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Minutes of the University of Wisconsin System Student Representatives

October 7th, 2017 at 9:30am In the Great Hall of the Memorial Student Center

University of Wisconsin-Stout 712 Broadway St S, Menomonie, Wisconsin 54751

START

- Call to Order

Meeting called to order at 9:36am.

- Calling of the Roll

Voting Member Attendance Voting Member Attendance

Baraboo/Sauk Co. Oshkosh X

Barron Co. X Parkside

Eau Claire Platteville X

Fond du Lac Richland

Fox Valley X River Falls X

Green Bay Rock Co. X

La Crosse X Sheboygan

Madison X Stevens Point X

Manitowoc Stout X

Marathon Co. X Superior

Marinette Washington Co.

Marshfield/Wood Co. Waukesha

Milwaukee Whitewater X

Non-Voting Member Attendance

UW Colleges Student Governance Council X

Results of the Roll Call 12 voting members present. Quorum is not present

1 non-voting member present

Roll was retaken by the Chief of Staff



Barron Co. X Parkside X

Eau Claire X Platteville X






Manitowoc Stout X







Results of the Roll Call 14 voting members present. Quorum is present 1 non-voting member present

- Approval of the Agenda

Motion to amend the agenda made by La Crosse Seconded by Barron County La Crosse motions to move “campus reports” to the last item on the agenda Motion and amended agenda passed by voice vote

- Approval of the Minutes

Motion to approve made by Platteville Seconded by River Falls

Discussion on the motionStevens Point: Can we have a friendly correction to edit Robby Abrahamian’s last name? Chief of Staff Smith: Yes (amendment is editorial) Motion passed by voice vote

- Welcome at UW-Stout (Bob Meyer, Chancellor of UW-Stout)

Good morning. Welcome to UW-Stout. I want to talk a little bit about why I am so excited to be here to welcome you today. I want to talk a little about UW-Stout and just give you an intro to the campus. A little bit about UW-Stout, unlike any other campus in the System it is named after a person rather than a place. It was founded in 1891 by James Huff Stout who was the son of someone who was on the board of directors for a lumber company that was located here in Menomonie, Wisconsin. He a big believer in that wealthy people should give back to the community and engage in philanthropy. He founded the University as partnership with the Menomonie school district to provide vocational education and it became very popular and got to know the state superintendent of schools and that's really how the university began. He died in 1910. It became a formal four-year university in 1908 and in 1955 became the Stout state college and in the 1970’s when we had merger it become part of the UW System but retained its name. While the Board of Regents was here we went from 48 undergraduate programs to 49 programs. They approved our applied molecular biology degree program. We have 23 graduate majors and one doctoral program and that program is in technical education. We have the third highest increase in enrollment in the UW System over the last decade, rivaling with Platteville. Out enrollment in 2015 was a record at 9,535. This year we’re down about 200 students. We have 1,300 employees at UW-Stout as well. We have roughly 1,500 graduates per year. 94% of last year grads reported getting a job within six months or went on to graduate work. The average reported salary was about $42,500. We are Wisconsin's officially polytechnic university and the Board of Regents gave us that designation about ten years ago. We have always been considered a special mission institution with focuses on special degrees. There are three tenets we adhere to; career focus, applied learning, and focus on collaboration. We have a collaboration in engineering with UW-River Falls and UW-Eau Claire and are very big on experiential learning. Thank you for inviting me.

- Special Order Speakers - Sean Nelson (Vice-President for Finance, UW System)

Vice-President Nelson: I’ve been this role four about four months. I was employed in a similar position in Massachusetts. I want to give you an update on the Seg Fee Work Group. The

representation on the work group is very good. The budget requires that the seg fee issues get passed asap. The characterization of allocable and non-allocable fees were not consistent across institutions. The work group is seeking a two week review period and seeks to bring the policy to the Board of Regents in November. The Joint Finance Committee does have a 14 passive review after its passage by the Board of Regents for feedback and changes. There are not a whole lot of revisions but mostly just changes to classifications. We added language to provide student governments access to transportation and inter-collegiate activities. We also wanted to prove students with a review period for the non-allocable student university fee budget. The deadline is two weeks for Wednesday, the 18th of October.

Madison: How does a simpler classification of fees help students?

Vice-President Nelson: It does not necessarily help but makes it easier to justify the costs.

Stevens Point: One highlight is that we should have meaningful review of student seg fees. We will be letting students know and see things.

Madison: I am still confused on the process for picking members to the seg fee work group?

Vice-President Nelson: We asked campus leadership to submit designs to the group. It was initially going to be a small group but we changes that and now have representation from each institution. We were not prescript and it was self-nominated by campus leadership. One thing working against us was that we got this change in May and that hampered our outreach.

Stout (yielded to the gallery): Is there any update on the seg free opt-out?

Vice-President Nelson: No. That was not part of this process.

Stevens Point: What other seg fee issues should be talked about in the future?

Vice-President Nelson: The Board of Regents are a little worried procedures about collecting fees for capital projects and about the diverse processes for student referenda. They’d like to address those two things. There was a seg free revision group that happened two years ago, it was a very detailed report and some stuff in the report, the Board of Regents may want to act on.

Whitewater: In terms of the student referenda, is that directed more towards financial aspects or just more in general?

Vice-President Nelson: It is seg fee specific.

Stout: How are you going to address fee creeping and 102 funds that are making their way onto our segregated fees?

Vice President Nelson: Those have to be handled on a case by case basis.

Madison: What is the current feedback process?

Vice-President Nelson: We sent this out to a pretty board stakeholder group. We are asking for one institutional response.

Barron County: None of the 13 UW Colleges were invited to this group. Is that going to change?

Vice President Nelson: We had representation for the Colleges. I can follow up with you directly.

Stout: What is your position on a seg fee opt-out?

Vice-President Nelson: I do not have a position on an opt-out. That issue is bigger than me. Sometimes the issues is bigger than us.

Stevens Point: Is there enough need across the System to increase non-allocable fees?

Vice-President Nelson: They have to be tied to something. We’re working on having a threshold as what the maximum increase could be. The spirit of this is to keep fees down.

- Saman Azimi

Saman Azimi: I am here to talk about open textbooks. This is something that students feel they do not the power to be agents of change but they can be. I am from the University of Connecticut and was not a part of student government. I am from the The Open Textbook Alliance.

Saman Azimi: Where we are now. Textbook prices from various prices. A 2014 survey said that 65% of students have recorded not going to buy a textbook due to the price. Textbook prices are steeper than the average university tuition. We need to find out alternatives. The textbook market is a broken market. Because of those two key reason textbooks can just price-gouge the cost of textbooks. Student leaders pushed a lot for places like rental programs. Amazon is becoming more popular amongst students. Publishers are feeling it: Pearson’s sales dropped 30% in the fourth quarter. Over 94% of student have access codes, a very bad deal. Inclusive codes are a new thing in higher education and students are just charged a course fee at the beginning of the semester. Prices for textbooks have stagnated or gone down in the recent years. Students have to swallow that cost. A lot of publishers are pushing access codes and lots of public and school officials are pushing them as well. The solution is open textbooks. It’s somewhat like open

source software. Open textbooks are different because facility can publish books under an open licenses. 1) Open textbooks are freely available online, forever. They are available in print and you just have to cover the cost of print. Faculty can also customize textbooks to suit their own course material needs. That a little bit about open textbooks. Generally, facility do not know, but they want to keep costs down. Faculty are the ones who drive it and provable affordability and access. OER and Openstax are used at over 2,300 institutions. These are very popular amongst faculty. 9/10 professors surveyed said they consider cost when assigning textbooks. UConn had a professor make an open textbook for chemistry and saved over $400,000 in saving. Who does this solution look like? It looks different at each campus. Open textbooks are a thing that's out there and we want to spread the word. Advertising OER is so important to ensure faculty have the academic freedom to choose their textbooks for their courses. Hosting a faculty workshop, many faculty do not have the knowledge of open textbook. Having experts come in and teach faculty and staff about open textbooks. 40% of faculty used open textbooks in their occurs. Another that is the most important is grant funding. It gives faculty compensation and being able to explore gets a lot of faculty on board. Faculty can get lots of money for writing their own open textbooks. AT UConn, the SG allocated $26,000 to go forward and saved over $400,000 dollars. There are statewide grant funding in North Dakota. Saving are estimated at 6-1 minimum.

- Doug Hoffer (Assistant Attorney of the City of Eau Claire)

Doug Hoffer: History of the housing issue and the solutions that the city of Eau Claire. We discussed this with the various stakeholders and different landlords. Wanted additional tools to target bad tenets. Prescribed by Act 176. Looked at not just rental properties but all properties. An incentive based proactive approach and if there were an high number of exterior damage that supported cause for an inspection warrant to inspect the interior of the property. Its incentive based and based on priorities. If you have a bad roof or bad siding and if you’re not taking care of exterior, not interior. Drafted a city ordinance and had a series of public meeting and had a lot of the input from the student senate at Eau Claire and from neighborhood associations and landlords and property owners. There was not a lot of negative input when we took this to the [Eau Claire] City Council. We also facilitated parties giving compliments. Promote the idea that change is needed. We have worked with the student senate at Eau Claire and answering questions. A reasonable role of government to play; the health and safety of those who cannot help themselves. Engage you’re university leaders. We want the students and general population to leave in basic housing that is safe.

SP (four questions) Barron County Madison

Barron County: My concern is that if there is going to be more inspections of these landlords, then landlords may turn away students to avoid increased inspections. Are you concerned about that?

Doug Hoffer: Our program applies to all housing Eau Claire and it treats all housing the same. We’re concerned with house meeting minimum health and safety standards.

- Lunch

Platteville motion to have a fifteen minute lunch. Seconded by River Falls

Stevens Point motions to amend the motion to allow for a 25 minute lunch. Platteville accepts the amendment.

Motion passed by voice vote.

BREAK FOR LUNCH

Called back to order at 12:35pm

Roll call was retaken at 12:36pm










Manitowoc Stout X




Milwaukee Whitewater



Results of the Roll Call 12 voting members present. Quorum is not present 1 non-voting member present

- Open Forum for Non-Agenda Items (3 mins each)

La Crosse: Getting back to the seg fee issue. The immediate concern we should concern ourselves with is how this process is gonna go on each campus in terms of implantation. So I want to put it out there that I highly encourage everybody to go and talk with their chancellors and administration about how the seg fee process will be implemented going forward on their respective campus. If we don’t do that we may get into a situation where administration might decide too much on how that is gonna go. It would be good for everybody to have a goal to have an agreement signed between administration and their chancellor and their student government in terms of who gets what for the non-allocable-allocable stuff. We have the transportation line, athletes and a bunch of others that impact students. It's gonna be important for us to sit down and make sure there is a formal agreement with those non-allocables. Lastly, on some legislative stuff moving forward I am confident that they are not going in for an opt out because that's something that could come up when institutional memory is gone. Maybe they’ll try it in the next budget cycle. We’ll have to see. It is concerning that System is backing off on this. System needs to be supporting students in terms of an opt-out. It would be important for us or perhaps that Reps. exec board to set up a meeting the [President] Cross and to press him to have a position on an opt-out should it come forth. It’s vital for us to fact find and help System on trying to formal support students in supporting an opt-out.

Platteville: Question for you. Platteville’s SUFAC is separate from student senate. Our SUFAC allocates money and gets money back that student don’t spend and out it in an unrecognized reserve fund. Our administration took $250,000 from that fund and used it on a new athletic center. Does anyone have a fund that is unrecognized?

Stevens Point: We have a reserve fund that can only be used by the president and vice-president Whitewater: We have a contingency plan but as far as I know there has never been issues. Has a floor of about $15,000.

Madison: We have a reserve fund that can be used by our chair and vice-chair of student council, our student services finance committee chair and vice-chair, and our grant allocation chair.

Parkside: We do not have a reserve fund for accounts that are not used. Any money that is not used gets added into a master account for next year.

Stout: Stout admission procedure requires two sign offs on behalf of our SSA executive board. We have a remodel this based off of the revised policy. Our SUFAC is the entire senate.

La Crosse: [question to Platteville] Is you’re reserve account talked about our constitution or procedures?

Platteville: It is in policies that were made by SUFAC.

La Crosse: [question to Platteville] How are they able to come and take that money then?

Platteville: What happens is that student organization make requests for unplanned expenses and then send a student to SUFAC to request those funds.

La Crosse: [question to Platteville] So where is the issues coming from with the $250,000?

Platteville: The university administration says they can do this cause any money that does not get used goes into this separate reserve account and that account is not outlined in policy. There is no official process to ask for money from the reserve account.

Chairman Peralta: Thank you. We’ll be moving on in the interest of time. The SUFAC thing is huge though and is very important. We’re making plans going forward on our statewide support so we can all collaborate.

Roll call was retaken at 12:50pm










Manitowoc Stout X







Results of the Roll Call 14 voting members present. Quorum is present 1 non-voting member present

- Student Representatives Executive Committee Approval - Approval of the Inclusivity Director

Chairman Peralta nominates Coltan Schoenike of UW-Stout to the ad-hoc Executive Committee position of inclusivity director.

Coltan Schoenike: My name is Coltan Schoenike and my personal pronouns are they/them/theirs. I am the current director of communications of the SSA and the vice-president for the gender and sexuality alliance on campus. I am very interested in this position when this position came into existence at our last Reps. meeting at Madison. I appreciate intersectionality and an appreciation that we have multiple intersecting identities. We have to see where we hold oppression and where we hold privilege in order to represent people in the most inclusive way that we can.

Discussion. Madison; What are your goals for this position?

Colton Schoenike: I really appreciate shared governance and the sense of community that UW Reps, provides and I want to echo that. I want to have a lot of different opportunities for students to come together and work towards the inclusivity issues on both their individual schools and the System as a whole. I want to serve as a sounding board for each other and want us to collaborate in efforts such as hosting and inclusivity school. We all have things we exile and need to work on exchanging knowledge and ideas can make us better as whole.

Barron County: What do you plan to do attract and include non-traditional and international students?

Colton Schoenike: In the inclusivity committee I plan to have a very healthy outreach effort. There are other groups that we don’t always think of when we think of diversity; international students, non-traditional students, veteran students. We have to be intentional requirement and outreach for those people.

Whitewater: What is your definition of diversity?

Colton Schoenike: If I had to pick one word to describe diversity it would be human. A lot of people, when they think of diversity, think of people who are not themselves but we’re all divisive. It's important to realize and respect that.

List of Executive Committee Nominees For Inclusivity Director: Coltan Schoenike of UW-Stout

Motion to approve by Stevens Point Seconded by StoutAppointment approved by voice vote

- S.R. Budget Presentation

Vice Chairman Vandenbergh: Today I want to present the budget to you also have a question and answer session with you. In total, the budget we’re be requesting would be $28,800. The majority ($20,000) would be for “travel”. $16,000 of that $20,000 would be used to travel to our Reps. meetings and $4,000 would be used to lobby in Madison and Washington D.C.

We could allocate $500 to four SGAs every month for eight meetings a year. We can break that up as well and have a lot of flexibility. In operating expenses I have $8,000 for “summits, speakers, and hosting”. I would be great if each year a UW campus could host a summit and a Reps meeting and that where at $8,000 would go towards. We have business cards; $100 and website rights; $200. We added $500 for printing. Printing costs can and do add up.

Discussion.

La Crosse; More specifics in the travel budget allocation.

Stevens Point: I agree. It would be good to see where the costs break down at the different institutions. Is hotel included in the travel section?

Vice Chairman Vandenbergh: Yes. Hotel would be included and funded.

Rock County: What about carry over? If we just request money for a hotel, can the money saved carry over to help fund another campus?

Vice Chairman Vandenbergh: Yes. An example; for the spring semester you would request money in the fall and for the fall semester you’d request funds in the spring. The specifics on that are still cloudy but I envision that campuses would know how much money they are receiving by the third Reps. meeting of each semester. There would be a form on the website that campuses could fill out to apply for funds. The Executive Committee would process the applications and decide who gets what. Any extra money would go back into the pool and carry over to the next year.

Eau Claire (yielded to the gallery): One for the many issues will we that, as soon as we take money from System, we are on their payroll. Any time we are lobbying they are getting a say in what they’re doing. If we want to lobby on a topic they don’t like they can say we don’t want to fund you.

Vice Chairman Vandenbergh: Good point, I see it as holding System accountable and that is something that President Cross wants us to do. Doing in a professional manner is important. System wants us to hold them accountable.

Chairman Peralta: Our biggest concern with even having a budget, regardless of who is funding us, and that is that we’re on the payroll. Having clear definitions in what we’re going to do for lobbying for example; we’d have to set up clear definition as to what affects our students and seeing we’re our, and System’s, priorities lineup.

Vice Chairman Vandenbergh: Working with System is a mutually beneficial relationship and we are both about the bigger picture. If we do receive a budget we have to make sure the goals are outlined really well and that everyone understands what comes from having a budget like this.

Eau Claire (yielded to the gallery): If we are directly opposed to what System wasn't or is proposing, how are we going to deal with that?

Vice Chairman Vandenbergh: We would come out with a statement saying we’re opposed and I think System and President Cross would read through it. As long as it makes sense they’ll respect us and our viewpoint.

Chairman Peralta: As long as we are not calling for the end of System, we should be able to agree to disagree. Students, and our student rights, are first

Stout; We have two students on the Board Of Regents but can we maybe have funding to have an Executive Committee member go to Board of Regents meetings? The more presence, the better.

Barron County: [question to Stout] In that situation would you suggest allocating a different representative for each meeting?

Stout: Yes.

Vice Chairman Vandenbergh; Depending on where the Board's meeting we can have a member of that SGA or a member of Reps, attend these meetings and put together a report.

Marathon County: What funding sources would this come from and who would hold the account?

Vice Chairman Vandenbergh: We would come out of System’s budget and they would be the ones paying for the line-item budget. You would submit expenses to System, they would review it and then cut you a check. Each campus would get their own travel checks.

Marathon County: Is there a plan for alternate revenue?

Vice Chairman Vandenbergh: Yes. Other organizations could possibly fund Reps. but that type of relationship would be interesting cause their funding you and want most likely want something in return. System is our best option.

Platteville: How are we going to keep institutional memory throughout the year? Are we going to update our constitution to provide for financial procedures?

Vice Chairman Vandenbergh: Yes. All that would be added to the constitution.

Governmental Relations Deputy Director Culligan: I see our organization as inherent of being a check to System. There are valid concerns but it is fundamental that we have budget and it is needed for the legitimacy of this organization. It would hurt us more to not present this budget then to present it.

La Crosse: Concerned more with the front end rather than the back end on this issue. I am more concerned about how we go about presenting this to System. If they give is a budget, it would be a PR disaster to yank it from us. Worst case: we go back to where we are now.

Stevens Point: Would it be helpful if each institution figured where we would need funding and where we wouldn't need funding?

Vice Chairman Vandenbergh. Yes. That would be helpful. As part of the application I would ask to see each campus’ travel budget to see if they really need the money. This budget is meant to help out campuses that cannot fund travel for one reason or another. We want to give them a helping hand and encore them to do what they can to help themselves.

Madison: Has it been defined under what circumstances System would take away funding?

Vice Chairman Vandenbergh: If we didn't want the funding we would send a cease and desist letter to System and that would be that.

Madison: Would that happen by a vote form this body?

Vice Chairman Vandenbergh: Yes. The letter would be voted on by the body.

Chairman Peralta: Other states do it differently and I think this the best way forward for us. This budget is a year by year thing and so could be ended and then started within one year.

Platteville: We are not under 36.09(5) so what incentives does System have to give to us and does that officially reqignize us?

Vice Chairman Vandenbergh: While we might not be officially recognized by the Board of Regents, we have a mutually beneficial relationship that we both value. If we get funding I’d like it to be available of the 2018/2019 academic year.

- Higher Education Aids Board Nomination

Agenda item nullified. Student member on the Higher Education Aids Board was appointed by Governor Walker.

- Executive Committee Reports

Chairman Peralta: Talked about becoming a non-profit. I had a conversation with Mark Hazelbaker about being a non-profit and we’ve been in a couple conversations. It would help us out both with legitimacy and with getting funding cause business can give us funding. I want to get feedback from the representatives and get you included with the arrives of incorporation and make this organization as effective as transparent as possible.

Platteville: Does this delegitimize us from the System? Can we still receive funding from System?

Chairman Peralta: Not necessarily. Although I not talked about it with President Cross.

Public Relations Director Ben-Yitzchak: Are we going for a 501 (C3)?

Chairman Peralta: I am not sure if it will be a 501 (C3) or a 501 (C3e). I am talking to Hazelbaker and will ask him.

Governmental Relations Director Webber: If we get funding from System and start funneling tax dollars into a tax-exempt organization, that is not kosher. That’s something we need to address.

Vice Chairman Vandenbergh: We have to look into the legal ramifications of becoming a non-profit.

Platteville: Has the attempt ever been made to make Reps, an official part of 36.09 (5)?

Vice Chairman Vandenbergh: That hasn't been done in eh past but we have gone to the Board of Regents on that. Regent Higgins argues that we do not want to be recognized as in doing so the Board can unrecognize us in the future.

Chairman Peralta: I talked to the people at NCLC and there will be two nationwide calls; none for DACA and one on campus sexual assault. The “It's on Us” campaign is in limbo and it’s important for students to voice their concerns. Dates for both calls are still unknown.

Vice Chairman Vandenbergh: The website is completely finished and presented the budget today. In a few weeks I’ll be going to UW-Fox Valley to take part in the UW Colleges and Extension training retreat. I’ll be there to talk about Reps and continue to build that relationship.

La Crosse: The website cannot be found when I go a Google search. The old website is number five on the list of Google search results.

Vice Chairman Vandenbergh: Yeah. It’s strange. As of now you have to type in the URL.

Madison: Are we voting on the budget today?

Vice Chairman Vandenbergh: No. Once more details are put together it will be put to the body and we can vote on it.

Chief of Staff Smith: Minutes from Madison were added to Facebook. Platteville: Can we have name tags?

Chief of Staff Smith: Yes.

Government Relations Director Webber: The 57 year running federal Perkins Loan Program has expired on September 30th. We sent an Executive Committee letter to Congress in support of the program. The state budget passed and UW System got most of what it asked for. The issues of the seg fee opt-out is not dead yet though. We also kept $4 million in funding for cultural literacy. Science the Board of Regents took action on the freedom of expression bill yesterday we will ask that the Wisconsin State Senate not take action on Assembly bill 299 (the Campus Free Speech Act) cause the Board has already taken action on it. Brandon and I hope to work to establish local ordinances for housing registration programs to keep our students safe.

Platteville: Is there any way we as a body can be involved with these Executive Committee statements?

Government Relations Director Webber: Yes. However, the chair appoints the directors with the confidence do their job and in time sensitive situations, decisions must be made. We just have to have use best practices.

Stevens Point: We can always take back statements and actions made by the Executive Committee.

Whitewater: Why can’t the Executive Committee put a resolution in forth of the body for us to vote on?

Chairman Peralta: The Executive Committee may put out a press statement but we do write resolutions or policies. Those are all up to the body. Going forward we can be for transparent.

Whitewater: For clarification, was what was passed by an Executive Committee a statement or a resolution?

Government Relations Director Webber: It was a resolution on behalf of the Executive Committee.

Platteville: I respect that you have to make time sensitive issues but we have Robert's Rules and it states how to have an electronic vote. Statements and resolutions mean the same thing to me.

Governmental Relations Deputy Director Culligan: I’ll be down in Madison late this week. That is all for my report.

Government Relations Director Webber: The dates for our Washington D.C. trip are January 15th-18th.

Sustainability Director Abrahamian: SB 395 passed through committee and is on its way to the State Senate. I also want to help plan for the UW-Milwaukee plan for the sustainability summit on November 10th. I’m being put on a System group on renewable energy procurement. I want to follow up on the seize the grid and divestment resolutions we passed last year as well.

Inclusivity Director Schoenike: I want to work with our government relations directors and see what can be done on inclusivity issues. There is a bll in the State Assembly regarding conversion therapy for minors and that is a very dangerous and condemned practice. I will find more information about the bill.

Public Relations Director Director Ben-Yitzchak: A lot of time speeding out statement and answering questions to and for the press. We have Twitter and Instagram and I’ll be asking about student newspapers on each campus and I can add them on our contact and press lists.

Whitewater: If you post the Executive Committee press releases to the Facebook page that would be great.

Outreach Director Hader: I am still missing out ten schools in the student government master contact sheet and would appreciate you sending me info about that. I have regular meetings with Chris Novia to make sure that Reps. and System are on the same page.

Marathon County: Is there any way you can help the UW Colleges on getting in contact with Reps?

Outreach Director Hader: Yes.

- Student Regent Report

No report. Regent not present.

- UW System Report

No report. System representative not present.

Stout: Can we require repost from our System representatives? It's a big report to give. They should come in person, over Skype, and or at least submit a written report. What ways did Regent Ring get and communicated concerns on the freedom of expression bill to his constituents.

- UW Colleges Student Governance Council Report

- New SGC VP - First SGC meeting - New financial director - Need new UW Colleges senators and committee members

- New Business - S.R. Legislative Priorities

La Crosse motions to amend the Legislative Priorities document to include a section on sexual assault. Seconded by Eau ClairePassed by voice vote

DiscussionPlatteville: Is this a resolution?

Government Relations Director Webber: The Legislative Priorities Summary is a resolution.

Unknown: What is Chapter 17?

La Crosse: UW System Chapter 17 is System policy that deals with non-academic conduct for students, including areas of sexual assault. It also deals with campus disciplinary action for sexual domestic violence. The issue is with the period of investigation of sexual assaults and the time period of suspending students for sexual assault. The current period of 21 for an investigation include weekends and there is not enough time to do a proper investigation. Last year we talked about attempted to extend the investigation period to 30 days.

Final amendment as written as La Crosse: “Sexual violence is a serious and very real issue on our college campuses. Currently, students are not given needed support when personally dealing with the issue of sexual violence. Survivors of sexual violence (and other forms of violence) often have no clear path to turn towards after these terrible events. Many survivors do not feel safe immediately moving forward with a police investigation, but need somebody there for them that can provide support and information on how to proceed. As well, they need a trained individual to walk them through a police investigation and the judicial process if they so desire. As it pertains to UWS Chapter 17, if a student who is accused of a non-academic disciplinary violation is given an emergency suspension by the institution then there is only 21 days for an investigation to be conducted and hearing to be held. This short time period does not allow for a proper investigation to be completed and only hurts victims of violations, particularly as it relates to sexual assault. An official position on college campuses specializing in violence prevention is key to providing students the needed support. These individuals can act as confidential reporters so students can feel safe in reporting to a person in authority without being subjugated to a mandatory police investigation. We request that the state mandate this position at all state colleges and universities, and that these positions utilize community resources and are funded by the state. We also request that investigations are given at least 30 days to present a body of proof, which would allow it to be equal to the current maximum emergency suspension of a student.”

Stout: Do we want to add language on 36.09 (5) to the Legislative Priorities Summary? There were changes to the language of 36.09 (5) that made student government into an advisory role.

Stout motions to amend the Legislative Priorities document to include the pre-2015 36.09 (5) language and seek the restoration of the previous 36.09 (5) text. Seconded by Platteville No discussion Passed by voice vote.

Amended Legislative Priorities Summary passed by voice vote.

- Electing S.R. Sustainability Committee Membership

Kristina Haidenam of (UW-Eau Claire) nominated by Eau Claire Seconded by PlattevilleIsaac Mcinnis (of UW-Stout) nominated by Stout Seconded by Rock County

Haley Jurecki (of UW-La Crosse) nominated by La Crosse Seconded by Oshkosh

Lucy DeLain (of UW-Stevens Point) nominated by Stevens Point Seconded by Parkside

Christian Bum (of UW-Marathon County) nominated by Marathon County Seconded by Barron County

Seconded by Barron County

River Falls moves to table sustainability and inclusivity nominations until our next meeting at Saturday November, 11th.

Discussion Stevens Point: I would recommend appointed members to these committee today in order to get the committees rolling. We can add more members at a later date. River Falls withdraws its motion

Stevens Point moves to approve all nominations

Seconded by Stout Approved by voice vote

- Electing S.R. Inclusivity Committee Membership

William Chang (of UW-Stout) nominated by Stout Seconded by La Crosse Thomas Murphy (of UW-Rock County) nominated by Rock County Seconded by Parkside

Alexander Hader (of UW-Madison) nominated by Madison Seconded by River Falls Corry Bass (of UW-Fox Valley) nominated by Fox Valley Seconded by Marathon County Christian Bum (of UW-Marathon County) nominated by Marathon County Seconded by Madison

Stevens Point moves to approve all nominations Fox Valley seconds

DiscussionStevens Point: Can we add members to this committee later?

Chairman Peralta: Yes.

Oshkosh: Is there going to be a cap as to how many people can serve on these committees?

Chairman Peralta: Not at this time.

Stout: What is the form of these committee meetings?

Chairman Peralta: In past years they have done conference calls. It will be up to the committees to decide how they meet.

Motion approved by voice vote

- Freedom of Express Resolution

La Crosse: Did we do a press release? If you didn't I’d be comfortable with the Executive Committee making one.

Public Relations Director Ben-Yitzchak: We sent out a statement right before the vote. However, we haven't sent out a statement after the vote.

Platteville motions on the official stance of the Student Representatives that is opposed to regulating student expression and the amount of times students can protest. Seconded by Parkside

Stevens Point moves to amend the motion to add that the Student Representatives is appalled with the lack of consultation and lack of time to process this resolution prior to voting on it. Seconded by Stout Platteville accepts the amendment as a friendly amendmentPlatteville rescinds its previous motion and instead makes a motion to condemn the freedom of expression resolution passed by the Board of Regents and forming a statement in opposition to Wisconsin State Assembly Bill 299. Seconded by Stout

Stevens Point moves to amend the motion to add that the Student Representatives is appalled with the lack of consultation and lack of time to process this resolution prior to voting on it as well as the lack of student involvement in the process. Seconded by Stout

Stevens Point rescinds its amendment motion and instead motions to add that the Student Representatives respectfully request the UW Board of Regents involve student input and give more time for feedback.

DiscussionMadison: This statement should be written and then brought to us and we can make amendments to that statement in order to save time.

Platteville rescinds its motion to condemn the freedom of expression resolution passed by the Board of Regents and forming a statement in opposition to Wisconsin State Assembly Bill 299.

Chairman Peralta: Please send me our ideas and we will put out an electronic survey and get this set up.

Whitewater: For this electronic survey, and any electronic vote that may come of it, can you put a commonest section so that campuses can explain why the voted the way they voted?


- Old Business

No old business to complete.

- Next Student Representatives Meetings- Saturday November 11th at UW-Whitewater - Saturday December 7th at UW-Oshkosh

Rock County: Parking has been an issue in the past and we’d like that addressed in either Facebook, email, or both.

Stevens Point: When is the spring meeting schedule going to be established?

Chairman Peralta: Two campuses, UW-Milwaukee and UW-Platteville, have already offered to host.

Stout: Can we get the registration form out two or three weeks ahead of time?


Stevens Point: If can we have a tentative agenda sent out more than a week in advance that would be great.

Parkside: Will state representatives be attending future meetings?

Chairman Peralta: Yes. It comes down to availability, agenda topics, and location.

Whitewater: We encourage student governments to bring [to UW-Whitewater] as many people as they would like. We will have workshops outside the actual Student Representatives meeting and have guests.

Rock County: Can we do an early registration poll? We have barely hit quorum twice now and cannot continue to be the case.

- Campus Reports

Motion by La Crosse to make campus reports written and emailed to the Chief of Staff unless reports require feedback from the bodySeconded by Parkside

Motion passes

Reported verbally or submitted via email.

- Barron County: Submitted via email. - Just finished up our freshman elections and added four new members. We also

just passed the new constitution for our new cross country club, Lastly, we are in the middle of preparing for our 2nd Halloween bash on October 26th.

- Eau Claire: No report submitted.- Fox Valley: No report submitted.- La Crosse: Submitted via email

- Following a resolution passed last year, UWL now has free menstrual hygiene products in all of the academic builds on campus along with other places like our Student Union. They will be in Male, Female, and gender neutral bathrooms. We have created a new off campus housing fair for our students this year. Previously we would partner with Rent College Pads but they would charge landlords to be a part of the event leaving many landlords not wanting to come to campus. Splitting from them we are doing a free fair for all. Also, we are working getting an a policy passed through our administration that recognizes UWL as being on indigenous land. Finally: UWL trounced UWEC in football On Saturday afternoon. GO EAGLES!!

- Madison: No report submitted.- Marathon County: Given verbally at the meeting.

- We are struggling to get student active. We recently had an event on campus that only four students went to and two of those students were members of student government. We are struggling with student involvement. Any suggestions?

DiscussionOshkosh: Bring students free food or t-shirts to give student just for showing up.

- Oshkosh: No report submitted.- Parkside: No report submitted.- Platteville: No report submitted.- River Falls: No report submitted.- Rock County: Submitted via email

- Our senate was recently elected with a higher voter turnout than anticipated. The two projects we have completed since last reps meeting are that we opened communication with our professors to get student representation on campus committees (collegium). Separately (but similarly), we have opened communication with clubs on campus and formed a committee to have their voices heard and their issues addressed by student government. A big upcoming

event we have is Fall Fest during the week of Oct 23. This also happens to be the It's On Us week which we will be raising awareness of the campaign throughout the week. Our student government meetings and SUFAC have tirelessly been working on where budget cuts will occur due to lower enrollment than projected. Our final decision will hopefully be on Tuesday.

- Stevens Point: Submitted via email - We have heard many complaints from students regarding not finding parking on

or around campus. We sent out a parking survey last Tuesday, formed an ad-hoc committee on Thursday for analyzing data collected and putting forth suggestions, and are holding a town hall on Monday, October 09, 2017 to hear other concerns from students. Our Political Science Department gave a presentation about free speech vs hate speech. The presentation spurred many fruitful conversations among our students, as well as raised other concerns. Our SGA is involved in next steps to discover and share with our students what our campus administration and campus police will do to protect speech while also protecting students, especially considering the newly approved Regents policy. Working on legislation affirming our commitment to protect DACA recipients. Working on a letter to our state representatives against Industrial Acid Mining Bill (SB 395) due to probable environmental and economic losses.

- Stout: No report submitted.- Whitewater: No report submitted.

- Announcements

Whitewater: The “It's on Us” campaign week of action is coming up. Get your campuses involved. We have over 2,000 shirt on order on our campus.

Stout: Thank you for letting us host you today. I’d like to have a joint Student Representatives-Board of Regents meeting at least once a year.

- Adjournment

Meeting adjourned at 3:43pm.

END

Minutes taken by Alec Smith - Chief of Staff of the UW System Student Representatives

Contact InformationEmail: [email protected]

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