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MINUTES

INDIANA UNIVERSITY STUDENT ASSOCIATION


STUDENT BODY CONGRESS
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
8:30 pm, Business School 100

I. Call to Order
II. Roll Call
a. Present (37): Alexander Mieure, Alexander Simpson, Anuraag Tripathi, Ben
Blair, Christian Hines, Christopher Lenz, Daniel Hinrichs, Darian Stahl, David
Huber, Eric Weigel, Erik Kiser, Forrest Fowler, Hannah Bennett, Jack Diamond,
Jordan Abrams, Joshua Davis, Julia Singer, Laura Wyman, Leonardo Martinez,
Lynn Hughes, Megan Busam, Michael Albert, Mikaela Shaw, Mike Coleman,
Mike Powell, Nicole Hakes, Omair Ali, Ryan Granholm, Sheila Ellis, Shelley
Harriman, Skylar Edwards, Suzi Worsham, Valerie Vandenberg, Veral Patel,
William Miller, William Yu, Allison Shearer
b. Absent with Proxy (3): Allison Shearer, Ashley Reller, Olivia GiaQuinta
c. Absent without Proxy (15): Andrew Conley, Andrew Johnsen, Caitlin Ursini,
Chi Hoong Ng, Danielle Loewenthal, Evan Sweeney, Holly Clark, Jim Snaza,
John O'Hara, Katie Lambert, Mark Shadiow, Neil Bansal, Shona Lee, Thomas
Little, William French
III. Approve Minutes
IV. Executive Reports
a. Luke Fields—IUSA President
b. Dan Sloat—IUSA Vice President
c. Andrew Hahn—IUSA Vice President for Congress
i. Thanks for coming out today
ii. Fall break
iii. Overview of Procedures
d. Robin Featherston—IUSA Treasurer
i. William: What are the status of IUSA Elections issues regarding work
with UITS and funding?
ii. Robin: The funds are available in the IUSA budget
V. Director Reports
a. Abby Skinner—IUSA Department of Women’s Affairs
b. RJ Campbell—Department of Diversity
i. Diversity supports the proposed constitutional ammendment
VI. Committee Reports
a. Rules, Membership, Internal IUSA Affairs Committee
i. We’ve met quorum at every meeting, thanks!
b. Health and Safety Committee
c. Student Rights and Concerns Committee
d. Finance Committee
e. Educational Affairs Committee
i. Sitting on review of Dean of Education
VII. New Business
a. Resolution 09-3-12—Remove Congress Members
i. Ben Blair, Skylar Edwards sponsors
ii. Passed Unanimously
b. Resolution 09-3-13—Propose Constitutional Amendment for Minority Student
Representation in the IUSA Congress
i. Ben Blair
1. This is something that’s in the process since November. This bill
seeks to make sure that underrepresented groups have a voice in
the IUSA Congress. These student groups are a large proportion of
the student body. 10% of students are registered as international. %
Are listed as minority students. This bill adds 3 Congress seats that
will be different. They will be selected, not elected. They will be
called delegates. The Commission on Multicultural Understanding,
made up of a variety of student groups and faculty, will be making
the selections. At the beginning of the school year through October
1, any member of those groups may submit an application to
COMU. They will be selected and sworn in as full congress seats.
This makes sure that minority students have dedicated
representation. I’m a member of Off-Campus constituency, so even
though I’m a law student, my first responsibility is to off-campus
students. There’s no dedicated representation for minority students.
This requires the Speaker to appoint the 3 delegates to the Student
Rights Committee in CONGRESS.
2. Mike Coleman: Ben hit the nail on the head. I had fraternity
brothers [in Alpha Phi Alpha] who supported this resolution. This
could be expanded.
3. William Yu: In my personal opinion, this is the worst resolution
I’ve ever soon. Our legitimacy comes from the fact that we are
elected. Since all of our legitimacy is derived from elections, I
don’t feel comfortable with this. Also, I don’t feel comfortable
with COMU selecting students because . I don’t believe this
amendment is the proper means of addressing the issue of groups
being represented in Congress. We also
4. Christian Hines: Are they going to be nonvoting members?
5. Ben: They will be full voting members.
6. Eric Weigel: Why are they called delegates?
7. Ben: Because we can’t call them Senators or Representatives
8. Nicole: Other organizations on campus have delegates that serve in
this capacity.
9. Why can’t international students be voted on?
10. Ben: Because there is a classification in the system for
international students? There’s
11. Julie Singer: In addition to the fact that they would be selected,
something to consider when looking at student organizations is
whether they are fulfilling a need, or whether a need exists. Based
on very superficial assumptions, 12.9% of this body is a minority
student. Who gets to count as a domestic minority? Is it feasible
that one person can represent the entire group? A gay student in
Kelley could have very different needs than a gay student in
COAS.
12. Nicole Hakes: In regard to representation for a large group of
students, we have that for students who represent dorms, etc. I
represent Willkie, even though I’m just 1 person. The role of these
delegates
13. William Yu: While it may seem a bit crass to talk about control
over the student fee, students could have roughly twice the
representation if they are gay, in COAS, and in Willkie, as opposed
to students in COAS and Willkie,
14. How would COMU decide? They would have to be recognized by
IU as being a domestic minority group.
15. Eric Weigel: Why can’t we create a Congress seat for students to
be voted on by classification?
16. Teter: It would take more time to get on your billing information.
Maybe that would be something we can improve upon in the
future. But would students like to check a certain classification.
17. Jordan Abrams: International students and domestic students are
“recognized by IU” what about GLBTQ. That isn’t “as recognized
by IU.”
18. Proxy: There may be legality issues of securing privacy, as
recognized by IU.
19. Julie Singer: I don’t think that IU tracked my religion. Are
religious minorities being recognized? Is it largely racial minorities
that IU recognizes?
20. Proxy: I know IUSA is here to represent a diverse student body.
Currently, these diversity groups are completely underrepresented
here. It’s unfair to the system to minority students to not be
represented.
21. Proxy: I think we need to have somebody specific on these boards
to represent minority students. The fact that this is set up by
22. Robin: IUSA gets its legitimacy from being elected by popular
vote. It’s the reason that the university accepts our resolutions.
Congress is not the only avenue by which these groups are
represented in IUSA. There are other opportunities for these
groups to be involved in IUSA. You could amend for non-voting
members so they can still
23. Jordan: If they have no voting power, is their opinion valued?
24. Robin: The Executives don’t have voting power, but we still speak
on the issues.
25. Jacobs: How do you guys feel about that [to student leaders present
from minority groups]?
26. Alexandra Chtedrina: If you don’t have minority groups
represented in IUSA, that delegitimizes IUSA.
27. Julie Singer: Point of Order, you must be recognized by the
Speaker to be recognized to speak.
28. Bryan Stuart: Are there differences in these proposed
constituencies?
29. Jordan Jacobs: About your philosophy in IUSA in general?
30. Bryan: As far as the logistics are running in a normal election for
why we are selecting these students? Time issue for international
students, what about other groups?
31. Ben: The problem is the same for all 3 groups. All 3 are
underrepresented in Congress. This system keeps consistency so
there’s not 1 1 1, but a group.
32. Eric Weigel: I’m not a big US Congress, but areas like Puerto
Rico, Virgin Islands have non-voting members. So you can have
representation. If we’re just adding seats for groups, what about
religious groups, Christian student housing, etc. How far do we
need to go? There are minority students
33. Darian: I know that a lot of us weren’t elected either. Why can’t
we have an internal selection process?
34. Eric Weigel: I think that’s good
35. Ryan: We already have a procedure for fulfilling vacant slots. Why
can’t we just follow that procedure. I’m concerned that creating
new seats. It’s very hard to pin down who constitutes a member of
these new seats. These groups are harder to define, whereas you
know where you live and where you study.
36. Proxy: You can’t have a public election for GLBTQ groups. The
only way for us to be represented in Congress is for us to be
selected. You talk a lot about, if we do this, we have to have more
and more seats, but some of these groups are especially
underrepresented (like GLBTQ)
37. Proxy: The argument that this will reduce the legitimacy, but there
are religious groups represented in COMU.
38. Alex: As a state university, we have a separation of Church and
State. Groups are represented in COMU. This Congress might be
diverse, but we want to make sure that all Congresses are diverse.
Their voices have been drowned out for such a long time. We do
this with affirmative action and the university structure. Persons of
color have preferential treatment.
39. Mikaela: There were plenty of outside groups that were able to
come and express. I don’t feel comfortable putting selection in the
hands
40. Mike: Everything I voted on in this Congress has been based not
on my status as a minority, but on what I think is best for students
in Teter. Not based off of my race. There hasn’t been a wide
background of students in the past. If you don’t like
41. Nicole: I would like to make a motion to amend resolution. We
can’t have religious groups b/c
a. Motion that these students will apply and be chosen by the
IUSA Rules, Membership, and Internal Affairs Committee.
42. Erik Kiser: I think we don’t want COMU selecting students. How
are you going to show that these students represent the community
the entire community. They’re being elected to represent.
43. Motion to cut off debate and discuss motion to have applications
considered by IUSA Rules, Membership, and Internal Affairs
Committee.
a. Skylar: We could do this in my Committee.
b. Proxy: For us to be able to apply to submit a member could
also be done through the student activities.
44. Lines 36-37: IUSA Rules Membership and Internal Affairs
Committee will select applicants submitted by October 1:
Passed with 1 objection
45. William: Is this still a need?
46. Skylar: We did have a resolution regarding gender neutral
bathrooms and it would have been good to have someone
representing GLBTQ here.
47. Alexander Simpson: I find a hard time believing that minorities are
not represented in IUSA. As a Law School representative, I’m still
accountable to minority students in the Law School. If we were to
even pass this, I don’t see how this would be sufficient. The
African American representative can hardly speak for other
populations (low-income students, Indian students, etc)
48. Mike: I feel that this is a good statement for IUSA. Tomorrow is
IU’s first Diversity Day.
49. Alexander Simpson: As a Congress, the statement we would be
making is that we’re unable to make decisions for minority
students on campus.
50. Proxy: Motion to close debate
51. Julie Singer: Speaking to people I know in COAS, many people
didn’t support this, so I will not support it.
52. William: I would like to make a motion that we change these
positions to non-voting delegates.
a. Darian: I think the whole point of making them non-voting
was because they were selected by the faculty.
b. Proxy: This amendment is asking whether the student body
wants to accept this.
c. Ben: One of the key advantages is that voting members
have power to represent in Committees of Congress.
d. Skylar: Committees chosen by VPC and Speaker
53. Motion to amend
a. Fails
54. Roll Call Vote on Resolution: Resolution Fails
a. Aye (23): Alexander Mieure, Allison Shearer, Ben Blair,
Christopher Lenz, Daniel Hinrichs, Darian Stahl, David
Huber, Hannah Bennett, Katie Lambert, Laura Wyman,
Leonardo Martinez, Lynn Hughes, Megan Busam, Michael
Albert, Mike Coleman, Nicole Hakes, Olivia GiaQuinta,
Shelley Harriman, Skylar Edwards, Suzi Worsham,
Thomas Little, Veral Patel, William Miller
b. No (13): Alexander Simpson, Christian Hines, Eric Weigel,
Erik Kiser, Forrest Fowler, Jack Diamond, Jordan Abrams,
Joshua Davis, Julie Singer, Mikaela Shaw, Ryan Granholm,
Valerie Vandenberg, William Yu
c. Resolution 09-3-14—Allocation of IUSA Rape Crisis Fund
i. William Yu and Julie Singer Sponsor
ii. Passed Unanimously
d. Resolution 09-3-15—Approve Operating Budget for FY 2009-2010
i. William Yu, Ben Blair
ii. William: Why would the proposed changes by bus advertising for $5,000
more?
iii. Robin: IUSA Aid will be absorbed by IUSA as far as their operating
budget is concerned
iv. Passed Unanimously
VIII. Adjourn

**Thanks for serving on Congress this year**

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