Student Senate Minutes

March 31, 2008- 10:00 PM

Farnsworth Pavilion

The weekly meeting of the Student Association was called to order on Monday, March 31, 2008 at 10:08 PM in Farnsworth Pavilion in the Rice Memorial Center. Matt Youn, President, presided and Paige Bailey, Secretary, was present.The minutes from the March 24 meeting were approved.

President Matt Youn began the meeting with his five general goals for the year:
    1. Increasing student interest in the Student Association
    2. Expanding the role of the college senators
    3. Continuing to form ties with the Faculty Senate
    4. Increasing ties with other areas of school administration
    5. Working on new projects constantly

There will be no SA meeting Monday, April 7th. Instead, there will be a Student Association retreat/workshop on Thursday, April 10th, from 8-10 pm (location to be announced.) The committee to choose the 2009 commencement speaker will consist of: Matt Youn (Brown), Teddy Bucher (Jones), and Ian Feldman (Sid Rich.)

Brian Gibson, the Assistant Dean and Director of Academic Advising, spoke about the removal of the RDA PIN and the goals the advising department have for the 2008-2009 school year. More information can be found at http://www.ruf.rice.edu/~hoot/.

Akshay Dayal, Internal Vice President, announced that applications for the SA appointed positions such as Director of Technology, Communications, Sports and Health, Student Life, and Academics, are available online from sa.rice.edu. The applications are due Wednesday, April 2nd, at 5:00 pm in the SA office.

External Vice President Nicholas Muscara announced that Take Me Out to the Ballgame is to be moved from April 12th to April 18th (4:30 - 6:15 pm.) The Brochstein Pavilion is opening on April 23rd, the last day of classes, and there will be a possible reception for the Rice community on either the 23rd or 24th . President Leebron and Dean Forman’s Study Break will be April 27th from 9:00-11:00 pm to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the RMC, with performances from Spontaneous Combustion and the Rice Philharmonics. For finals week, Diedrich’s Coffee, located in the Brochstein Pavilion, will be open 24 hours a day.

Christopher Warrington, Parliamentarian, discussed the specifics of how the newly formed Committee on Constitutional Revisions. The committee will consist of the Parliamentarian, the Internal Vice-President, and three other members, and will gather information about possible enlargement of the Senate to compensate for the new residential colleges and increased student population.

There will be open nominations for the position of U-Blue Editor-in-Chief, which was not filled during the spring elections.

There is a new poll on the SA web site about Fondren Library and the services it provides. SA members were also reminded to continue to check the RPC calendar, and the newly created RUPD Lost and Found site. The meeting was adjourned at 10:53 PM.