Attendees: Jasmine Tolle, Cayla Small, Alexis Baranov, Edouard Tjoa, Brandin Watson, Jeffrey Vasquez, Janet Hoppe-Leonard, Sharon Simes (Dean of the library), Steve Hoffman, Colin Campbell (Dance club), Roy Flores, Marci Meyer, Dr. Ron LaFayette, Mary Ellen O’Keef, Suzanne Scheldt, Alice Melling,

Start:2.32p    End: 4:00p

Alexis started the meeting by introducing herself and welcoming and thanking everyone for attending.  Next the other Student Administration Council members introduced themselves and gave brief description of their position and responsibilites.

Cayla explained the Student Cabinet – what it is, who’s on it and what the purpose it serves.

Jasmine talked about her role on the College Council and said that helping the college address budget reductions is the College Council’s top prioirty for this year.  Jasmine also invited people to sign-up for the Home Alive self-defense workshop that she has been working to coordinate.

During the meeting, they also discussed on some of the weakness of the Budget Planning Committee. Such examples will be, the lack of transparency as their website only allows faculty to gain access and view their discussion.

Brandin reported on the colleges efforts to deal with budget reductions. He also encouraged students to get informed and involved in helping the college identify ways to reduce the budget in ways that minimize the impact on students.  He encouraged them to rally in Olympia if/when a trip is planned. He also spoke about his efforts to reduce textbook prices for students and how he has been working with computing services to implement an online voting system that will facilitate better communication between the Student Administration Council, Faculty and student body.

Alexis asked for studnet suggestions on the ways to reducet the budget in order to avoid or minimize tuition increases.

Dr. Ron LaFayette mentioned the importance of knowing whom do we want to meet before going to Olympia. There will also be a meeting about Student Center on February 12 at the Baxter Event Center. The Student Center may be funded through the Services and Activity Fee (S&A Fee). There are also separate funds that fund the Student Center, which is the Capital Budget Fund.

Roy also mentioned that he would like us not to forget about the disability services on campus as they are an important part of the school. Hence, we should take consideration of such services that are neglected by most of the students when dealing with the decisions and action items.

Sharon, the librarian dean announces that the library will not open on Saturday and Sunday due to the budget reductions. She also did mention about how powerful student voices are, which can get legislators to change mind of cutting students’ budget. She also believes that there are some of the students with financial difficulty who does not own their own personal computers at home. Hence, by having the library closes on weekends, this will affect the students’ academic.

Cayla brought up an interesting idea of having a computer in the Expresso Lounge for Online Voting.

Also, someone brought up a request that she would like to see the Polaris on campus again as she strongly felt that it would be a good communication system to inform students about the upcoming updates.