Agendas (listed newest to oldest)

2024

• Dec. 9
• Dec. 2
• Nov. 18
• Nov. 4
• Oct. 28
• Oct. 14
• Oct. 7
• Sept. 30
• Sept. 25
• Sept. 16
• Sept. 9

Minutes (listed newest to oldest)

2024

• Dec. 2
• Nov. 18
• Nov. 4
• Oct. 28
• Oct. 14
• Oct. 7
• Sept. 30
• Sept. 23
• Sept. 16
• Sept. 9

Archived Minutes

2023-24 Student Senate Minutes

2022-23 Student Senate Minutes

2021-22 Student Senate Minutes

2020-21 Student Senate Minutes

2019-20 Student Senate Minutes

2018-19 Student Senate Minutes

2017-18 Student Senate Minutes

2016-17 Student Senate Minutes

North Dakota State College of Science Student Body and Student Senate

North Dakota State College of Science Student Senate Bylaws

ARTICLE I
Election Procedures
Elections of members to the Student Senate and of Senate officers are conducted according to the following provisions:

Section 1 - Candidates are required to have at least a 2.25 cumulative grade point average (GPA) to be eligible for the Student Senate. Prospective members who do not have a GPA from any College may use their transfer GPA; any students in their first semester of college may use their high school GPA. Members must maintain a semester and cumulative 2.25 GPA to remain in office. Senators who receive an incomplete grade from a previous semester will have 2 weeks starting at the beginning of the current semester to rectify and submit their updated grades.

Section 2 - Prospective students who are inquiring to become a senator shall prepare to lead the student body and be an active member in the Student Senate including:

1. Participate and plan community projects
2. Attend meetings
3. Be a student advocate
4. Talk to students across campus
5. Be able to represent not only yourself but the school on the state/national level
6. Give committee reports when deemed necessary by an officer.
7. Participate in tabling responsibilities (2 hours per month)
8. Attend 2 NDSA sessions per semester. Must attend both Friday and Saturday meetings to obtain full credit. Exceptions may be approved by the Executive Team based on the date the Senator is appointmed. 

Section 3 - Only members who plan to attend the North Dakota State College of Science for the entire academic school year are eligible to become a member of the Student Senate.

Section 4 - Each candidate for the Student Senate must file a petition for candidacy. The Registrar and the Director of Student and Residential Life must also approve the petition for candidacy. Petitions must be submitted to the advisor of Student Senate by the stated deadline.

Section 5 - In the event a member of the Student Senate does not return to college, withdraws from college, resigns, or is asked to leave, the Student Senate shall have the option to nominate willing candidates and vote in a new Senator to fill the vacant position by a majority vote, or elect to continue on without filling the vacancy with the option to vote in a candidate later on in the school year.

Section 6 – Interviews shall be conducted by at least two Senate Executive members with the applicants, and shall be appointed by a Student Senate majority vote.

Section 7 - Elections for Senate officers shall be held on a regularly scheduled spring semester meeting. In the event of certain officer positions not being filled in spring semester, the advisor shall recommend a senator to fill an in-term executive officer position.

Section 8 – Senators elected in the spring will serve for the remainder of the academic year at a prorated scholarship compensation until the next academic school year, and for as long as they wish to serve while attending NDSCS for subsequent years. Each year of commitment the scholarship will be increased per advisor discretion.

Section 9 - Senators can be removed at any point if deemed unable to meet the Student Leadership Quality Standards by the Executive team as previously stated in Section Two.

ARTICLE II
Qualifications for officers of the Student Senate
Section 1 - All officers must be duly elected members of the Student Senate.
Section 2 - Officers shall be elected by the Student Senate.
Section 3 - Be knowledgeable and/or willing to learn Robert’s Rules of Order.

ARTICLE III
Powers and duties of officers and members of the Student Senate
Section 1 - All officers and members of the Student Senate shall attend all meetings unless the advisor and/or president has excused the absence prior to the meeting time except in special circumstances decided by the Senate.

Section 2 - The President of the Student Senate shall:

1. Call and preside over all meetings of the Student Senate.
2. Have power to call for special reports from members.
3. Have the power to assign duties.
4. Have no vote except to cast the tie breaking vote of the Senate.
5. Act as the official representative of the Student Senate at meetings and functions of the College, student body and community or appoint a member of the Student Senate to take his/her place as an official representative.
6. Attend the Management Team meetings or appoint a member of the Senate to attend in their place.
7. Call for special meetings when needed at the President’s discretion, and be responsible for notifying all members of said meetings.
8. Be provided with one copy of the Robert’s Rule of Order guideline.

Section 3 - The Vice-President shall:

1. Serve as the North Dakota State College of Science Head Delegate representative to the North Dakota Student Association.
2. Call and preside over Student Senate meetings in the temporary absence of the President.
3. Keep accurate minutes of all official Student Senate meetings in the temporary absence of the Administrative Assistant.
4. Appoint a representative as Head Delegate to attend a North Dakota Student Association meeting if the Vice-President cannot attend said meeting.
5. Coordinate hosting NDSA along with travel plans for NDSA.
6. Concern Log including updated resolutions.
7. Must obtain a seat on the Tabling Committee.

Section 4 - The Administrative Assistant shall:

1. Keep accurate minutes of all official Student Senate meetings and have them available by the Friday of the current week.
2. Prepare an agenda with help from the officers and advisors for each regular meeting by the Friday of the previous week for regular meetings to make it available for Student Senate members.
3. Be responsible for handling correspondence between the Student Senate and outside sources. This shall include maintaining the information on the North Dakota State College of Science website and other social media sources.
4. Be responsible for keeping a permanent record of previous agendas, meeting minutes, special committee minutes and other documents for the Student Senate.
5. Call and preside over Student Senate meetings in the temporary absence of the President and Vice President.
6. Post weekly minutes in a prominent place.

Section 5 - The Senators shall:

1. Uphold the Student Leadership Quality Standards (SLQS) at all times while on and off campus and online.
2. Report any student concerns to the Senate.
3. Be an active participant in Student Senate meetings, programs, and activities.
4. Senators must attend at least two North Dakota Student Association meetings per semester.
5. Chair or actively participate in at least one committee within a month of being elected.
6. Committee chairs or proxy will communicate meeting summary and attendance to the administrative assistant prior to the next meeting.

ARTICLE IV
Meeting Time, Place and Attendance
Section 1 - The Student Senate shall meet at least once a week during the academic year, on the day and time most convenient for the members and advisors.

Section 2 - The Student Senate shall meet in the Plains Room in the North Dakota State College of Science Hektner Student Center unless otherwise specified.

Section 3 - All members are expected to attend all meetings. Any member who fails to perform his/her assigned duties, or has an unexcused absence for more than three regular meetings, sub-committee meetings, or a combination thereof, within an academic year, without just cause, may be removed by a vote of the majority of the Student Senate. Three “tardies” or “early leaves” for any meeting shall result in one absence of a meeting.

Section 4 - All members must email the advisor and president of the Student Senate 24 hours prior to the next meeting time to be considered for an excused absence. If the member fails to do so, they will be considered unexcused unless a special circumstance occurs leaving it to the executive team’s final decision.

Section 5 - All members are expected to attend sub-committee meetings. If the member is unable to attend a meeting, they must communicate with other sub-committee members 24 hours prior to the meeting time and may need to find another senator to take their place depending on the executive team member’s decision.

Section 6 - All members are required to complete at least two hours of tabling per month, unless otherwise specified.

Section 7 - Members of the student body may attend in reasonable numbers. Persons representing special interest groups may appear before the Student Senate to present their proposals if it is in the best interests of the college.

Section 8 - A quorum shall be necessary to transact any business. A quorum shall consist of a majority of the Student Senate membership and an advisor.

Section 9 - Senators shall wear appropriate clothing when representing the college. Student Senators must wear North Dakota State College of Science Student Senate polo, black or khaki pants, and clean black shoes to each regular meeting.

ARTICLE V
Section 1 - Senators must set up each month’s tabling hours through the shared calendar provided by the advisor.

1. If a scheduling conflict arises, a 24-hour notice must be given to the tabling committee. Extenuating circumstance may allow notice. Senators must reschedule within 24-48 hours.

Section 2 - Each Senator will table for 2 hours each month, unless otherwise stated. 

1. These two hours can be broken up into smaller time frames, as long as the two hours are achieved by the end of the month.
2. Tabling hours need to be scheduled during dining hours.
3. Tabling hours need to be tracked via wiki on BlackBoard and verified by a staff member in the Student Center.

Section 3 – Senators are expected to schedule their tabling hours in a timely manner. 

1. The Executive Team must have tabling hours scheduled by the 10th day of each month.
2. All other Senators must have tabling hours scheduled by the 15th day of each month. 

Section 4 – Not getting all required tabling hours completed by the given time frame will result in consequences. 

1. Executive Team member positions may be put up for consideration if a member of the Executive Team has a repetition of two occurrences of being unable to table or find a time to table. 
2. If a Senator does not have any make-up tabling hours completed by midterm, they will be required to set up a time with the tabling committee Chair and an Executive Team member to discuss their situation and/how to get their hours in. 
   1. If a Senator does not complete all of their tabling hours by the last official held Senate meeting of the year and are planning to return to Student Senate the next year, they must meet with the Executive Team to determine their status on the Student Senate the following year. This could result in having to go through the interview and voting process again, if the Executive Team determines that to be necessary. 

Section 5 – New Senators will be exempt from one hour of tabling within their first month of joining Student Senate.

1. A newly appointed Student Senator will be required to table one hour with their mentor within their first week on the Senate board. Mentors may decide if a Senator needs more mentoring concerning tabling, and may choose to do more than one hour within that first month. 

Section 6 – Fargo Tabling.

1. If the Senate board has full membership, there is the expectation that a group of 2-3 Senators each month will complete their tabling hours at the Fargo NDSCS campus.
2. If the board is not full, each Senator is required to table in Fargo once a semester. 

Section 7 – Tabling Guidelines

1. Tabling Guidelines must follow the NDSCS Bylaws and Constitution when updated.

ARTICLE VI
Additional Powers of the Student Senate:
Section 1 - The Student Senate shall have the power to regulate all student activities which are sponsored by student organizations, involve the entire student body or are open to the entire student body. The Student Senate recognizes all North Dakota State College of Science policies as official regulations governing student activities.

Section 2 - The Student Senate shall voice its opinions on matters of day-to-day operations of the school to official presiding bodies.

Section 3 - In the event that situations arise which are not specifically described or allowed for in this Constitution and Bylaws, the Student Senate shall have the power to act in the best interests of the student body so long as this action is not contradictory to policies of North Dakota State College of Science.

Section 4 - One Student Senate member shall have open communication with the Faculty Senate once a month.

Section 5 - Students interested in establishing a student club/organization are required to be recognized by the Student Senate and should complete the following:

1. Attend a regular meeting of the Student Senate to state the purpose of the organization and to receive authorization to carry out organization procedures.
2. Obtain a copy of the "Petition to Organize and Establish an Organization" and a copy of the model constitution from the NDSCS.edu/Clubs webpage.
3. Obtain signatures of at least fifteen students interested in forming the proposed organization and in becoming members.
4. Obtain the written consent of one full-time faculty member to serve as faculty advisor.
5. Have a representative of the proposed organization present the signed petition and ten copies of the proposed constitution to the Student Senate Administrative Assistant.
6. Await notification of approval of the constitution before scheduling the first official meeting. (A two-week waiting period is required after submitting the constitution to enable the Student Senate to study the petition and the constitution).

Section 6 – The Student Senate shall have the power to dissolve inactive clubs.

• Active shall be defined as meeting once per semester.
• Dissolution shall be overseen by the club advisor.
• Upon failure to meet activity requirements, the club advisor shall send a written report to the Student Senate at the end of each calendar year.
• Dissolution shall be finalized by the Student Senate.
• If a dissolved club wants to become active again, they will need to do the steps listed in Section 5 of Article VI. 

Section 7 - Discretionary Funding

1. Discretionary funding is used for:
   • Monetary requests by clubs and organizations;
   • Student awards banquet;
   • Music Licensing fees;
   • All joint activities that involve the Senate.
2. The process to distribute funds to clubs and organizations is as follows:
   • Add up number of members in all clubs.
   • Determine dollar amount to be awarded.
   • Divide award by total membership (this number is a per student figure).
   • Multiply by the number of individuals attending the activity.
   • Compare to 50% of the request.
   • May use other factors when needed.
3. Funding other organizations:
   • Student Senate reserves the right to fund and participate in Campus Activities Board and other campus organizations for student activities.

Section 8 - Student Senate shall provide funds to student clubs and organizations of the college for Service-Learning Projects. A maximum reimbursement for student clubs and organizations shall be $150 per academic year (Senate’s discretion may be used in determining reimbursement amounts depending on project scope and campus/community impact).

Section 9 - All guest speakers shall inform the executive board, including advisors, when they propose to speak and the relevance of their topic. Topic must support the mission of both NDSCS and NDSCS Student Senate.

ARTICLE VII
Parliamentary Authority
The most current edition of Robert’s Rules of Order Newly Revised shall be the parliamentary authority on all matters not covered in the North Dakota State College of Science Constitution and Bylaws.

Advisor:

Heather Nelson, Hektner Student Center 146, 701-671-2404 heather.r.nelson.1@ndscs.edu

All guest speakers must inform the executive board, including advisors, when they propose to speak and the relevance of their topic.

Topic must support the mission of both NDSCS and NDSCS Student Senate.

Email: ndscs.studentlife@ndscs.edu

The North Student Association (NDSA) is a student-led organization that wants to empower the students, create collaboration between NDUS schools, give a student perspective on higher education, and better the NDUS. Every month during the academic year, the NDSA hosts a General Assembly meeting where students will meet to discuss a variety of issues affecting students. 

Learn more and get involved at NDSA.ndus.edu.