Absent: Raven, Anne, Miriam, Linkon, Alex
02.11.2015
Chair: Mac
Public Comments:
Tom- The GSU is invited to a dinner with congressional members on February 23rd.
Tom would also like clarification on when the ballot is no longer touchable. He would like to give the election commissioners enough time to upload the ballot. The GSU will discuss this matter when the ballot language will be finalized later in the meeting.
Approve Minutes: Approved
Approve Agenda/New Business
Check In’s
Nick: start initiative to amend the constitution where every motion or proposed vote would be decided by the whole student body.
Major changes of the GSU must go through the Attorney General.
Tom advised the GSU that this amendment would not have to go through the Attorney General.
Fliers, advertisements for civic engagement are ready to be posted
Nick will be filming the video at 3:30
Evelyn is working on inviting two state senators for week 8. This is in regard of a senate bill that will address SV on college campuses.
Approve Agenda: Approve
Tacoma Representative Bill
conversation from Tacoma meeting
The Tacoma program only consists of junior and senior students.
Some GSU members suggested in in saving one seat for the fall election, and allow a junior to come into office. Then, the other seat would be elected in the spring election.
Moved to amend the constitution amendment proposal to say to highly recommend junior tacoma students to run in the fall election.
Tom mentioned that three years ago, there were 4 Tacoma representatives on the GSU. There was only one Tacoma representative this year, because only one student ran.
The GSU observed that they need to advertise and do more outreach to the Tacoma/Reservation representative positions.
It there are two official seats in Tacoma and Reservation based programs, then students will have two votes in fall and spring elections.
All non-olympia students must be elected by week 9 of spring quarter.
The GSU can sky with non-olympia representatives. However, past GSU has had a difficult time skyping with other members.
Amend Proposal Referendum Questions
All non-olympia representatives must be elected.
Proposed Change to the GSU Bylaws:
Section 1: A new article, Article 4: Amendments to the Constitution, be added to the New Election & Voting Policy.
Section 2: The aforementioned article shall read: All proposed Amendments to the Constitution must be approved for the Winter Ballot by Week Five (5) of Winter Quarter, and all language must be finalized by Week Six (6) of Winter Quarter.
Both sections have been motioned by the GSU.
The GSU moved to finalized the language of ballot by week 7 to turn into the election commissioner. It was motioned.
Move to amend our bylaws as written: motioned
Move to amend for the GSU to chose the order of initiatives of the ballot by week 7.
Move to amend the proposed constitution amendment, regarding the extra non-olympia representatives to say that the second Tacoma and Grayse Harbor seats will be saved for the fall elections, preferably to junior students (nominated)
Matt Newman: what is the practical implication of this motion?
This motion will offer clarity in fall election for future GSU groups and promote non-olympia GSU seats.
Future Project: clarifying the New Elections and Policy (next week)
Finalized Ballot Language
Molly wrote the ballot language for the WashPIRG fee: approved
CRC Ballot LAnguage: approved
Tacoma Rep Language: approved
Advisory Question: moved to table until next week
Tyler moved to approve the advisory question as it stands.
Tom would like a clarification on why the GSU feels like they feel restricted by the budget of S&
A.motion to add “define what an advisory vote is.” (motioned)
Motion to move the question to the top of the page.
Proposed Referendum Questions, Winter 2015
- Do you support the following amendment to the GSU Constitution on the number of Representatives in the Union?
Article V willbe amended to read: 17 representative seats will be reserved for undergraduate students from the Olympia campus. Two representative seats are reserved for students from the Tacoma Program, one seat is reserved for students from the Grays Harbor program, and one seat is reserved for students from the Reservation-Based Campuses. The second seat of the Tacoma Program will be reserved for a Fall Election, modeled after the Fall Election held on the Olympia campus. All non-Olympia representatives must be elected by Week Nine (9) of Spring Quarter. . Two representative seats will be reserved for first year students, and two representative seats will be reserved for transfer students who wish to join in winter quarter. Elections for both will be held by referendum Week Eight (8) of Fall Quarter.
2. The Gwideq Student Union (GSU), the student government of The Evergreen State College, currently operates on funding awarded by the S&A Board. The equivalent each student pays the GSU for its operation is (as of Winter Quarter 2015) approximately $2.90/quarter. Currently, the GSU is restricted by the S&A Board on what their current funding can be spent on.
Would you support the GSU establishing an independent, opt-out student fee for the GSU’s operations, managed by its Representatives?
Matt Newman suggested to post the question and then the information following for each ballot initiative.
Motion to approve the CRC language as it is (approve)
Nick’s CPJ Article
The article can be viewed by the public on thursday.
Editorial by Nick
Talk to Nick if you have any opinions regarding this article.
At the meeting, a few GSU members expressed frustration on how the GSU was viewed in this article.
There was a debate on that fact that some GSU members work tirelessly and would like to have a stipend that would reflect hard-work.
Leave a Reply