Executive Meeting Minutes – December 2, 2020
Executive Meeting Minutes
Date: December 2, 2020
Time: 4:30 p.m. PST
Location: Zoom
Note: These meeting minutes were reviewed and approved on December 16.
Roll Call
- President: Gina Vasquez (Present)
- Vice President: Heather Leasure (Present)
- Director of Academic Affairs: Nigeria Tyler-Williams (Absent)
- Director of Finance: Laud Williams (Present)
- Director of Legislative Affairs: Samantha Fakharzadeh (Present)
- Director of Student Events & Promotion: Chelsea Rollins (Present)
- Director of Communications and Compliance: Altessia Endencia (Present)
- Director of Diversity: Andrea Ashmore (Present)
- Director of Resources: Alexis Edwards (Present)
- Advisor: Andria Donneworth (Present)
- Present: Wendy Steele
Items Discussed
Meeting Minutes — 11/18
Motion to approve meeting minutes by Tessa.
Motion seconded by Heather.
Votes:
- Yes by Tessa
- Yes by Chelsea
- Yes by Heather
- Yes by Samantha
- Yes by Laud
- Yes by Andrea
- Yes by Alexis
Orientation Proposal
This proposal is for the 2020/2021 school year (next summer).
Background: The current orientation system is “task oriented.” Issues with current system include retention, socialization, and lack of format to ask questions.
The proposal is to move orientation from a Blackboard format to a live streaming event, similar to the format offered by other WSU campuses.
Benefits include the ability to make friends and focused for personal interests.
We all have different needs, and this format would be integrated with our existing system (rather than replacing the Blackboard orientation).
Some options to add to the orientation curriculum include a land acknowledgement, diversity statement, optional icebreaker activities, and student leadership opportunities.
Motion to move to discussion by Chelsea, seconded by Heather.
This would be run by ASWSU Global. There are currently 3,000 – 4,000 students, and the ASWSU Global term runs from May – May. Training for orientation would be part of training ASWSU Global team.
The land acknowledgement can still be applicable to students in other states, particularly since WSU is a Washington based institution.
We would get people to participate by making it a requirement — but also making it fun and engaging. If they miss their date, online orientation is still available.
Advisors collect specific information from the online orientation quizzes, and we have the option to make them fill out the same quizzes that we’ve had to do on Blackboard.
Motion to vote by Heather. Seconded by Chelsea.
Votes:
- Yes by Chelsea
- Yes by Heather
- Yes by Andrea
- Yes by Laud
- Yes by Alexis
Absent: Nigeria
Abstained: Gina and Tessa
Spring Event Planning
We need to plan a big event for spring to replace the in-person student summit and nail down a date. We also need to decide on whether or not we would make this an open event and collaborate with other ASWSU campuses.
This event will be focused on diversity and inclusion. One upside of having multiple campuses participate is we can get more speakers and increase drawing power.
Collaborative effort with other campuses would be amazing, particularly since diversity is an important topic. We can pull other resources, but we can also draw in a larger crowd to participate in an important topic. Event can be cooperative and draw everyone together.
Cost varies, but the biggest expense will be the speaker. Estimated expenses is about $20,000 — however, this is a rough estimate and not a final number. We might be able to access venue money.
Responsibility will fall on ASWSU Global team, and Gina is working on project planning timeline. This event will replace summit, and the tentative date is March 20th, 2021. There have been a lot of diversity-related events run by other campuses. The differentiating factor with this is going to be the fact that the students are running this event.
Professional Organization Reimbursement
Alexis’s proposal is to add professional organizations to the honor society reimbursements to make it more inclusive for students that may not qualify for honor societies.
A lot of professional organizations offer student memberships, which is a great way for students to see if organization is great fit for them. Many also have access to conferences, mentorship opportunities, and opportunities for networking in their industry.
Range from $30 to $50 for student rates, whereas after you graduate its typically $200 to $300. Many local chapters are also inactive, thus giving students an opportunity to take the lead to lead these local chapters.
Topic tabled. Alexis will put together proposal and review professional organization candidates, including opportunities for out of state and international opportunities.
Committee Proposal
The proposal is to make committees eligible for college credit, in a similar vein to internship work. WSU awards one credit per three hours of work, thus resulting in 45 hours of internship work. Proposal would be for ASWSU Global Directors to be responsible for project-based deliverables and a faculty member and/or advisor would be responsible for learning objectives.
Current issues with existing system is that there is a lack of engagement.
Motion by Chelsea to move to discussion.
Seconded by Heather.
Things for administration to consider is whether a student can report to another student. Duties would be the same as existing committee structure, but with increased participation.
Funds would be paid for in college credit, but uncertain on where these funds would come from.
Motion to table by Chelsea.
Reimbursements
There has been confusion on the website in regards to the cut-off date for reimbursements. The stipulation on the website states that the receipt needs to be dated until November 29th, however. Reimbursements can be entered until December 11th, and budget will be allocated to the Fall 2020 school year.
Tabled topics
- Committee reimbursement vote
- Professional organization reimbursement
- Cougar Pledge Proposal
Motion by Laud to adjourn at 6:05 PM, seconded by Heather.