Senate Meeting

Senate Meeting called to order

1. Invocation

2. Pledge of Allegiance

3. Roll Call

   1. Present: President Arguijo, Vice President Keeling, Treasurer Hertel, Secretary Morgan, PR Chair Nunez, Senator Do, Senator Ju, Senator (Phena) Kayode, Senator Landry, Senator Masem, Senator Ortiz.

   2. Absent: Chief Justice Edwards (excused), Senator Johnston (excused), Senator (Phosa) Kayode (excused), Senator Nguyen (excused).

Approval of the Minutes

1. President Arguijo said the senate would begin with the approval of the minutes of the August 24 meeting, and asked for a motion.

2. Senator Ju motioned to approve the minutes and Senator Masem seconded.

3. President Arguijo said the vote would be by a raise of hands. She told Senator Ortiz that SGA does some votes by a raise of hands and some by roll call, and that this vote was on whether the minutes from the last meeting are correct.

4. The minutes have passed.

Financial Report

1. Treasurer Hertel said she has still not been able to get into the Outlook account, and that the business office has refused to communicate with her and will only communicate with SGA's advisor, Dean of Students Megan Chambers.

2. Treasurer Hertel said she has an idea of where SGA is sitting from Josh and that it seems about right, but that she needs to go through and double check every expense, because in the past expenses have been charged to SGA that were not SGA's.

3. The budget

   1. Treasurer Hertel said the senate was given a $10,000.00 budget last year that was replenished as SGA was able to replenish it, and asked for thoughts on doing that a second time. She said it helped the senate keep spending down in a realistic way and helped the executive team avoid over budgeting.

   2. Senator Masem said he liked how it was done last year, that SGA can always go back and revise it, and that another $5,000.00 could be added.

   3. Senator Masem asked what SGA's allocations typically are.

   4. Treasurer Hertel said SGA is sitting at about $45,000.00 from what she can see, but that the payment to Genesis Health Clubs has still not come out of it, that SGA has to confirm Uwill will not be charged back to it as has been attempted in the past, and that the semester allocation has not arrived and has in the past taken until the end of the semester. She said her estimate is about $15,000.00 for the semester and that she hopes she is wrong.

   5. Treasurer Hertel said about $2,500.00 of that will go to the leadership fund and the rest to the regular fund.

   6. PR Chair Nunez said she agreed with Senator Masem, that it would be a good place to start, and that once SGA has its actual estimate it can make changes.

   7. The vote on the budget was held over to the next meeting.

4. Treasurer Hertel said the budget will all go onto the website eventually, and that audience members will be able to see it there.

5. An audience member asked what the budget is for.

   1. Treasurer Hertel said SGA spends money on bills and on events. She said any club, audience member or student can submit a bill asking SGA for money, that the bill has to detail what the money will be spent on and why, and that the executive team then brings it to the senators, who debate it, ask questions, and decide whether to give that amount, less or more, amending the bill, passing it or defeating it.

   2. Treasurer Hertel said SGA has passed bills for the water fountains, the AEDs, events and whiteboards, and that a seminarian wanted an outdoor study space last year but never submitted the bill.

   3. Treasurer Hertel said anyone bringing a bill for park benches or similar should talk to the security and grounds committee, because that is what they focus on.

6. Treasurer Hertel said she will try to meet with Megan Chambers this week now that her schedule has calmed down.

Business

Call to audience

1. Jonah introduced himself. He said he became a student at Newman this year and entered the seminary the previous Wednesday, and that he graduated from Kansas State University.

2. Andrew introduced himself. He said it is his fourth year at Newman.

3. Jonah said he was biking around campus on the first day and noticed there is only one bike rack on campus, that there are plenty of places for bike racks and no bike racks in them, and that he came to find out whether SGA is the right group to talk to about getting more of them. He said he has a whole list of reasons why there should be more.

4. President Arguijo said that is exactly what SGA is for and that the security and grounds committee covers it, and that he should get in contact with Secretary Morgan, who can help him write the bill.

5. President Arguijo said maintenance would most likely install the racks and that what the bill would buy is the racks themselves, so he will need to say which bike rack he wants. She said the senate will ask why that one, whether there is a cheaper option and whether there is a better quality option.

6. Jonah asked whether he should state his case. President Arguijo said not that day, and that he will present his whole case and the amount he needs when the bill goes to a vote.

Committee Information and Updates

1. President Arguijo said the senators had voted on the committees they wanted and that the executive team divided them as equally and as fairly as possible. She said a formal email will follow and that those on the Constitution and Ethics committees will be gone over separately.

   1. Clubs, under Vice President Keeling: Senator (Phena) Kayode, Senator Do, Senator Ortiz and Senator Landry.

   2. Jet Resource Hub, under Treasurer Hertel: Senator Nguyen, Senator Johnston, Senator Ju and PR Chair Nunez.

   3. Security and grounds, under Secretary Morgan: Chief Justice Edwards, Senator (Phosa) Kayode and Senator Masem.

   4. Ethics, still being finalized: Chief Justice Edwards, Senator (Phosa) Kayode, PR Chair Nunez, Senator Ortiz and Senator Masem.

   5. Constitution: Chief Justice Edwards, Senator Johnston, PR Chair Nunez and Senator Masem.

2. President Arguijo said the Constitution Committee already has things it wants to update, that it should be straightforward, and that it should meet within September to get it overviewed and done. She said the Ethics Committee is good for now and that senators should keep going to meetings as long as nothing happens.

3. Vice President Keeling said she will make a group chat for the clubs committee and have everybody share their schedules, so the committee can find the best meeting times and decide how often to meet.

4. Secretary Morgan said he will also make a group chat for security and grounds, that he does not intend to meet every week, and that the committee will work out something that suits everyone.

5. Treasurer Hertel gave the Jet Resource Hub update.

   1. Treasurer Hertel said the Jet Resource Hub has moved to the opposite side of the same floor of McNeil, and asked that all senators spread that as widely as they can. She said she will send messages to faculty and staff about it and that SGA will use its Chick-fil-A event to spread it to students.

   2. Treasurer Hertel said SGA is looking for donations to fill the room back up and will submit a bill if the donations are not enough, and that she believes there are gift cards with money still on them from last year.

   3. Treasurer Hertel asked that every senator visit the Jet Resource Hub at least once so they can tell people where it is, and said she will make a group chat.

Advisor Updates

1. Megan Chambers said she had no updates.

Executive Updates

1. Secretary Morgan walked the senate through the SGA website.

   1. Secretary Morgan said work started on the site in February so that SGA would be transparent and so any student, or anyone at all, could see what is happening in SGA, and that it is now at the point where it is operational.

   2. He said the home page always shows the next meeting and any announcements and upcoming events, that it currently says the agenda is still being finalized because SGA is not yet in the habit of posting agendas before a meeting, and that the 7Brew event on Thursday is already on it.

   3. He said a bill can be submitted in one of two ways: by dropping in an existing Word document or PDF, which the site scans to pre-fill the name, date and resolution body, or by filling in the form directly, which SGA prefers because nothing has to be stored as a document. He said a bill is either a funding request or a resolution, that the author's name is filled in automatically and can be changed, and that a bill can be submitted or saved as a draft.

   4. He said the public bills page shows only passed and failed bills, because a submitted bill has to be checked, given a number and scheduled before it can be shown.

   5. He said the senate meetings page shows the current meeting and past meetings, and that minutes appear there once the vote to approve them is saved, and that all of it is public.

   6. He said the budget page will show the semester allocation once Treasurer Hertel enters it, and will deduct from it automatically as bills pass.

   7. He said there is an events calendar, a clubs directory for club leaders to populate, an announcements page, about pages for SGA and its leadership, a contact page and a suggestion box for signed-in users.

   8. He said the senators and the executive team are going to submit headshots so the leadership page looks like a real page.

   9. He said a signed-in student sees an overview, a guide he is still writing, their own submitted bills and their own suggestions, and that a senator additionally sees their standing, including how many excused and unexcused absences they have and how many meetings they have been to.

   10. He said senators put their availability in each semester and that it resets every semester, and that senators can vote through the site either before a meeting or during it. He said Vice President Keeling also has a console that lets her record a vote or mark attendance on a senator's behalf, open online voting for members who are not present, and set a time for voting to close.

   11. He said senators cannot sign in with their Newman accounts. He said he asked the previous IT team to set up Entra ID on their side so he could authenticate senators, and that they were hesitant, so an account has to be created separately. He said the same password can be used, that passwords are scrambled and cannot be seen by anyone, and that passkeys and two-factor authentication are both supported.

   12. He said the senate's emails were entered on the admin side before the semester, so an account created with a senator's email is linked to that senator automatically, and an account created without being on that list comes in as a student with limited access.

   13. Senator Ju asked whether bills still have to be sent to the SGA email or can be uploaded to the site. Secretary Morgan said the point of the site is that they do not, but that SGA is running both processes in parallel for now as a pilot so it can roll back, and that bills should be submitted through the site.

   14. President Arguijo said the hope is that by next semester SGA uses only the website, with the Google Drive kept as SGA's own archive.

   15. Secretary Morgan said the account creation email is sent from a different domain because Newman's filter would treat mail from an unrecognised address as a phishing attempt, and that he will file an IT request in a week or two to have that answered formally.

   16. Secretary Morgan asked the senators to get into the site and try to break it, because it is new and he could not think of every edge case, and to send him a report of anything that breaks.

   17. Secretary Morgan said the main engine is done, that voting on bills is the main thing SGA does and that it has been tested many times, and that Treasurer Hertel helped by breaking it repeatedly.

   18. President Arguijo said the senate is at the point where senators can start telling friends about the site, but that SGA will not officially endorse and release it until it is uploading all of the meeting agendas.

2. 7Brew

   1. President Arguijo said SGA is doing 7Brew on Thursday and that Chief Justice Edwards has already made the order, so SGA only needs help with hands.

   2. Vice President Keeling said she and Chief Justice Edwards plan to go at 8:00 a.m. to pick it up, and that Chief Justice Edwards has been trying to reach 7Brew about whether SGA will use the location on Ridge or the one on Central and to place the order.

   3. Vice President Keeling said SGA hopes to have the order picked up by 8:00 or 8:15 and to start handing drinks out by 8:45, in the atrium of the library, so students walking through catch it.

   4. President Arguijo said the class schedule for Thursday has changed because of matriculation mass and will run like a Monday, Wednesday and Friday schedule, with classes from 9:00 to 9:50 and 10:00 to 10:50. She said she can post the schedule in the group chat.

   5. President Arguijo said anyone who can help should let Vice President Keeling or Chief Justice Edwards know, and that the help needed is mainly handing out the drinks.

3. Vice President Keeling said SGA is holding Jet Friday on September 18, and that SGA will try to move it to a later date because that is the day new senators are supposed to be announced. She said classes only started a week ago and SGA still needs to get the word out so people can apply, be approved, run and be voted on.

4. Secretary Morgan said he had no updates and that the senate had heard all of them already, and asked senators to watch for his messages.

5. Treasurer Hertel said IT closed her ticket for the fourth time without fixing the issues and that she will have to reopen it.

6. PR Chair Nunez said she will post about 7Brew for senators to share.

New Business

1. Treasurer Hertel said she had an item that is not strictly new business. She said she was talking with a faculty member on campus, who she would not name, who is diabetic, and that they discussed holding an awareness week about ADA accommodations, such as a diabetic being able to leave the classroom during a test to give themselves insulin. She said she wanted the senate's thoughts, that it could be done fairly cheaply, and that it would be beneficial for a lot of students to know how to get the accommodations they need.

2. Senator Masem asked about the conference at Bethel discussed last year, and whether SGA agreed to host it.

   1. President Arguijo said that at the conference last semester they mentioned holding two separate conferences, the first for the executives and the second for the senators, and that SGA opened up the idea of hosting the first at Newman with the second at Bethel again.

   2. President Arguijo said she will email the president this week to see whether that is still on, because they did not communicate anything over the summer and SGA has no idea as of now.

   3. President Arguijo said that if it happens it would be further into the semester, for the executives to talk about how the semester went and their hopes for the next one, with everyone else brought in next semester.

   4. President Arguijo said SGA would pay for it out of the leadership fund and charge the other schools to come, and use that money for food and reservations. She said it should not be too expensive since it is only the executive boards.

Adjournment

1. Senator Masem motioned to adjourn and Senator (Phena) Kayode seconded.

2. Meeting adjourned.