Gustavus Student Senate News

SUBMITTED TO: The Gustavus Community
SUBJECT: Denouncement of Hateful Acts

GUSTAVUS STUDENT SENATE,

CONSIDERING the vandalism of several Gustavus students’ cars on the night of November 1 with obscene pictures and words that are both disrespectful and degrading to members of our community and

COGNIZANT of the fact that many other hateful events have occurred in our community in recent history;

RECOGNIZING these actions are in violation of Gustavus principles, values, and policies;

ACKNOWLEDGING our role representing the student body:

DENOUNCES these deplorable acts;

EXPRESSES EMPATHY for the victims of these crimes;

SUPPORTS the ongoing investigation of these acts by college administrators;

COMMENDS those members of the community that have taken positive actions in response to these acts;

STRIVES to keep Gustavus an open, productive college where intolerance of any nature is not accepted

CALLS UPON students and the entire Gustavus community to be actively involved in this goal;

URGES faculty and students to engage in active classroom discussion about this matter;

PLEDGES to work with the administration and any interested parties to hold a community conversation regarding hateful acts on our campus.

Approved November 10, 2008.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Student Senate Follows in Martin Luther’s Steps With Posting of Ninety-Five Theses
October 31, 2008

In a symbolic event late last night Student Senate posted its own 95 Theses on President Ohle’s door.

On this day in 1517 Martin Luther nailed his “Ninety-Five Theses on the Power and Efficacy of Indulgences” to the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Germany.  This was one of the first events leading up to the Protestant Reformation. For the last two years Student Senate has been working to create its own 95 Theses as a list of requests from the student body to the administration to be considerd if money and resources were unlimited. This list is designed to encompass the wishes of all Gustavus students based on recommendations made to Senate over the years.

The 95 Theses are available here as is the accompanying letter. Student Senate does not expect a formal response to the Theses but rather merely hopes they will be taken into consideration as strategic planning for the College continues.

The next regular Senate meeting will be Monday, November 10 at 7 p.m. in the Boardroom of the Jackson Campus Center. Community comment is welcome at the beginning of every meeting.

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Contact:
Nick Stramp
Director of Communications
Student Senate
Gustavus Adolphus College
nstramp@gustavus.edu

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Student Senate Begins to Examine Proposed Constitution
October 14, 2008

Student Senate moved past the annual finance process and began discussing its proposed Constitution last night.

Last spring Senate created a committee to revise its constitution over the summer months. This committee met almost daily during September and created a new proposed constitution. The proposed Constitution creates a leaner, more efficient Senate and also creates more opportunities for Senate to foster leadership development.

The proposed constitution was debated for approximately 90 minutes last night before being tabled until the next meeting. Copies of the proposed constitution are available by emailing Nick Stramp (nstramp@gustavus.edu). All members of the Gustavus community are invited to provide input.

Andrew Evenson (Southwest Representative) and Anders Ringdahl-Mayland (Off-campus Representative) were appointed at last night’s meeting. The following positions are still vacant and appointments will be solicited at the next Senate meeting: College View Representative (1) and Class of 2010 Representative (1).  Any interested students should email Vice President for Administration Andrew Nelson (anelso10@gustavus.edu) prior to the next meeting.

The next regular Senate meeting will be Monday, October 27 at 7 p.m. in the Boardroom of the Jackson Campus Center. Community comment is welcome at the beginning of every meeting.

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Contact:
Nick Stramp
Director of Communications
Student Senate
Gustavus Adolphus College
nstramp@gustavus.edu

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
Student Senate Finishes the Yearly Budgeting Process With Another Epic Meeting
October 7, 2008

Student Senate picked up where it left off last week and finished allocating budgets to student organizations in a meeting surpassing the length of last week’s marathon, ending at 1:55 A.M.

The extraordinarily length of this year’s budgeting process can be attributed to a phenomenal increase in the number of groups requesting funds (now more than 85) and an overall increase in the funds requested (more than $303,000). There was not a corresponding increase in revenue from the student activity fee, which remained at approximately $218,000. This required the Senate to make fiscally responsible decisions when approving the budgets to preserve funds for mid-year allocations.

As a reminder, the following positions are now vacant and will be available for appointment at the next regular Senate meeting: Southwest Representative (1), Off Campus Representative (1), College View Representative (1), and Class of 2010 Representative (1).  Any interested students should email Vice President for Administration Andrew Nelson (anelso10@gustavus.edu) prior to the next meeting.

The next regular Senate meeting will be Monday, October 13 at 7 p.m. in the Boardroom of the Jackson Campus Center. Community comment is welcome at the beginning of every meeting. One of the main agenda items at this meeting will be Senate’s proposed new Constitution.

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Contact:
Nick Stramp
Director of Communications
Student Senate
Gustavus Adolphus College
nstramp@gustavus.edu

New Senators and Co-Presidents were seated last night as Student Senate kicked off the academic year with a six hour meeting devoted almost exclusively to budgeting of student organizations. 

The meeting began under the direction of Co-Presidents Kim Braun and Lucas Neher who soon passed the gavel on to incoming Co-Presidents Luke Garrison and Shawn Grygo. Due to miscalculations last spring, student organization budgeting was not carried out and therefore was at the top of the agenda for the first meeting. With 71 organizations submitting budgets, each of which requires approval of the full Senate, the task proved to be too large for one evening. At 1:05 a.m. the Senate adjourned after having approved 40 of the 71 budgets. A special session will be held next Monday, October 6 at 7 p.m. in the Boardroom to finish approving the remaining organization budgets.

In addition to budgeting, the Senate appointed new officers and committee chairs:
Andrew Nelson, Vice President of Administration
Ashley Melville, Vice President of Finance
Nick Stramp, Director of Communications
Alison Utke, Controller
Scott Broady, Parliamentarian
Anne Raetz, Academic Affairs Chair
Jake Partridge, Diversity Chair
Emily Thayer, Student Affairs Chair
Laura Danielson, Public Relations Chair
Lucas Neher, Food & Health Chair
Ryan Dobbs, Residential Life Chair

The following positions are now vacant and will be available for appointment at the next regular Senate meeting: Southwest Representative (1), Off Campus Representative (1), College View Representative (1), and Class of 2010 Representative (1).  Any interested students should email Vice President for Administration Andrew Nelson (anelso10@gustavus.edu) prior to the next meeting.

The next regular Senate meeting will be Monday, October 13 at 7 p.m. in the Boardroom of the Jackson Campus Center. Community comment is welcome at the beginning of every meeting.

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Contact:
Nicholas Stramp ‘09
Director of Communications
Student Senate
Gustavus Adolphus College
907.350.0421
nstramp@gustavus.edu

Student Senate Fall 2008!

Co-Presidents
Luke Garrison and Shawn Grygo

Class of 2012 Representatives
Brandon Hirdler
Eric Kunkel
Elliot Lesser (one semester term)

Class of 2011 Representative
Haylie Neitzell
Anne Raetz

Class of 2010 Representatives
Nick Harper
Andrew Nelson

International Student Representative
Chenyu Yang

Arbor View Representative
Vacant

Carlson International Center Representative
Jake Partridge

College View Representative
Vacant

Gibbs Hall Representative
Kelly Broady

Norelius Hall Representatives
Jacob Lundborg
Steve Olson
Clark Kampfe

North Hall Representatives
Collin A. Lehman
Emily Thayer

Off-Campus/ILS House Representatives
Galen Mitchell
Alison Utke
Harry Youngvorst

Pittman Hall Representatives
Ben Lundquist
Sonja Johnson

Prairie View Representative
Phillip Helt
Rundstrom Hall Representative
Sean Tessmer

Sohre Hall Representatives
Sean Maertens
Garrett Putney

Sorensen Hall Representatives
Rose Follis
Claire Sagstuen

Southwest Hall Representatives
Scott Broady
Laura Danielson

Uhler Hall Representatives
Derek Hilding
Peter Nygren

We have lots of new events and ideas planned so stay tuned.  Coming up on Thursday, September 18th in the Courtyard Cafe there will be a debate between Co-Presidential Candidates Grygo-Garrison, and Allen-Melville. Make sure to vote at the elections on Monday September 22, voting is outside the Marketplace from 9:30am-6pm.

STUDENT GROUPS:

Student group budgets are under revision.  Recommendations will be made on the 29th at the first senate meeting of the year at 7pm, location TBD.  Please pay attention to additional updates you may receive directly from Senate at the time approaches.

The student senate would like to wish everyone a fun and safe summer and look forward to seeing everyone back in the fall!!

Your Student Senators will be rocking out in front of the student center 5:00 Friday night through 5:00 Saturday night this weekend! Friday from 5-8pm we will be grilling- stop in for some hot dogs and Boca burgers, and stick around to learn about our new Community Bike Program we will be kicking off during the Rock-A-Thon. Feel free to help us stay up all night and stop in whenever you have time and give your senators input on what you want to see happen here on campus!

Here is a great alternative to downloading your music from file-sharing programs such as KaZaa and LimeWire. In light of recent fines issued to several students from the RIAA relating to downloads from programs like these it was made clear that an alternative method getting music would be great for the Gustavus community. Ruckus is one such program that is available to all college students. Visit Ruckus.com today, download the player, and set up an account (use email@gustavus.edu, not email@gac.edu to register) to start downloading music, the only catch is you can’t put the music on your Apple products (sorry Mac people, and iPod fans). Other mp3 players that aren’t iTunes based may support the songs you download for Ruckus however. Questions? Visit Ruckus.com or e-mail us at webmaster@gacspot.com