UACC meeting On September 9th, 2002

 

University Apartments Residence Meeting held on Septermber 9^th, 2002.

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The attendees were:

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Meeting minute
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The following issues have been discussed during the meeting:

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1. New President
Our former president, Prakash Krishnan, left the UACC after the recognition
party after 1 year of being at the helm. Prakash is primarily responsible
for the UACC gaining recognition as a student organization and has been a
valuable asset to the UACC. On behalf of the UACC, I would like to
personally thank him for his contributions and wish him the very best for
his future!
Katia, being our former vice-president, takes over as president from
Prakash. We wish her the very best in her new role as the president!
 

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2. Recognition Party
Prakash and Katia gave us an update on the Recognition Party which we had
on August 31. The budget for the event was approximately $1000 used for
prizes, food and drinks. Most of the food (pizzas) were given to us free by
Buck's Pizza in College Station. We also bought videos for the video
library, books for the book library in the community center and toys and
gifts for future UACC events.
The party was very well attended including members from the Dept. of
Residence Life and the RHA and turned out to be a huge success, being the
first event organized by the UACC.
Katia also briefly described the recognition process with Student
Activities and how it helps us.
 

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3. Budget for 2002/2003
We have given a tentative budget of $5000 for the upcoming year. Possible
events include field-trips, an end-of-semester party and sports/cultural
events. This amount is subject to approval by the Student Activities office.
Tentative list of events (not all of these are sponsored by the UACC):
a. Field trip during Thanksgiving - suggestions are invited.
b. Cultural program to start of Family Week
c. Passport to Learning program - includes prizes at the end of the year
d. End of semester party: Saturday December 7, 2002
e. Sports events
 

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4. Open position
Since Katia has taken over as president, we have a vacancy for the post of
the vice-president. This will be a nominated position as per our
constitution and will be till the end of April 2003 (next elections). Only
TAMU students are eligible. Those who are interested, please contact Maria
or Katia.
[Update: As of the time of writing this, we have had one person express
interest. So the post is most likely already filled]
 

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5. Call for volunteers
We need volunteers for the following:
a. International cooking classes. Volunteers will be required to
demonstrate and teach how to cook a dish from their country, including
providing the recipes. All expenses for the ingredients will be borne by
the University Apartments. Those who teach will be given a $10 rent credit
the following month. Please contact Maria if you are interested in
volunteering.
b. Passport to Learning. Volunteers are needed to give a short
presentation/talk about any aspect of their country/culture. Participants
are given a "passport" in which they will receive stamps for every Passport
to Learning program that they attend. At the end of the year, participants
with stamps will receive prizes. The value of the prizes will depend on the
number of stamps each person gets on his/her passport. If you are
interested in making a presentation, please contact Maria or Katia.
c. Halloween Party. This is tentatively scheduled for Saturday, October
26th from 8pm. Volunteers are needed to help with the arrangments and to
organize the event. We are also looking for suggestions for games for
adults. Please contact Maria if you are interested.
 

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6. Unity Tree Planting on 9/11
On Wednesday September 11, 2002 at 6:30pm University Apartments will be
planting a "Unity Tree" in remembrance of the victims of last year's
attacks on the same date. This "Unity Tree" will also symbolize the
strength University Apartment residents gave one another during this
challenging time. All residents are invited to join in for the planting
followed by a gathering in Room 1 of the Community Center.
 

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7. Open mike session - member requirements, concerns
a. One resident had a complaint about the air-conditioning system in her
apartment. She moved in about 2 weeks ago and her family member became sick
soon afterwards. She suspected dust or mold in the a/c ducts to be the
cause of the illness.
Mr. Sodolak explained that the ducts were made of cardboard-type boards
which are not easy to clean. The resident had already filed a complaint
with the maintenance/apt. office. The Safety and Environmental Health
Dept. will be checking the apartment for possible mold on
9/10/2002. Results will be available in a week and they should be able to
suggest solutions if a problem is detected. Mr. Sodolak also mentioned that
the UA offered to relocate the resident to another apartment, but the offer
was declined by the resident.
[Note: The resident was not present when this was discussed but discussed
this problem with Katia before the meeting began]
b. The recent increase in the rents for all apartments were discussed
extensively. The primary concern was that the increase this year is about
8% wherease it has been in the range of 5% the past couple of years. Also
the increase is not uniform for all apartments.
Mr. Sodolak gave a detailed explanation about how the money was proposed to
be spent. Briefly:
* Avenue A roofing (replacing foam roofing),
* Heating/ventilation in Hensel apartments (carbon-dioxide leaking from
broken vents). Apartments are more than 40 years old
* Playground development: add-ons to playground area (gas line runs through
area) - equipment, landscaping costs included in this years budget.
* New maintenance building
* Cabling in Hensel to cable outlets are available in both living room and
bedroom - tools, devices, molding (to run the cables)
Mr. Smith also distributed a proposed budget summary for the University
apartments listing the revenues and expenditures for the last year and
projected revenues and expenses for the coming year. An updated version
will be available soon and possible distrtibuted through email.
c. Mr. Sodolak mentioned about the proposal for building new apartments in
the UA area including possibly having 3 bedroom apartments. This is part of
the Vision 2020 of TAMU with the goal of increasing graduate student
enrollment.
d. The issue of "unfurnishing" apartments in Ball St. was discussed. People
who are moving in new into the Ball St. studio apartments for the past few
months are being given unfurnished apartments. Mr. Sodolak explained that
this was mainly because many residents preferred to have their own
furniture which they had acquired during their stay elsewhere (since
waiting times for the university apartments are approx. 1 year). Having
unfurnished apartments also reduces maintenance expenses because of the
savings from not having to repair/replace old/broken furniture. Currently
this is being done only in the Ball St. studio apartments, but will likely
be extended to other apartments in future.
The possibility of giving an choice to the residents to have
furnished/unfurnished apartments was raised. But that would require
facilities for storage of furniture which turns out to be very expensive.
e. A question about whether there are going to be any safety inspections in
the apartments was raised (based on information about a similar inspection
taking place elsewhere in the university). Mr. Sodolak informed us that
there is not such proposal right now. The University Apartments were
recently inspected and found to be in compliance with the Fire Marshall's
requirements (recent installation of fire alarms in Ball St. were done to
satisfy those requirements).
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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