Northern Vermont University – Lyndon’s first Student Government Association (SGA) meeting took place at 8 pm on September 5, 2018 in the Moore Community Room.
The hot topic of the meeting was the announcement of the suspension of News 7 broadcasts during the Student Body Comments. The department’s engineer, Mark Mohrmann, retired in April, and no replacement has been hired in his place yet as of the writing of this article. With nobody to handle the complicated technology broadcasting requires, the show must be suspended until a new engineer is hired.
A group of Electronic Journalism Arts (EJA), Atmospheric Science (ATM) and Meteorology students presented the serious problems this stagnation in News 7 causes. News 7 is not only an important service for the students, but for the local community as well. It is one of the only schools that broadcasts live twice a day and five times a week; this is a huge draw for incoming students hoping to get into broadcasting, according to the presenting students. In their comments they discussed how this makes NVU-Lyndon stand out, and that the suspension going on any longer threatens to erase that uniqueness. Their presentation showed that the people that will suffer the most are the students who run the broadcasts. Not only are they being kept from getting the practice they need for future employment, but the credits they signed up for are not being fulfilled.
In other news, the general fund was $32,000 at the start of the meeting. The Do North Adventure program received $2,956.26 from the SGA to purchase five mountain bikes and helmets for students to rent. Katy Ebner will maintain the bikes, and the rentals will be free for all students. The desire for bikes comes from the Outing Club’s rising interest in Mountain Biking, with the one thing keeping them from doing so being a lack of enough bikes to go around, and the difficulty for students to bring their own bikes from home and keep them on campus.
Ebner made another proposal to the student body, discussing a volunteer opportunity for the Reach the Beach Relay. The event takes place on Friday, September 14th, and is an all day event. 26 volunteers are needed for the event, and if clubs decide to volunteer, they will receive donations to their respective clubs for each participant. If you are interested in participating, email Katy Ebner at Katy.Ebner@NorthernVetmont.edu.
There are plenty of other plans going on to start off the school year.
- The clubs on campus are showing interest in collaborating with not only each other, but with clubs on the Johnson campus as well.
- The Student Activities and Leadership Center (SALC office), which used to be next door to the Hornet’s Nest, is now in the 2nd Floor Lounge in Rita Bole. The old space is being opened to host future events, including those that could involve serving alcohol.
- Erin Rossetti and Student Life are arranging to offer temporary housing for commuters who for one reason or another don’t have a place to stay. The top floor of Whitelaw will be dedicated to this cause. Spare bedding and toiletries will be provided in case students come unprepared.
The meeting adjourned at 9:50 pm. The next SGA meeting will be September 19th at 8:00 pm.
To close off, I would like to give a warm welcome to the new SGA officers. This includes President Jake Fortin, Vice President Lauren Cornell, Financial Controller Nick Anastasi, and Administrative Vice President Rachal Peatman.