The Geoduck Student Union

ATTENDANCE

Members present: Robert Guicheteau, Hesham Badissy, Sebastiano Trinh, Brendan Hale, Natalie Rehberger, Jasmine Purcell, Jonathan Gottlieb, Stefan Bach, Faurest Nelson Wicks, Douglas Ridely, Alani Akins-Smith, Ryan Morikawa, Drew Hawely, Andres Txai Villacorta, Lawrence Novak, Tyler Langenbrunner

Members absent: Ryan Bersentes, Courtney Kindell, Donald Gribbons, Paige Jones

Chair: Brendan Hale

BUSINESS

Public comments focused on a discussion amendment 3.6.

Several students questioned why the GSU did not put the amendment to a student vote before approving it; students voiced the opinion that the amendment takes power away from students; there was concern about the philosophy of opt-in policies, considering some events on the national level; students were concerned that an opt-in policy might promote instances of the “free-rider” problem in which students who choose to pay for the benefit of those who did not choose to pay. One student spoke on the immense difficulty of canvassing the student body, and another on the perils of the whole philosophy of an opt-in system on a national scale.

The GSU expressed that its intentions were to protect students from fees that could not easily be found or circumvented, also citing the fact that the GSU does not control the processes of notifying students and opting in or out on the individual level. The GSU admitted that not all members were clear on the exact implications or scope of the amendment and agreed to table the issue to next week in order to gain a clearer understanding and conducted a detailed review, taking student comments into account.

Many students expressed frustration at the level of transparency that keeping up with GSU activities is difficult. The GSU concurred that outreach is a priority, one that all committees are facing, but that the GSU has done much in the way of communication and implores interested students to email the GSU (GeoduckUnion@evergreen.edu) or post on our Facebook page.

The GSU voted on whether to resend the amendment which did not pass (9/17), and agreed to table the issue for next week (14/17).

Final preparations for Lobby Day (Capitol Advocacy Day) were discussed and schedules reviewed.

GSU Meeting Minutes

2-6-13

Attendance: Robert Guicheteau, Donald Gribbons, Hesham Badissy, Paige Jones, Sebastiano Trinh, Brendan Hale, Natalie Rehberger, Jasmine Purcell, Jonathan Gottlieb, Stefan Bach, Faurest Nelson Wicks, Douglas Ridely, Alani Akins-Smith

Absent: Tyler Langenbrunner, Ryan Bersentes, Andres Txai Villacorta,Lawrence Novak, Courtney Kindell, Ryan Morikawa, Drew Hawely

Public Comment:

4 different students came into the GSU this week to talk about the recent amendment to the Election and Voting Policy of the GSU.

This amendment states:

“3.6 All voluntary and optional fees that are brought up in front of the Geoduck Student Union to be put on the ballot for a vote must be opt-in fees. No optional fee can be put on the ballot that is not an opt-out fee. If a petition is proposed to the Geoduck Student Union with an opt-out fee it will be rejected until it’s been changed to an opt-in fee. For amendment to be overturned, Geoduck Student Union representatives must vote with a 2/3 majority in favor of discarding the amendment.”

Students expressed their concerns about what this amendment could do for future students and how it could negatively impact organizations trying to receive funding. One student spoke about bringing a petition to the GSU, having the students vote on whether or not this amendment should be final. The GSU had tabled this discussion for next week and encouraged students to come next week to talk about it further.

Lobby Day:

            Lobby Day is coming up Monday February 18, 2013. The GSU is making a giant push to advertise and have student involvement at the capital this coming president’s day.

Action Items for Lobby Day:

1. Make Fliers – Faurest and Tyler
2. Set up tabling Schedule
3. Door to Door Scheduling
4. Build Props
5. TV Ads
6. Word of Mouth

Lobby Day Details

1. Meet at Rachel Carrie Mural at 9:00am
2. Advertise
3. Actually leave at 10:30am
4. Evergreen Dress Code: Evergreen Shirts/Tie Dye
5. Dancing/Music

Attendance:
Present: Robert Guicheteau, Donald O Gribbons, Natalie Rehberger, Jasmine Purcell, Ryan Bersentes, Jonathan Gottlieb, Stefan Bach, Brendan Hale, Hesham Badissy, Douglas Ridely, Andreas Taxi Villacorta, Ryan Morikokwa, Sebastiano Trinh, Paige Jones, Faurest Nelson Wicks,

Absent: Courtney Kindell, Lawrence Novak, Alani Akins-Smith, Tyler Langenbrunner
Facebook Page:
Post current topics and information that the GSU is working on to help students keep updated. This will also hopefully spark conversations and more student input.

Legislative Agenda:
Create a list of solid ideas to give Talia
Ideas:
Scholarship/Revenue/Financial Aid
Grants for Research
“Shared Governance”
Faculty Salary
Decoupling Student Activities Fees from Tuition

New!Amendment:
There was discussion around the proposed amendment to the Election and Voting Policy, making it unlawful for any new voluntary student fees to be opt-out. This would ensure students have the choice to pay these fees.

Approved: 15
Against: 0
Abstained: 1

“3.6 All voluntary and optional fees that are brought up in front of the Geoduck Student Union to be put on the ballot for a vote must be opt-in fees. No optional fee can be put on the ballot that is not an opt-out fee. If a petition is proposed to the Geoduck  Student Union with an opt-out fee it will be rejected until it’s been changed to an opt-in fee. For amendment to be overturned, Geoduck Student Union representatives must vote with a 2/3 majority in favor of discarding the amendment.”

Lobby Day:
The GSU wants to inform students of Lobby Day coming in February and get them excited to attend. There have been ideas of wearing green and writing our tuition rate on balloons while at the capital and having baked goods/pizza for students who come support Evergreen.

ATTENDANCE

Members present: Donald O Gribbons, Hesham Badissy, Stefan Bach, Tyler Langenbrunner, Drew Hawley, Ryan Bersentes, Jonathan Gottlieb, Brendan Hale, Alani Akins-Smith, Andreas Txai Villacorta, Paige Jones, Douglas Ridley, Robert Guicheteau, Natalie Rehberger, Ryan Morikawa, Sebastiano Trinh

Members absent:Lawrence Novak, Jasmine Purcell, Faurest Nelson Wicks

Chair: Donald

BUSINESS

Public Comments

• Deven (student): Expressing his concern against campus-wide smoking ban
  • Argued that students would be highly resistant
  • Suggested alternatively moving smoking pits to the edge of campus
  • Brought up the need for more clearly defined smoking area boundaries
  • Consensus among smokers is that the most important smoking areas the one’s near (e.g. Sem II); many object to the smoking pits nears residential areas housing, the Greenery, etc.
• JJ Wampach
  • Advocating a plan to ban tobacco sales and use on campus
  • “At Evergreen we have a public health epidemic,” the smoking rate at Evergreen is far higher than many other colleges
  • Besides second-hand smoking, there is also cigarette litter that causes problems
  • Concern that not going smoke-free may be preventing Evergreen from getting grant money from public health agencies
• Ben (student, former RA, currently working for health services)
  • Believes RAD services might be more willing to enforce smoking policy if presented with more of the evidence from research and from concerned students
  • There is a concern for the health conditions, such as asthma, for students living on campus

Intramurals: Hesham

• In the process of getting sign-ups
• Will be putting up posters, promotion in the CRC
• Would like to create his own alterations to the flyers
• Need a least 8-10 people to sign-up for the league to take shape

Workday

• Single-Occupancy bathrooms
  • Reps mapped out the single-occupancy (gender neutral) bathrooms in Seminar 2
• Draft legislative action items (to give to WSA intern to lobby for Evergreen)
• Lobby Day plans
• Working intramural flyers: Hesham
• Website work: Melissa

Action Items:

• Get the word out about Intramurals, Lobby Day, and the Facebook page
• Find useful statistics to persuade legislators (Lobby Day) and prospective students (Preview Day)
• Preview Day (Saturday, January 19^th)
• Lobby Day (Monday, February 18^th)

ATTENDANCE

Members present: Donald O Gribbons, Hesham Badissy, Stefan Bach, Tyler Langenbrunner, Drew Hawley, Ryan Bersentes, Jonathan Gottlieb, Brendan Hale, Alani Akins-Smith, Andreas Txai Villacorta, Sebastiano Trinh, Paige Jones, Douglas Ridley, Faurest Nelson Wicks, Robert Guicheteau, Natalie Rehberger, Jasmine Purcell, Courtney Kindell

Members absent:Lawrence Novak, Ryan Morikawa

Chair: Donald

BUSINESS

Public Comments

• Amanda Frank (CPJ) asked about group photo and representative bios
• Dante from Dirty Hands
  • Dinner series for those interested in getting involved in solving civic problems on campus
  • Spoke on the disconnection between students and GSU and the need to improve channels of communication
  • Invited GSU members to become involved with their dinner series

• Nate (student)
  • Interested in being a member of the Campus Land Use Committee
  • Been attending the meetings regularly for around a year and took land use planning class (specific training and context)
  • Approved: [for 17 against 0 abstentions 0]

Introduction of Freshman Reps

• Natalie Rehberger
• Jasmine Purcell

WSA updates

• Donald reported on meeting with UW coordinators
• Action items for WSA: Voter access, Aid for undocumented students, Scholarship money
• Attorney General to clarify whether legislation permits gender neutral bathrooms

Legislative liaison: Talia Goldberg

• Working on financial aid for undocumented students, expanding childcare, and finding new streams of revenue
• Head of WSA wants Evergreen to be more involved in WSA activities
• GSU members are working on proposing an Evergreen Legislative Agenda

Tom on student fees

• Power being taken away from students
• Students cannot increase their student activities fees unless they are planning to increase tuition
• Student government cannot decide on S&A fees independent on the board of trustees
• Do we need to uncouple the student fees from the tuition?

Doug: Lobby the state aggressively for more funds, rather than increasing students fees

Statewide Lobby Day

• February 18^th at theCapitalBuilding (President’s Day)
• Evergreen goal  minimum of 100 students in attendance
• GSU members are going to try to spread by word of mouth and advertisements

Need to promote better

• Need to create awareness of the GSU and invite students to come
• Put up banners and signs
• Make suggestion box/ calendar
• Table outside of the library/ CAB

Smoking News (Txai)

Need to get students’ input

Scouting new smoker’s pit locations

Administrator hypocrisy regarding smoking policy

Idea to send in anonymous complaints to administrators to prompt them to take responsibility

Special Initiatives

Need to fill out special initiatives form for GSU stipends for this quarter and propose to S&A

S&A meetings: Mondays/Wednesdays, 3-5pm

 Action Items:

• Set time aside to inform the new representatives on GSU activities and current goals
• Come up with legislative action agenda for Evergreen
• Create promotional posters: Faurest, Natalie, Donald, Sebastiano
• Volunteers to table for GSU: Paige, Brendon, Hesham
• Volunteers to work with Tom on the budget: Robert, Sebastiano, Hesham, Doug, Donald,Tyler
• Gather information/find speakers on how to instigate smoking and gender neutral bathroom reform policies
• Meeting with the Community-Based Learning Center to mobilize students for Lobby Day: Donald, Natalie, Robert, Brendon, Doug,Tyler
• Preview Day (Saturday, January 19^th)
• Lobby Day (Monday, February 18^th)
• Bring in the vice presidents and approve the mural policy and talk about the smoking policy