Someone told me there’d be green beer here. Someone lied: Your Student Council liveblog-shay-shaw-shay-shaw

11:29 The amendment passes and so does the proposal. It is not a bylaw change so it doesn’t not require another vote.

We will now move into closed session to discuss the strategy for the seg fee sweep negotiations with the university. ASM’s position could be harmed if the strategy is made public so the session will be closed.

Hope you all enjoy the rest of your St. Patty’s Day. You still got a half hour left. DON’T WASTE IT like you’ve wasted so many hours playing Farmville. Really, give the interwebz a break and go rock out.

Have one too many for me, Badgers.

11:24 Gosselin makes a motion to change some wording on proposal so that the change does not have to change the bylaws and only needs approval tonight as regular legislation.

Templeton: SJ’s reapportionment attempt was a power grab from this body. They overstepped their bounds.

11:21 Beemsterboer just called School of Human Ecology students “Business School rejects.” I think he’s gotten off his main point that Council does not need 6 Grad School Reps. Ayayay.

11:16 Now up to the plate (more metaphors? Good god, I need a nap. Or just a hug.) is the proposal to make the Student Council seat allocations part of the bylaws. If this bylaw were to take effect for this election, there will have to be another special meeting to approve this bylaw change.

Beemsterboer: If there is such a hard time filling the Grad Student reps seats, why did SJ add another seat for them? They have 5 seats now, only 3 are filled.

11:15 The motion carries. ASM will seek free legal counsel to discuss the seg fee sweep. We’re gonna survey the land, so to speak. (Does anybody even speak like that anymore?)

11:12 The amendments carry so now we’re debating whether Council will call for leadership to speak with legal counsel about the legality of the seg fee sweep.

Zinn motions to amend the proposal to say ASM does not approve of raids on seg fees.

Williams said this motion is superfluous. It goes without saying that ASM does not want its funds being taken.

The vote on the amendment is a close one. The amendment barely fails.

11:07 Rep. Love makes a motion to amend the proposal to require ASM to ask legal counsel about the legality of an auxiliary fund transfer. We’re starting to get jargony here. I’m getting that metallic taste in my mouth.

Apparently, it is also illegal for ASM to pay for legal counsel without approval from the governor. So we gots to get some freebies.

11:02 Now we’re back to the proposal from last week to call for ASM to seek legal counsel regarding the Seg Fee Swap to see if the university actually violated any policy.

Actually, the proposal calls for ASM to declare a lot of things and to wage a small war, but Chair Johnson is seeking an amendment to keep the proposal limited to calling for looking into seeking free legal counsel.

11:00 Council passes motion to cap Open Fund line item to $15,000 or 10% of the Operations Grant item.

10:58 Call for the question on the amendment. The motion fails. Question called on the proposal itself. That motion passes unanimously.

Students will get to vote on the four names approved by the New Union Naming Committee, which includes “Union South.” Sorry, Union Council. Na-na-nuh-boo-boo.

10:55 Fergus: Probably only 3 students had any say in the New Union Naming Committee meeting. The rest were alumni, Union staff, some outside consultant guy who shouldn’t have been there, and others. Great. Sounds like a great win for students.

Fergus wants students to be able to voice their hatred for the entire process and vote for WASTE. He says the Union dropped the ball on this and took away the voice of the students. So ASM, as the student leadership, needs to voice their displeasure.

10:53 I think the Union Council wants Union South removed because they have to give a lifetime union membership to whatever student submits the winning name. If Union South wins, they’ll have to give out a lot of free lifetime memberships.

10:51 Gosselin: the process as was agreed upon initially was great. The process as it occurred sucked. If the name Union South sucked so bad, then the students on campus will recognize that and not vote for it.

We should leave it up to students to make this choice. Would Gosselin like to offer students better names? Yes.

If we want something voted on this spring. We should strike down this motion and let the process continue as it occurred.

10:48 Beemsterboer: all the names are in poor taste. Ha! Agreed. And apparently the NUNC could pick any names they want because that would be the same as submitting names. What?

WHAT!?

Hanley: we should be honoring the process we agreed upon with the Union. Why have the process otherwise? This gives the administration a chance to putz with other agreed-upon processes in the future.

10:46 Beemsterboer speaks against the motion and says Wisconsin Discovery Union was the submission, not just Discovery Union.

10:44 Now, onto the Q&A about the Union Naming Referendum proposal. Move onto debate right away.

Fergus motions to add Varsity Union, Discovery Union and Randall Union to replace the language of “4 names.” on the referendum. Beemsterboer seconds it.

10:42 Beemsterboer proposes grant for next week’s agenda. It’s an event grant for “Move if you want it.”

Also, a grant for “Breakin’ the Law” a breakdancing event. They will be flying in breakdancing groups from all over.

Again, these grants are being introduced to be voted on next week.

10:41 Onto Olikara’s request for line item transfer to pay for a Diversity event. We’re talking about $27.45.

10:36 Junger formally introduces the proposal to change the order of the agenda so that chair reports always come at the beginning of the meetings.

Gosselin wants the legislation to say that certain things need to be included on the agenda and letting each session choose the order. After all, SC voted to change the order to what it is two years ago and now we’re changing it back.

Heywood: Do you think there should be a penalty for people who can’t even report anything off the top of their head? What about people who have nothing to report?

Junger: No. For example, Noms Board didn’t meet between this meeting and the last so they have nothing to report.

10:31 Zinn introduces the proposal to create the Textbook Affordability Committee Shared Governance Standing Committee. Zinn points out that while the University Bookstore’s sales have dropped considerably, their profits have risen, showing how badly textbook prices have risen in recent years. He adds, “This isn’t going away.”

This committee would be an advisory committee but would also create a centralized body to link other campaign efforts across campus together. A common resource database, sort of.

Zinn says he wants this to have the greatest possible weight when it’s created so he’s trying to get Faculty Senate approval.

10:30 Williams also introduces a proposal for a SSFC intern. The Badger Herald wrote about it earlier.

10:28 Williams introduces Rep. Manes’s proposal to set chair stipends at a percentage of tuition.

Heywood asks why Williams would want to strip power from SSFC. Williams responds that this should take away the debate every year about whether we’re charging students too much and paying too much to chairs.

10:25 SSFC Chair Williams subcommittees have been hard at work and Williams co-blogs with Johnson at The Campus First.

10:22 Templeton’s report. He’s thankful he did not participate in “that monstrosity of a process.” He and Chair Johnson have been following up with the legislators they met in D.C.

10:21 Rep. Smith asks if the submissions are available publicly. Junger has a list with names crossed out that he used at the NUNC. No more questions. Report of the Vice Chair.

10:18 Junger: This council reserves the right to set its own ballot. If the suggested Dick Cheney Union had gotten picked, the Council would have the right to take it off. Man, Republicans get no love on this campus.

10:16 Rep. Heywood: Why take it off the ballot?

Junger: I don’t want the name on the ballot for my own personal reasons. –I think he should look at that statement and rethink it. It is now public record.

10:10 According to Junger, less than a majority of the committee members voted for the name Union South. (?)

Hanley: The committee that we fought for, you went to Union Council to lobby against a name that came from that committee?

Again, this is not a name students wouldn’t want. IT WAS ONE OF THE MOST COMMON SUBMISSIONS! It’s not like the other options are so great that “Union South” looks so bad.

Templeton: How does a name that does not get a majority of the votes from the committee get selected? and Who chose that ridiculous structure?

Good questions all. Apparently some MUBA member created the process. Jesus, this is sounding worse by the minute.

Let’s just call it the Cartoonion and get it over with.

10:09 Williams: Why do we care about the Union Directorate and why do we care about the marketability of the name?

10:06 Templeton: You want to reconvene before Monday?

Junger: Unless we want Union South on the ballot, yes. We’d need at least this amount of people to vote on just this proposal.

10:03 Junger wants to change the union naming referendum to only have three names on it, discluding “Union South” per Union Council’s vote.

I don’t see why they think the name is inappropriate or bad for business. I’ve seen the submissions and “Union South” was one of the most, if not the most popular submission.

Junger: I didn’t vote for the new union but now that we have the building we should do something good with it.

10:02 SACGB Chair Katy Ziebell says she will be attending a SSFC meeting tomorrow to see about putting SACGB under SSFC.

9:58 Okay, I just had to restart my computer and I’m a PC. (GRRRRR)

Anyway, Nominations Board has not met since last week and Shared Governance has had a lot going on.

Hanley provides a list of the removed from their committees for lack of accountability. She is trying to plan a debate between people who oppose the proposal to renovate the Nat and those who want it. And people can start applying for Shared Governance positions starting Friday, March 19. You can apply until April 8.

9:47 The County Board Debate will be 7 p.m., Monday, March 21 in room 1101 in Humanities, according to Adam Johnson.

Leg Affairs is working on planning a Housing Fair for the fall hopefully, and lobbying for the city legislation to move back the leasing season three months. Also, Johnson is now blogging.

9:45 Olikara is up. Tomorrow he will be hosting the Student Leader Diversity Dialogue. This should revolutionize Diversity talk on campus.

Beemsterboer says to see him if you want specifics on grants. He started hearing operations grant presentations on Monday.

9:42 Reports of the Chairs come first now!

Chair Fergus has nothing new on the Work Study Investigation Campaign.

Zinn says the Academic Affairs will be moving forward trying to create the textbook price committee and will be hosting a financial aid assistance week. Coming soon.

Zinn is also working with CfLI to make the RSO process more informational and useful for students.

9:39 Beemsterboer motions to add two grants to the agenda. Good times. Now, time to read the minutes. And here’s a curveball: there are two sets of minutes! From the past two meetings!

Man, Student Council is full of surprises. How nutty.

9:36 Fergus is discussing the historically bad voting process that approved the union south building project. Freshmen were duped and that was the least shady part of it all.

Fergus wants the Wisconsin Alumni Student and Teachers Experience to be submitted as a name option on the ballot after the Union Council shot down Union South as an option. A vote for WASTE would be a protest vote.

Hey, I love protest, especially when it’s catty.

9:33 Quorum call. The room’s looking a little empty right now. We still have quorum and the reps all move closer to each other. Carl Fergus speaking next.

9:29 Chair Williams talks about the tenant support services. The proposal can get off the ground in 4-6 weeks after the bid is put out. So the earlier ASM figures out what it wants, the earlier it will get done. And it can get done in time for the Fall of 2010.

Chair Beemsterboer wants the Council to take up two grants.

9:27 Zinn hands out the petition he is seeking to get distributed to professors so that they may support the creation of a textbook cost shared governance committee.

Bemis: is there any way to make sure professors aren’t asked by a million different students.

Zinn: I’d like it to be that coordinated but in reality there is only going to be abut 15 of us going out with these.

9:25 Ingram also thinks ASM should be working with the Chancellor to develop a budget request before it is submitted. It’s a good way to preempt any more snafus like the seg fee sweep.

Jonah Zinn and Peter Lorenz up next.

9:20 Announcements: Chair Johnson–ASM will be hosting a debate between the candidates for the District 5 County Board race which is apparently currently held by Wyndham Manning. The debate will be Monday.

Rep. Colin Ingram will speak now. He’s concerned about reps saying things should all be handled outside of the meetings.  He doesn’t think all work should be done in private. Debate needs to be made publicly at the meetings.

9:17 And we’re off! Gosselin will take roll and this party will start.

It is 9:12 post meridiem, central standard time. Meeting will start soon. Here’s your agenda. Try to keep up, people.