Thelomathesian Society October 28, 2009 Called to Order at 7:04 PM
Unanimous approval of minutes from October 21, 2009.
I. Roll Call
SENATOR PRESENT ISSUE # 1 Mary Baucom Excused N/A Ben Burds Y Y Nicole Carnevale Excused N/A Martha Civitillo Excused N/A Caroline Cody Excused N/A Igor Dabik Y Y Zachary Dale Y Y Cassandra Dudar Y Y Thomas Frank Excused Y (has proxy) Caity Hamilton Excused Y (has proxy) Shelby Haras Y Y Shannon Hughs Y Y Matt Iacano Y Y Samantha Joudoin Excused Y (has proxy) Marcelle Justison Y Y Meaghan Koeller Y Y Joshua Lashway Y Y Chris McDonald Y Y Wyatt McKibben Y Y Robert Meacham Y Y Brittany Moten Y Y Kristen Newton Y Y Ahmad Nofal Y Y Alexandra Palmisano Y Y Corey Parent Y Y Raymond Price Y Y Sarah Puckhaber Y Y Alex Reinmen Y Y Nina Rhim Y Y Ashley Rivers Y Y Allison Shea Y Y Alexander Stone Y Y Paul Tranby Excused N/A Zlata Unerkova Y Y Levon Vardanyan Y Y Claire Washer Y Y Leah Webster Y Y Dixon Weld Y Y Chloe Whalen Y Y Alessandra Wingerter Y Y
CHAIRS PRESENT Wesley Webb (Public Relations) Y Brittney Fredette (Academic Affairs) Y Beth Kessenich (Student Life) Excused Zach Graham (Campus Entertainment) Y Wes Norton (Environmental Conservation) Y Caroline Bishop (Elections) Y
SENIOR EXECUTIVE BOARD PRESENT
President Hassan Raza Y VP of University Relations Brian Brownell Y VP of Senate Affairs Bridget Lennon Y Secretary Steffi Chappell Y SLUSAF Central Treasurer Alina Miska Y Student Delegate Simon Lynch Y
II. Officer Reports
Vice President of Senate Affairs Bridget Lennon
Hey everyone. I hope you are all trying to stay healthy. To everyone who is not on Thelmo, welcome; this is what we are all about, hearing the voice of the students. With that said, you all need to keep in mind that we need to run a smooth meeting, and one that gets things accomplished; when you’re going to speak, please wait to be acknowledged, and then state your name, and speak clearly. Stating your name and speaking clearly is very important, because Steffi has to keep accurate records of the whole meeting. We have a couple items of Old Business tonight, and one item of New Business.
Secretary Steffi Chappell
I’ll just reiterate what Bridget said; please remember to state your name before you talk, and speak clearly.
Vice President of University Relations Brian Brownell Hello everyone, and welcome to everyone that is not usually with us. Lately I’ve been working on the Pub 56 Décor Committee, in an attempt to decorate the interior of the building. Besides that I haven’t been doing much, because I’ve been very busy with EMS calls; as I’m sure you’re all aware, they have been on the rise.
SLUSAF Central Treasurer Alina Miska
Hey everyone. So, there are lots of people here tonight, and that’s kind of fun! We have two returning contingency requests, and one new one tonight. I hope you’ve all read it, and we can have a good discussion about it. I’d also like to add: go Phillies, beat the Yankees!!
III. Committee Reports
Academic Affairs Chair Brittney Fredette
I just want to let my committee know to expect an e-mail from me.
Campus Entertainment Chair Zach Graham
Hi everyone. This last weekend was Inauguration, if you didn’t know and were living under a rock or something. All the events were pretty well attended save for a few. My focus now will be on the rest of the semester, next weekend’s concert, and a White Out for an upcoming hockey game.
Environmental Conservation Chair Wes Norton
We had a great event on Friday, so I’ll just talk about that for a little bit. As a part of the afternoon the Conservation Council organized a woodcutting event. The wood that was cut will be displayed inside the Student Center in about two weeks, and so there will be lots of information about heating in the cold months with wood. We will auction off the wood that will be displayed, and use the money for sustainability projects. Now we are working on a grant for our Green Bikes program so we can expand that and offer more long-term rentals, so people can rent a bike for the whole semester.
Public Relations Chair Wes Webb
Welcome everybody. This is Thelmo, and it’s great to see everyone be here. This is your student government. I’d like to remind you that you can and should voice your opinions on issues in general, and Thelmo is the place you should do that. You can come here as often as you would like. With that, elections are coming up, so you’ll see more advertising on that. Student Delegate to the Board of Trustees Simon Lynch
As you know, we had a Board meeting this past weekend. We had a couple important things to talk about. First, we discussed the future replacement of the turf field. We have donations coming in for that. We applied for a heat cap from the government, and passed that resolution in the meetings. We looked at another resolution for turning 21 Romoda Drive into a residence again. Most of what else we did was more about breaking up into groups and discussing the path of the school right now. You’ve heard me talk a lot about the environmental scan that was done on the university. We talked about that a lot this weekend. Basically, we want to know what other liberal arts schools like us are doing to respond to this recession. Dean Tolliver did a presentation about that subject, and it was very informative. Among other things, we looked at enrollment, and academic programs across the board. Universities like ours have seen very little cuts as far as programs go. You’ve heard a lot about the Recession Response Taskforce here in Thelmo. Their job is to make the school smarter as far as spending goes. The Board meeting was just one big discussion and think tank, about how we can prepare ourselves for making cuts. If you want to come by Hassan and my office hours, we will be there, and we can talk about that a lot more in depth.
Elections Chair Caroline Bishop
Elections are coming up for Thelmo! There are four positions you can run for. Those applications are located at the Info Desk, and will be due this Sunday by 3:00. There will be a candidates meeting that evening, and then campaigning starts. There will be debates next Wednesday here in Thelmo. If you have any questions, don’t hesitate to ask anyone on the Executive Board or myself. If you are thinking about running, you haven nothing to lose.
President Hassan Raza
SLU is really unique in terms of the significant impact student input makes. Four of us up here have positions you can run for. There is a lot more to the positions than the website tells you about them, and a lot more than what you see here every Wednesday. It’s a great opportunity to be up here. I would just like to share something we talked about in the Board meetings: at NYU, they were petitioning for one student to be permitted to attend the Board meetings. Here at SLU we have two students that can attend, and we are considerable smaller than NYU. We are very unique and lucky. I encourage you all to consider running for a position. Moving on, SLU has a $109.7 million operating budget. We’ve been worried about the Recession Response Taskforce because there is no student on it, but it was encouraging to learn that the impact on students from lowering the operating budget will be rather small. Now without further delay, I welcome everyone here at this meeting, and I am sure you know why so many people are here. I’ll let Dean Tolliver take the floor.
Dean Tolliver
I am really glad that so many people are here to get answers. My primary mission tonight is to hear what you have to say, and answer your questions. Let me back up: you received a memo from me this afternoon, after I had several meetings with Health Services and local public health officials. The memo said that as result of the last 36 hours, our Health Services has seen 177 students who have the flu, or flu-like symptoms. We have heard from local hospitals that their emergency room wards are full of public school students that are ill, and they asked us to deal with our medical emergencies here on campus if we could. They told us that in the 24 hours before symptoms present in a patient is when the patient is most contagious. So that means that people that may be infected are out and about, and could be anywhere. We have plans and a specific process that when someone is ill, they stay in their room and their healthy roommate is moved out. We’ve been able to do that in the last few weeks because the number of people sick has been relatively small. Now we estimate that at least 10% of the student body is ill, and that estimate probably doesn’t cover everyone who is actually sick. When we reach a certain number of people being sick, we can’t function as a university, and therefore we can’t keep the university open. To prevent us from reaching that number, we do what we can, by eliminating events that mean a large group of people will be together in one room. In doing this, we have a tier system that we go by. Social gatherings go first, then athletic events, and then academic events. So that is why the e-mail message got sent out, and said what it said. Right now there are 177 students ill, some of them are very ill and some are not so ill. No SLU student has been hospitalized. I have more information that I can give you, but what questions do you have?
Guest Ben Rendall
Why is it that only student-run “optional events” are being postponed or canceled? Why is something like the Outdoor Program’s climbing competition not being canceled? Most people who go to that will be there to socialize, and things are just as transmittable there.
Dean Tolliver
It was never designed as student-run events, but any social event. The way we work this is from social events, to non-academic official events (like athletic events), and then academic events. You can imagine the problems that can happen if we send home students who live across the country, or across the world; and if the university has to close, we will have to deal with those situations. We basically start with the easiest point. We’re not trying to stop people from having a social life. But let’s face it, your events at the OC draw a ton of people. That is where out attention went to, events that draw a lot of people, because those are the events where the most germs can be passed around.
Guest Cory McGrath
Just to follow up on that, my main concern is that as we were planning this party, which has gone on for several years, this was never brought up as a possibility. So we laid a lot of ground work to make sure this party could happen, without any idea that it could possibly be canceled because of the flu. In the future, we need to be notified if this is something that can happen.
Dean Tolliver
I hear you loud and clear. I want to apologize. I wasn’t even able to get a hold of the Thelmo Board representative and the President to let them know about this first. I am directly in touch with the Director of Health Services and other Health Services employees. Yesterday morning we had no idea I would be standing here tonight saying this. In a community like ours, everyone needs to be consulted, except when we are in an emergency. We’ve hired three additional people to work in Health Services in the last two days. Health Services will be open on the weekend, which is not normal. We are not operating in our normal mode. I will apologize to you, and I need to apologize to ACE, because we might lose or postpone the ACE concert. Yet that is the one clause in the contract that allows us to postpone and still keep our money: if we are in a state of emergency because of medical reasons.
Guest Cory McGrath
It wasn’t that you didn’t contact us, it was more that as we were moving forward in the party planning process weeks ago, this possibility wasn’t brought up to us.
Dean Tolliver
I am sorry, but this wasn’t something we could foresee. Leading up to this, we have only had a few people sick. But we have 177 people sick between yesterday morning and tonight.
Vice President of University Relations Brian Brownell
I’d just like to ask Cory, are you taking a financial hit because of this?
Guest Cory McGrath At this point, it looks like we might be able to cancel without a financial hit.
Dean Tolliver
When I first began these conversations this afternoon, the back of my mind thought about the concert for ACE; I knew they would be spending a lot of money. I don’t know how much money you are in trouble of losing, but I would want to talk with you guys outside of this meeting, so we could discuss the Dean’s office helping you with that. Remember, this is a preventative measure, not a punitive one. This is preventative. The danger here is real. I don’t want you to suffer from the disease, but I don’t want your organization to suffer either.
President Hassan Raza
After Dean Tolliver’s office has worked with you, the Thelmo Executive Board will work with you, via contingency or some other option.
Senator Stone
I’m wondering what the communication has been with schools that are in a similar situation as ours? Have you been talking with any schools to find out what they have been doing? I feel like there are other ways in which we can go about preventing a spread of the disease rather than just cutting social gatherings. For example, I know that other universities like Hamilton have a more relaxed attendance policy in light of the swine flu.
Dean Tolliver
I’ve been in touch with two colleges, Hobart, and Air Force Academy. They were worried about great numbers of their athletes on their sports teams not being able to compete because of being sick. We already do have a relaxed attendance policy this semester; it’s something we have discussed with the faculty. We knew that the H1N1 virus would hit us hard. I can’t comment on the Hamilton situation, other than to tell you that different schools are going to encounter different levels of sickness. We suspect levels have gone up here at SLU because people went home for fall break and came back carrying the virus. Do we talk to other schools? Yes we do, and we should be talking to more. There are four colleges in this area. None but us have the policy of housing healthy students that have sick roommates elsewhere; we can house healthy students with sick roommates at the Best Western, and we have been doing that. But when the numbers of people that are ill start to exceed the numbers that the Health Center or hospitals can deal with, we are in a crisis. We are an academic institution first. When canceling events in an attempt to isolate the virus, you start with social events first and work your way backward. I like working with you, and I learn from you. But this is a big deal; 177 people are sick. I’ve been in this business for 25 years and that has never happened. You’re worried now about your social events, but at some point, your semester and credits can be effected by this.
President Hassan Raza
Could you elaborate on our constraints as a university?
Dean Tolliver
Okay. When you are ill and your roommate has been sent off, we try to deliver food to you from the Northstar Café so you don’t need to leave your room to eat. We can manage that with the small amount of students we have had sick; 20, 30, 40, or 50. But when they get to 177, we are worried that we won’t be able to manage that. We have space for 50 people to be in the Best Western between now and Friday. Starting Friday, the Best Western has commitments to the sports teams that come here to play, and there are zero spaces there for us. So then where do we put people? And how many meals can we handle delivering from the Pub or Dana if hundreds of students are in their rooms and can’t come out? That is when I sit down with the president and we talk about other solutions.
Guest Jimmy Mairs
Other than fall break, what sort of explanation has been offered to the recent spike?
Dean Tolliver
I can’t answer you on a scientific basis. But I can tell you that when I talked to the people at the Air Force Academy, they let me know that the spread of the flu virus has been forecasted like a weather pattern. The northeast is being hit now in the ways the south was affected months ago. They forecast that this travels from west to east, and roughly south to north. We are being hit now in the way that other areas have been hit before.
Student Delegate to the Board of Trustees Simon Lynch
Also, New York State wasn’t put in the “dangerous state” until a few weeks ago.
Dean Tolliver
The President of the US declared a swine flu emergency.
Vice President of University Relations Brian Brownell Also, Jimmy, we’ve seen it coming. Cornell was the most recent to get hit. We had our fingers crossed it wouldn’t come here, but it did. Virus’s spread, and when they start they jump exponentially.
Guest James Bassett
When you say 177, do you mean 177 confirmed cases of H1N1?
Dean Tolliver
We mean 177 students presenting roughly the same symptoms, and about 50 confirmed cases. And we can’t confirm on this campus. We have to send samples out to a lab, and you can imagine how backed up labs are right now. So no, we don’t have 177 confirmed cases.
Vice President of University Relations Brian Brownell
Just as a point of information, I just talked to Pat Ellis today. She told me that 60 students have confirmed influenza-like symptoms. They stopped testing for H1N1 two months ago. Once it becomes influenza like, they classify the illness as that.
Senator Price
About Hamilton, I’d just like to add that they closed down all fraternity parties two months ago to prevent a spread.
Guest Lisa Carlo
Has there been any talk about closing down classes or the library?
Dean Tolliver
That would be the last resort. I’ll give you an example. An ideal concert might have 1200 people at it, an ideal Outing Club party might have 600 people. When you have students gathering like that that might be infected, the spread of the virus will probably accelerate. We are trying to prevent that so we don’t have to cancel classes. What you do is try to figure out what the most valuable activity is. Here, we are an academic institution. The most valuable activity is going to classes.
Guest Mike Petroni You’re cutting down on these on-campus events, but it’s Halloween weekend. People are going to flood the Tick Tock and the bar anyways. How are you going to prevent that from happening?
Dean Tolliver
We want you to know what is logical. We know we can’t stop you from doing that. You’re college students; we’re going to arm you with information about how to protect yourself, and hope for the best.
Guest Greg Sinner
Can you talk about the vaccinations you have been offering?
Dean Tolliver
We had a vaccination clinic last Saturday, and practically no one showed up. We’re going to have another one soon, and we’re going to try and get as many people as we can to participate. We wanted to give out 300 vaccinations this past Saturday, and I think we gave out 25. I’ll bet that at the next clinic we get more people, especially because of what has happened in the last 48 hours. We have vaccines for both flues, and you can get both shots at the same time. The next vaccination clinic will be in Leithead.
Guest Greg Sinner
How will you deal with a huge number of people showing up? Do you have enough vaccinations for everyone?
Dean Tolliver
They haven’t been able to produce the vaccine in the numbers they need to hit everyone in the country. That is why we as SLU might only get 300 or 400 vaccinations, when we have well over 2000 people to vaccinate. We are getting the vaccinations in batches; if we go through all 300 at this next clinic, we will be getting more.
Ben Rendell
Will we be able to have this party, ever?
Dean Tolliver
I don’t know. I would assume that as soon as things get anywhere back towards normal, we could work with you to do that. But it will not be this weekend. If you have any questions about this, please e-mail me. I will try and get more information to you guys, too. I do thank you for these questions, and for your presence here.
IV. Old Business
Spirit Week Contingency Request Second Approval
Joe Rathra
I have been in contact with people from Dining Services. We were able to lower the cost overall by $500. The amount that I presented last week was the $5000. We now have that down to $4500, but that covers a dessert reception. We have since learned that the dinner is completely not feasible. We were informed of that yesterday. However, we were able to lower the cost, as I think you requested.
Senator Stone
Did you talk to any organizations at all?
Joe Rathra
Yes; after the meeting last week I met with SOUL. They are going to have a part in Spirit Week. They will host an event that they asked me to kind of keep secret, but they are excited about it. We have also been in contact with other organizations. Carlos Beltran has been in contact with the Dance Ensemble, and a couple of other organizations. We sent out an e-mail to the organization chairs and had a meeting last night. Because of the short notice, no one was able to talk with their organizations first, so we are having another meeting again on Monday. We haven’t gotten a verbal commitment from many people, but we are working with them.
Elections Chair Caroline Bishop
I think it’s great you got an actual number form Dining Services, and that you’ve been talking with other organizations. But I want to reiterate what Senator Hamilton said last week. This money that you are asking for is only for prizes, and Spirit Week can continue without prizes. I would also like to say that as a Senate we passed this with the idea that changes would be made, I think. I think I would have liked to see pledges from other organizations, giving money to you guys to help out with these prizes. I think in the future that might be a better way to enhance school spirit as a whole.
Joe Rathra First, I would like to ask everyone in here tonight if you think that with less prizes, as a whole the student body would participate in a Spirit Week? Secondly, I would like to highlight that the reason we are not getting donations from other organizations is because they are not hosting events that would add points to the prizes. They are not hosting competitions that would lead to prizes, thus we don’t want them to pay for the prizes.
Gary Gilmund
Spirit Week will not just be exclusive events for the four classes. Each class day will contain an event hosted by each of the class councils; to win these prizes, anyone in the class participates in their specific event. All of that is combined together to earn the points. This money is solely for the prizes. We are encouraging other organizations to take part in Spirit Week so it is a more fulfilling Spirit Week for the whole campus. This is the incentive, the prizes.
Environmental Conservation Chair Wes Norton
I was wondering; last week you had events you knew would happen. Do you know what the other two events will be?
Joe Rathra
The junior class will be having a holiday party at Pub 56. We’re in the act of planning that. We can’t close Pub 56, so other members of classes can come to that if they want to. The party will have some type of theme.
Motion passes with unanimous approval.
Fall Festival Contingency Request Second Approval
Environmental Conservation Chair Wes Norton
I just wanted to let everyone know that it was a great event; we had about 70 or 80 people show up, from all around the campus. I think the budgeting was right on, so thank you.
Motion passes with unanimous approval.
V. New Business
Amnesty International Contingency Request
Tara Hutz Up here right now is just a few of us that will be attending the conference down in Boston that is hosted every year. This year’s conference is themed Dignity and Justice for All. We are coming here asking for money to finish out what we will need to go to the conference. Every student on campus is allocated a certain amount of money to attend a conference each semester, so we went to the Academic Affairs Office and they were able to give us $790 for eleven people. We went to Rance Davis and Dean Tolliver, and both offices were able to give us $350. Our own budget is also able to provide $350. We were also able to get a bit of money from the government department. We’re still asking for $1888. The conference is very fulfilling. Along with attending lectures, we will be presenting at the conference, on Troy Davis (who was arrested in Texas on a human rights issue), and on Nepal, on a specific human rights issue about children being used as sex slaves. In the past we’ve come back to campus and talked on panels or hosted events to help pass on what we have learned. Right now we’re hosting a film festival.
Senator Price
It’s clear you’ve done your part on getting funding elsewhere, but I would like to ask, why are you flying instead of driving?
Tara Hutz
It’s actually cheaper. I took a train to the conference my sophomore year, and it came out to be more than a flight would cost. The flight goes out of Saranac Lake, and flies us right down to Boston.
Debate For
Senator Burds
I think this would be a great experience for anyone, and it’s great that SLU could be represented at the conference.
Debate Against
Speak To
Debate For
Debate Against
Speak To
Motion to vote Motion passes 35 FOR 0 AGAINST 0 ABSTAIN
President Hassan Raza
Before we move into Members’ Time, I’d like to tell Beth’s committee that she will be e-mailing you. At this Friday’s hockey game, we are offering free hot chocolate and cookies as soon as you enter Appleton. President Fox and I will be handing out hot chocolate, so if you want to help pass out cookies, let me know. Our original plan was to have you all text at least a few people regarding elections right now, but in interest of time I’ll just ask you to text three or four people telling them about the Thelmo elections before you leave the room tonight. Also before you leave, I have the tickets for the President’s Box this Friday for the game against Sacred Heart. Please come see me, and I’d be happy to hand you a ticket. It’s a great opportunity for us.
VI. Member’s Time
Senator Rhim
Although we won’t be having Halloween parties this upcoming weekend, it is still Halloween. SOUL is selling Halloween grams down on the first floor of the Student Center. All the money we raise will go to SLU Buddies.
Elections Chair Caroline Bishop
I forgot to mention that I will need help with counting ballots for the elections in a few weeks, so if anyone is interested in helping out, I need about six people every day during the voting process. If you want to volunteer, talk to me.
Campus Entertainment Chair Zach Graham
I would like to announce we had a 100% initiation this weekend for Beta. We’re going to start recruitment and basically letting people know what we are all about soon.
Senator Reinmen
I know we’ve talked about this a lot tonight, but I’ll just reiterate it one last time: three of my roommates have swine flu, so please be cautious in what you do, and use Purell! Public Relations Chair Wes Webb
Could I just get a reminder on the dates for the election process?
Elections Chair Caroline Bishop
Sure! On November first applications are due. Campaigning will be from November first through the eighth. On November fourth we will have the debates during the Thelmo meeting. Voting week takes place from November ninth through the thirteenth. We will announce results on the fifteenth.
Senator Burds
How will the e-mail/SLUWire rules work for elections?
Elections Chair Caroline Bishop
There are two different categories for submitting info on SLUWire; events and announcements. You will not be aloud to submit events at all, and will only be aloud to submit three announcements.
Secretary Steffi Chappell
I’d just like to put in a small plug for the position of secretary. It might not look like fun, but I promise it’s not as bad as it seems, and being a part of the Senior Executive Board is a great opportunity. If you have any questions please feel free to talk to me.
Public Relations Chair Zach Graham
Cluck Farkson shirts have been ordered, so look out for those! They should be in November ninth or tenth. We will have a lot, so come buy them in the Student Center sometime in the next few weeks.
Senator Shea
If you are applying for a position on the Executive Board, are you replacing someone on it now?
Vice President of Senate Affairs Bridget Lennon
The four of us, Hassan, Brian, Steffi, and me, our terms are up. You can’t run for Simon or Alina’s positions because theirs run for the academic year. Ours run for the calendar year.
SLUSAF Central Treasurer Alina Miska Later in the semester I’ll be giving information out for the Junior Assistant Treasurer position.
Meeting adjourned at 8:15 PM.
Respectfully Submitted By:
Secretary Steffi Chappell