Resident Student Association
President's Report to Senate - July 28, 2001

1)    Regular Reports to Senate

Steve Weissenburger plans on presenting a President’s Report on a monthly basis, or as needed, to Senate.

2)    New by-laws being presented to Senate for approval

a)       Changes

• The main theme is that RSA is a single body made up with an Executive and Councils. The previous by-laws communicated a more separated relationship between the Executive and Councils.
• The mission has been revised and reordered and the responsibilities of the Executives adjusted and clarified.

b)      Additions

• Members of the Association have been defined where all residents are members by defaults, and Executives, Representatives, and Delegates are active members.
• Councils, Representatives, and Delegates are defined along with their responsibilities.
• Executives and Representatives are given voting rights.
• Policies and Procedures will exist for the Association that will guide the Association in its operations.
• Elections code is removed. It is indicated that the Association can create policies for their elections. The elections code will be included in our Policies and Procedures.
• The selection and role of the Advisor was revised.

3)    Update on new cable provider contract awaiting approval

The office of residence life along with the office of physical plant has submitted a new cable contract for signature to Dr. Ron Slepitza. The contract would provide us cable service directly from DirecTV, allowing for nearly double the number of channels without increasing the cost to students. The Data & Cable Access fee was set by the Board of Trustees back in December and cannot be changed for the upcoming academic year.

Dr. Sleptiza was on vacation this past week and Sylivia Bessegato was serving as his replacement for signatures. Due to the nature of the contract, we are waiting for Dr. Slepitza to return so he may personally sign the contract on behalf of the University, which is currently expected without further discussion.

Once the contract is signed, an official listing of the new channels will be placed on the Xavier web site. In addition, a request will be made to have the summary of the cable system changed placed on the web site headlines for a day.

4)    New Web Site

Since the June, RSA has had a new web site online at http://www.xavier.edu/rsa/. This new site will provide an excellent communications medium between the association and the greater University community.

Among the information provided it includes:

·         By-laws and policies

·         Officials, profiling the elected members of RSA.

·         Business & Issues, including updated summaries of each issue RSA deals with, meeting minutes, and the President’s reports to Senate

·         Programming, summarizing our programming efforts throughout the year

·         Recognizing Contributions, summarizing the ways RSA recognizes students, faculty, and staff as well as recognition made as it happens.

·         National Affiliation, describing our membership in the National Association of College and University Residence Halls (NACURH)

·         Contact Us, with office phone and emails for executives, representatives, and advisors

Also on the site are links to both the office of residence life and Student Government Association sites. The site will be maintained by a cooperation of Secretary Jenelle Brown and President Steve Weissenburger.

5)    Contacting RSA Executives

Email addresses are on the web site for contacting the Executives.

6)    Schedule for Coming Year

Currently we are looking to have Representative elections during the third week of classes.

All Council meetings will be Tuesdays at 7 pm in their respective communities each week. General meetings will be Wednesdays at 7 pm at a location to be determined at least every two weeks.

We are planning to conduct four major events during the school year, already on the Master Calendar. The Association will have additional programming for the communities and resident body to be planned during the year.

We will be attending our regular three NACURH conferences this year. A small delegation of 5-10 people will attend the Regional CAACURH (Central Atlantic Affiliation of College and University Residence Halls) Conference in New Jersey November 9 – 11. President Steve Weissenburger and National Communications Coordinator Mark Mishra will attend the Mini No-Frills conference, which focuses on regional business decisions, February 15 – 17. A small delegation of 3-6 people will attend the National Conference in Minneapolis May 22-26. One or both advisors will join residents at all conferences.