The first SGA meeting of the spring semester took place on February 10th at 8:00pm in person in the Moore Community Room (ASAC 100) and remotely over Zoom. The meeting was also live-streamed on Facebook via the SGA’s page.
Student Body Comments
A comment came up about the online bookstore, which canceled a student’s order after the book he ordered was on backorder. He wanted to make sure there were measures in place to prevent incidents like this from occurring. NVU Dean of Students Jonathan Davis asked if he could be sent the notification so he could look into the issue.
A huge concern came up regarding student involvement. Five clubs disbanded last semester due to a combination of the COVID-19 pandemic making club meetings more difficult and a general lack of involvement from students. There was another disbandment scheduled for later on in the meeting, and it’s anyone’s guess how many more will disband as the semester goes on.
To combat the problem of student involvement, the idea was brought up to produce a promotional video for the SGA to raise awareness of the club. Other ideas included finding ways to use the outdoor spaces creatively to bring people together, such as setting up games in the Stonehenge parking lot. The SGA executive board made a point that clubs should reach out to them if they need help with planning events.
For commuter students, involvement is even more difficult. They have been confused about how the weekly COVID test mandate works for them. Davis spoke up to clarify, stating that commuter students should be getting tested each week if they go onto campus regularly for any reason. Students who are completely remote are not required to get tested.
Reports & Presentations
For the financial update, the available budget is $63,280.27, and the total amount is $95,728.54.
Discussion & Action Items
The first action of the night was to disband NVUnity. Club President Alex Therriault described how the executive board was struggling to arrange meeting times due to conflicting schedules and that they had all agreed disbandment would be the best option for the sake of their mental health. The pandemic also had a huge impact on their plans, which was especially painful considering they are just in their second year of being a club.
Before the vote was held, however, Davis suggested that the club not be disbanded during a pandemic and instead be put on ice for the time being. Some agreed, but others made a point that deciding to put troubled clubs on ice halfway through the year was unfair to the handful of clubs that were disbanded last semester under similar conditions. What’s important to mention is that disbandment does NOT mean the club is gone permanently. Any group of students could bring a club back with enough interest at any time.
Administrative Vice President Renee Chaples brought up the idea that the terms for club activity should be changed from active/disbanded to active/inactive, and that an archive of “inactive” clubs be kept on the SGA’s website. This way, the clubs’ constitutions can be kept in one place for students to view at their leisure, and inactive clubs can easily be brought back with enough interest. With a majority vote, NVUnity was not disbanded.
The next order of business is for AMS to make their funding request. They asked for $5,750 to assist with putting on a remote version of the Northeastern Storm Conference (NESC). $1,600 would pay for a Whoova subscription, which is software used regularly in the conference, $3,750 would cover general event registration, and $400 would cover registration exclusively for active members of Lyndon’s AMS chapter.
The reason AMS made this request is that the pandemic had disrupted most of their fundraising opportunities. They also hadn’t accounted for an online conference in their budget, and they want to reduce the financial burden on student attendees as much as possible because of the pandemic. With a majority vote, the funding request was approved.
The next item was another funding request, this time from Dance Ensemble. They asked for $206.95 for a set of floor-protecting dance mats. Upon concluding their presentation, it was clarified that under normal circumstances funding requests under $500 were not handled by the SGA General Board and instead voted on by the executive board. Since the board was unaware of the funding request being so small, the vote was held anyways. The request was passed with a majority vote.
The next item of business is discussing updates for the Student Activity budget. Davis started off with requesting $500 of the budget be allocated to bringing the original designer of the disc golf course to campus from his home in Essex to evaluate the condition of the course and determine what needs to be done to improve it. The request passed with a majority vote.
Last semester, a popular idea was to allocate the funds toward an outdoor space that can be used year-round. Interest is still there for that kind of space, and another idea came up for adding flagpoles to the inner parts of campus to hang flags like pride and Black Lives Matter (BLM) to be more welcoming for potential students in those groups.
Other Business
Some important VSCS dates are coming up. February 17th at 6:00 pm is a public comment forum with the Board of Trustees. March 3rd at 6:00 pm is an open forum with Chancellor Zdatny.
Finally, Spring Break is scheduled for March 23-24.
Club & Committee Updates
The Twilight Players are hosting auditions tonight and Tuesday for their spring production. Ski & Ride is hoping to improve The Glacier to make it better for everyone to ride. AMS is thankful for the funding request going through and is excited for the conference. Dance Ensemble will be hosting Dancing With The Presidents on March 3. Model UN announced that NVU will be representing Moldova, Sudan, and Nicaragua in the Harvard National Model UN conference hosted this past weekend. CAB had an eventful Welcome Week and have plenty more to come, like a game night on Tuesday the 16th and a scavenger hunt on Wednesday the 17th.
The meeting adjourned at 10:32pm. The next meeting will be on February 24th at 8pm, both in the Moore Community Room and over Zoom. We hope to see you there!