Roll Call (present-absent-proxy-excused)
Senators Present
Derek Ritchison 4-0-0, Elisabeth Lange 3-0-0 , Megan Brandt 1-0-0-2, Umair Javed-proxy Irfan Bangash 3-0-1, Jennifer McGuffey 4-0-0, , Mohammed Omar 4-0-0, Adam Weigold 4-0-0, Shuaib Ibrahim 4-0-0, Taku Kurashige 4-0-0, Thomas Bergstrom 4-0-0, Tim Ibisch 4 -0-0, Emily Kofoed 3-1-0, Jessica Cichy 4-0-0, , Danielle Thomsen 4-0-0, Jesse Clift 4-0-0,
Senators Absent
Stacey Stump 1-3-0, Rehan Khan 2-2-0, Waqas Jamshed 2-1-0, Trevor Fleck 2-2-0, Francois Yang 2-2-0, Khurram Hassan 1-3-0
Executive Staff Present
President Shahzad Anwer, Vice President Goga Copic
Student Forum
Adam Poole-I am here today to discuss RSO motions coming forward. We are members of a fraternity and RSO. Currently, we are not allowed to recruit in-coming freshmen. Also, all RSO’s are supposed to be treated equally. Currently, if a fraternity does not have 100% they can not recruit or hold functions. Fraternities want equal treatment and not have extra rules imposed on them.
President Anwer-Did Lauren ever give you an explanation?
Mr. Poole-She said she requires that.
Senator Cichy-How is it beneficial for Freshmen to get involved in fraternities & sororities?
Mr. Poole-They get involved and then they get connected. We do service projects such as blood drives. We have social functions and are involved in things like homecoming and other things for the campus.
Senator Clift-You can not be able to get grades?
Mike Fellows-Every student receives grades but we have to make a chapter grade, we are not
allowed to know that to help them better their grade. If a chapter does not make grade there are consequences.
Vice President Copic-Have you tried to handle these issues with Lauren?
Mr. Poole-Yes, nothing was resolved. This has been going on for a while and there were always complaints.
Senator Bergstrom-Are there Freshmen that want to join a Fraternity?
Senator Richardson-Can they do this after the first semester?
Mr. Poole-Yes, they can after the first semester. But for a or a semester they are on the back burner.
Senator Cichy-How has this affected the number of Greeks?
Mr. Poole-It is hard to recruit students that are not Freshmen in the Fall because if you wanted to get involved you would have done it earlier.
Senator Cichy-What could you do with larger numbers?
Mr. Poole-Many things on campus.
Vice President Copic-Is that part of the three year plan?
Mr. Fellows-That plan is not in affect anymore.
President Anwer-My perception behind this is that we want students to grow as an individual.
This is a big time commitment.
Mr. Poole-This is not any more than sports or other things. The first thing you need to do is take care of your grades. You would not be dropped from your fraternity to work or study.
Vice President Copic-What do you feel you would benefit if this motion was passed?
Jeet Sausen-Currently we have 40-50 going through recruitment. One third of them are freshmen,
but they can not go through the entire recruitment process.
Vice President Copic-What would happen with the relationship in SLD&SL if this was to pass?
Mr. Poole-We want to work with them and not have things imposed on us. It would change
the way the process is.
Senator Cichy-Are there other RSO’s that have this policy?
Mr. Poole-Not to my knowledge.
Mr. Bergstrom-What is the GPA.
Senator Cichy-I believe it is a 2.7.
Senator Thomsen-How can this prevent them from being in the Sorority?
Mr. Poole-They can not participate in the events.
Senator Thomsen-But this does not prevent someone from joining?
Mr. Poole-You can’t officially join, you can tag along.
Senator Kofoed-What specifically are they not allowed to participate in?
Mr. Poole-This is a ritual based organization, right now you could participate
in training, all of our events but not be officially in the fraternity.
Jeremy-You must sign but they can not do that, Freshmen have to wait until the next semester.
Senator Kurashige-Can they compete or do things? Can they have interaction?
Mr. Poole-They can interact but we are told who we can recruit with and who we can not
recruit.
Senator Bergstrom-Freshmen change their minds often. Could they get out if they
wanted to? Like their residence?
Mr. Poole-They can always quit the organization. Where students live is a legal
situation.
Senator Thomsen-Does it benefit freshmen by following you around?
Mr. Poole-I would hope they would ask questions before they join, they are told what
the responsibility is to them.
Coordinator Verhelst-You were a freshmen when you joined-did they change the
rules?
Mr. Poole-Yes, they then implemented the 3 year plan. By that you were to join
another RSO-this took away from Greeks because it made more time commitments.
It had good intentions, but when things don’t work they should be passed aside.
Thomas Gagner-Last year I was not in school, I came back because of my fraternity.
They are here for school, they want to extend the message to students to graduate.
We want to help students. The Fraternity Advisor helped me get back in school
and finish my degree. If I had not been recruited I would not be here today.
Haley Pederson-Panhellenic President.
Our numbers are cut in half. When you are a freshman you are excited and willing
to join. There is a pledge period where they can find out if it is for them or not.
Approval of Agenda
Senator Reports-Senator Weigold before Senator Cichy. Senator Brandt-College of Business
Officer Reports
President Shahzad Anwer
Appointments: Student Union Board-Derek Ritchison Legislative Affairs-Kyle Struck,
Danielle Thomsen, SAC-Hannah Stolba, Irfan Bangash, SOAFC-Jaclyn Fishman
Bookstore Advisory-Abid Bharmal, Derek Ritchison, Jennifer McGuffy, Student Technology Roundtable-Adam Weigold, Student Affairs- Jaclyn Fishman, Parking Appeals Board-Kyle Struck
Last summer we were approached by Athletics about a mascot change. We feel this
is an internal change by them but they consulted us to tell us who they surveyed. The
surveys showed that people significantly like the new one better than the old mascot.
People wanted it to look more competitive. We need to approve this. This has been
by everyone in the athletic department.
Last time Haley Pederson was here we talked about the concert, we have not always
had a great relationship, I recommend and encourage you to help the Concert Company
in a promotion. I also encourage you to get on Constitution Commission. We need
to make some changes in many things. One change should be in Union Board. In
the past few weeks we have heard some Financial Aid concerns. I am taking some
concerns to MSUSA regarding consultation, I don’t think we are being properly
consulted in regard to the Student Union. This money is generated by student
fees. We should be consulted, we need to change the system. We will talk to
Dr. Davenport about this. We have to make changes in a general election or by
Dr. Davenport. This weekend we are going to an MSUSA Conference.
Vice President Goga Copic
Committees are filling but we do need to fill Election Committee. If you are
planning on returning you can not be on this committee. I encourage you to come
and talk to me about committees.
We are not here to just sit here, issues come to us from our constituency, things
may matter to them. We get all the information and it is our responsibility to get
all the information we can. Even if you talk to 3 or 4 people you must remember
that you are the one here that gets all the information. It is hard to make a
decision when there are people in front of you. It is your responsibility to find
out information.
We received an email from Dr. Davenport that he may be having a kidney
transplant. As a senate maybe we can send him our wishes.
We need to get our organization out there, we do not want to make it so formal.
We want to be like other organizations. We received an invitation from Impact.
We also should get involved in Homecoming and do events.
Speaker
Tell your classes about elections. We can change the constitution by the
University President or be on the ballot and get 10% of the student population
vote or from an inquiry from the commission made up of 8 individuals.
Next Wed. we will have a mini seminar about motions.
As for restructuring the Student Union Board-the Constitution Commission
can look at all rewording.
Recognized Student Organizations
Recognition Renewals: Sigma, Sigma, Sigma Sorority, Graduate Student Association, Prepare Ministries, Student Association of India, Kappa Tau Chapter of Sigma Chi, Lutheran Campus Ministry, ELCA, Interfraternity Council, MSU Fencing Club, MSU Marketing Club, Chicano Litano American Student Association (C.L.A.S.A.) Ethnic Graduate Organization (EGO), MSU History Club, USITT-Minnesota State University Student Chapter
Initial - MSU Ski and Snowboard Association
Motion-Senator Thomsen/Weigold
M #09.15.04 A
Whereas: The Athletic Department and students of the MSSA have shown interest in changing the look of MSU’s mascot
And Whereas: They’ve done adequate research to justify the change.
Be it resolved: That MSSA endorses the proposed new image of the Maverick mascot.
Senator Bergstrom-When will this be happening?
Vice President Copic-Actually if we endorse this it might be presented at homecoming.
President Anwer-This is an athletic internal thing. If the athletes and coaches are in favor,
we should support them.
Motion passes.
Senator Reports
Science, Engineering & Technology-Adam Weigold
First things first, I would like to recognize a former senator. David Bottin served during the Spring semester of last year. He has been suffering some health problems and I think we as a student association can offer our condolences.
M#09.15.04B Senator Weigold/Omar
Whereas David Bottin served the students of MSSA by ardently doing his duties as a student senator during the Spring 2004 semester.
And whereas David Bottin has recently befallen to health ailments.
Be it resolved the MSSA offer our condolences to Mr. David Bottin and his family and hope for a speedy recovery.
Motion passes
I would like to speak to the senate today about RSO’s. Article I section 2 of the MSSA constitution states that “…the Senate shall establish procedures for the recognition of campus organizations and shall recognize those campus student organizations complying with the established procedures.” There are two main issues I want to bring up today. RSO’s who are being overregulated and RSO’s that are being under regulated.
It was brought to my attention by a student that the SLD&SL office is regulating Greek organizations above and beyond that of any other RSO. Their regulations are halting them from being able to recruit freshman, and are requiring them to do workshops, seminars, and/or training before they are allowed to do any event. I don’t think I have to go into much detail about why it’s unfair for Greek RSO’s to be treated differently then non-Greek RSO’s.
It has also been brought to my attention that there are RSO’s that are violating University policies. They are scheduling events without required notice. They are doing sign posting that is blatantly breaking policy. They are also registering space for meetings/rallies under their name that are clearly being organized by outside groups so the outside group does not have to pay the fees normally required for outside groups to use University facilities. Because we retain the right to, quote “…recognize those student organizations complying with the established procedures.” I am offering a third motion that states that the senate shall always reserve the right to revoke recognition or penalize any RSO braking University policies.
Senator Cichy-Is that one motion or two motions?
Senator Weigold-This is written to apply to all RSO’s.
President Anwer-Will there be another motion for Greeks?
Senator Weigold-A Greek organization is a RSO, this says we
Should not put stipulations on some RSO’s-they should all be treated the same.
Senator Omar-Should we see if other schools have the same guidelines
Senator Weigold-It should not matter what RSO it is, it is just that they are
Requiring some stipulations on some, they should all be the same.
Senator Kurashige-What do you think the reaction of RSO’s will be?
Senator Weigold-I think it will be good.
Senator Thomsen-What will be the reaction of SLD&SL?
Senator Weigold-I don’t know why they don’t consult us to begin with.
Senator Omar-What will be their complaint?
Senator Weigold-It is in our constitution.
Motion #09.15.04C Senator Weigold/Ritchison
Whereas: MSSA encourages all students to become involved,
Whereas: MSSA supports student involvement, of all students attending Minnesota State
University, Mankato, regardless, but not limited to Race, Sex, Age, Religion, and
Ability,
Whereas: An action to limit student involvement to a specific group/organization is discriminatory,
Whereas: The United States Supreme Court ruled that private organizations have the discriminate right
Be it resolved: That no recognized student organization shall be limited to the type of
Minnesota State University, Mankato students which they choose to extend membership,
Unless limited by the RSO itself.
Senator Bergstrom-Is the senate considered the highest power?
Vice President Copic-If we pass this motion it could hurt.
Senator Cichy-Freshman year is difficult, I came back because I became involved in Greeks.
Senator Weigold-The argument has been raised that they do get special treatment.
Senator Bergstrom-I am in favor that they should not get sanctions.
Senator Kofoed-Point of personal information: If the Greeks are getting a better budget and we make it so they are treated equally, wouldn’t it be better for them to have special rules?
Senator Weigold-We can always overturn this if we find out that it is not in the best interest of students. They are putting a rule on an RSO without consulting us.
Senator Thomsen-If the Greeks were to be treated the same as other RSOs, would their status in the office be revoked as well?
Senator Weigold-The motion applies only to recruitment.
Vice President Anwer-We can vote on what we want, we would be telling the administration how we feel.
Senator Cichy-The Greeks and RSO’s are housed together in one room.
Senator Brandt-This says they are asking to be treated as every other RSO. I will remember this at budget time.
Senator Bergstrom-If we ok a motion it should not be open ended, and be worded properly.
Senator Omar-Why does SLD&SL have these rules in the first place?
Vice President Copic-A lot of universities do recruitment processes
Earlier, some even do it in the fall.
Senator Cichy-Since recruitment has been imposed-programming has dropped.
Senator Weigold-I hate to see us use this time to fight precedence. What if a
week from now they decide to tell other RSO’s how to recruit? If you agree
but want to change the wording that is easy to do. If we do not pass this,
SLD&SL will think they are the rule setters.
President Anwer-We are making this complicated. As far as consulting, we
should, but we can do that with the other motion. We do have authority as far as recruitment, this is our area.
Vice President Copic-We are voting on something that the administration put on the Greek system. I don’t have my mind made up. Consultation will probably happen next week anyway.
Senator Cichy-This is Sorority recruitment week. Next week is Fraternity, they should not be denied.
Senator Ritchison-I feel the motion is straight forward, it is not that complicated.
Senator Clift-As an Off-Campus senator I know it is hard to connect. I do see this as a potential barrier. I think the Greek system is a good way to get involved.
Senator Bergstrom-If we pass this and find it does not work. How would it get changed?
Speaker-Next year’s senate could reverse it.
Senator Cichy-As a speaker said in forum, Greeks got him here and brought him back, this would allow them to make connections with students earlier.
Vice President Copic-I move to table the first motion to review the second.
Motion passes
Motion #09.15.04D Senator Omar/Senator Kurashige
Whereas: The role of SLD&SL in RSOs is not clear and
Whereas: Many questions need to be answered by SLD&SL
Be it resolved: MSSA would like to have someone come from SLD&SL and talk to us.
Senator Omar-The motion to table was good. I feel we need to hear from SLD&SL.
Senator Kurashige-We need to have more information.
Senator Weigold-We can invite them to tell us why, but we still need to pass this because they are in violation.
Senator Cichy-SLD&SL is imposing the rules, they are in violation.
Senator Brandt-I think the idea is so they can recruit now.
Senator Omar-We should not just hear one side of the story.
Senator Bergstrom-It is only fair to listen to both sides.
Senator Thomsen-Is there any problem with waiting?
Vice President Copic-We could table it, we are rushing it because sorority recruitment is happening this week. The three year plan is done, so why can’t you recruit freshman?
Senator Weigold-This was our decision to make, this is against MnSCU policy.
Adam Poole-Why the rush, basically the three year plan is over. We are being told
by SLD&SL we can not recruit freshman.
Adam Poole-This is about discrimination. Is it right for them to tell us we can or can’t recruit freshman. The real thing would be that they do not impose rules.
Senator Ritchison-They have gone against policy.
Senator Thomsen-If we pass this today, and change our mind what would happen to the freshmen if they were recruited?
Speaker-The Administration would still have to enforce this.
Vice President Copic-If we pass this today-it would still have to go to Dr. Davenport and might not happen for awhile.
Senator Bergstrom-It is not right for us to not hear the other side.
Senator Weigold-Call the question
Motion-passes
Return to tabled motion
Senator Cichy-This is not a matter of SLD&SL, it is a breach of policy,
It is a matter of equality. We are just sending this to the president and he will maybe say something should be done about it.
Senator Bergstrom-We should know if this was right or wrong.
Senator Weigold-They should have consulted us first. They are breaking policy by not doing that.
Senator Cichy-If we do not address this breach of policy we are not doing our job
as senators, it does not have to do with equality of RSO;s.
Senator Kurashige-By passing this motion we are giving them permission to recruit but we still
do not know the reasons for the policy or what the outcome would be.
Senator Ritchison-If they come talk to us, it is still a policy violation.
Senator Weigold-There is an obvious policy violation, if someone is robbing a store
And murdering, you do not talk to them first, you stop the process and then allow them to talk after wards.
Vice President Copic-This was part of the three year plan, we don’t know who put it there now.
Senator Cichy-This just sends a suggestion to the President.
Adam Poole-Three year plan is completed-a person from the campus came and said we can not recruit freshmen. We were told IFC did not vote on this.
Roll Call Vote
Senators voting Yes
Derek Ritchison, Megan Brandt, Jennifer McGuffey, Shuaib Ibrahim, Adam Weigold, Emily Kofoed, Jessica Cichy, Danielle Thomsen w/r, Jesse Clift,
Senators voting No
Thomas Bergstrom w/r
Senators abstaining
Umair Javed-proxy Irfan Bangash, Taku Kurashige w/r, Tim Ibisch
Executive Staff
President Anwer-Yes, Vice President Copic-Aw/r
Rights: Umair Javed-proxy Irfan Bangash-Being a proxy for Senator Umair Javed, I don’t know for sure how he would vote on this issue
Motion #09.15.04C Senator Weigold/Ritchison
Whereas: MSSA encourages all students to become involved,
Whereas: MSSA supports student involvement, of all students attending Minnesota State
University, Mankato, regardless, but not limited to Race, Sex, Age, Religion, and
Ability,
Whereas: An action to limit student involvement to a specific group/organization is discriminatory,
Whereas: The United States Supreme Court ruled that private organizations have the discriminate right
Be it resolved: That no recognized student organization shall be limited to the type of
Minnesota State University, Mankato students which they choose to extend membership,
Unless limited by the RSO itself.
Motion Passes 10-1-4 abstentions
Motion #09.15.04D Senator Weigold/Ritchison
Whereas: MSSA believes that all recognized students organizations have the right to operate under the same rules/regulations imposed by the university
Whereas: Any differences of rules and bylaws imposed on a specific RSO by the university is
discriminatory,
Be it Resolved: That no RSO shall be held liable to any rules/regulations set by the university
that is not imposed on all RSOs.
Senator Weigold-All RSOs should be treated the same.
Senator Brandt-This would be a great motion to table.
President Anwer/Senator Ibisch- Motion to table
Motion passes
Motion #09.15.04E Senator Weigold/Ritchison
Whereas: MSSA believes that all recognized students organizations should operate under the rules/regulations imposed by the university
Whereas: Any RSO not following these University rules/regulations gives the RSO an unfair
advantage over other RSOs,
Be it resolved: That the Senate shall reserve the right to revoke recognition of any RSO as
implied under Article I, section 2 of the MSSA constitution.
Be it further resolved: That the Senate shall reserve the right to penalize any RSO if a revocation of
recognition is not desired by the Senate.
Be if further resolved: That before the completion of the Senate year, that the Senate shall review
this operating procedure and determine if a change in by-laws is necessary to
resolve this issue.
Senator Bergstrom-What is the current policy?
Senator Weigold-this is worded so that organizations know that if they violate they can be revoked.
Senator Thomsen-Can I have an example?
Senator Weigold-See me after the meeting.
Motion passes unanimously
Off-Campus-Jessica Cichy
I am proud of what the senate did today.
College of Business-Megan Brandt
Accounting/Corp Finance degree.
Vice President Copic-Why senate
Senator Brandt-You find out information first, you are always informed.
Senator Cichy-If you could be a cartoon character what would you be?
Senator Brandt-Cinderella, it would be fun.
Announcements
Senator Cichy-Sorority recruitment. Jimmy John’s is open
Senator Thomsen-College Dems. Ostrander, Sept 20
President Anwer-Dance party Friday, ISO 7 or 8 in Ballroom.
Roll Call
Senators Present
Derek Ritchison, Megan Brandt, Umair Javed, Jennifer McGuffey, Adam Weigold, Shaib Ibrahim, Taku Kurashige, Thomas Bergstrom, Tim Ibisch, Emily Kofoed, Jessica Cichy, Danielle Thomsen
Senators Absent
Elizabeth Lange, Stacey Stump, Mohammed Omar, Trevor Fleck, Rehan Khan, Francois Yang, Khurram Hassan, Waqas Jamshed, Jesse Clift, Monica Brooks
Executive Staff Present
President Shahzad Anwer
Vice-President Goga Copic
Adjournment Meeting adjourned at 6:33 P.M.
