested over $1Associated Student Government
million from ASG in Budget Request 2010-2011
2009-2010 Associated Student Government respectfully requests the budget
- ASG increased outlined below for the 2011 Fiscal Year. ASG has enacted many
audits to ensure fiscal new programs for the benefit of the student body that will
responsibility from require additional funding for the future. For this reason, we are
student organizations requesting an increase of $120,000 to continue supporting these
- Over 85% of the programs.
student body In 2009-2010, a record number of student organizations (165)
participates in a requested funding for their programs due to reforms ASG
student organization enacted with respect to the funding process. The success of the
program has put a burden on ASG’s fiscal resources and limited
its ability to fully fund the student organization programs. This
 semester our funding committee approved $450,000 of requests
that required a cutback of 35% for all requests. The cutback
severely limits the ability of the organizations to operate
effectively.
It is important to note that per an agreement with ASG, Club
Sports receives 38% of the Student Organization Funding
allocation for the use with their organizations as well. That being
said, other student organizations have requested over $1 million
this fiscal year with an allocation that amounts to less than half
this number.
In addition, Campus activities council requests an increase to make the goals and plans for
programming for next year possible. Event ideas for next year involving more of the first years in
homecoming events, increased budget for Diversity Week, and a concert for the students during both
the fall and spring quarters.
Student government appreciates the support the University gives it and will continue spend the
funds efficiently.
Budget Category 2008-2009 2009-2010 2010-2011 $ Change* % Change*
Operating Costs $66,716 $66,716 $66,716 $0 0%

Student Organization Funding:

Administrative $65,000 $65,000 $75,000 $10,000 15%
Event $625,989 $625,989 $715,989 $90,000 14%
Campus Activities Council (CAC) $181,262 $181,262 $201,262 $20,000 11%

Residence Hall Association (RHA) $2,500 $2,500 $2,500 $0 0%

Student Initiative $10,000 $10,000 $10,000 $0 0%

Total $951,463 $951,463 $1,071,463 $120,000 12.6%

Multicultural Council Concert & $22,000 $22,000 $22,000 $0 0%

Lecture Series
* Dollar and percent changes are all between the 2009-2010 and 2010-2011 fiscal years.
 SR021008:
A Bill to Support Miami’s signing of the ACUPCC

Matt Forrest, Off-Campus Senator

Author(s)

Nathan Zwayer, Chairman, Adhoc Committee on Environmental Sustainability

Jay Harmon, Off-Campus Senator
Audree Riddle, Off-Campus Senator
Randi Keefer, Secretary for On-Campus Affairs
Meghan Wadsworth, Anderson Hall Senator
Stefan Linder, President, Green Oxford
Megan Qua, Vice President, Residence Hall Association
Sponsor(s)

Submitted to Student Senate on:

February 16, 2010

Whereas: As of February 15, 2010 Miami University has not signed the American College
& University Presidents Climate Commitment (ACUPCC);

Whereas: the ACUPCC is a nationwide effort to address global warming by garnering

institutional commitments to neutralize greenhouse gas emissions, and to
accelerate the research and educational efforts of higher education to equip
society to re-stabilize the earth’s climate; and,;

Whereas: To date 667 institutions of higher education have signed the ACUPCC including:
American University, Auburn University, Ball State University, Cornell
University, Duke University, George Washington University, Northeastern
University, Ohio University, Rice University, Syracuse University, The Ohio
State University, University of Cincinnati, University of Illinois at Urbana-
Champaign, University of Massachusetts, University of Missouri System,
University of North Carolina Chapel Hill, University of Toledo, and Western
Michigan University;

Whereas: As Miami strives to be a leading national institution we feel significant and public
action must be taken in the arena of environmental sustainability and reducing
carbon emissions;

Whereas: With the passage of SR020902 Associated Student Government (ASG) Student
Senate established a Adhoc Committee on Environmental Sustainability in order
to hold ourselves to a higher level of environmental accountability;

Whereas: We, the representatives of the student body, feel the need to hold our university to
a higher standard of environmental accountability;
Whereas: We strongly agree with the following statement of ACUPCC that signing
institutions commit to:
“We believe colleges and universities must exercise leadership in their communities and throughout
society by modeling ways to minimize global warming emissions, and by providing the knowledge and
the educated graduates to achieve climate neutrality.”

Therefore be it Resolved: The Associated Student Government of Miami University as

representatives of the student body urges Miami University to
reconsider the signing of ACUPCC and strengthen its commitment
to the environment.

Further be it Resolved: The passage of this resolution serve as the official petition to
President David C. Hodge to make Miami University a leader in
fighting to reduce carbon emissions.