ASG General Meeting VIII
12 November 2013
Meeting Start: 7:01
Attendance
See the Attendance Document
Approval of the Minutes
Miguel
Eric
Approved
Guest Speaker
Joe DiChristina Conduct Report
He has a handout!
There are representatives of students on that committee
Help Joe Hall and JoeDi manage disciplinary matters on campus
Present this information every year
New this year: principles and community awareness
Student conduct is dealt with as an educational institution
Most of these involve violation of alcohol policies
The more several sanctions usually involve cases of physical violence
Usually less than five cases of suspension per year
For example: CATA; is that really how we want to behave?
How can we handle that differently, and what principles guide us?
The most difficult things to deal with: students going to the hospital
This year we're at almost 12
Allegheny Students do help their peers
When someone gets sent to the hospital, our goal is to get people to a safe place
Safe environment: community awareness what's going on in our community?
Safe Zone, Bystander: These are new trainings that deal with the following: how do we support
each other?
For example, language is hurtful; how do we support each other through the use of caring
language?
Alexis Nielson
Do you have any statistics about sexual assault on campus?
JoeDi
Sexual violence is included in the section about violence
Jacquie, as our Title IX coordinator, deals with under 10 cases per year
Alexis Nielson
Is that the number of incidents, or the number of cases that have received punishment?
JoeDi
Those are ten individual cases per year that are brought to us
Timur Dikeç
Concerning the rise of the use of marijuana: more students using or more students getting
caught?
JoeDi
We've increased the number of students on campus
When it gets cold, people don't want to smoke outside
Or people are smoking in their cars, in a parking lot
How we handle that: that student is more than likely put on probation
It is not criminal unless we find out that there was selling going on
John Lichina
What kind of conduct would put a student on probation?
JoeDi
Repeat offenders
Someone on warning gets caught again
If an individual is, for example, in McKins and is caught stealing food and being
disruptive/offensive, that could warrant probation
Every year, 55/60 students are put on probation
We've had more student conduct issues this year than last year
Last year: About 120 cases, this year: 140 cases
Timur Dikeç
What about having changed the orientation?
JoeDi
Jacquie, being our Title IX coordinator, deals with issues of gender and sexual misconduct
Jacquie spent 1520 minutes talking about issues of sexual misconduct and tied that into
bystander training
Jeff Schneider came in and talked about college policies and the interaction with the city
Through valerie's work, there was come branching off on social justice
Andrew Greiner
What is your take on Safety and Security maintaining student safety?
JoeDi
It's difficult
I ask Safety and Security to be attentive that you're 1920 years old and you're going to make
mistakes
I read all of the reports; so I know what happens on the weekends
There are times where students react to security staff
Security knows that my goal is not to get students to the police department
But it can happen
They have to find a fine balance between what I expect of them
Our general rule of thumb is to get people to the hospital if they need it
I'm really trying to make sure we're being safe
We don't have a huge staff, so we try to do swing staff
Wednesday nights are bad too; people are going down to the bars
Alexis Nielson
For clarification, how do you differentiate sexual harassment and sexual assault, and two, what
are the usual repercussions for that sort of conduct?
JoeDi
Page (Section?) 3 of your student handbook deals with harassment or
Violence is usually a suspensionlevel case
But I cannot give you those numbers directly
We have to protect student conduct records
Alexis Nielson
So it's a physical, but with a higher level of punishment?
JoeDi
It depends if there's harassment
That's changed because of how people interact with each other because of texting or
That can be racial, sexual, etc.
For solutions: what is it they're looking for?
Jacquie works directly with these students
We decide whether this person belong here, or whether they need time away to learn
Kevin
Just a note: JoeDi is always available in his office
Yemi Olaiya
Going through the orientation as a freshman, just to get your take on it, is that a huge concern?
JoeDi
Part of this is to fulfill the requirements of the Department of Eduation
This is new in the last six months
Along with that, Jacquie has been trained and done a lot of work with Bystander Training
College campuses are places where sexual assaults can take place at levels that are higher
than other places in the world and that is because of the use of alcohol
People get more physical under the influence
It is our responsibility to get information out about that
SJ Guillaume
Lighting on campus?
JoeDi
Along North Main, there is money on our campus master plan to increase lighting there
In the last ten years, we have improved lighting
Sarah Naughton
A lot of that is city lighting
We are actually going to scheduling the Light Walk and we're going to walk around campus and
determine where problem areas of lighting area
JoeDi
We are taking care of that
Ava Carvour
We learn that sexual assault is deeper than alcohol use
We are surrounded by rape culture
Our society says it's okay to mistreat women
So sexual assault is not just about alcohol use
Kevin
Let's thank JoeDi for coming!
Finance Report Skyler Ray
1. Karen Kaye, Neuroscience Club, Accepted
a. $200 from the General Fund
Food at Voodoo Brewery during a senior panel
Seniors will talk to underclassmen about comping and research experience
2. Aaron OberstHomer, Environmental Justice Class, Denied
a. $350 from the General Fund
Funding for copyright to show “The Harvest”
Funding to advertise around campus and Meadville
$300 for the copyright
$50 for advertising and food
Denied because we don’t fund classes
3. Lee Small, Asian Student Union, Tabled
a. $40 from the General Fund
$30, pizza
$10, soda
Didn’t come in
4. Jennie Vorhauer, TriBeta, Approved
a. $72.10 from the Speaker Fund
Housing for a scientific speaker
5. Katie Beck, S.E.T., Approved
a. $2500 from the Speaker Fund
comedy group from New York.
To fund the contract and hotel for Upright Citizens Brigade, an improvisational
GAP has funding for the other half of their expenses.
6. Alexis Nielson, Speaker on the Charles Taylor Case, Approved
a. $140 from ?
Pizza and drinks
7. Ice Hockey Club, Approved
a. $500 from the Surplus Fund
See last week’s minutes
Lauren Moore
Knocks for Neuroscience club!
Approval of Finance
Approved
Cabinet Reports
1. Concerts and Special Events: Austin Cosgrove
a. ASG Formal
It will be Saturday, December 7th
Weekend before classes end
2. Major Events Committee: Brogan McGowan
a. Survey
Last week, you guys got the MEC survey!
Top 6 were emailed to you guys this morning
Promote that survey because it closes tomorrow at noon
That will be the final survey
Alexis Nielson
How many people voted?
Brogan McGowan
Between 1200 and 1800 people
3. Student Affairs: Kushtrim Miftari
a. Direct Representation
b. General Manager Survey
Going to interview two different general managers for Parkhurst
Noon to 1:30
4. Rules Committee: Shep Schroer
a. Secular Student Alliance
Rules approved their constitution
James Nero
Sophomore, President and one of the Founders
Nonbelievers in sector students
Prior to, there was no community
There are many religious life groups, so we want to have our own
In our mission statement, we promote scientific and logical reasoning
Larry
Motion?
Timur Dikeç
Moves
SJ Guillaume
Second
Larry
Discussion?
Seeing not discussion, we'll go into a vote
PASSES
James, you've passed your first week of approval, come back next week!
President’s Report
1. Ad Hoc Committee Proposal
Happy Tuesday!
Thanks to everyone who came in the back!
LET"S BRING PEOPLE
An Ad Hoc committee was formed yesterday
What's an ad hoc committee?
Ad hoc is Latin for "for this"
It just has one purpose
Difference between a standing committee and an ad hoc committee
2. Direct Representation Emails
Send those out, since you have exactly what to say
3. CATA
The officials from the Loop were supposed to meet with us today, but they might come
in next week
Cabinet meet with them Thursday
Basically, behavior on the Loop has been bad this year
We're going to come together to do some Loop PR
One good thing to pass along: although the Loop stops around 2:30, they won't leave
anybody. They will come back and pick you up!
4. Tuition Increases
Larry and I met about this
They will be joining us in January
There are reasons for tuition increases
5. Lee and I just meet with faculty council, and we're going to start having better communications
with them and with faculty on a whole
Includes college committees
6. Next week, we're meeting on the Blue Courts, so we're going to be meeting and then doing fun
things afterwards
Rose So
Could you elaborate about what's going on on the Loop?
Kevin
A few weeks ago, there was an indident on the loop where there was a controversy between
some students and a community member
They continued it into McKins
The Meadville police became involved
More than that: the main issue that they're running into is having more people on the Loop than
they are legally allowed to have
If that happens and they get into an accident, we as ASG, as well as the college and CATA, are
all liable for whatever injuries may occur
Vice President’s Report
Just consider safety!
Class Reports
No class reports!
Constituent Comments
No constituent comments!
Unfinished Business
No unfinished business!
New Business
1. Ad Hoc Committee Business
a. Commitment to Inclusivity Statement, Katie Beck and Nick Schake
Katie Beck
Hello everyone!
You should all be aware of what this document is
Revisions to this document has been made
Nick Schake
All the senators are aware of this document; you should be talking about it in
your classes
The basis of the proposal is to have more clubs to take these leadership
trainings
They would receive a $100 reward with the stipulation that they commit to these
in the future
On the back, there's a letter from Jacquie talking about how she thinks this is a
great idea
The idea is that you'd take two of those three
Once that happens, you'd meet with the Diversity Initiatives Committee and we'd
check it off
Any questions or concerns?
Larry
I'll moderate the questions
Shep Schroer
Housekeeping: Will Safe Zone Training One and Two satisfy the requirement?
Nick
Safe Zone One
Shep Schroer
And since you need two, would Safe Zone Two count for the other?
Katie
Yes
Eric Chang
We think that it's a good idea, but you guys talk more about how you want
meaningful participation
Since you're offering an incentive, how are we going to make sure that people
will really go?
It's a chance for smaller clubs to increase their budget, which will help them
throw bigger events, but is this the only way?
Nick Schake
The idea is that we want clubs to better their leadership skills and to make their
meeting more attractive to a wide variety of people
The $100 has been a point of contention
For us, $100 was a bit of a sweet spot in that it was enough to be an incentive,
but it's not really a lot
The clubs make a commitment to change what their organization is about,
through a constitutional change, and we reward them with $100
This wouldn't make people go; the clubs that have come and told us that this is
a good idea have already sastified the majority of the requirements
We're not forcing people to go, just encouraging participation
Eric Chang
What is a club went through the process and then decided to take it out the next
year?
Nick Schake
We're banking on the fact that people will continue to do it
We think that one year is satisfactory for the $100
We also think that any club that would do it would not do it for the monetary
incentive; it would be because they want their club to be a better instutition
Timur Dikeç
A few concerns
Rules didn't get to discuss this again
When the commitment asked that all board members pledge, I'd like to see
some clarification on their because clubs have different board sizes
The $100 reward: the difference that means to a club
If you're using that as a reward, it would be more effective if it was as a
percentage
So $100 for a $2000 budget club isn't as meaningful
We didn't get to discuss attendance and meaningful preservation, but what I
would like to question is there are clubs on campus that have motivations very
similar to these organizations, and there are clubs that don't focus on these kinds
of issues
Isn't that forcing clubs to adopt an agenda that they never had?
Isn't it unfair to have to force clubs to change things?
Lee Scandinaro
Tim, do you think this is a good idea?
If you do, why did you just wait until these large senate meetings?
We keep bringing up the same issues!
Timur Dikeç
I'm arguing that we be engaged so that we can promote this culture of inclusivity
Katie Beck
This is not the same thing that was brought to rules
We're not forcing clubs; this is completely optional
This is an opportunity for clubs to say that they value inclusivity and that they
want this in their culture
While there is an incentive, it speaks to the values
It speaks to the people who may not otherwise be included in these
conversations
So clubs that are not involved in these conversations, they are more than
welcome and encouraged to do this
I would love for other organizations to take part in this movement
Nick Schake
You said that there are club that kind of do these things of things, and others that
don't
For any club in general, being part of these trainings and being inclusive is a
natural part of being a club
Clubs are supposed to be inclusive
If you go to a conference and think that should count, that's fine, just come talk
to us!
Any time you've showed that your club is making an effort to be a better
institution, we want to reward that!
Kylan Hill
As President of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, this is something I'm really
excited for
I'd like to advise us all to keep us from letting this $100 incentive keep us from
voting this through
This is something that maybe we should show some support for
Is it possible to tweak the trainings?
There were a couple of things I wasn't too pleased with that prevented me from
getting the most of the experience
Asha (Proxy for Lee)
As somebody who works in the CIASS, valerie guerrero and Kirby Vasquez are
in charge of coordinating Safe Zone, so those are the people you should talk to
Nick Schake
In the past, we've tailored this to different sports teams and such
Jen Glen
Are CIASS and the DIC going to make these trainings more available or more
publicized?
Also: what if the clubs don't uphold the commitment the second or third years?
Nick Schake
As somebody who was in ASG last year, I know that we didn't check up on
things
When we approve a constitution change, ASG doesn't do that anyway
That's something ASG should be doing anyway
Our trainings have been underrepresented; people haven't been showing up to
them
While we're not in charge of these things, I'd love to see more of them open up
Jen Glen
Did you say they shouldn't have to be advertised, that they should be able to take
the initiative themselves?
Lee Scandinaro
That's part of why this is being advertised for
Clubs would be required to do that
In taking this on, clubs would publicize these events
Aviv Lang
Email from a constituent: they were in support of this initiative and they're in a
club already that's trying to implement this
It's important to them that as an institution that they understand
Anna White
We got the vibe that it should be a genuine thing; would it be a possibility to
make a symbol that could be put into the compass or on signs in the campus
center, so that people know that this club values this
That way, people wouldn't have to
It wouldn't be a monetary issue
It would also be a good way to advertise the club
Grace Flowers
In Cabinet, I was like, woah, that's so much!
But as long as we cap the amount of clubs that could receive this award to
about 2025 clubs, then it would not be a monetary issue
Anna White
I think it would be a more general thing, that people are not doing it for the money
This would just be a possible alternative
Katie Beck
We will take that suggestion
If this is implemented, we can consider something like that
SJ Guillaume
In Rules, we were really worried about the $100
The idea of doing a percentage follows up with that idea of the commitments
Nick Schake
It was a similar percentage to what Tim made
If we take a bigger club with a bigger budget, it's sort of illuminating that club
Trying to reward clubs like this make it more of a reward incentive
Rose So
Inclusivity includes everyone
What is your definition of inclusivity?
Are we going to reach out to other aspects of inclusivity, like race,
socioeconomic class, faith? There is a not of LGBT and sexual awareness stuff
Katie Beck
These are what are offered by our school, so we're trying to make them more
prevalent
Eric Chang
Since clubs have the option of taking it out the year after they put it in, maybe
increase it to a 2year commitment?
Lee Scandinaro
Their club would have to come before Senate, and I don't see why the Senate
would say that the club doesn't need to be inclusive anymore
Eric Chang
For the cap on clubs, could clubs have that option to refuse that $100 reward?
Nick Schake
That's perfectly fine; but I think 25 is a good number
If 25 clubs do it the first year, there are 25 fewer clubs that will do it the next year
Alexis Nielson
This is an extremely important thing to push for
We as ASG, as an organization committed to promoting diversity, this is a first
step to promoting this throughout the school
A lot of things are being nitpicky and that the big idea is that we get more clubs
to take these trainings
We should move to a vote!
Larry Hailsham
FYI, we can pass this with an amendment
Lauren Moore
In general, this is a great suggestions, but I'd like to put a 5minute cap on this,
so we can go home, look at this more, and then come back
Larry Hailsham
I already capped it on the next person, so after that I'm going to entertain a vote
Yemi Olaiya
Let's keep in mind that clubs don't have to do this
Personally, we can go talk to clubs and know that not all clubs want this
It's a choice among the clubs
Katie Beck
I need to suggest for someone to move to make an amendment
We need to add a constitutional amendment to THIS SECTION
Alexis Nielson
Motion made
Lee Scandinaro
Seconded
Timur Dikeç
I move to include Safe Zone Training Two as another of the trainings, just to
clarify
Larry Hailsham
My suggestion is for somebody to knock this down and then repropose it
Vote on just the first amendment
Does not pass
Alexis Nielson
Motion including the second amendment
Timur Dikeç
Seconding the amendment
Lee Scandinaro
Where would Safe Zone Training Two fit in this?
Nick Schake
Let's just enumerate all of those training specifically and include the clause
about the approvals
Jen Glen
I don't know if this would be another amendment, but…
What should the trainings include?
Larry Hailsham
That's a logistical question
What this is saying is that we're going to trust the DIC on that issue
Timur Dikeç
Safe Zone I, II, and the Bystander Trainings are heavily
Specifically enumerating these would make it a lot more clear
Eric Chang
This would include the entire amendment to inclusivity? The entire document
with two amendments?
Larry Hailsham
A reminder, this is a vote on the whole document with those two amendments
Five minute recess while we figure out how to count to votes
Return: 8:40
The vote count was not enough; this did not pass
17 for, 9 opposed, 6 who abstained
Abstentions do count as a no
So that's essentially 17 for, 15 against
It needs to be 2/3rds majority to pass
John Lichina
Is this something that we're going to talk about next week?
Larry Hailsham
This is your meeting; we just facilitate it
Andrew Greiner
Can I motion to have a meeting time between this meeting and the next meeting
for people to be more educated?
Larry Hailsham
Cabinet meets at 12:30
Katie Beck
DIC meets at 5:00 on Sundays
Kevin Crooks
Also, there is an ad hoc committee
Larry Hailsham
So go to those!
Announcements
1. Sarah Fiore, GAP
GAP is going to be hosting a bus trip to Grove City on November 23rd
9:30 in the morning, come back around 3PM
$5 seat reservation to make sure people commit
GAP meetings are
2. Alexis Nielson
A Speaker is coming on Thursday please come!
Check Finance more information
Gretchen's Intervention
Discussion tonight was great!
We've rarely been this active
JoeDi was here, Kazi was here, President Mullen is here, and they were listening to you
So I would like to encourage you to keep talking about these!
Motion to Close
Rose So
Doranny
Meeting End: 8:46
