Meeting Recap #5: Oct. 2, 2011

Senators in attendance

Robert Kinnard III, Chelsea Holt, John Netardus, Sophia Grzeskowiak-Amezquita, Jennifer Chambers, Andy Chamberlain, Will Collingwood, Michael Golub, Christian Burns-Shafer

Senators absent

Jesse Cervin, Arthur Martin, Timothy Grediagin

Officers in attendance

Dillon Ball (vice president), Josh Banks (government relations director)

Acevedo resigns

Aaron Acevedo resigned his seat in the senate. No one at the meeting gave any reason for his resignation.

New senator

The senate confirmed Christian Burns-Shafer as its newest senator. Burns-Shafer is a mathematics freshmen and has been interested in the student government since last year, he said.

Senate clerk hired

Arthur Martin was hired as the ASUAF senate clerk. The senate clerk is responsible for keeping the minutes at senate meetings. It is a 10-hour-per-week position and pays $3,300 annually.

TAB members named

The senate appointed Kayla Kubicke and ASUAF senators Andy Chamberlain and Jennifer Chambers to the Technology Advisory Board. The board oversees how the UAF technology fee is spent. The fee charges students $5 per credit hour and funds projects that “enhance student access to technology,” according to the TAB website. In spring 2012, the fee will fund new rentable laptops for the Rasmuson Library and new lenses for the journalism department.

RISE board members named

Brett Parks, Michaela Swanson and Wyatt Hurlbut were reconfirmed to the Review of Infrastructure, Sustainability and Energy (RISE) board. The RISE board oversees the spending of funds generated by the Student Initiative for Renewable Energy Now (SIREN) fee. All three members have been on the board since at least the spring semester.

Club council legislation passes

By a vote of  8-0-0, “SB 177-009: First Meeting of Club Council” was passed by the senate. The bill will amend section 720.2.2 of the ASUAF bylaws to push back the deadline of the first meeting of club council in both the fall and spring semesters.

Combined committees bill fails

By a vote of 5-4-0, “SB 177-010: Combination of Committees” was not passed by the senate. The vote was done by roll call, which means it needed a two-thirds majority to pass. The bill would have temporarily combined the university relations and executive committees into one body. Michael Golub sponsored the bill. Golub believed that the size of the senate was insufficient to meet the needs of five committees, he said. The senate currently has 11 out of a possible 20 committee-eligible members. Each committee needs at least four members to be considered functional, which means most senators are on at least two committees. Chelsea Holt, Sophia Grzeskowiak-Amezquita, Christian Burns-Shafer, Robert Kinnard III and Michael Golub voted in favor of the bill, while Will Collingwood, John Netardus, Andy Chamberlain and Jesse Cervin (by proxy vote) voted against it.