RESIDENCE HALL ASSOCIATION

at the New Jersey Institute of Technology Stanley Gawlik, President – SAG6@njit.edu

Elizabeth Lee, Vice President – EML2@njit.edu
Michael Gonzalez, NCC – MLG3@njit.edu
Ruby Rogers, Secretary – RJR22@njit.edu
Patrick McGrail, Treasurer – PHM2@njit.edu
Christopher Ojeda, Public Relations Officer – CDO2@njit.edu
Karen Quackenbush, Advisor - quackenbush@njit.edu

Website: http://web.njit.edu/~rha E-mail:

RHANJIT@gmail.com
Residence Hall Association Agenda – December 8, 2008
I. Introduction
i. Start: 11: 43 AM
ii. Thanks for all the hard work. There is pizza and drinks.
II. Approve Minutes - Approved
III. Reports
i. President
a. E-Board Meeting – response article to Vector article
b. Poster sale Feb. 11, Beyond the Wall
ii. Vice President
a. Toys for Tots – collecting until Wed.
iii. National Communication Coordinator
a. No Frills – when we come back will be proposing. Over winter time will be working on
bidding for awards.
b. NAACURH forums – looking for ideas for programs and advertising ideas.
iv. Treasurer
a. Budget – account balance.
v. Public Relations Officer
a. Senate Cabinet Meeting – trade stop. Memorial for Dana Knox. Pub will be closed last
day of classes.
b. Super Bowl Party – if anyone wanted to help, no responses yet, flyers for Midnight
Breakfast will be up soon.
vi. Senate - absent
vii. Hall Council Representatives
a. Redwood – last meeting last wed. Will have meeting with other hall councils for winter
ball.
b. Cypress – tonight last meeting
c. Laurel - absent
d. Oak - absent
viii. RA Representatives
a. Redwood – new RC Jim Wittaker, meeting tomorrow, end of the semester info up in the
halls. New RC will be here for next semester
b. Cypress - absent
c. Laurel - absent
d. Oak - absent
ix. Clubs
a. BGA – nothing new
 b. NRHH – inducted new members yesterday (Mike Lawson, Kati Diraimondo, Jackie
Brunner, Katon___), meeting next semester
c. Green Team – nothing new
x. Committees
a. Programming – met Thrus, game night in pub, trip to NYC, sports on sun, look at
forum
b. Food – meeting with Fischbach couple of days ago, everyone likes cultural themes,
know its was a big success, going to continue cultural themes on a Tues, Thurs weekly
basis. Bubbles in the soda, hopefully will be addressed.
c. Fundraising – nothing to report
IV. Old Business - none
V. New Business
i. Vector article – p. 5 of last week’s Vector. Concern that RHA was posting up flyers that didn’t
have facts to support them and it came off as accusing residents. Facts were skewed a little
because it seemed that the writer felt we were in support of banning backpacks. Wanted to write
back response to the article, our support, what we’re doing, forum, ticketing.
ii. Ken – opinion, poorly written, no facts, the Vector author felt that we had the right to ban
backpacks and that we wanted to. Perhaps we can combat the issues get students involved.
iii. NCC – we have a response. Throw it out there to be a spring board discussion.
iv. Eric – why didn’t we invite the author?
v. NCC – we don’t want to single him out, we assume that a person on the forum and we cleared up
the facts.
vi. Doug – great thing that this guy made the article, means someone noticed the flyers, has opinion.
vii. NCC – here is the response and we’re going to rework it. When the author started the article, he
started depicting a story. Good thing that he noticed it. We’re getting our message across.
viii. VP – read the RHA response.
ix. General opinion? *2 min discussion:
x. Doug – great, just change the title, make the title more specific in order to catch the reader’s eye.
xi. Ken – Fischbach is more into the theft of utensils and food, perhaps the response should reflect
more of that rather than the destruction.
xii. VP – we don’t have statistics of theft of food, therefore it would be harder. It can be tweaked.
xiii. Mike A. – sees less and less of people taking out food, no one wants to take out food.
xiv. Extend discussion – motion to extend by *2 min
xv. Jamal – in the article it doesn’t say what specifically is being stolen, it is very vague, people
could take it as food, cups, silverware. Good that it is generalized.
xvi. Eric – Ken is right, we should throw in a mention about Ken’s point.
xvii. Doug – some people don’t view taking the food out as stealing. Agree with Ken, should be
specific that the backpack ban is about the food.
xviii. NCC – we should definitely mention what is going on, we should also go into what we have to
offer. Supports change.
xix. Jamal - *extend by speaker’s list
xx. Jamal – with the whole stealing thing, opinion; slice of pizza, I’m going to eat it. Cups are going
to be used by other people also, if it goes out other people can’t use it.
xxi. Eric – we’re not disagreeing, keep it in tact, just use these ideas.
xxii. NCC – agree.
xxiii. Ken – as head of the food committee add one comment? Problem: not with one slice, people run
out with 2L bottles of soda and milk. It’s not what we consider the bigger issue, it’s more about
what Fischbach considers the bigger cost. We can address both things. We don’t want that mujch
misinformation going around.
xxiv. NCC - *extend by 3 min
 xxv. Pat – response to Ken. Fischbach cannot say that he cares more about food than cups.
xxvi. Ken – it’s more about the direct link to the backpack ban.
xxvii. NCC – came to RHA and said there was a state of emergency of cups and mangled utensils. He
then mentioned that people steal food and cannot prove until he gets statistics. If we get facts
that’s what we have to present, we still mention the food theft which has no statistics.
xxviii. Pat – can track how many cups he has.
xxix. Karen – Fisch should be able to track food.
xxx. Karen – should be able to produce the statistics, has to have something to back it up.
xxxi. PRO – how much is actual theft, how much is really rush?
xxxii. Ruby – claify that Fisch did say that walking out with food is okay.
xxxiii. Pres – close discussion, post on forum.
xxxiv. VP – wants to ask: as of right now RHA members can win prizes during events but programming
committee cannot; is that fair? We are setting up gold system anyway. *3 min discussion:
xxxv. Jamal – depends on the program, if it is a judged competition – should not be able to.
xxxvi. Mike A – raffle is okay.
xxxvii. NCC – plan programming committee, 10 people in, 3 people plan; what if 2 ppl win. If RHA
members win, wouldn’t feel the same because they didn’t plan it. Looking for ways to motivate
everyone. Gold; marketplace. Get alternative incentive to help programs.
xxxviii. Ken – no RHA member should win at an RHA event. Rockband Competition – points, that’s
okay.
xxxix. Wesmore – sacrifice that you have to make if you want to win programs. The person who helped
plan the event understands it more.
xl. Treas - *extend by 2 min
xli. Doug – almost seems that it is confused that people running the program, otherwise would know
nothing about the program.
xlii. NCC – understand both points. By passing a program you know everything about it.
xliii. Eric – don’t recall any event where not all info was posted on a flyer.
xliv. Wesmore – Casino night – when we were there we knew what games were going to happen. No
Senate member was allowed to play in the event.
xlv. Karen – the VPs are paid.
xlvi. NCC – what was the incentive?
xlvii. Wesmore – we were running the programs.
xlviii. Karen – example: Midnight Madness – no one can win.
xlix. Doug – Halloween Bash – no problems before. No one was mad about it. No one bothered.
l. Pres – that is it for discussion, forum discussion.
li. Jamal – on the Reslife website of the njit.edu website. RHA link difficult to get to. It is on front
page of Reslife website.
lii. NCC – can we make a logo instead of a hyperlink?
liii. Jamal – more than a hyperlink?
liv. Karen – don’t know if you can. Will look into it but don’t know if it can be done.
lv. Wesmore – who is in charge of events that happen inside Cypress? Remember the resident
feedback session? A lot of people were saying there was no school spirit. Paint the walls of
Cypress and inside the dorm halls.
lvi. Felipe – Cypress Hall Council tonight at 10.
lvii. Wesmore – there are guitar hero tournaments, what about Halo and Call of Duty 4 tournaments.
lviii. BGA – talk to Jimmy, evolve it into more of a general game association.
lix. Treas – welcome to propose a game tournament
VI. Open Floor and Services Issues
i. NCC – someone was saying, is it possible to replace the oven in Cypress. The oven is as old as
the building.
 ii. Jamal – cooked in the oven twice. Really good cakes.
iii. Food problems – food ticketing system.
VII. Kudos and Shout Outs
i. Karen – RHA E-board
ii. Karen – Wesmore – keep showing up
iii. Ken – Karen – for being Karen
iv. NCC – Ken for keeping on track
v. VP – programming committee
vi. Wesmore – for the food at the meeting.
VIII. Announcements
i. First meeting is Jan. 26.
ii. Treas – if you ran a program, give receipts to Karen.
iii. VP – hope everyone has good holiday season
iv. Karen – 24 quiet hours start the 10th
IX. Adjournment 12:30 PM.