The second SGA meeting of the spring semester took place on February 24 at 8:09pm in the Moore Community Room and remotely via Zoom. The meeting was also live-streamed on the SGA’s Facebook page.
Reports & Presentations
In the financial update, the available funds are $57,213.93 and the total amount is $89,662.20.
To address the lack of student involvement on campus, a list of ideas was drafted. One such idea was to put up a series of bulletin boards in a well-populated spot on campus, one for each club. Another idea was to introduce Student Involvement Incentives, which would be a reward system for getting involved in student activities. Then, a proposal was brought up to introduce interest groups alongside clubs on campus. Interest groups would set themselves apart by not having a budget. Another proposal was to use the Student Activity Account as a grant that can be used by anyone on campus via a budget proposal, not unlike how the SGA budget works.
In other news, the SGA announced they are collaborating with an unnamed company to update their constitution for $500.
They also updated their website to include the club archives that were proposed at the last SGA meeting, and the proposal to replace the term “disbanded” with “inactive” to be less threatening and open up the opportunity for the inactive club to reactivate at a later date continued.
President Gill MacDonald announced plans for the week of March 15 to be “Club Appreciation Week,” which would have clubs nominate their members for a variety of awards to celebrate their contributions.
Discussion & Action Items
The first conversation centered around the Student Activity Account. The SGA is working on getting a price estimate to add Vermont, pride, and BLM flags to the campus. The outdoor space, called the Penguin Solarium, is estimated to have a budget of $6,000 for the building alone. It would be too expensive to add heating and internet, an idea previously thought up. The SGA then held a vote to determine ideas for the location of the space. The most popular idea was to place it where the Wheelock tent used to be at the beginning of the academic year.
An idea was proposed to put $10,000 of the money toward a pre-existing emergency fund. This fund would only be pulled from for critical needs, such as if a student was put in quarantine for COVID and couldn’t afford food.
Other Business
The VSCS Board of Trustees voted to move forward with the establishment of a new institution, which would be a merge of both NVU campuses, both VTC campuses, and Castleton University under one name. NVU President Elaine Collins will be invited to the next SGA meeting to answer questions about the plans moving forward.
The next item was the Excellence for Teaching Award. Tracy Sherbrook is looking for nominations from the part-time faculty for this award, so contact her if you have a member to nominate. You will need to write a letter to nominate your choice and email it to Tracy by March 15. The winning faculty member will receive $500 in addition to official recognition.
The 10% Committee then gave their updates for what they have been working on. They’re planning to add free feminine hygiene products to bathrooms on-campus, and are contacting companies to supply the university with the products. They are also hoping to add a community garden to campus.
Club & Committee Updates
MEISA announced that Greggfest will be a drive-in event this year to accommodate for proper social distancing.
The Twilight Players will have a general Performance Night on April 10. There will be a handful of numbers from the Carrie musical, along with other songs and a few dance numbers.
Spring Day will take place on April 23-25. The theme is “boardwalk,” and club idea proposals will be due on March 5.
The meeting concluded at 9:59 pm. The next meeting will be held on March 10, same time and same place. We hope to see you there!