Student Finance Committee Budget Meeting Date: 11/09/2017 1203 University Center, Northern Michigan University Chairperson: Sarah Schollmeyer Advisor: Haley Rhoades Scribe: Taylor Ayers Members Present: Name Present (Y/N) Melanie Tromotola Yes Adam Kall Yes Renee Lofquist Yes Ally Vacha Yes Sarah Klinger Yes Holly Anderson Yes Cody Mayer Yes Madeline Wiles Yes I. Call to Order: II. Public Comment III. IV. Approval of Agenda Name Description Sarah Sarah: I would like to amend the agenda, with Q&A going under new business instead of chair report. That was my fault I think its because I put student law forum as an update in my chair report last week. Are there any of amendment Motion to approve with the amendment of moving Q&A to new business: Mel Seconded by: Adam Sarah Approved unanimously Approval of Minutes Name Description Sarah Sarah: Moving on to the approval of the minutes, look them over and if you see something kind of weird just let us know. Motion to approve: Mel Seconded by: Maddie Sarah Approved unanimously V. Chair Report Sarah: I wanted to go over some of the event evaluations brought back from some of the events that we have approved lately. I will start off with Eco-Reps their speaker Robert Liberty, remember that group that was brand new fresh off the chopping block they had Robert Liberty come in and talk about sustainability 103 people went and only 4 of them weren t students so very successful. They are moving on to be a DAG like. Student Law Forum had 53 people go 30 of those were student 23 of them were non-students that s pretty good I would say that s alright in my opinion the next one is going to be what s my right search and seizure. I think that one is
going to draw in a lot more students if we do fund it because of recent events in the residence halls. Then I have the print out receipt if everyone wants to see it from the landmark hotel to the air B&B because the drag queens wanted to be together and so made an informal decision that housing is housing and we save $311.96. we can talk about the conference after the meeting. VI. Advisor Report Hayley: Saturday night is the Michigan Tech Hockey Game here and they are doing a canned food drive that benefits the NMU Food bank. Sarah: ASNMU Hayley: ASNMU? Sarah: It s the ASNMU Food Bank. Hayley: Oh the ASNMU food bank which is located in the Greece hall. We also briefly talked about food for fines so if you know about anyone with tickets let them know. That s it. VII. New Business Budgets Description Sarah: Q&A Budget please review it. I brought a copy from last time one of the last times that Jack was here this was the most recorded one in my files. I have Jack Stringer April 13, 2016 that was $3,000 it was $350 for University guest expenses roughly $2,600 for professional services I can pass this around to if you guys want to see the event evaluation went it looks like they had all students roughly 70 people attended. Mel: You said that their attendance was 70 on here it says expected 25 actual 20 Sarah: That was the workshop during the drag show, it s a different event I was only drawing a parallel from one Jack event to another. I m noticing something that I missed beforehand and it s the total of $135 for printing here and then the total of $150 over here and I think that it must be a typo because I just referred to their president out here about how cheap their printing cost is. Cody: Sarah I thought you said that last time their attendance was 70 Sarah: It s a different event. Depending on their printing cost the total will change, I m going to go and get them so they can give a presentations Erica: Hi I m Erica the president of Q&A if you didn t know. Sabrina: Hi I m Sabrina and I am Treasurer of Q&A. Erica: So we are trying to bring back Jack Stringer he has come to Northern for the past 5 years usually once or twice a year. For printing we figured that we would print about 100 posters last time I talked to printing services they said it was about a $1 each for a poster. We have really decided on a size yet so whatever the budget gets approved for we could get some small posters or some bigger posters. Promotional services is $35 for an 11x17. I put $135 as the total on here but on the front its $150 because I rounded but I meant to put $150 on that part to. Jack is asking for $2,000 for 2 workshops and on there I believe it says that he is speaking in one classroom, but we found another classroom that agreed to having him talk in there and I m pretty sure that he would be good with doing both of the rooms. The workshops on Wednesday we planning on Jack doing a Trans
101 workshop, I think that would be very beneficial because this year we have a lot of new freshman and people who have never heard of the phrase trans before or they don t really know much about it. So I think that that is a really valuable workshop to do this year that will be in the Brule room in place of our meeting. Also on Wednesday he would be talking in Chets LGBT history class and that s in the library. Thursday there s a workshop called you look like a freak it about gender and societal recognition and that would be in Jamrich 1318 at 7pm. During the day he would be talking to Dr. Elaines intro to genders studies class it would probably be a panel discussion. So I wrote down two descriptions for the workshops that he s doing. So he s asking for $2000 for that. Jacks flight as a couple days ago was $147.70 and that s from Minneapolis to Marquette I rounded up $53 for that. Sarah: Any questions? Adam: What department are those two classes under? Erica: Gender studies is under. I m not sure what it s under Sarah: Sociology I think Ally: I think it might be gender studies Cody: It probably falls under the department of Science, I m guessing Erica: And then the other one is a history course Adam: I was just curious if he s going to be talking in these classes have you approached the departments about them pitching in for part of the cost of brining him in? Erica: No Adam: Okay Cody: Do you know how big those classrooms are? If there is a guest speaker in a class people want to go listen in on it, is there seating to do so Erica: I ve taken both of those classes and both times I want to say that LGBT history capped out at 25 and the GN 100 capped out at 30 and they re both in pretty small classrooms. I think that s something I plan to put on the poster like I want the workshops to be bigger and then on the posters have those smaller. I still have to ask those teachers if they would be willing to have a speaker. Cody: Ok Adam: Is his food expenses covered in the $2000? Erica: No Jack stays with us because he s like one of our friends so our household would be feeding him. Adam: Okay and you guys would be covering that expense? Erica: Yes Adam: Okay Sarah: Any other questions? Adam: How many events have SFC funded for Q&A in this semester alone? Erica: The drag show next semester and then coming out week so those two. Adam: Okay that s why it feels like a lot Erica: I m also not sure if this will happen or not but I talked to some people who are taking classes in the native studies program and who are in NAS and Jack is also native we just talked about this yesterday, but Jack
wouldn t be leaving until Saturday so Friday he has an open day and the native studies program was thinking that maybe they could also have him come in. I m not sure how this would work, but could they do a budget separately like turn it in next week and utilize the fact that we re bringing him and just pay him extra for that one workshop that he would be doing for them. I don t know if that has ever been done Sarah: I think there is some kind of miscommunication where we don t pay for guest speakers to go to classrooms and they made a wonderful point of departments would pay for guest speakers not I understand that he s coming here for a workshop and it s a wonderful addition to a classroom to have someone of his expertise, but just specifically for a classroom. Students who pay tuition to go there on top of the student activity fee is doesn t make sense for that just a classroom. Erica: I think that it would be for one of the clubs, but I m not sure I m just giving you a heads up. Sarah: Anymore questions? Adam: It says here that you have 50 members in your club Erica: Also Jack kind of mentioned like we didn t talk about the classroom stuff until after submitted the budget in which he requested $2000 for so the classroom stuff was him volunteering his time. Sarah: How long are the workshops? Erica: Usually an hour to an hour and a half Sarah: Any other questions? Adam: I do have one question. It says here your organization has 50 members active are you expecting all members of the club to go to these workshops? Is it kind of going to be a big thing for the club? Erica: The reason why we chose to do it Wednesday, we were going to do Thursday and Friday but Jamrich is closed on that Friday, so we chose to do Wednesday because then we will have the normal population that does come to Q&A meetings but also we are going to advertise it on the poster it won t just be Q&A. Adam: Okay Sarah: We are going to call you back in a second, I m going to open the floor up to some discussion. Speak freely but one at a time. Maddie: Who was the case auditor for queering the end of the year? How was the turn out? Holly: It was not super high and I think it was all people form Q&A I think there were like 20 people in there workshop I m not sure how many went to the drag show Cody: The drag show workshops it does have the turn out for that which was 20 people which is kind of weird if they have a membership of 50 people Mel: I think it went up a lot this year with all the incoming freshman Sarah: It fluctuates I think Mel: The big thing Adam was crunching number and they have 50 to 100 it would take 106 students to get the price down to $25 per student Sarah: I know that this year that Jack has not asked for this much thus far, with his penetration in the market that could be why his price is higher.
Adam: I m really struggling with the feeling that we have become a personal bank for Q&A to host their events the drag show is a great event that really gets the campus stirring and really fits the point of the student activity fee. These are so very expensive events that are very important for a certain group of individuals on campus I m not sure how wide spread the impact is especially for the cost. I feel that it is a feeling of if you re apart of that culture than you are already in Q&A already so its like I don t know. Cody: As far as budgets go the bylaws says that we can start cutting groups off after 4 budgets. What did we just determine that they are at? Adam: This budget would be their third Cody: This would be third if we approved it. We would have grounds though if that is what we are thinking with concerns here of cutting it because of costing students money. That would still be an option if that what you are worried about, but as far as how many budgets that they ve had they re still within the bylaws there Adam: What other two workshops? They have the one on Wednesday when is the other one? Mel: Thursday because Jamrich is closed Friday Sarah: What were you going to say Renee Renee: I was just going to point out the fact that last semester we brought Mal Blum and I was the case auditor for that I went to the event and it was at the same tie as their regular meetings and it was those people who were in attendance not like a wide spread of campus. It was pretty intimate like not many people were there it was like 25 or 30 Sarah: I did like the point that you made because that s always the point that I made when I was in the committee that this should be not the last resort but the most final and after exhausting other resources. Adam: The fact that he is speaking in the classrooms that are very relevant Mel: I m totally uncomfortable with that Adam: I m uncomfortable with them getting it for free with those departments getting apparently a great speaker on the students dime that really doesn t sit well with me. If you want him for your classrooms please help there is a cost association pay for something. Mel: They are paying enough of tuition if they really wanted to bring in a speaker then they could Cody: I absolutely agree. It s even a small classroom I would feel better if it was a larger Jamrich room I would be okay with that but she even told me it was a small room. Renee: Yeah it is a pretty small room I m in that class Sarah: I made the comment when she presented that there are two separate fees there is tuition and then there is this. I don t know how appropriate it would be to make a stipulation on the contract if approved that Jack doesn t go to classrooms because I feel like that is infringing on like rights. To keep that in mind because I see where this is going. There is only so much that we can do. Renee: If he was coming for those workshops and then these classes were like additional stud that he was like sure I would love to do that no cost then that kind of sits differently as well. Sure Student Finance Committee is
VIII. Old Business Name paying for him to come and do these two workshops then if he s like doing the classrooms out of the kindness of his heart I don t feel like it s a negative thing. Adam: The workshops are Wednesday and Thursday she said that he s not leaving until Saturday this feels like we are paying for someone s out of town friend to come and visit them and hang out. I get that he is a good speaker and clearly he does this as a means of income. I want them to try someone new I would be in more support of them if they did try someone new something fresh. Hayley: Didn t platform personalities bring in a speaker this semester that was trans? Holly: yes Adam: Did that already happen? Holly: Yes; it happened a couple of months ago. Adam: Did you have okay turn out? Holly: Yes it was good we had about 103 students Adam: My mind is at ease this event already happened Maddie: He was a big name and he was double this. Jack isn t a big well known name that s going to draw in a big crowd like Chris Mosher did or somebody who maybe has the status to ask for $2000 to do two workshops. Hayley: My concern is thanksgiving break is happening right before this event would happen so the advertising is what I m concerned about. Sarah: I m going to open the floor Motion to deny under section 10 subsect D: Cody Seconded by: Mel Denied Unanimously Description IX. Good of the Order Sarah Meeting Adjourned 8:43