UC General Minutes 10/19/08

Sunday, October 19, 2008, 7:00pm Science Center B-10
Harvard University – Faculty of Arts and Sciences

Minutes

I. Maia
a. Introduces newspaper readership program
II. Erin
a. deliver newspapers
b. online, sponsorships
c. integrate the readership with what’s going on on camps
d. surveys to ensure satisfaction and enable the UC to determine whether this is what students want
i. Maia:
1. first four weeks are free
2. how much is the total cost?
e. average $4 per student per year
i. What newspapers would be available?
f. New York Times, Boston Globe, USA Today
i. green?
g. All newspapers left over are taken to a recycling center, consumed newspapers go into the campus recycling program (USA Today is on soy ink!)
i. Christian Starling: digital service too?
h. We see that people who read the newspapers physically read more stuff online. We encourage students to read the whole newspaper. Portability: students can read it between classes. Yes, there are online resources that complement the readership program.
i. Ben Schwartz: I’m really confused, but can we go to all 12 dinign halls and Annenberg?
i. Program is unique in that you guys design. You pick where they go and how much. We can try out during the pilot program the amount and location. Each school has a different setup (FL puts its newspapers outside, but that won’t work here). We can correlate the number of newspapers provided based on demand.
i. overall cost?
j. cumulatively: $40,000 per year
i. Kia: how much would it cost to have the Wall Street Journal
k. The Wall St. Journal won’t participate because they believe they can do it all through subscriptions.
i. how do you ensure that only students pick up the newspaper?
l. We work with ID services to make sure that the newspapers are given through a machine that reads IDs and dispenses newspapers accordingly.
i. Dan Kroop: survey procedure, is it face-to-face or online interface?
m. Typically face to face, but we can have an online interface.
i. Abby: machines are super snazzy, do we pay for them?
n. No. Publications pay for them.
i. Tamar: surveys, do they have a cost?
o. No. Then follows a long tangent on Erin’s biography.
III. Officer Updates
a. Randall
i. attendance clarification
ii. Rules Comm will meet this week; if anyone no longer wants to be on it, please let me know
iii. No Answer.
b. Tony
i. I’ll talk more about the budget during legislation
c. Mohindra Rupram
i. attendance
ii. Minutes and Agendas to be up
d. Tamar
i. Student-Faculty Committee updates
ii. SAC advocacy tutorial on Tuesday, house renewal efforts
iii. For Freshmen: HUDS committee open for some freshmen
e. Andrea Flores
i. Approved over a hundred grants, some of which is retroactively recommended, in legislation
ii. Student Life Fund meeting tomorrow in Quincy at 8 PM
IV. For the Good of the Council
a. Email system update: now offers email forwarding, including 10 GB storage (reservations on why it isn’t a gmail based system). Anyone want to join?
i. questions:
1. Grad year, what happens if you graduate late? unclear
2. differences for thnderbird? No.
ii. joiners:
1. Bill Rose, Matt Sundquist, Papa, Zags, Jack, Randall
V. Question
a. Can we hold a vote to change meeting time?
i. Randall
1. No, it’s the Exec Board and President who set meetings.
2. We have hearing session to see whether you have good excuses for missing meetings. You can arrange with committee chairs for different meeting times.
3. We can kick you off Rules, but not the Council for missing rules.
ii. Jack
1. Are we gonna talk about the campus readership program?
a. Sure
b. Discussion ensues
i. Maia clarifies that it’s a lot of money, that we can get some money from other sources though we have to change termbill charges to account for it.
ii. Jack questions the survey process, points out that it’s environmentally unsound, and that USA Today is a terrible newspaper and a waste of time (why can’t we just get the NY Times)
c. Should we survey first?
i. Seth: Yes, the best way to verify whether students actually want it
ii. Bill: It’s cool, but is it daily?
1. Maia: unsure but we can check
d. Andrea: Are we deciding on something today?
i. Matt: No, just wanted to test the waters. We just wanted a long-term plan or outlook to make sure it’s sustainable.
ii. Zags: I like the idea, because we need something to do when we have time on our hands in Annenberg.
iii. Sarah Honig: This is going to take away from grants for student groups. It’s waste of resources, but I’m open to have a survey
e. Matt benches the discussion for a different time and for a more substantive discussion in committees.
iii. Randall: HUDS tour was a totally botched operations, it never materials, little publicity and no reminders. HUDS tour is amazingà Willy Wonka factory under Kirkland.
1. Can we organize HUDS tour? Can we open it up to 15 students on campus who apply?
a. Tamar: we can talk to people, but I think it’s a good idea.
b. Randall: Spring and Fall tour.
iv. Sonia
1. How come they don’t have an ID tap system in the dining hall?
a. Matt: There’s a decentralized system with different bureaucratic entities that govern house ID, dining hall ID, etc. There’s a transition plan in place to move it toward more integration.
v. Catherine: What’s the protocol for leaving a meeting?
1. Matt: Walk out but send an email in advance letting us know that you will.
VI. Legislative Docket
a. Budget
i. Overview needed because of a “relatively inexperienced” Council
1. Jack complains of the new opt-out system. Changed it to a letter write-in system to opt out, instead of electronically.
2. Tony: Do we have an opt out system so that people can opt out?
a. Matt: get to the point, which is your legislation.
ii. Budget increased 11% from last year. HoCos get more money this year.
iii. Initial Operations Fund was increased, but Tony cut much of the increase.
1. QUESTIONS
a. Tamar: Will there be a HoCo legislation that’s separate?
i. Tony: Yes. It will go through FiComm.
b. Ben: Tell me more about the Operations Fund.
i. Tony: Last year we had a special fund in the Operations Fund for a lot of important stuff that the Council wanted to approve, like a copier.
c. Ben: How much was it last year?
i. Tony: Just over $10k.
d. Sundeep: Why is there a Special Inititatives Provisions fund?
i. Tony: special dollars, such as coffee in Lamont and mental health meetings. None of these fell under the purview of FiComm or SAC, so we made a special fund within a fund for these projects.
e. Jack: An example of what would fall under this fund?
i. Tony: newspaper program if it only costs 8k, mental health conference pamphlets, free coffee at Lamont.
ii. This is just a controlled way of allocating the funds.
f. Eric H.: Why not just do it through the Grants Fund? Why is it separate?
g. Jack: Given that we already have a copier, why is still around 10k?
i. This is just to have money for extra things we find we might need. If we don’t need it, we can just roll it over to the Grants Fund.
2. SPEAKER’S SECTION
a. Matt: This is not committee specific, so amendments can be approved with only a half majority as opposed to the 2/3 majority of committee-specific legislation
b. Amendment Suggestion: There weren’t enough reasons last year to use the Special Initiatives Provisions, so we should strike it and absorb it into the Grants Fund.
i. Matt: we need a third to consider it, a half to approve
ii. Speaker Against the Amendment: Randall, he was going to speak for it but it doesn’t really matter. If the money doesn’t get spent, it gets rolled into the Grants Fund. If it does get used, there’s more accountability.
1. Sundeep: There’s no potential harm that could come out of this. Instead of just allocating out of the Grants Fund, we have a mechanism in place to have greater checks
iii. Speaker For: Mallika, I agree we because we should be allocating to student groups and let them decide through the process to allocate funds. We need to hold ourselves to the same standard we set for student groups.
iv. Speaker Against: Tony, it may seem contrived if you don’t have the information, but we actually spent 5-6000 dollars on important things. It encourages cooperation between SAC and FiComm. In terms of feedback, students wanted to see the UC as more than just a bank and this was a small step that is potentially crucial.
v. Speaker For: Papa, we can create a mechanism for someone in SAC to propose legislation. If we’re creating a fund that allows the UC to allocate these funds, we’re holding students at-large to a different standard.
1. Point of information: Tony, the fund can easily be amended to be Student-Initiated Fund
vi. AMENDMENT FAILS 12-19
c. Amendment from Tamar: Strike footnote “^” after the word “projects” because anyone on SAC and FiComm can propose legislation, but it shouldn’t be required that it come through FiComm.
i. Speaker Against: Randall, Grants Funds is to spent from legislation docketed from FiComm. Andrea, FiComm would be much more willing to work with SAC legislation about funds if we had more collaboration.
ii. Speaker For: Doug, the langage that SAC’s ideas should be able to pass through FiComis unequal because we’re all elected officials representing students
iii. Speaker Against: Eric H., any money that we allocate should actually go through FiComm because they know the long-term state of our finances. Tony, this is actually to empower SAC
iv. Speaker For: It’s not about either committee. I don’t think it’s necessary, because fund allocation legislation would be recommended to FiComm anyway. Jack, it actually is about committees because it’s just a FiComm power play
v. AMENDMENT FAILS, only 15 votes for. 2 abstentions, the rest opposed.
d. Mallika objects to unanimous consent
e. Debate on the budget as a whole
i. 29-0-4, budget passes
b. S-F Appointments Act
i. needs to be passed by 2/3 vote because some of the rules and bylaws were suspended because some committees (i.e. library) have members who are not on SAC
ii. Passes 33-0-1
c. FiComm Grants Fund
i. Sarah Honig: we need a calendar with all events
1. Andrea: we’ll discuss the calendar later
ii. Jack: percent of money funded column? Andrea thinks it’s a great idea.
iii. Alyssa: Why was Fieston event not funded?
1. Andrea: We can clarify guidelines later.
2. Sundeep: They will reapply because they were unclear of their expenses
iv. Nadia: Is there a way to compile the list of student group events funded?
1. Andrea: yes, we keep track of that.
v. Papa: Is there a way to compare size of organization, size of events to size of funds?
1. Andrea: we base it on the students involved not on the size of the groups.
2. Randall: we don’t fund groups; we fund events
a. Jack: are we overfunding?
b. Andrea: it’s not about equity, it’s about which student groups are doing more events for groups.
vi. Mallika: No Student Life Fund grants in the pack?
1. Andrea: none
vii. What about Hawai group funding?
1. not Student Life Fund, because Boston area travel.
viii. Feminist event: is it open?
1. Yes, by lottery. Not just for feminists
ix. Jack: Grant 8 sounds like a whole bunch of students drinking.
1. Eric H: We only provided funding for FOOD going to undergraduates.
x. Andrea: We will be holding office hours for SAC members who want to come, and they’re invited to our meetings too
xi. Call to Question
1. 34-0-0
VII. Co-Sponsorship of Sustainability Meeting
a. Randall introduces an EAC meeting including Director of Sustainability, Green task force, coming on the heels of the Wed. event with Al Gore.
i. It’s SEVER 113 not Fong Auditorium
b. 2/3 vote to bring legislation to the floor: passes.
c. Matt Sundquist presents
i. Sustainability Week: Greenhouse Gas Task Force released report last summer and now they want to introduce their findings and recommendations to students. (Al Gore speaking, ambitious goals, green science building using geothermal energy.)
ii. We would publicize on house lists and raise awareness for it.
d. Matt Garcia corrects so it says “Phillips Brooks House Association” before Robert Coles “Call of Service Lecture.” Secretary to change accordingly.
e. Passes by unanimous consent.
VIII. Pictures for Meet a Rep
IX. END