UACC meeting On August 16th, 2004
University Apartments Residence Meeting held on August 16th, 2004.
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The attendees were:
Dr. Robert M. Gates Texas A&M University President, Dr. B. Prior, Executive Vice President and Provost, Dr. David B. Prior, Executive Vice President and Provost, Dr. Dean Bresciani, Vice President for Student Affairs, Dr. Wynn Rosser (Assistant Vice President For Student Affairs), Rodney P. McClendon Chief of Staff
Rahul Ribeiro UACC President, Alireza Shapoury UACC Vice President, Reza Samadi Boroujeni UACC Treasurer, Xiaohua Fan UACC Secretary, Unmil Karadkar Front Street Area Representative, Homayra Moghadasianrad Hensel Street Area Representative
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Meeting minute
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The following issues have been discussed during the meeting:
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President Gates opened by saying he was very sorry about the incident. He mentioned that prayers were said for the Ejaz family at the Graduation ceremonies last weekend.
We mentioned the names of 4 people whom we were asked to personally acknowledge for going out of their line of duty to help the victims and Saquib after the incident.
Ron Sass, Director, Dormitories Administration He personally drove Saquib from CS to Galveston in his own car. He made sure that they had accommodation and were in caring hands in Galveston.
David Parrott, The Dean of Student Life. He helped with the airlifting of the
patients from St Joseph’s hospital, Bryan to UTMB hospital in Galveston. He
responsibly expedited necessary arrangements for the medical treatments.
William Hearn, Vice President for Health Affairs, Interim CEO of Texas
A&M-Galveston
He has been physically present comforting the family, has being a good advisor, has a good strength of character, and was instrumental in getting visas for the family members.
Susan Crawl, Associate of Mr. William Hearn, was available like a mother to
everybody.
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Answers to questions about family treatment and
welfare:
Insurance is covering Kanta’s treatment but for Saquib’s parents fund raising is being done. University will pay every expense that it can legally pay. The hospital has not refused any treatment because of lack of payment and the hospital has not yet asked Saquib to pay anything.
A&M is providing 2 apartments for the Ejaz family, help with paperwork for family members to travel from Bangladesh and Japan and fund raising through the Association of Former Students.
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Answer to questions about future maintenance and
plans for University Apartments:
Long and short term maintenance
routines are to be scheduled and the plan provided to residents. There is a plan
for building new apartments, but it will take some time. Money allocated to each
apartment and for other expenditures to be made transparent and provided to
residents. Allocation for essential expenses will be taken into account.
U1 residents will not be required to pay rent for the period that they were
displaced from their apartments. Saquib will not have to pay rent for August and
September. After that nothing has been decided yet.
They might consider our suggestion of having a follow up after maintenance responses.
Concerns about pest control, Ball Street leveling, Ball Street surroundings and the yard status, procedural revision of UA booking, and routine electrical inspection of the apartments have been relayed to the student life representatives. We requested that they should inform the UACC board about any follow-ups on the above issues once these complaints are addressed.
Paving of roads and parking lots is being
taken up with PTTS. U1 residents had already brought this issue to Dr. Gates
notice in their meeting with him on Thursday. Transparency in PTTS expenditure
was requested. Dr. Gates requested us to compare parking benefits with Residence
Halls to see if there was any difference in benefits.
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Answers to questions on Battalion’s lack of coverage of
the incident:
We have to provide evidence of Battalion's
apathy towards coverage of the incident to Dr. Prior Executive Vice President
and Provost and he will take up the issue with the Faculty advisors of the
Battalion. Residents who sent in mail call will have to inform us.
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Answers to other general questions:
We requested a crossway across University Dr.
at Calvin Moore St. and they said they would look into it.
Naming of a University Park after Lamiya was welcomed.
President Gates spoke about his article on International students in the New
York Times. He acknowledged that some International Students don't feel they are
an integral part of A&M and he will try to change that.
There was no time to discuss every complaint/suggestion of each resident so the
UACC will compile them and hand them over to Dr. Bresciani, Vice President for
Student Affairs. The names will be kept anonymous initially and if required,
with the permission of the resident, the name may be provided.
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Special request from President Gates:
If any resident feels that his/her voice is not being heard, or is not getting adequate response for complaints etc. he/she should send an email directly to him at:
rgates@tamu.edu
The UACC on behalf of all residents of UA thanked President Gates for taking time to visit and talking with us about our concerns and for providing a means of dialogue with the University administration.
On behalf of the UACC
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The office of resident life has the liberty to “encourage” the residents to
have more active and constructive roles in the UA community.
There are many ways in which you can make a difference in your community. If you are interested in becoming involved with the UACC, please visit with Mrs. Maria Clark, the advisor of UACC, in the Programming Office or call 862-2350.
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UACC would like to thank the attendees of this meeting