Michigan Technological University Undergraduate Student Government Minutes for Wednesday September 21, 2011 I. Call to Order/ Pledge of Allegiance a. The meeting was called to order at 7:00pm II. Roll Call a. Absenti. L. Branton ii. K. Kalenauskas iii. E. Schaefer a. Latea. S. Rucins b. B. Lausing III. Approval of Agenda a. IT presentation was added after Carl Walker i. Agenda approved IV. Approval of Minutes a. Minutes of September 14 th, 2011 approved un-amended V. Recognition of Visitors- Thanks for coming! VI. Officer Reports (usgeboard-l@mtu.edu) a. President (bmbaldwi@mtu.edu) i. No Report b. Vice President (ymgarcia@mtu.edu) i. Meeting with committee chairs c. Treasurer (eakarttu@mtu.edu) i. No Report d. Secretary (ldbranto@mtu.edu) i. Phone Tree Updated ii. Excuse forms now for missing meetings VII. Advisor Report (lpcook@mtu.edu) (tlp@mtu.edu) (rlwussow@mtu.edu) a. Student Commission b. Career Fair coming up c. Open House on Saturday October 1 st d. Please register student organizations VIII. Old Business a. None IX. New Business a. Carl Walker Presentation i. Draft Report, this not final. ii. Improving parking and transportation will take time iii. Focus: maximize utilization of existing spaces iv. Parking Garage 1. Very expensive a. Would be about $180 per space v. Strengths 1. Parking supply adequate (67% utilization) a. Campus core essentially full b. Underutilized supply up by SDC i. Could provide a shuttle ii. Distance and weather impacts this vi. Weaknesses
1. Not financially sustaining a. About $700 thousand per year b. Revenues are only about $300 thousand 2. No guiding principles 3. Lack of visitor parking a. Hard for true visitors 4. Challenging climate and topography 5. Core parking almost full vii. Recommendations happening over a period of time 1. Develop guiding principles a. Can pick 2 of 3: i. Convenient (structure in core) ii. Inexpensive iii. Enough 2. Parking allocations a. Would remain the same b. Flexibility for faculty and staff c. lot specific strategy for commuter students d. Improve visitor parking 3. Tiered approach to parking a. Pay more for campus core, pay less for peripheral lots and ride shuttle b. Reduce traffic, make it pedestrian friendly 4. Improve financial performance a. Goal: try to reduce the $450 thousand coming from general fund b. Pay parking for all user groups c. Improve collections 5. Improve the utilization for existing parking a. Shuttle between core and SDC b. Track campus parking occupancies 6. Upgrade technologies a. Technology is 2-20 years old, much higher than usual b. Multi space meters 7. TDM Improvements a. Flexible schedules b. Carpool matching c. Pedestrian improvements d. Campus shuttle 8. Improve parking security 9. Add parking as necessary viii. Questions? 1. M. Wood: Is there any way to do some type of survey? Convenient and expensive? Or other combinations a. Not necessarily in scope b. Could use a survey c. University of Illinois, had a similar survey done to see support for high fees 2. C. Ruth: Explain shuttle service a. Looking to service the lots around the SDC, may have to walk a short distance to shuttle i. To save on costs b. J. Bray: Noticed that grad lots are usually not full
i. Examined possible reallocation, if using a lot specific system want to improve utilization ii. Grad students concerned about loosing lots completely c. C. Ruth: Lot under construction i. Les. The space is leased by portage health 1. Never been parking for general us b. IT Disscussion i. Concerned that students have given up on reporting issues ii. Asking for students to continue reporting issues 1. Not just accept it isn t working 2. It-help@mtu.edu iii. Don t always know when things are broke iv. Want campus computing to be easy v. Going through consolidation vi. Issues 1. Open Labs a. T. Gruber: Packed as usual, too full 2. S. Rucins: Login problems a. M. Wood: Should be 60 seconds at max 3. J. Bray: access to internet, going on blackboard, all network slow a. Made a change late Monday afternoon b. High CPU utilization the first login, since been resolved 4. M. Wood: they don t get mad if you send an email a. Make sure to be specific when emailing i. Get date, time, location, and error message 5. Communication plan to spread message a. Easy to departments b. Not experienced in marketing to students i. Can use email ii. Table tents, facebook, word of mouth 6. B. Baldwin: Pilot blackboard a. L Cook: Should introduce next year? The right people are involved 7. B. Anderson: had complaints about the port authorization a. Getting a lot of feedback about that 8. E. Karttunen: Had an email issue a week ago, was fixed quickly c. WAM i. Opportunities Fund Requests 1. Fastpitch Softball a. E. Karttunen moves to allocate $1000.00 from opportunities fund b. Looking for funding for travel, equipment i. Some equipment necessary by association ii. Need bat, scorebook, and tee iii. Umpires for the season c. N. Talbot How much are you fundraising? i. Dues of $45 ii. Some fundraising, members purchase a lot d. MOTION PASSES 2. Sailing club 300 from opp fund, K. Johnston Seconds a. Looking for more regattas b. Denison university hosting a regatta this weekend, they signed up
c. Offering coaching i. Don t have one d. Get new racers out there e. Questions i. S. Noha What boat do you use 1. The club has a few boats a. Don t have to take them to regattas b. Membership dues of $100 each ii. B. Baldwin 1. Thought request was very reasonable 2. Only asking for travel, just gas f. MOTION PASSES 3. Reimbursements a. E. Karttunen moves to reimburse Husky Amateur Radio club $481.28, and Men s Soccer Club $600 for lodging; Y. Garcia seconds i. MOTION PASSES 4. Advance Reimbursements a. E. Karttunen moves to advance reimburse Husky Amateur Radio club $1,243.51; Y. Garcia seconds 5. Two reserve fund requests and one opp fund, be sure to look over during your office hours X. Committee Reports i. Personnel (usgpersonnel-l@mtu.edu) 1. Officer evaluations next week ii. Service (usgservice-l@mtu.edu) 1. Meeting with Yuritzi to go over storage barn a. Looking for improvements iii. Judiciary (usgjudicial-l@mtu.edu) 1. Looking into the bylaws as brought up by Dr. Cook iv. Elections (usgelect-l@mtu.edu) 1. 6 candidates 2. Open first year elections at 8 pm a. MOTION PASSES v. Public Relations (usgpr-l@mtu.edu) 1. Committee meeting after USG 2. UMC Photo Shoot next week a. B. Anderson: can the 1 st years be notified? i. B. Baldwin: will ask them in email 3. Thank Jon for getting the website updated vi. Student Issues (usgissues-l@mtu.edu) 1. Computer Problem a. Email/call them with issues 2. Figure out Kiosk, seeking input for other sides vii. External Affairs (usgea-l@mtu.edu) 1. SAM Conference agenda for this weekend a. E. Karttunen made a presentation on the Agenda items for this weekend s Student Association of Michigan Conference at Ferris State University [Presentation Attatched]. b. What do you want from SAM? i. S. Noha: student government elections turnouts at other universities
XI. ii. 1. E. Karttunen: SAM actually discussed this in April, High single digits is common. 2. D. Palmer: Techs is around 8-9% 3. E. Karttunen: So were pretty average, always would be good to improve though M. Christianson: Is SAM for grad students? 1. L. Cheesman: Actually, SAMs eboard has had Grad students, so yes. SAM USG Liaisons a. Liaisons i. GSG 1. No meeting ii. MUB Board 1. Poster Sale not looking too probable, at least for this semester. iii. IFC 1. Anti-hazing seminar put on 2. Looking into bringing in a risk management speaker 3. Discussed a Halloween themed party, as a recruitment event. a. Open to whole community b. Looking for a larger location i. Seeking input 1. D. Drake Safehouse? 29 th. 2. K. Maijala Maybe the MUB 3. C. Ruth maybe at the end of semester? a. More formal 4. B. Anderson: Good Idea to get students interested in Greek life a. IRHC looking to get people involved with wholesome activities a good idea all around 5. K. Johnston: combine with other campus groups? a. T. Peirce: definitely 6. L. Cheesman: Risk management issues with people showing up intoxicated? 7. S. Rucins: tried to do it last year, be sure your committed, and its dcided early. iv. Panhellenic Council 1. Going through formal recruitment 2. T. Pierce: Jess Turuc will be moving on to v. IRHC 1. Website restructuring a. Event signup online b. Completely revamped 2. Frisbockey games cancelled last weekend are rescheduled this weekend a. All teams up to 5 games 3. QCFC rep looking for hall reps a. Elections next week 4. Resident Advocate vi. Houghton City Council 1. No Report 2. Les and Glenn meeting with city tomorrow
vii. Parent s Fund 1. 2 requests submitted viii. Senate 1. Carl Walker Presentation 2. Teaching Award 3. Formalizing some grad school procedure a. Looking at implementing a formal grievance policy ix. Student Commission 1. Will be meeting tomorrow, and discussing: a. Memorial Garden b. Landlord Workshop c. Waterfront Trail d. Universal Punch Card for Dining Services 2. D. Drake 7 th Street commuter students unsafe conditions with cars driving closely x. Blue Key 1. Trophies for winter carnival 2. Cash prize essential? a. M. Wood: The trophies are more worthwile than cash prizes b. K. Maijala: do both if possible i. Lower cash prize and increase trophie c. J. Bray Fraternities spend thousands on Winter Carnival, so $500 not really worth anything d. D. Palmer: Plaque with a picture better than a trophy i. Shows the work involved e. T. Pierce: Perhaps investigate donating winnings f. B. Anderson: Investigate eliminating the $500. What would it be used for? xi. DHH Re-visioning Committee 1. E. Karttunen reviewed the charge of the group and the reason for the dining hall changes a. Charge to investigate uses of the facility as it is unlikely to return to conventional residence hall dining b. Reason: auxiliary services asked to reduce budget by $500 thousand as a result of the significant cut in state appropriations 2. Seeking input for potential uses of the space a. C. Ruth: would be cool if it was like the campus café, something different b. D. Drake: some kind of new food option and a lounge c. N. Talbot: Food for sure in the case of inclement weather, wouldn t want to leave residence hall d. D. Drake: would they be looking into the kitchenette? i. E. Karttunen: not within charge of group ii. T. Peirce: being brought to University executive team e. B. Anderson: I know there has been controversy over cuts to Dining Services and whatnot, students interested in budget i. E. Karttunen: As an auxiliary, dining services is self sustaining and doesn t receive general fund money (tuition $$) 1. But they do realize the necessity of bringing value for money services
XII. XIII. XIV. XV. 2. E. Karttunen: that s my goal for the DHH dining hall revisioning, to bring affordable services to students whatever they may be. Also look out for the residents of DHH. xii. Other Liaisons 1. If anyone knows of any other liaisons, we can add them a. L. Cheesman: TERR (Tech Educating Responsible Relationships) committee OPEN FLOOR (If you are a visitor and would like to speak- this is your chance!) CLOSED SESSION Announcements/ "Remarks for the Good" Adjournment a. The meeting was adjourned at 8:25pm.
External Affairs Presentation: STUDENT ASSOCIATION OF MICHIGAN (SAM) September Conference Ferris State University 9/24/2011 9/25/2011
Who is SAM?