Senate minutes

Special allocation: The Frame gallery

Senate voted to allocate $2,760 to The Frame gallery, the only student-run art gallery on Carnegie Mellon’s campus.

The Frame gallery is trying to become more of a focal point for campus discussion, and will use the money to have Facilities Management Services refurbish their wooden floors.

JFC Presentation: Student payment with student activity fee funds

The Joint Funding Committee presented to Senate on how the student activity fee is used. Senate receives 10 percent of the money from the undergraduate student activities fee, while the Graduate Student Assembly (GSA) gets 70 percent of graduate student activities fees.

The discussion in Senate focused on whether or not student organizations could pay student salaries with JFC-allocated funds originally from the student activities fee. The JFC must now approve salaries paid by student organizations from JFC fees.

Benchmarking Committee report

The Benchmarking Committee gave a report on the student government situation at some of Carnegie Mellon’s peer institutions, including Cornell University, Princeton University, and Duke University.

The committee discussed different facets of student government, including how student representatives at other universities communicate effectively with their constituents.

Ex officio report: Gina Casalegno and Amy Burkert

Dean of Student Affairs Gina Casalegno and Vice Provost for Education Amy Burkert gave a presentation to Senate on the major focus areas in the university’s strategic plan.

The university wants to provide a transformative Carnegie Mellon experience comprising transformative research and transformative teaching at both the graduate and undergraduate level.

There will be another university-wide town hall meeting on a date to be determined in March, Casalegno and Burkert said.