The fifth SGA meeting of the fall semester took place on October 21 at 8:05 pm in the Moore Community Room (ASAC 100) and online via Zoom. The full livestream is available on the SGA’s Facebook page if you’re interested in checking it out.
In reports and presentations, Provost Nolan Atkins joined the SGA through Zoom to answer any questions regarding the mini-break scheduled for October 28 and October 29. He explained that it was created from an outcry of students who were feeling burned out and overworked from the lack of any scheduled breaks during the semester. It’s been kept to two days due to state restrictions about week-long breaks and, by extension, to discourage students from traveling during the break. Vermont state travel guidelines are still to be upheld, and the administration requests that students refrain from leaving campus during the break.
An important question was raised about whether every class would be canceled for the mini-break. Atkins said that there were likely a few exceptions, including online courses still continuing, but otherwise all classes would be canceled for the days.
Atkins also gave some insight into the next semester and how it may go. The term will begin on February 1 and it’s looking like the schedule will not be able to include week-long breaks. Instead, Atkins said the semester will likely be divided up into five-week bursts with two-day mini-breaks. These breaks may be swapped between Tuesday-Wednesday and Wednesday-Thursday.
Another question was posed to Provost Atkins about whether commencement would be rescheduled due to the semester starting later than planned, and Atkins assured that the date would not change.
It was also revealed that the positive COVID-19 test came from an off-campus online student, so there isn’t any immediate danger of any on-campus student having been exposed in a normal classroom setting.
With a majority rule, the schedule was modified to include a presentation from NVU Dean of Students Jonathan Davis about the 10% Committee. The committee is made up of him, two voting student members, and the SGA Financial Controller, who then find helpful ways to spend 10% of the student activity funding each year. They were responsible for things like the bottle-filling stations, replacement Fitness Center equipment, new benches for Veterans Park, and much more. Davis also talked about a 10% project that ended up being put on hold due to the emergency change to remote learning last semester, which was to install free feminine products in the women’s bathrooms on campus. Davis requested that people nominate anyone who’s interested in joining the committee and to contact the SGA about nominations.
The next presentation was about the Student Activities Account. The top two topics that were voted on in the previous meeting to focus the money toward were Maintenance and Student Health, and the SGA discussed some specific options for each category. A hot topic was putting in a new 24-hour computer lab, which had previously been removed last year due to a lack of use. Students still need a place to print, so ideas are still floating around about implementing printing areas in the residence halls, in The Hive, or some other place. Another idea was implementing a clubhouse or a permanent meeting space for clubs somewhere on campus since clubs have struggled this semester to book rooms while socially distancing.
Due to the old bookstore space opening up, the option also became possible for the SALC office to move to that space. Currently, the office is located on the second floor of Rita Bole, which is inconvenient for a lot of the student body to get to, so moving it to Vail would be more centralized. Eventually, it was made clear that the money didn’t all have to go to one area; it could go to multiple ideas. The SGA then took a “vote” for what ideas should be further discussed in the next meeting.
The meeting then moved to the financial update. The available balance is $61,088.92 and the total is $93,638.92.
In discussion and action items, two more clubs were disbanded with a majority vote: Cultural Ambassadors Society (CAS) and Veteran’s Association.
In other business, the points about the mini-break that were elaborated on earlier were restated. Halloweek updates were also made. Themed days have been established for the whole week alongside the previously scheduled events.
Finally, club and committee updates were made. The Twilight Players have a dance recital scheduled for November 9 which will be streamed live. They are also interested in putting together a production of “Carrie” in the spring, which was originally scheduled for last spring before the pandemic. Model UN is still talking with NVU-Johnson’s Model UN about merging the clubs and are figuring out the intricate details about how to deal with things such as financing on each campus.
The meeting concluded at 10:19 pm. The next meeting will take place on November 4, same time and same place. We hope to see you there!