SAC Meeting Minutes

Student Advisory Committee (SAC)

Meeting Summary
February 15, 2003

The meeting began at 12:00 p.m. and there were 26 representatives in attendance. The following participated:

  1. The outcomes of the September Leadership Planning Retreat were reviewed along with section 409 of the Board of Regents Policy Manual. No formal revisions were proposed at this time, but there was discussion concerning the need to possibly enhance the mission statement and recommend revisions to section 409.
     
  2. During general discussion of the purpose and focus of SAC there were two main points agreed upon:
    1. Serving students is paramount.
    2. Remain focused on the advisory role, both in providing feedback to issues shared from the Board of Regents to SAC and from SAC to the Board of Regents.

  3. The need for enhanced communication was discussed, including the desire for the SGA presidents to receive frequent updates similar to those received by their institution presidents. It was also discussed that a great deal of information is available on the BOR website at www.usg.edu.
     
  4. The following SAC structure was agreed upon, with voting outcomes noted if not unanimous:
    1. Membership shall be comprised of all formally recognized USG SGA presidents or their designee, allowing one representative per SGA. Multi-campus institutions with independently recognized SGAs will be allowed one representative/vote per SGA (23-2).
    2. The body will be a group of equals with no officer structure.
    3. Meetings held on USG campuses will be facilitated by the host institution SGA representative. Meetings held at off-campus sites will be facilitated by a council member using an alphabetical rotation. If the designated facilitator in the alphabetical rotation is not present or does not wish to serve in that capacity, the next council member present in the rotation will serve as facilitator.
    4. Minutes will be prepared for each meeting and are the responsibility of the meeting facilitator (23-2). All minutes will be posted first to the SGA presidents' list serv for approval, then made available for public distribution.
    5. The council will operate two separate list servs. One list serv will be limited to only the SGA presidents' or designees and will be the primary mode of internal communication for the council. The second list serv will be a self-managed public list serv to which anyone can subscribe and to which information will be posted of a general nature or once approved by a majority of the council members.

  5. The following is the annual meeting structure that was agreed upon unanimously.
    1. There shall be two meetings of the council per year to be held in the fall and spring semesters.
    2. The fall meeting will be hosted on a USG campus. A leadership development component was discussed as a possibility for inclusion in future fall conferences. The fall meeting will be held on a Saturday, and will typically last one day unless sufficient business requires an overnight stay and a second day of business.
    3. The spring meeting will be hosted in the metro-Atlanta area and coordinated around the Board of Regents meeting schedule, allowing the council to meet with the Board of Regents and the Chancellor. A preferred schedule for spring would include a meeting with the Chancellor on the day prior to a meeting with the Board of Regents.
    4. Each meeting would include USG reports presented by the appropriate system office administrators or in their absence the BOR designated advisor/liaison to the council.
    5. Agenda and report items should be prepared in advance and posted to the council list serv.

  6. A discussion was held regarding the previously scheduled spring SAC conference to be hosted by Armstrong Atlantic State University in Savannah. The body unanimously agreed that the new meeting structure should be implemented by fall semester 2003, and in the interim a spring meeting was still in order allowing this transitional group to shift their focus from reorganizing SAC to reviewing system-wide issues of interest to the Board of Regents and the council. The council does not feel prepared at this time to present directly to the Board of Regents this spring, but is comfortable communicating through their SAC advisor. Three possible dates were discussed and rank ordered. The preferred dates are, in order, April 12 or April 5, with the least preferred last resort of March 29. The meeting is to be hosted by AASU in Savannah beginning at 12 p.m. on the designated Saturday allowing representatives to drive in that morning. Once the agenda is established it will be determined if the meeting should remain limited to Saturday or a brief morning session be established on Sunday. Scott Scheidt from AASU will email the list serv once a firm date has been established.

The meeting concluded at approximately 4:30 p.m.

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