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Northern Essex Community College Student Government Association Meeting Minutes

Meeting called to order by President, Samantha Cook
Date | Time: 09/26/2019 4:00 PM Total Voting Members : 6 Quorum : Yes

Roll Call

Secretary, Chloe Upham conducted the roll call.

The following individuals were present:

Executive Board Attendance

  • President: Samantha Cook
  • Vice President of the Lawrence Campus: Hannah Benning
  • Treasurer: Mehali Patel
  • Secretary: Chloe Upham
  • Parliamentarian: Sofia Fedele
  • General Member(s):
    • Joe Paquin

Non-Voting Board Attendance

3

Guests In Attendance

  • Advisor: Stephanie Haskell
  • Director of Transitional Support for New Students: Kirsten Kortz
  • Chair of the Executive Committee: Sheila Muller

The Following Members Were Absent

  • Courtney Morin
  • Peter Rodriguez

Guests

Kirsten Kortz

  1. Kirsten informed SGA about the new student road map. Students had been reporting that they felt the process of
    coming into Northern Essex was chaotic and confusing. After receiving this feedback, about twenty faculty members
    from both Student Affairs and Academic Affairs collaborated on creating a clear pathway for students.

    1. a. The new student road map was designed to create priority deadlines, help students with time management,
      and make the transition process into NECC as smooth and informative as possible.
  2. Kirsten reported that there were about five hundred new students that attended orientation over the summer.
    Additionally, there are about 1.324 first semester students that started this month. However, this has caused some
    ripple effects.

    1. The projected percent of how far enrollment would drop was much greater than the actual number of
      students that enrolled. Thus, the college had predicted that there would be a significant drop in student
      enrollment, when there was actually a significant percent increase in students enrolling than predicted.
    2. Since there were more students enrolling than predicted, the college had already cancelled numerous classes
      at the beginning of the summer. Thus, when students began enrolling in the fall, the classes that they needed
      were not being offered.
    3. In the future, Kirsten believes that the college will be more mindful when looking at the master schedule to
      see what classes will be needed.
  3. Northern Essex email announcements will be condensed in the near future. All daily announcements will be formatted
    into one mass announcement that is sent out once a week.
  4. On October 7th, two new Navigators will be joining Kirsten and they will be working to support first semester
    students.
  5. Due to reports of miscommunication between offices in the Student Center, Kirsten hopes that in the near future, the
    Student Center will shut down for one to two hours each month. This way, faculty from the different offices will have a
    chance to communicate with each other.

Sheila Muller

  1. Although Sheila had no new announcements to address, she is continuing to keep open communications between SGA
    and some of the committees on campus.

Student Forum

No comment was made during the student forum. Students are encouraged to email Student Government with any issues or
concerns that they would like to present at a Student Government meeting. Additionally, all students and faculty are welcome
to sit in on a Student Government meeting.

Approval of Minutes

Motion to approve the minutes from the 09/19/2019 meeting.

Moved by : Chloe Upham Seconded by : Joe Paquin

Voting results : Unanimous Motion Passes

Minutes for all meetings are posted on the web at https://www.necc.mass.edu/experience/student-government-association/
within 72 hours of the meeting.

Executive Committee Reports: (Briefly State in 1 minute or less)

President: Samantha Cook

  1. There are sign-up links in teams for upcoming events on campus.
  2. Karen Hruska, the Director of Counseling and Psychological Services at NECC, sent SGA an invitation to register for a
    mental health first aid training.
  3. October 23rd is Advocacy Day, where students will be meeting with legislators to talk about community colleges.
  4. She attended a meeting with President Lane Glenn.
  5. She will be inviting Lane Glenn and Deb Crafts to an upcoming meeting, regarding public safety, Lawrence parking,
    and to discuss legislations that are supported by NECC.
  6. Susan Tashjian would like to attend an SGA meeting to discuss OER, open educational resources. Mrs. Tashjian has
    also invited SGA, on October 18th, to sit down with legislators to discuss OER.
  7. She has created a presentation for the All College Assembly on September 30th. She welcomes any member to present
    with her.

Vice President of the Haverhill Campus: Courtney Morin

1. ABSENT

Vice President of the Lawrence Campus: Hannah Benning

1. She met with Mike McCarthy, Chief Financial and Chief Operating Officer, and Deb Crafts, Director of Public Safety, to
discuss the current parking situation in Lawrence.

Treasurer: Mehali Patel

1. She worked on the budget spreadsheet for the upcoming year, and shared it with Stephanie Haskell, the SGA Advisor.
Stephanie and Mehali will be meeting to finalize the spreadsheet.

Secretary: Chloe Upham

1. She will be putting a special elections announcement on both Blackboard as well as myNECC.

Programming Chair

VACANT

Marketing Chair

VACANT

Parliamentarian: Sofia Fedele

1. She joined the Constitution Committee so that she can learn more about the constitution as well as help to update it.

Tabled Business

  1. Hispanic Heritage Month

    1. Student Government will be posting hispanic history facts around campus. Any member of SGA is
      encouraged to post these facts.
    2. Hispanic Heritage Month ends on October 15th.
    3. All of the events that the college is hosting during Hispanic Heritage Month can be found on the
      NECC Newsroom website.
      ( https://www.necc.mass.edu/newsroom/2019/09/17/hispanicheritage/ )
  2. Constitution Committee

    1. The committee met on Tuesday, September 24th, regarding deadlines.
    2. The committee will periodically update SGA with information as it arises.
    3. Their committee agenda can be found in Microsoft Teams, for Student Government members who
      are interested in keeping up with them.
  3. Special Elections

    1. The voting for special elections will be held during SGA’s October 3rd meeting.
    2. Samantha delegated to Courtney, Hannah, and Joe to run the meeting, because she will be absent.
    3.  Joe sent out a broadcast email to Stephanie, which was then sent out to all students.
  4. Executive Board Meetings

    1. The first Executive Board meeting took place on September 24th.
    2. Samantha stressed the importance of communication amongst one another.
    3. The next Executive Board meeting will be held on Monday, September 30th.
  5. Student Lounge

    1. SGA is moving forward with the idea of using physical entertainment in the lounge.
    2. Motion: SGA should move towards looking for physical entertainment for lounge in Lawrence
      instead of digital entertainment. Motion introduced by Joe Paquin. Motion seconded by Chloe
      Upham. There was no debate or discussion. The motion passed.
    3. Samantha delegated to Hannah to email Beth Donovan, regarding the student lounge.
  6. Gaming with Government

    1. a. Tabled until the next meeting.
  7. Lawrence Parking

    1. Hannah met with Deborah Crafts, Director of Public Safety, who explained to Hannah that in
      Lawrence, Public Safety follows sheets that show predicted availability of parking spots in the three
      different parking lots at specific time intervals. The Lawrence campus parking lots:

      1. Louise Haffner Lot D (78 Amesbury St.)
      2. Goudreault Lot C (414 Common St.)
      3. Dimitry Lot A (45 Franklin St.)
    2. Due to the overcrowded parking lots, the college is paying for students to park in the Buckley
      Garage. However, students must get their ticket validated in the El Hefni building. A ticket will not
      be validated if, at that time, public safety reported there were available spaces in any of the NECC
      parking lots at that time.
    3. The present issue with this system, stated above, is that public safety is not communicating with
      students when there are available spots. As of right now, students must ask a public safety official if
      there are available spaces in any of the NECC lots, before they park in the Buckley Garage.
  8. October Fundraising

    1. On October 31st, SGA will be hosting a fundraising trick or treating event, in conjunction with
      Student Life. SGA is in the process of discussing ideas of what they would like to add:

      1. Allison Gouveia can do tarot card readings.
      2. Sell goodie bags filled with candy.
      3. Buy plain ghost cookies and let students decorate them.
    2. SGA is also looking into hosting an on or off campus ghost hunting Halloween-themed event with
      Allison Gouveia.

New Business

  1. Budget

    1. Mehali created a budget spreadsheet. Stephanie will keep in contact with Mehali, and they will
      continue to look at past lines of spending.
    2. Motion: SGA should have a budget committee. Motion introduced by Mehali Patel. Motion seconded
      by Joe Paquin. There was no debate or discussion.The motion passes.
    3. The members of the new Finance Committee:
      1. Hannah Benning
      2. Joe Paquin
      3. Samantha Cook
      4. Sofia Fedele
      5. Mehali Patel
  2. September Monthly Evaluation

    1. Samantha passed out evaluation forms for SGA members to fill out, regarding SGA’s performance
      over the last month.
    2. Chloe made the comment that it would be more beneficial to have the evaluations as homework, in
      order to give members more time to reflect.

Advisors Report

  1. Susan Tashjian, Coordinator of Instructional Technology in The Center for Instructional Technology and
    Online Learning is looking for student leaders from SGA to attend a round-table discussion for local
    legislators around OER on October 18, 2019 from 10am-11am.
  2. For Homecoming on October 5th, Student Life welcomes SGA to join their event. Student Life has purchased
    some outdoor games, including a blank cornhole game. SGA is welcome to pay to have their logo painted
    onto the cornhole game. Additionally, the artist that would paint on the cornhole game is asking for $60,
    but Stephanie is looking into more cost-effective ways. SGA has a table at the event. Assistance is needed for
    the popcorn as well.
  3. Anthony Blevans, Work Study Leadership Assistant for Student Life will be attending SGA meetings to gain
    knowledge about leadership opportunities at NECC to help in the creation of leadership skills training.
  4. There is a colored printer in Stephanie’s office, on the Lawrence campus, that SGA members will be able to
    use, for SGA purposes.
  5. She talked to her supervisor regarding fundraising, and she is looking into getting clarification regarding
    the fundraising process. A meeting will be scheduled in October to understand how students can fundraise
    at NECC.

Trustee Report

1. The trustee was absent, so there is no report from her.

Announcements

    1. U-Knighted Fair:
      a. October 2nd, 11:00am – 1:30 pm, Haverhill Campus Quad, rain location C building
      b. October 9th, 11:00am – 1:30pm, Lawrence Campus Outside of Dimitry, rain location inside Dimitry

Next Meeting / Adjournment

The next SGA meeting will be on Thursday, October 3rd at 4:00 P.M. in Haverhill, SC 106 & in Lawrence in Dimitry
143

Motion to adjourn was made at 5:03 P.M. and was passed unanimously.