The Student Government Association (SGA) held their last meeting of the month on Nov. 22 with 18 members in attendance, 14 of which were voting members.
Updates
The meeting opened with a presentation from Samantha Mendiola, a representative from the architecture firm the College has hired for the new Student Center project. Mendiola discussed that at the moment the location they are looking at for the student center is by the Mitchell Auditorium entrance to Tower Hall.
The process to create the new two-story student center will occur in two phases. The benefit to this is that it puts less of a financial burden on the College at one time.
Mendiola asked SGA to weigh in and vote on the programs they felt would be the most beneficial and necessary in the space. From the list of possibilities, these were the highest-ranking: EDI (5 tallies), coffee shop (7 tallies), late-night dining (7 tallies), Student Government (7 tallies), and student activities/clubs/organizations (6 tallies). These are not necessarily what will be put into the space, but Mendiola wanted to get a better understanding of the student perspective.
The club “Better Together” was proposed to SGA by Isabel Romay. The mission statement is as follows: “Student group that strives to increase cooperation between people of different religious, non-religious, and spiritual backgrounds by fostering knowledge, respect, and relationships through common actions.” The club passed 14-0-1.
The second club that was proposed was the “Plant-Based Club.” This was presented by Jacob Collins. The mission statement is “to promote individual and community well-being via plants as food, hobbies, and as a means of stewardship.” The Club passed 13-0-2.
Internal Affairs Chair Huseby presented the proposed changes to the SGA constitution, which included primarily grammatical errors and adding more precise language. The most notable change was to the title of chief of staff. This position is now referred to as director of operations. These changes were approved 13-0-2.
Director of Operations Arina Grossman presented the bill S.B.6: Pass/Fail Grading Option. This bill allows students to have the option to utilize the pass/fail or credit/no credit grading option for the remainder of the 2020-2021 academic year. This bill passed 11-0-3. The passing of this bill sends it to the chair of the Faculty Assembly, telling them that SGA is advocating for this option. This does not go into effect until the assembly has met and voted on this as the faculty at large.
General Fund
The general fund now stands at $159, 273.06