Associated Students of the University of Washington Student Senate Minutes Session XXI

Associated Students of the University of Washington Student Senate Minutes Session XXI February 17, 2015 Paccar 192 Call to Order: 5:01 pm APPROVAL OF THE AGENDA 5:00 pm Brady Begin asks for additions, deletions or modifications to the Senate agenda. The Steering Committee voted to approve a Special Order of the Day for the U-PASS legislation as that is time sensitive. It has to be approved by the Senate body at large. He asks if the sponsor would like to speak on it. Katherine Sims says she’s Chair of the U-PASS Advisory Board and the memorandum that created U-PASS says that it has to be reconsidered every two years. We have to get it through ASUW Senate and GPSS and the Board within the next two weeks. Brady Begin asks for an objection to considering it as Special Order of the Day. Seeing none, the item is approved. Adam Griffis moves to consider R-21-23 and R-21-24 in an expedited manner. Seconded Objection Adam Griffis says these are in honor of Michael Young leaving and Ana Mari Cauce becoming interim President. He thinks they will only take a couple of minutes. Kevin Shotwell withdraws the objection. Seeing no other objections, the motion is approved. Brady Begin asks for further additions, deletions, or modifications. Seeing none, there is a clicker vote on approval of the Senate agenda. 1 61.0.3 SPEAKER’S REPORT 5:04 pm Brady Begin says he doesn’t have anything to report. VICE SPEAKER’S REPORT 5:05 pm Kevin Celustka says he posted his blog on the Facebook group just now. Board went for 6 hours last week. They discussed quite a few things but the majority of the meeting regarded the EPP. They discussed amendments, candidate-run polling station, and food giveaways. They’ll be passing the final version this week. They also heard from Katherine about the U-PASS and from Noelle Symanski, WSA chair about the issue they’re having with their budget. Hopefully a resolution for that will come through in the future. The Board passed all 4 of the resolutions the Senate voted on last week. He says he’s not sure if it’s a record but he was impressed. MEMBERSHIP COORDINATOR’S REPORT 5:08 pm Jessa Cameron says sweatshirts and t-shirts should get here by Friday so you’ll get them next week if we do get them then. Also, a reminder: you can only proxy for one other person, keep that in mind if multiple people ask you. It’s never too late to join Senate so ask your friends to join. BOARD OF DIRECTORS REPORT 5:09 pm Brady Begin asks if any members of the Board would like to come to the floor to share something with us. Seeing none, the meeting proceeds. 2 FORUM 5:09 pm Brady Begin says the Provost is not yet here. Kevin Celustka moves to table the Forum until Provost Cauce arrives. Seconded Seeing no objections, the Forum is tabled. Brady Begin says we will discuss the next item of business in the meantime. He invites the sponsor to the floor. Katherine Sims reads the resolution. Since this is complicated she has a PowerPoint and some members of Transportation Services to help her answer questions. Also, Thomas Crowe is the Senate liaison to the U-PASS Advisory Committee and Hailey Badger and Christina Xiao are on the Advisory Board as well. A little history: we’ve been working on this for the past month and originally Transportation Services came to us with a $9 increase, we were able to change it to $4 each year over 2 years. Essentially, they just switched to a different program that will cost us less. The U- PASS was started in 1991. It’s a student program created for students and by students. Originally it was started for environmental concerns as well as desires to commute and have more access to the city. Eventually ASUW and GPSS decided to make the UPASS universal, decreasing the price for students. It hasn’t had an increase until now. This is the most common way students get to campus and it saves a ton of CO2 from getting into the atmosphere. Most importantly, students really depend on it. A survey indicated that 94% of students are happy with it and 99% have used it. The U-PASS services aren’t just busses and the train, they also include Pronto cycle share and Zipcar and Car2Go. 84% of students say it makes it easier for them to get to school. Night Ride is also part of it. Rates have stayed steady for the past 4 years, and the program has been building up reserve funding. One problem is that King County Metro and Sound transit are having rate increases this year. Also, there will be more services coming our way, like taking the light rail downtown and increased bus service. We’ll have a lot more resources for the price. Brady Begin introduces Ana Mari Cauce, and invites her to take the floor. Ana Mari Cauce says things have changed a bit since she agreed to come to the Senate. The Senate is the first group she’s spoken to since she was named Interim President. Mostly she says she wants to do a Q and A, but she’ll speak a little bit first. One thing to discuss is the change in position, which is still something new for her. Already she’s been contacting legislators. She says she anticipates a 1-year contract, which is normal for interim positions. She’ll be President for a year. On some level, all presidents are interims, it’s just a matter of how long the interim is. 3 Her first concern right now is the legislature, which she’s sure senators will have questions about. She’s trying to ensure we give them the message that UW and higher education really are the best investment they can make. We tend to look at things as costs, and this obviously costs something, but it’s important to look at the short term and long term consequences. About half the faculty is not paid on state funds. We just had a report on the economic impact of the University. We have clinical faculty and research faculty and when they come in, it’s like a small business in many cases. Chris Murray came here with a cast of more than a few dozen. It’s like a small business in that someone comes in and opens up quite a few jobs. In that sense we’re job creators as well. Many of our students and faculty are involved in patents and startups as well. 87% of patents out of the University have had some student involvement. The UW helps to make the region and the state stronger, and that’s the message it’s important for all of us to bring forward together. She says her hunch is that 90% of the University and Association’s agendas is in common and the more we can speak together the better. We’re committed to affordability and access. It’s important when we think about access not to just consider who comes in but who graduates. The UW has the highest 6-year graduation rate in the state. Student debt is a problem, but it multiplies if you don’t get a degree. Debt is not a good investment if you don’t graduate. Affordability is also an issue and how affordable we can be depends on State investment. It’s not just a private good, but a public good, a good for the entire state. People with degrees are more likely to be involved in civic activities and less likely to need assistance from the state. Scholarships and financial aid are important. Students did a good job last year making the case for the middle, so we’re considering how we can offer more support to the middle class without taking from lower class students. One thing she really cares about is raising money for scholarships. At the end of the day, what makes your degree worth it is excellence and quality of education. We don’t need to give up one for the other. One more thing she wants to say is that students won’t see the school changing course. All the initiatives the University’s been working on during President Young’s tenure she’s been involved in. He was very collaborative and work has been done as a team and will continue that way. Thomas Crowe says thank you and asks for ideas Provost Cauce has regarding diversity. Ana Mari Cauce says they’ve been working on that and it’s a personal interest of hers. She chaired the Faculty Committee on Diversity Affairs and in her academic work she’s primarily worked with at-risk and homeless youth. Her number one agenda is that everyone here feels welcome. Some may have noticed after the murders of the three Muslim students in Chapel Hill she sent out a message. When she went to the vigil some students had it was clear that students felt very vulnerable and also that the diversity they bring to the University was invisible. She would like to see this University reflect society’s diversity. Our state is not one of the most diverse. If you look at demographics of student body compared to state, it’s much more consonant for us than at many other universities.

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