Senate swears in new senator following a resignation

Senator Lara Portillo resigned from her position as a senator on Nov. 19 due to “after school obligations.”

Todd Roenfeldt was sworn in as the new at large senator. Roendfeldt said he wants to represent nontraditional students and Veterans. He also said he wants to start a club for Veterans at CSC next semester. Senator Mauro Ovando was concerned that the vote for a new senator the same day they found out about Portillo’s resignation was rushed. Student Senate President Katrina Hurley said that Roenfeldt had interest in a position prior to Portillo’s resignation.

The justice court read its opinion on two impeachment petitions. For more information, please see the related story. http://csceagle.com/2015/11/25/1-senator-1-executive-board-member-survive-impeachment/

Senate allocated no more than $150 for the pizza, drinks, and prizes for the Senate Workshop, which was on Nov. 14.

Tena Cook, College Relations Marketing Coordinator, spoke to Student Senate about publicizing events on campus. She said that event coordinators need to call conferencing early with information about the event so she can help publicize it.

Hurley said JoAnn Owens-Nauslar will be presenting at CSC in January 2016. Instead of break-out sessions she will be speaking to classes and she will also have one big session at night.

Senator Tate Jensen brought up concerns with the CSC meal plans. He said there are concerns with the healthiness of meals, the lack of protein, mainly carbs, and times that meals can be used.

Jensen also recommended creating a committee to discuss the guidelines for unexcused absences. He said the guidelines need to be defined, there needs to be guidelines for what happens when a senator receives the unexcused absences, and that required work events should be unexcused absences.

Ovando said he contacted Dale Grant, finance and administration vice president, about vending machines on campus. Ovando said Grant told him that the senators would need to decide where the machines would go and what products would be in them. Ovando recommended two sets of vending machines: one in the main lobbies of the dorms and one in the laundry rooms. The vending machines in the lobbies would have food in them and the vending machines in the laundry rooms would have items like soap and condoms.

Ovando also brought up the water bottle filling stations on campus. He said that $15,000 was allocated for the filling stations already on campus, but he was waiting on numbers for each individual station. Senators would need to decide how many machines they would like to purchase to figure out how much it was cost overall.

Ovando said he contacted the director of housing about faulty equipment in the dorms, like broken pool sticks. They said they can’t buy new equipment if they don’t know it’s broken. They also said they’re looking at implementing a $25 for broken equipment.

Ovando researched ways to improve the Internet on campus. He said he found a router called Router AC that works better than normal routers. He recommended looking into buying some for campus. Senator Michael Steube said he will have an IT person come in after break to discuss internet.