The Student Senate had its first meeting of the new semester on Monday, January 23. The meeting started off with an appointment of a new Committee for the Judiciary and Student Rights chair, Senator Bob Fishel ’07, with graduate Senator Jackie Krajewski to continue as vice chair. Fishel said he wants to make the judicial system more open for the students. He also spoke about possibly bringing in a speaker to educate students about their rights at RPI and in the world. Grand Marshal Max Yates feels that the chair should make the CJSR outspoken, visible, and active. A confirmation vote was held after some discussion, and the vote passed, 13-1-2. In addition to that, Ryan Anderson ’09 submitted his resignation from the 2009 class council; the class is working to fill the vacancy.
Yates informed the Senate that he is writing a letter to the Board of Trustees about the rising tuition in connection with “The Campaign to Keep Rensselaer Affordable and Accessible: Preventing a Further Erosion of Scientists and Engineers in America.” This goes hand-in-hand with the efforts of the Student Advocacy Corps and the Finance, Facilities, and Advancement Committee.
Earlier in the semester, SAC, under Senator Mike Goldenberg ’06, led a telephone campaign to Congress about cutting financial aid to schools, and is now looking to get more involved. Even though Congress did approve higher interest rates on loans, there was an increase in funding for science and engineering students. Although there were some cuts to the financial aid given out, the SAC is looking to work on tuition assistance programs. The SAC wants Rensselaer to speak for technical schools across the nation and head up a coalition so that we are ready and prepared for the future.
Senator Dan Horvath ’08 and Executive Board liason Nick Wood ’07 gave a presentation of the December trustees’ meeting on finance to the Student Senate at this latest meeting. This is the second time the senators have attended a Board of Trustees meeting on finance and reported back to the Senate this year. The projected data for the fiscal year of 2006 shows that there will be a variance of $2.3 million due to the fact that utilities costs are higher than budgeted; undergraduates received more scholarships than expected; and graduate student support from research contracts, gifts, and endowments is lower than expected. Even though there has been difficulty in constellation hires for the Institute, this has left budgeted money unspent, and $7 million has been saved by portfolio contingencies.
In an effort to recover the $2.3 million variance, ideas proposed by the trustees include energy conservation, using money from the unfilled teaching assistant spots, and the unspent faculty startup funds. Horvath and Wood expressed that the trustees predict that these cost-saving strategies will save $1.3 million, still leaving a deficit of $1.0 million.
There are other fiscal risks this year because Hartford may not reach revenue targets, and there might be a lower than expected increase in research due to decreased graduate enrollment on the Troy campus. To counteract these risks, other backup options proposed to increase savings for this year include expanding summer programs for 2006 in the School of Engineering and in the worst case scenario, utilities would be cut back.
Even though there was no discussion about tuition at the December trustees’ meeting, senators asked what next year’s increases might be. Horvath and Wood could not give any answers on the subject, but the Senate says it is committed to finding out and working to keep the tuition increases to a minimum.
The Senate was also briefed on Ruckus. Last week the company agreed to a new profit model. This new model is going to give all students the service for a one year contract, over the next fall and spring semester. Use over the summer, however, would cost students about $10. There are no more caps on the number of students; the only catch, as Yates explained, is that RPI has to maintain the server on campus, which costs $10,000 a year.
Ruckus, however, has agreed to hire an intern from among the student body, and part of that $10,000 will cover their wages. All in all, the cost to each student will be about 83 cents per semester. The issue with that is whether or not that fee will be added to the student activity fee. If this does happen, Ruckus will be a service through the Union, falling out of the hands of the Technology Affairs Committee. Thus far, there have been no more RIAA-related lawsuits since the service began. Yates reported that Dean of Students Mark Smith has instead been receiving letters from the RIAA that directed students to delete movies and music from their systems. This alone is a true paradigm shift, according to Yates. Enthusiastic senators expressed their faith in the service, and their excitement over the reduced price and through a resolution that passed, 15-1-0.
Go Be Red, which has taken school spirit to new levels is looking to get bigger and better next year with a new idea called the Red Army. Go Be Red will no longer be a competitive activity, but the Red Army will allow students to tailgate before games with root beer kegs and hot dogs, according to Yates.
Wood reported that the Executive Board spent 15 hours budgeting for the more than 100 clubs. The board cut over $200,000 in club budgets. The E-Board is looking to form an activity fee subcommittee next week, in hopes of bringing the activity fee to the Senate in mid-February.
The Finance, Facilities, and Advancement Committee is still working on a shuttle tracking system. In addition to that, the Senate will also be looking into possible price increases in the Rathskellar. Peter Baldwin, the president of the Union, assured the Senate that the prices would not increase when the plans for the renovations were proposed.
The Committee on Student Life is looking to plan Pizza with the President in early February. Senator Zack Freeman ’07, said there were over 60 students in attendance at one point. The Rules and Elections Committee will begin their regular meetings and will be reworking the GM Week handbook. Senator Julia Leusner ’08, from the Committee of Academic Affairs, is focusing on midterm assessment, moving course times to 9 am from 8 am, advising, and peer to peer advising.
The IFC representative, Senator Nathan Parker ’06, reported to the Senate that talks with the administration about the Greek Model of Excellence have started. Those talks were plagued by discussion about underage drinking. Since then, work on making the greek system a national model have stagnated.
