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Student Affairs Report to the Assembly

Senate Student Affairs Committee: University Senate and Assembly Report

Our Committee has met twice this semester, and we have a routinely scheduled meeting time of the 3rd Friday of each month, beginning at 3pm.

Co-chairs: Ann Chisholm and Sheilah Clarke-Ekong

Members: D’Andre Braddix, Cadence Rippeto, Damien Johnson, Susan Catapano, Peggy Lambing, Orinthia Montague, Curtis Coonrod, Reinhard Schuster

Business:
Student Organization Approvals:
Interfraternity Council
Tau Sigma Honor
Electronic Media Professional
University Students for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (pending)

Campus Safety:
The Committee is very concerned about pedestrian safety and driver awareness on Natural Bridge Rd. We invited Vice Chancellor Schuster and the Director of Safety to discuss the current efforts to make our campus a safe place for all. (See attachment A) Our Committee also developed some ideas regarding safety awareness in the form of flyers and informational sessions for residential students. We are also considering drafting a letter to MODOT, as interested taxpaying citizens regarding the need to have an additional stop light at the South campus entrance.

Credit Cards and Fee Payment:
We sent a “letter of concern” to the Cashiers Office to explain exactly how this new policy will be implemented. (See attachment B) Campus representatives from the Cashier's Office will report at our November 11th meeting.

Committee Membership:
Our Committee is interested in pursuing the campus procedure for enlarging our membership. Dr. Farmer has provided us with the details and the protocol for having the by-laws changed.

Attachment A

20 September, 2005

FROM: Senate Student Affairs Committee

TO: Reinhard Schuster, Vice Chancellor, Administrative Services
Robert Roeseler, Director, University Police

RE: Natural Bridge Rd. Pedestrian and Motorist Safety: A Proposal

It has come to our attention that rarely do we have an “incident-free” semester among our students who cross Natural Bridge Rd in their normal daily business of attending classes and other campus events. The most recent incident occurred on Day????, September ??, 2005. As the elected group charged specifically with issues concerning the welfare and wellbeing of all UMSL students, we are extremely interested in finding both immediate and long-term solutions to making the stretch of Natural Bridge Rd from Hanley to Lucas and Hunt safer for everyone. Our committee also realizes that whatever remedies that are determined doable may involve the local municipalities for this area. We also know that we have elected officials living within this same area, and if necessary, their assistance should be sought in moving this concern forward to the most expeditious manner.

Since we are addressing our concern to you with the expertise and the authority to resolve this safety issue, before there is another incident with perhaps even deadly consequences, we wait anxiously to know what you propose as immediate solutions for this semester.

We would also like to invite you or your representative to one of our monthly meetings this semester to discuss the long-term plans for making our immediate campus environment a safer place for everyone. Thank you in advance for treating this issue with the urgency it deserves.

Attachment B

October 26, 2005

TO: Mitch Hess, Manager of Cashiering
James (Jim) Krueger, Vice Chancellor

FR: Senate Student Affairs Committee

RE: New Credit Card Fee Policy: Letter of Concern

Now that the campus has been officially informed of the new credit card policy coming onboard next semester, the Senate Student Affairs Committee would like to raise some serious objections to the process, while also requesting specific clarification on issues of student concern. For ease of response, we will list our concerns:

1. We are particularly concerned that this new policy appears to have been approved without any student input. While we understand that the decision to change the way in which credit card payments are processed was System initiated, we regret that our campus representatives did not feel compelled to keep us informed at the front- end of the discussions that lead to this final outcome.

2. Perhaps even more egregious is the way in which we were informed, once the decision was finalized. Sending a campus-wide email is not sufficient, and we expect that the Cashier’s Office will do more to make sure all students know of this impending change in payment process. Since VISA will no longer be accepted, we would like to know our University’s plan to assist students in qualifying for and receiving a MasterCard or Discover care in time to pay tuition for spring semester?

3. We have also been told by our student counterparts on other UM campuses that their administration has decided to use the “savings” to their campuses to provide additional scholarship support. Since the figures we have heard vary from 100% to 50%, this was apparently not regulated by the System. We would like to know how much savings UMSL will realize from this policy and how our campus intends to allocate /spend these funds.

4. We now have information from the most recent Budget and Planning meeting that some of the savings will now go toward installing the payment kiosk. It seems to us that the new vendors should accept this cost as part of doing business on our campus. Alternatively, we should be allowed to make payments as we do for other electronic transactions using our personal computers or those that we have access to by using our individual password access.

5. SGA is also extremely concerned about how the new policy that authorizes only those formally listed to make payments on behalf of a student will be communicated. If the communication process is not seamless, we foresee a nightmare waiting to happen.

As you can see from the above, there are many urgent issues that need to be discussed, before and not after we have another crisis of confidence with our UMSL administration. We are now inviting you to respond to this letter of concern, and also accept an invitation to meet with SGA, as soon as possible. We are interested in working with the UMSL administration, and hope this will happen.

cc. Tom George, Chancellor
Glen Cope, Provost
Curt Coonrod, Vice Provost, Student Affair