Associated Students of Boise State University

General Assembly Meeting

December 1st, 2021 4:30 pm to 6:00 pm

Zoom Link 

1. Call to Order at 4:31 pm
2.  Welcome

1. Land acknowledgement 

3. Attendance
4. Approval of Minutes

1. November 10th, 2021 Minutes 

1. Amelia Jobe Motions to fasttrack the minutes

1. Seconded by Richard Renz
2. 11 approve , 0 abstain, 0 deny

2. Approve motion by david lund, seconded by will

1. 14 approve, 0 abstain, 0 deny

5. Officer Updates

1. Communications

1. None

2. Administrative Director

1. None

3. VP of Government relations

1. Hiring liaison that is going to be paid $10 an hour

1. We have already had several applications so we will have a government liaison by december 20th

4. IESC

1. IESC council member application is still open

1. Only one applicant so far
2. Open until this Saturday
3. If you need an alternative form of application or extension, feel free to reach out, as we are happy to accommodate all of those interested

5. VP of Student Organizations

1. The funding board will be hearing 4 direct grants this Friday
2. ASBSU has funded 62 organizations this semester
3. Amounts left in the individual accounts:

1. Joint: $18,025.00
2. Direct: $36,671.96
3. Individual: $10,606.00

4. VP of Academic Affairs

1. We are coming up on dead week and finals. You got this!
2. The executive council has decided that ASBSU meetings will be in hybrid mode next semester

1. ASBSU meetings will still be accessible for remote people, but the goal is to have everyone who is able to attend in person attend in person

5. Vice President

1. The Food Pantry handed out 236 thanksgiving meal kits, meaning the project was really successful
2. Initially, the Food Pantry had budgeted enough money for $15 dollar gift cards from Albertsons to put in the meal kits, but Albertsons decided to donate the $15 gift cards instead of having us buy them.

1. The extra money that had been allocated to the food pantry for the thanksgiving meal kills will be used to offer holiday-specific food items in the food pantry

6. President

1. Please consider volunteering for the finals relief distribution efforts

1. The Executive Board alone cannot get finals relief off the ground so we would really love your help

2. There is a policy group meeting tomorrow to talk about an official creation of an official dead week policy

1. This project has been in the works for a very long time so it is exciting that we will actually be able to meet

3. There are 4 main criteria for ASBSU hybrid meetings to take place next semester. If any of these criteria are met, we will be returning to virtual meetings. The criteria are:

1. Whether or not there are AV difficulties

1. If the microphones have a significant issue, we will go back to being virtual

2. If the scribes find that it is too difficult to operate in hybrid mode, we will also go back to zoom
3. If the new Omicron strain of COVID requires a change in university policies, ASBSU will go back to zoon
4. If people aren’t showing up in person, we will give up the room reservation space to allow another student org to more efficiently use the space and we will begin to meet on zoom

4. We will be shutting down student gov meetings during dead and finals week
5. There was a declaration drafted for the support of women

1. Recommend amending the agenda to include the declaration in support of women

1. David Lund motions to amend the agenda in talk about declaration

1. Seconded by lauren skomerza

Approve: 19 Deny: 0 Abstain: 0

6. New Business

1. Elections Code Change 

1. Taite reads the code change
2. David Lund motions to remove the definition of good academic standing from the code

1. Seconded by Amber Warren

3. Graf Kirk: Point of information- Manny garcia was the previous elections officer
4. Motioned by David Lund to fasttrack the reading of the code change

1. seconded by amber warren

Approve: 18 Deny: 1 Abstain: 0 

5. Will Johanson: The code change just felt like it made the election process simpler and clearer
6. David Lund: I think the code change will make things smoother; I am pleased with it
7. Lauren Skomerza motions to end discussion and move to voting

1. richard Renz seconds

Approve: 12 Deny: 0 Abstain: 0

2. Official Vote Count on Code Change #02

Approve: 14  Deny: 0 Abstain: 0

3. Bill #06 

1. Amaia reads the bill
2. David Lund: Can you explain the organization of Send Silence Packing?

1. Send Silence Packing is organized by Active Mind. Active mind brings out 1000 backpacks to represent how many lives are lost to suicide each year. We have applied for them to come to our campus and we are waiting to hear a response.

3. Will: As a member of the mental health committee, this is something that we have been trying to get rolling
4. David Lund: I would love to see a comprehensive effort towards wellness in general from ASBSU. I would love to see student government work towards wellness moving forward
5. Sarah Smith: Point of information- the Dean of Students got a grant and we are accepted to the JUD program so that we can get better wellness resources. It is a 4 year grant. The first year is focused on planning, the second and third year are focused on implementation, and the fourth year is focused on reflection and improvement of the program
6. Sarah Smith: Point of Information - I was on a wellness committee that recently just got disbanded. We asked to appoint a VP of Wellness and the State Board of Education said a hard no and then the committee got disbanded
7. David Lund: I think that it would be great if we could make an effort as a campus community to take care of our students and the families of those students

1. When you’re here, we’ve got your back

8. Will Johanson: putting on these kinds of events treats the symptoms of the issues, not the cause. I think that it is good to spread awareness but I think that we could do more by lifting COVID restrictions
9. Will Johanson motions to end discussion and move to voting

1. David Lund seconds

Approve: 11 Deny: 0 Abstain: 0

4. Official Vote Count on Bill #06

Approve: 12  Deny: 0 Abstain: 0

5. Bill #07 

1. Aiden McConnehey reads the bill
2. Will: Do you hire an elections manager every year?

1. Sarah: Yes
2. Jenn: Point of information- we used to not hire an elections manager and the executive board members that were not running for election managed the elections. We saw that it was hard for executives to manage both positions so we decided to create a paid position for an Elections Manager
3. Will Johanson: Why don’t we increase the wages to $15 an hour?
4. David Lund: We should be embarrassed that we are only paying our students $10 an hour.
5. Jenn: If you are interested in providing feedback on the wages, you can provide feedback on the ASBSU budget in the spring
6. David Lund: it feels like a bump in wages is appropriate
7. David lund motions to end discussion

1. richard Renz seconds

Approve: 11 Deny: 0 abstain: 0

6. Official Vote Count on Bill #07

Approve: 12 Deny: 0 Abstain: 0

7. Declaration #02

1. Sam Mulihill reads the declaration
2. Laura Skomerza: Are we not allowed to name the Boise State Professor that said this?

1. Tate: We took a more broad approach to not get on the bad side of any university policy

3. Grace Burgert: Point of information- the professor who said this is a tenured professor. It is very difficult to act out any calls to action. We do not want ASBSU or any other student organization look like they presented an unfair bias
4. Grace Burgert: If you do know anyone who wants to file a complaint or you want to file a complaint, you can reach out to Amaia or myself to learn more about the complaint process
5. Graf: I wanted to clarify that Taite will be taking over as senate discussion leader as I am a cosponsor of the declaration
6. David Lund: It is sad that we have to reiterate this in 2021
7. Richard Renz: I agree that this is frustrating
8. Will Johanson: I don’t know if you need to have a diverse array of people in order to have a wide variety of ideas. I don’t think that this declaration is necessary
9. Will Johanson: The first amendment is intended for offensive speech and protection for that offensive speech
10. Laura Skomerza: Freedom of speech is supposed to protect people from the government, not allow harmful speech in the classroom setting
11. David Lund: Students should not feel uncomfortable in class. I don’t know why this is controversial or in question.
12. Will Johanson: I am in support of uncomfortable speech on university campuses
13. David Lund: You can say whatever you want according to free speech, I just think that it is difficult to separate this professor’s words outside of school to his actions inside of school.
14. Richard Renz: There is no way to separate what is said outside of class to what is said inside of class. This declaration is just trying to reinforce that we as a university and ASBSU support women
15. Will Johanson: I think that we should separate speech in school from speech outside of school.
16. David Lund: I think that it is interesting that the only people talking about this women’s issue are men.
17. Julie Feferman: The university is funded by the government so free speech would also apply
18. Lauren Skomerza (in response to Julie Feferman): And student tuition. And he’s not facing firing (being tenured) by the university or anything other than being generally rebuked by ASBSU for this possible biased behavior. He can say what he wants, as can we.
19. Amelia Jobe: As a women in STEM, I think that it is nice to have ASBSU and the university make a statement that women and traditionally underrepresented genders are in fact supported and included and that harmful ideas are not supported by ASBSU or the University
20. Julie Feferman: I think free speech always applies. I don’t agree with him but I think that he can say whatever he wants
21. David Lund to motion to end discussion and move to vote

1. Will johanson seconds

Approve: 11 Deny: 0 Abstian: 0

8. Official Vote Count on Declaration #02

Approve: 10 Deny: 1 Abstain: 2

7.  Old Business
8.  Announcements

1. Sarah:

1. We’d love to see if you can help out with final relief. Please consider signing up and you can get some free snacks!

2. Kenny:

1.  It is super fun to do finals relief so sign up

3. Jenn:

1.  please consider applying for alternative spring breaks! Let me know if you have any questions!

4. David Stolworthy:

1. There are $15 dollar tickets for a December 9th showing of Hamilton. Tickets go live on December 2nd at 5 pm. All the proceeds go to the True Blue scholarship.

5. Graf:

1. I am going to go see Hamilton! Also big thank you to everyone this semester! So much work went into this and I just want to say thank you

6. Grace Burgert:

1. You can still stay on committees despite assembly/senate. If you want to stay involved you can just stay with the committees!

7. Taite:

1. I didn't mention this in my updates but I wanted to thank my Ethics Committee. Next semester it will be an entirely new committee, with new members, so if you're interested and you're in Assembly and Senate do let them know.

IX. Meeting Adjourned at 5:46 pm