The Student Senate meeting on Sunday, Nov. 20 saw a great amount of action occur before the floor of student representatives. The first action of business was an appearance by UNH Business Affairs Associate Vice President David May, who spoke in regard to the fees related to the four major departments under him: housing, transportation, the Memorial Union Building (MUB) and Hospitality Services.
Student Senate Speaker Alexander Fries said he believed it “was a great discussion” and that such talk on the topic will continue into the next senate meeting. Fries also said that the senate would review the financial aspects of the situation to a higher degree at the meeting scheduled for Dec. 4.
The next order of business was the review of next year’s budgets for the Student Activity Fee Organizations (SAFOs) that weren’t voted on at last week’s meeting. These organizations included: UNH EDMC, Slow Food, MUSO, Student Activity Fee Office and the Organization Resource Office. All of the budgets passed, but the senate did implement an advisory committee for UNH EDMC.
According to Fries, the overall recommendation by the senate for next year’s Student Activity Fee is $89, a decrease of $2 from this year’s fee.
Announced publicly at Sunday’s meeting was that SAFC Chairperson Aaron Scheinman is set to resign from his position at the end of the semester. Fries said that this is because Scheinman will not be enrolled as a full time student next semester, which is a requirement for the position.
The initial agenda for the night had a total of 10 resolutions that were set to be discussed by the senate. However, Fries said that five resolutions were tabled by their respective authors because they weren’t as time sensitive as the other five that were all voted upon and passed by the senate.
The first resolution passed on the floor was one concerning the implementation of a fall break to occur every semester on the second Monday of October (Columbus Day) every academic year. According to the resolution, “studies show that a lack of holidays lead to high stress levels for various occupations, and thus cause lower productivity and an inability to complete work effectively.”
The next resolution proposed and passed by the senate was one concerning a path outside of Hetzel Hall, which according to the motion, is “incredibly difficult to traverse due to its unevenness, steep angle and poor traction.”
The following matter discussed was a resolution concerning the further implementation of myCourses. The resolution states that the Student Senate encourages the “Provost’s Office and the UNH Faculty Senate to promote the posting and upkeep of syllabi on myCourses, and be it further resolved to support the continuous integration of myCourses into class structure through the posting of students’ grades and class communications.”
A resolution on the matter of the Greek Performance and Excellence Program (GPEP) was passed unanimously. According to this resolution, the senate requests “in the strongest terms that changes to the structure, language and content of GPEP be presented to voting members of Greek Presidents Council, Interfraternity Council and Panhellenic Council.
The final resolution brought upon the floor was one that concerned the issue of combating bias incidents on campus; it also passed unanimously. According to Fries, the intent “is to stand up against [such bias] and to say that it’s not something [that] can have a role and should have a place at this university.” He remarked that this is a bi-partisan issue that must be tackled.
Fries said another part of this resolution aims to encourage UNH President Mark Huddleston to speak out against biased incidents on campus and to “address it more strongly.”