University of Wisconsin La Crosse

UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN–LA CROSSE STUDENT ASSOCIATION 235 CARTWRIGHT CENTER 1725 STATE STREET LA CROSSE, WI 54601 (608) 785-8717

Student Senate Agenda Date: March 23rd, 2011 Time and Location: 6:00 PM; Port O’ Call; Cartwright Center

I. Call to Order a. 6:01 pm II. Pledge of Allegiance III. Roll Call IV. Approval of Agenda a. Krug/Ismail b. Motion to add non-action item on Japan Day of Action in discussion c. Thomas/Rykal d. Vote i. Passed V. Approval of Minutes a. Arend/Bryson b. Vote i. Passed VI. Guest Speakers a. Mai Takahashi, Japan Day of Action i. We wanted to talk about fundraising for Japan. As everyone already knows, Japan was hit by a huge earthquake on March 10th. Afterwards there was a huge tsunami that did so much damage to Japan. ii. As of today there are 25,617 people dead or missing 1. Deaths: over 9523 2. Missing: 16,094 3. Number of buildings destroyed: 18234 iii. The problems are not just the tsunami and the quake; currently the people do not have enough food, water or electricity. It is not just the area hit by the earthquake. It is the surrounding areas as well as in Japan everywhere. I spoke with my mother who lives in Tokyo which is not right by where the earthquake hit but they are having problems with food, water and electricity. They are anticipating that they will have to cut back for at least a year. On top of that, the biggest issue right now is the radiation leak from the nuclear power plants. It affects human health as well as agriculture. It is very scary. We need to do something to help them. iv. I also live pretty far away from where the earthquake hit. My father had to go to the hospital and while we do have very good healthcare systems but right now he is struggling to get an appointment which is

Senate 2010-2011 very unbelievable. It used to be so easy. They are having to schedule blackouts so they can help out with the areas that were damaged and do not have electricity. It is affecting all of Japan. We do have earthquakes throughout the year, but never one that has affected the entire country. v. They are still having small earthquakes often. vi. Today and tomorrow we are doing awareness days, today we only did it at Cartwright because of the bad weather. We are sitting at the tables and handing out brochures. There is information about the Japan Relief Day when we will be collecting donations. This will be sponsored by ISO and OIE. vii. We really want Senate’s help because you have bigger connections and we want to make it as big as possible. There are actually a lot of Japanese people in the La Crosse area. viii. There are lots of Americans who have family and friends over in Japan. We would like to make this event bigger and have as much student involvement as possible. OIE and ISO have been a great help but coupled with your help, we believe the event will be very successful and meaningful. ix. Plan for Japan Relief Day: April 6th and 7th 1. Time: CC 11am – 3 pm, Clock Tower 10am-3 pm and Whitney Center x. We are also looking for volunteers. xi. We want to act as quickly as possible but we thought that next week would be too soon. We thought we could organize even more if we did it the second week of April. It has already been over a week after the major earthquake. Other universities have already started their donation campaigns. xii. The donations will be sent to the Japanese Red Cross Society because if we donate to the American Red Cross, 9% of the donation stays to be used for the American Red Cross and we would like all funds to be used for Japan. We are also trying to open an account at Wells Fargo to be able to wire money over to Japan. xiii. Questions: As far as the type of help that you need from us, it is mainly volunteers? What exactly are you looking for from us? 1. We do need more volunteers but we were also hoping that students could help with spreading out the word. If we make it an event we thought we would have more student involvement. xiv. Did you also want to put donation boxes in the residence halls? 1. Yes. We do want to put donation boxes in the residence halls and we are hoping to put donation boxes in each department. xv. Is there any concern in international transfer of funds? Are there any fees associated with giving money to the Japanese Red Cross? 1. The money will be transferred to the foundation so they can have tax reduction. We will send the donation directly to Wells Fargo for which there will be no fees. Wells Fargo will send it

Senate 2010-2011 to the Japanese Red Cross so all of that will be taken care of. The wire transfer will go directly from Wells Fargo to the Japanese Red Cross. xvi. There is also a United against Hate Campaign on April 6th at the Clock tower. Maybe we could work together if that’s okay with you? 1. Of course b. Jen Weber, Violence Prevention Office i. I do my graduate assistantship with the Violence Prevention Office. We deal with students that have issues with sexual assault, domestic violence or stalking. We also give presentations about what consent is, we do a little game with the stoplight. Along with educational aspects, we do a lot of programming such as a discussion following the movie premiere of the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. ii. April is sexual assault awareness month. The third week of April we will be holding the t-shirt project on campus. The first year of the project was in October 1990 to bear witness against violence against women and break the silence surrounding it. It gives survivors of sexual assault or interpersonal violence a way to let off their emotions and display them. The idea behind it is that laundry was a woman’s job, and they used to inform each other of what was going on when they were hanging up their laundry. The La Crosse area has been collecting t-shirts from survivors for a little over ten years now. I want to say that the Women Studies Department has a little over 300. They will be hung up during the week of April 18th and they will be up during Student Senate. We wanted to come talk about it because it will be a little emotional. On Monday night we’ll also be making t-shirts, you can be a survivor or just a supporter. iii. We are also holding an event with Western Technical College called “Let’s talk about it”. Sexual assault can be a little hard to talk about it. One woman will be a sexual assault survivor and the other is her best friend and what they went through. iv. April 27th will be Denim Day which is the day in support of an Italian high court which overturned a rape course because they woman’s jeans were too tight. They figured there was no way he could’ve raped her because he couldn’t have had gotten off her jeans without help. To show support for this day, you should wear denim. c. Dorothy Her, Social Justice Director i. Today I wanted to talk about the Asian Student Organization. Next weekend is our Asian Awareness Week. ii. We really just want to educate and share with all of you our different arts and traditions of the different ethnic backgrounds and break a lot of commonly held stereotypes. We also want to build bridges. iii. We will be showing the film VincentWho which is very powerful and there will be a reception following the film. VII. Officer Reports a. President

Senate 2010-2011 i. I was asked to announce that Supreme Court Candidate will be on campus tomorrow from 11:30-5 pm in Port O’Call. She is the only candidate we have heard from so that is why there is only one. ii. We will be doing the Myrick Park Campus Clean up April 3rd with RHAC and Greek Life. If you’re interested please go to room 212 and RSVP. There will be a cook out for $4. iii. Petition papers for student senate are due soon. b. Vice-President i. The card swipe is still a work in progress. It is working now as a box reader and tomorrow we will figure out how to give people the chip to be able to use it. ii. Name plates are ordered so people will have those next week. iii. We are moving forward with outreach and educational efforts on the new Veteran senator. We will have a number of opportunities for senators to get involved. It is important that we inform other students on this since we decided to move forward with this it is our responsibility to take active roles with it. iv. Final reminder: no campaign materials for upcoming student elections during the meeting or in the office. c. Chief Financial Officer i. Total expense: $28,135.11/47,388. We are doing well and not over spending like some other student organizations. ii. We will have a senate final exam which will consist of about 40 questions. d. Shared Governance Director i. Board of Regents meeting April 7th and 8th. Email me by tonight if you are interested. ii. 13 UW Systems chancellors have endorsed the plan giving universities more autonomy. iii. Our faculty senate has also proposed a resolution supporting this autonomy. They also sent out a resolution pertaining the voter registration bill, they are in support of it. e. Gender Issues i. Vagina Monologues are next weekend April 1st and 2nd at 7:00 in Graff Main Hall Auditorium. You can purchase your tickets now or at the front door. It’s a great show! 10% of the proceeds go to the V-day organization and the other 90% go to New Horizons Women’s Shelter. ii. We will also be selling Chocolate vagina suckers. f. Social Justice i. A lot of the diversity organizations are going through their by-laws to revise them right now g. Public Relations i. Next Tuesday March 29th, Jesse Jackson will be on campus discussing GOTV and same day voting as well as voter id. Wisconsin Public Radio will be covering it. They are interested in interviewing a few students as well. If you’re interested, I think Student Senate is an

Senate 2010-2011 appropriate population to be interviewed. Shoot me an email if you’re interested. ii. Vagina Monologues, if you’re more interested, there will be an article in the Racquet coming out tomorrow. Check it out! h. Local Affairs i. There was a county board meeting on St. Patrick’s Day and they were discussing the union contract and collective bargaining. There was a mini-protest going on, one guy was standing outside with a sign. It did pass 25-3. ii. The bus route change is on hold because there are a lot of potential cuts. The project is at a standstill until further notice. iii. I have an MTU board meeting on Monday. iv. I was contacted by Mitch Reynolds from AM Radio and he is looking for an interview from me. I did kind of want to talk a little about that because it is a different side to the whole debate. What is proposed could move the transportation fund to the general fund. So if transportation wants to compete for funding they would have to compete with schools which wouldn’t be as good. This is millions of dollars of cuts. 30% reductions in operating budgets. The bus routes through Onalaska wouldn’t be an option anymore. If you’re interested in other data please shoot me an email. i. Others VIII. RHAC Report a. Elections are coming up on April 12th and applications are due April 1st. Coate Hall is holding St Baldricks to raise money for cancer April 26th in the REC. IX. Advisor Reports a. Welcome back from spring break! X. Committee Reports a. SUFAC i. Meeting on Monday to discuss Green Fund requests. I encourage anyone interested to attend the meeting at 5:30 in room 326 in this building b. Undergrad Curriculum i. Language courses will now count as math and logic. c. JP&B i. Wisconsin Idea Partnership- greater flexibility to other schools of UW- System. Some consider it to be giving more power to the Board of Regents. ii. “No plans for a tuition hike, that’s just not in the cards”- Joe Gow iii. The 1.4 million dollars we were talking to move back and forth has been suggested to be used for GQ&A as opposed to offsetting costs of tuition increases. d. Branding Committee- i. Looked at different logos that other groups and organizations have. Trying to unify all of them. We are currently short two members. We meet only once a month, next meeting will be April 20th.

Senate 2010-2011 e. Undergraduate Research Committee i. Grants were due today so committee will get them sometime this week and convene to give out money. XI. Organizational Reports a. LASO i. Fiesta is coming up. We are holding a dance lesion tomorrow night at 6 pm in the Ward Room. It will be hosted by a professional dancer. This Saturday is the fiesta and tickets need to be purchased beforehand. XII. Consent Agenda a. Klima/Brenzel b. SA1011-058: Resolution Requesting the Use of the REC for the Women’s Basketball Team Programs c. Vote i. Passed XIII. Unfinished Business XIV. New Business a. SA 1011-054: Clarification of the Global Link Program i. Lauderdale/Clark ii. Author’s Intro: We are doing this because the banquet is a big event where awards will be given out to students studying here from other countries and American students studying abroad. We have thousands of applications to help. We have to then decide who would help. We want people to sign up for one particular position. We want to make sure that students will do the tasks because we cannot afford someone to cancel last minute. Here we are trying to say that if a person signed up for something they have to tell us in advance. Unless it is an emergency of course but otherwise we will have to take off points for the banquet. iii. I’m in support of this resolution; it all seems pretty fair that if you sign up to do something you shouldn’t get rewarded if you don’t do it. iv. What do the points go towards? 1. Under Academic Initiatives, international students are applicable for a scholarship and they need four points. v. Vote 1. Passsed b. SA1011-055: Resolution Urging the University of Wisconsin Board of Regents, University of Wisconsin La Crosse Administration, and the Office of Residence Life to Refrain From Taking Moneys From University of Wisconsin La Crosse Residence Life Auxiliary Funds for State Give Backs i. Cruz/Brenzel ii. Author’s Intro: The Office of Residence Life has been hit hard in the past by UW-Madison and they’ve lost 3 million dollars last financial biennium. They need this money for reparations. Money can sit and look like a big money pot but this resolution urges against that,

Senate 2010-2011 because this is supported by auxiliary funds from students that live in the residence halls. iii. I think that this is splendid. It is a really good idea that makes a lot of sense. iv. I also think that this resolution has a good meaning and that maybe they don’t know we don’t like it when they take money from us so we should let them know. v. I guess my question is what would happen if the funds don’t get used? Is there another reasoning why they’re doing this? 1. They’ve done it in the past to cover up budget shortfalls. The last time it happened was under Governor Doyle and it is a quick fix to cover budget shortfalls. There is a lot of turnover in RHAC government, usually by the time RHAC senators get a chance to learn about the issues it is left behind. vi. Where else would the money come from? 1. Hopefully from more equitable sources. It is their prerogative to charge students for budget shortfalls. We should have something that all students see as opposed to a quick solution that only affects a segment of students. vii. Let’s say that the state asks us to give money back, we should think about the effect that this might have on other areas of campus. viii. On that note, it is worth pointing out that while we may be taking one tool off the table, it is directed at a small group of students. This would force us to be more equitable in where the money is coming from. ix. Vote 1. Passed c. SA1011-056: Resolution for a United Council Referendum i. Brenzel/Clark ii. Author’s Intro: United Council is representing collegiate level students at the state level. We are looking to do a referendum to see if students want to be charged that extra $2 per semester for an organization that will provide them a lobbyist in Madison as well as various workshops. We are going to need a lot of help and support if we do pass this. Take that into consideration while you’re voting. iii. I’m just going to address some of the questions we heard last week. Fond du Lac, Stout, Riverfalls, Fox Valley and Whitewater are currently not members. They are also having referendums this spring most likely. The UC board does not take campus specific stances unless the campus specifically asks for it. iv. I am not in support of this document because of the fact that attending USSA this other weekend, UC met with representatives but they couldn’t tell which schools were being represented by UC. UW-La Crosse was there and they knew of us by name. This wouldn’t make sense that we aren’t as active as other schools student associations. v. I also went to LegCon this weekend and we met with them. They are all very nice individuals but I don’t agree that we should join them.

Senate 2010-2011 I’ve talked to several people in a few of my classes and I think we should give students the option of saying yes or no. vi. If we did the referendum, and had another conflict of interest, how difficult is it to get out of? 1. We simply hold another referendum vii. I think regardless of our personal views, we should let the students decide. The wrong thing to do would be not allowing for a referendum and giving the students a voice. viii. Having a referendum with Academic Initiatives last year, it really empowered senators to go out and talk with constituents. Regardless of our personal opinions, just having senators get out and talk to constituents is a really good thing. ix. I feel like a lot of people don’t understand what UC is; I feel like people here don’t understand what it is. For us to put up a referendum for students would be out of order. Academic Initiatives is a completely different thing. x. An important distinction that we need to make is that we are not necessarily advocating for it, but ultimately this is something they need to decide. It is not up to us. The best option is to give students a choice in the matter. xi. The plan for reaching out to students is to visit every residence halls for hall council. We also have quarter sheets written up informing students what it is. We’ll be taking a very neutral, non partisan stance on it. xii. I disagree that we don’t know what United Council is. We’ve looked this up. I feel that students will know what it is too because it is our responsibility to educate them to the issue. It is our job to educate them. xiii. Basically the last time we held ties with the UC, was there a general student opinion of them then? 1. We are required to have a referendum every two years even if we are members to reaffirm the student’s opinion. xiv. Is there a benefit that is coming from this to tell students? 1. They hold training sessions. Those are direct tangible benefits that could be had from UC. xv. I think this is a good idea to let the students decide what they want. It’s going to let the student association to be closely involved with the students and educate them on what is going on. xvi. In addition to the education aspects, on the referendum page there is a blurb explaining what you’re voting on so that people know exactly what is going on. xvii. The last referendum was a simple yes or no vote. xviii. Last time when we pulled out, Student Senate took a vote no stance. I think that might clarify a few doubts. xix. Vote 1. Passed 28-1-0

Senate 2010-2011 Name (last, Consitiuency first) RoleCall

Senate 2010-2011 SAH Arend, Andrew Y SOE Boll, Jake CLS Brenzel, Andy Y Winner's Council Bryson, Jennifer Y BSU Clark, Chasstitti N SAH Cruz, Sonia Y CLS Heinze, Madisson Y Greek Herbst, Chris SAH Hofschulte, Rob NASA Holen, Ashley Y SAH Holt, Stephanie ISO Ismail, Haroon Y Frosh Johnson, Katie Y CLS Klima, Kat y RHAC Krug, Jason Y SOE Lauderdale, Laura Y Grad Lo, Kia Lia Y CBA Lenz, Kayla Y HOPE Ly, Maria Y SAPA McCauley, Grace Y A&C Ngo, Van Y LASO Passaro, Millie SAH Reed, Madeline Y Frosh Pointer, Katie Y RASO Rykal Reece Y RHAC Schneider, Rob Y CLS Sopko, Jackie Y SAH Thomas, Daryl Y RU Stancic, Rafaela Y CBA Tomesh, Derek SAH Torkelson, Jared Y SAH Verhoeven, Andy Y Grad Weber, Jen Y ASO Yang, Mai Chong Y CBA Zahn, Matt Y 2. d. SA1011-057: Resolution in Support of the Japan Relief Day i. Rykal/Arend ii. Author’s Intro: This is a resolution that Mai was discussing earlier. March 11th Japan Standard Time, Japan was hit by the largest earthquake ever recorded. ISO is planning an informational outreach today and tomorrow and are planning to collect relief efforts April 6th and 7th. They are asking for Student Senate Report to get out the word

Senate 2010-2011 and encourage organizations to aid in the Japan Relief Aid. We are asking that this be sent to all student organizations. We would like Senate to spread the word to constituents and friends as well as help ISO organize activities and collect donations. ISO is limited to international students; we are hoping to get everyone to know about this. We just want you to help us. iii. It will not be collected from the Office of International Education. iv. I move to amend to amend that the donation will be collected to the UW-L Foundation who have opened a Japan Relief Fund account. 1. Rykal/Thomas 2. Vote a. Acclamation v. Vote 1. Acclamation XV. Discussion a. Japan Day of Action (non-action) b. Brenzel/Clark c. Author’s Intro: I thought that it would be useful to talk about how we are going to be involved, if we want to hold specific events as well as how we can get other organizations to get involved. We can start by discussing how we want to be involved. d. For example, last year for the Haiti day of Action we put up ribbons around a lot of the trees as well as played a song by Wyclef Jean all day encouraging people to donate a dolla dolla bill y’all. Something we had kind of thrown out there would be going to Murphy is showing a film in Graff Main and suggesting a dollar or two donation as well as Drake Hall held a pancake dinner which was massively successful. e. ISO is having a $2 donation go towards Japan along with their International Banquet tickets. f. I think that last time the ribbons on the tree were extremely visible around campus. People standing near the clock tower are beneficial steps as well. g. I don’t if we need to play another song by Wyclef but we should play some music to attract attention as well as anything with food is profitable, like a bake sale or anything like that. h. Having something that people can actually see and having a display, if people donate a dollar they could put their name on something that will build up into an art display or something. Are we able to claim any kind of profit from food sold in here? i. We are discussing this on Monday and it is a possibility which has kind of been done in the past. i. Are we able to bring in a restaurant or something like that with Toppers and we make a profit off of our sales? i. That probably is not going to happen. j. Were you talking about selling dollar cut outs which your names can be written on? i. Yeah something that we can display and build up.

Senate 2010-2011 k. We also need to think about the fact that we have two weeks until the day of action but I think that that idea has merit. l. What if we got those big sumo suits and we can bet on who would win. m. Can we have donation boxes in each of the departments to get more help and support from faculty and staff? i. That was something we discussed. We’ll be sending out an email to every faculty department on campus. They raised a lot of money that way for the Haiti Day of Action. n. Instead of a paper thing you wrote but maybe we could sell ribbons that you could pin on your shirt or backpack. o. Maybe if we collected enough donations to pie Paula or Larry. p. The La Crosse Spartans have $16 tickets and you can sell however money you want but $4 can go to your organization. We could have a Japan Relief Game with the Spartans. q. I’d like to be careful with donation boxes; I think the effectiveness decreases with numbers. There is an optimal number that we shouldn’t exceed. I would like to have fewer boxes so someone trustworthy can take care of the boxes. We should coordinate it so that it can be organized more efficiently. r. I was just thinking of having it in the department office so the secretary could take care of it. Faculty and staff hang out the most in the department offices and I think there would be positive effects. s. I know in the resident halls last year there was a drive where people would take out garbage for a dollar or wash windows. Those are done for various causes that are done towards the end of the semester. t. Maybe someone could organize Pokémon tournaments. u. The top ideas were the ribbons but we should try to spruce up. v. I like the idea of donating something and getting something. You’ll see that around campus and it’ll have the same effect but it’ll be on backpacks or lapels. It wouldn’t be as labor intensive. If we were to give someone a paper thing to put up. w. Gap did pins and a red bead that you could clip on your backpack. It’d be cool if we did that with ribbons or beads and not as labor intensive as well as a cool alternative. x. I really do like the idea of having someone pay a dollar for something and getting something in return. I think to be cost effective, we could get a half sheet of paper and do the Japanese flag where people could sign it and have it be on display on the 6th and 7th in the Whitney Center. It will be more cost effective than having the red ribbon. y. You could also have the big rolls of paper and people can sign it to be put all together when it’s over. z. We could put people’s names on it around the circle so the more people that donate it could make the flag bigger. aa. Would it be more appropriate to have an ad-hoc committee or do we not have time to do that? bb. Are you for sure doing the video at the clock tower? i. Yes. We just weren’t sure if we could bring the TV to the clock tower.

Senate 2010-2011 cc. I think maybe one issue is that you would need a long power cord to supply power to the TV; another factor is the weather which may make it unfeasible. dd. Motion to close discussion. ee. Clark/Stancic XVI. Announcements a. I would like to congratulate David on becoming a new Vanguard. b. If you want to help with the dorm storms, please sign up as well as send me an email if you’re interested. c. Saturday is the LASO fiesta; I have posters if anyone wants one. d. Remember that Jesse Jackson is going to be on campus on Tuesday! XVII. Adjournment a. Verhoeven/Rykal b. 8:07 pm

Senate 2010-2011