Student Senate Meeting Minutes (2-4-25)

Student Senate Meeting Minutes

2/4/25

 

Joel Tranel called the meeting to order at 7:00 p.m.  

Members Present: Joel Tranel, Caden Boyer, Noah Lahner, Shania Vanlewin, Mario Rodriguez-Gomez, Scott Walker, Allison Ciero (Grace Schaffer), Aidan Indahl, Priyanka Satish, Garett Rotzien, Joey Dunn, Jaedyn Fellenz, Javier Cifuentes, Sidney Polzin (Connor Buetin), Luke Pilot (Emma Gerdes), Jacob Fiala, Diego Corvera (Allie Verkuilen), Zoe Fink (Maddie Wall), Reese Heitzman (Alex Hale), Amanda Siemienas, Conner Perry, Simone Vega, Maggie Albers (Grace Olmstead)

Members Absent: Ali French, Lizzie Pike, Cynthia Sele, Maggie Newhouse, Taryn Dornseif

Senator Notecards 

• Senators were asked to write down concerns, complaints, questions, recommendations, or anything else that may be relevant to the Senate to spark discussion for future meetings. 

Executive Board Reports

Maggie Newhouse, President

• Outstanding Senior voting is open until February 6th. Only seniors are allowed to vote. The link to vote can be found in Saint Mary’s Today. 
• Presidential and executive board elections are coming up in the next month. If you would like to run or know someone who would be a great candidate, start thinking. 

Joel Tranel, Vice President of Financial Affairs

• Club Budgets are due February 16th at 11:59 p.m.
• Please reach out if there are any questions
• On Thursday, I will be meeting with Tim Stensgard, Mario, and Garret to continue talks about Golf Simulator and wrap up those discussions
• On Friday, I will be meeting with Brian Sisson, to talk about further Capital Improvements that athletics could help with. 

Mario Rodriguez-Gomez, Vice President of Campus Affairs

•  Today at 8 am – 2nd Campus Facilities Meeting – Mario and Ali present
  • Lightning issues in the  parking lot
  • Camera proposal – getting cameras in public halls
    • IT concerns – the system needs to be housed on campus, and concerns will be addressed over the Summer
  • Kitchen supplies available for students
    • Niki – Issues with theft and not cleaning dishes
  • Emergency Drills
    • Fire and Tornado (April) 
  • Considering displaying active shooter drills
    • How might new students view this? 
    • Possibly having a drill in place?

Noah Lahner, Vice President of Academic Affairs

• 1st Educational Standards Meeting
  • Questions about transferring credits
    • Concerns with Seminarians about completing their first year at diocese 
    • Putting something into the policy to allow them to transfer in these credits
• Tomorrow’s curriculum program meeting
  • Review the Health Humanities course catalog language 
  • Putting Health HUmanities into the Department of Language Literature, and Culture 

Caden Rodning, Vice President of Public Affairs

• Nothing to report

Ali French, Vice President of Student Affairs

• M and W Tennis are home Friday 
• W Hockey home Friday 
• M and W Basketball home Saturday
• M Hockey home Saturday 
• Feb 5th – preview of the Frozen River Film Festival in Page Theater
• Fireside is this weekend on Friday at 7 pm and Saturday at 7 pm and 10 pm in the Common room in Saint Mary’s Hall. Tickets are $5 online and $7 at the door

Taryn Dornseif, Vice President of Media and Communications

• Sign up for an Instagram takeover day in your life!

Lizzie Pike, Vice President of Administrative Affairs

• Junior Class Officers will be selling chocolate-covered strawberries for $1 each and chocolate-covered pretzels for $2 on Thursday in Toner during common hour.  

 

Shania Vanlewin, Vice President of Multicultural Affairs

• Yesterday, Marisa Naryka, the VP of Student Development, sent out an email to the Winona campus on new laws regarding immigration.
• I wanted to call attention to that email and if you or someone you know needs support during this time, please reach out to me or Marisa for additional resources. 

 

Scott Walker, Advisor

• Cardinal Career Prep event next week, lots of room still available for interviews 
• Virtual mock interviews on February 11th 
  • Need to sign up by February 5th
• In-person mock interviews on February 12th
  • Need to sign up by February 7th

 

Class Officer Reports

Freshman

• Nothing to report

Sophomore

• Nothing to report 

Junior

• Fundraiser on Thursday, please help support us! 

Senior

• Working on Gaslight
  • Aiming to meet this week
  • April 11th and 12th
    • The show on Friday the 11th will be 7 p.m. 
    • The show on Saturday the 12th will be 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.
  • Auditions will be held March 20th-23rd 
• Also working on the Senior Class Party will be communicating with Maggie and Joel on that

Senator Concerns: 

• If we could have Cardinal Club open on the weekends
  • Response from E-board: that has been something brought up multiple times in the last few years and we have been told no due to staffing issues
    • Will look into the possibility of opening Sunday nights

Adjournment

Motion made to Adjourn- Jacob Fiala 

Seconded – Joey Dunn

 

Adjourned at 7:17 p.m.