Officer Reports-
Vice President: Board meeting at the end of the semester went well. EFP passed with full charter, came to a compromise with board. Residence life student conduct board coming into effect. Senate has two major wins coming into this semester. Goals: encouraging better communication with constituencies on campus as well as outside community. Community service requirements for senators. Bi-weekly, weekly meetings with members of constituency. Upping communication=solving issues on campus.
Academic Affairs: Attended academic affairs committee for Board, tabled aspect of faculty termination policy, which was presented before student life and not academic affairs. Board has been going back and forth on that policy. Hope for finalization at next meeting. Interim provost emphasized the new programs coming soon. HLC: AU needs to have a more broad complaint process, one place to submit student complaints for each department. Dr. Amiel Jarstfer new provost. Any concerns about classes, tell Nick. nnovotny@ashland.edu
Finance: A lot of changes: budgeting-wise loss of $9 mil operating revenue due to the correctional program. Company said they were ready to scale up operations, lied. College of education budget was too large, readjusted. 3% in tuition and 2% in room and board increase, new Wi-Fi. Not all planned dorm refreshments happened. Clayton was supposed to get more of a revamp than it did. $12 mil maintenance backlog. Buying properties: considering building indoor athletic fieldhouse. Turning parking lots into that, turning property into parking lots. Finalization of the project is a long way away. Tapingo and grubhub issues: Nest is using tapingo for first week, transitioning to grubhub. Combos not accepting meal swipes. Tapingo wouldn’t accept card from pizza and subs, but ok with every other section. Why switching? Grubhub bought tapingo.
Student Affairs: Trustee meeting: social issues policy, Dr. Bonfiglio and Dr. Sikkenga had big issue concerning section on curricular activities. Worried that it would impact academic freedom for professors. Didn’t table, passed. Athletics, 1st season of AU sponsored women's lacrosse, hired senior female administrator, update from christian ministries on participation (really good between 505-510 as weekly headcount, 62% campus participation), had issues with staffing in admissions and life calling and community engagement, new software this fall for tracking participation. Big wifi update: 5 devices per student, full time staff person from company working here on campus to help. Complaints from people who moved in early, ethernet doesn’t work, but they didn’t remove those things, causing a lot of confusion and frustration. New diversity space in student center. New search for director of Christian Ministry: staff at maintenance-level.
Judicial Affairs: Elections in swing. Get packets in student life office, due friday. Have quite a few positions to fill. Reviewing election process so senate is more involved in the election process. Election next Friday.
Residence Life: Residence life staff would like you to know- policy changes, if you need a comprehensive list sent to you, let Jacob know. 1 surge protector/outlet, fridges plugged into surge protectors. Clark residents can’t place fridge in closet. Res life is not out to get you. Working on hall rep elections. Should have gotten email from ARD in area, if not, Jacob will fix.
A.B.C.: In contact with Nicole Dyer on chartering. Working with Nathan and Sabrina and bookstore on polos, etc.
Senior Class: No report.
Junior Class: No report.
Sophomore Class: Contacting registrar about transfers and dropouts, retention. Keep in contact with constituents for hall reps.
Freshman Class: No report.
Advisors: Dr. Pool: ELT approved volunteer time off for employees, come into effect Jan 1, up to 8 hours a year to serve in community and elsewhere. Enhance community engagement. Cost prohibitive to upgrade ethernet and wifi. Students now have 20 min parking in front of the student center. Do better for commuters in lot I. Lighting just improved. Office of Christian Ministry: pray for them and seminary. Did hire executive director for christian ministries, had to revoke offer because of exit issues with former position. Sadie Zegarac stepped up as interim. Begin search soon, start Jan 1. Have a dinner planned for Labor Day.
President: Trustees: Alignment policy (social issues): struck entire curricular section at entire Board of Trustees, struck “brethren values” from a lot of it, under policy Dr. Pool able to grant full charter to EFP. Fire department teddy bear drive: give it at once near Christmas. Elections: dishonest things, not ok. Goal for next election cycle: to have each seat at least run for. Packets have to be signed by members of constituency. Begin campaigning after turning packets in. Revamping entire process for next election. Office hours: Email Sabrina with times you want, she will enter information. Executive senators 2 hours, other senators 1 hour required, Secretary and PM optional. Tech training: email saying that someone in organization needs to attend tech training. Dr. Pool mentioned pillars considering community engagement. “Ashland Rising”: tell people to look at the poster. Illustrates where university wants to be going. Colleen found a bunch of old senate papers in the office and gave it to the historian in the library. Old resolutions we can look through. Nathan will be putting everyone into committees; if you have a preference, let Nathan know. Send email out with list of committees by next meeting, and when there’s a full senate. Convocation tomorrow at 4 PM. We will be more involved with ASGA. Printer situation will be addressed: got rid of computer lab, slow. Comments on elections: last semester’s elections got messy. Apparently there were people who were not running for that position running slam campaigns against person running. Unacceptable. If there are any issues in the future, let Nathan and Sabrina know. Might want to create a code of conduct for elections. Sabrina talked to person calling elections fraudulent, did not have any facts. Create culture of supporting one another. Work together.
Old Business: N/A
New Business: N/A
General Concerns: For Jacob Nestle and Dr. Pool: Driving up to Ashland, supposed to get in that Tuesday, unable to get in and pick key up at that time because of storm (10 AM- 2 PM). Handled by 3-4 people on issue. Nathan informed residence life that they will be too late to pick up their key and res life responded with, “When will you arrive in Ashland?” Rude response. Can’t move in if you don’t show up during office hours. Called and left a message. Student paid to move in early, not fault that can’t arrive. Res life dropped the key off with security, $50 improper charge fee charged to account. Can it be appealed? Any time res life has to do something outside of standard procedure they charge the fee. Marriage housing: Residence Life told the couple that they don’t do marriage housing, contradicting their website. They were told to go to auxiliary services to talk about marriage housing. Cold, rude. Dr. Pool will talk to Res Life about their customer service. Dr. Pool would like to see a visible difference in customer service this year. $25 early charge: could we waive a charge for out-of-staters on Saturday? Jacob will look into it. Most likely the fee would have to be appealed. Certain amount of radius. Email from Denisia Stoops about tutoring: RAs not allowed to be tutors anymore. RAs responsible for helping students all the time, can’t be tutors? Can do both, have to be especially waved. RAs not supposed to get second jobs on campus if can be filled in by someone else on campus. Has been a policy for a long time, just emailed about it. Latin tutors: 4 recommended, only 1 allowed is the one who has worked with the University before. Who? Let Nick and Nate know. Only 1 or 2 bike racks on campus. In front of student center, behind Clayton. Have a decent commuter population with bikes/scooters. People chaining bikes to other things (benches). Bike room in basement of Myers and Kil. EFP chartered: who’s on the Board? Names and info online. Faculty senate ambassador, to and from. Compromise with EFP: more info on decision? Dr Pool formed an ad hoc committee to form compromise: is EFP in alignment with policies as university? One word in mission of charter from “accepting” to “inclusive” environment. Have to accept something to include it. Don’t have to agree with something to include it. Neutral in terms of social/political stance. President ok’d change. 4 to 3 year residential requirement research.
Announcements: AUDC: Try-out classes, Thurs ballet 7:30-8:30. AU GIVS: Cochair open for gov’t and military relations. Sorority and fraternity recruitment in full swing. Next thurs: recruitment event. YAL: lots of signups. College Reps: Next wed 9:30. Thurs evening ABC 7 PM Alexander Ham open house, Hawkins donuts. ABC next Fri at 7 PM falconry meeting. Every Tuesday Karate 101 @ 7:15. AU philosophy club, screaming at flag pole 12 pm tue. Symposium 9/18, Alcohol prohibition. Exec meeting at labor day, culminate at dinner at dr pool’s house. Thurs headcount. Dietary restrictions.
Meeting Closed at
10:52 PM
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