The fourth SGA meeting of the spring semester took place over Zoom on Wednesday, March 25th at 8 pm in a town hall format. The meeting in full is available to view on the SGA’s Facebook. Meetings will no longer be livestreamed, but recordings of them should follow-up by the next morning.
SGA President Kate Henriques opened the meeting with a summary of the most recent email (as of writing this report) from Mike Secreti. To recap, all on-campus events are now canceled for the remainder of the semester. It is possible to put together events over Zoom, and you can contact Mary Faford for details on how to do that. All club accounts are frozen, so nobody can spend money at this time. Budgeting and elections have both been postponed until the fall semester. Any club representatives that have received budgeting proposals in their inbox should still discuss the subject with their Executive Board so they’ll be prepared for the fall, and turn it in to the SGA’s email. Since elections have been postponed, Henriques and SGA Financial Controller Patrick Wickstrom will stay on the SGA Executive Board for the first few weeks next semester to help ease the transition to new board members.
Moving onto student questions, the topic of the Student Activities Account was brought up. Patrick explained that the discussions around the account have been lowered on the priority list due to “recent events in the past couple weeks.” NVU Dean of Students, Jonathan Davis, explained that the investigation of the account had concluded with “favorable results,” and that they were going to try to arrange a meeting with Toby and his team soon to go over those results.
A concern came up regarding Zoom’s 40-minute limit for video calls through the free account. Davis assured everyone that he would contact Mike Dente from I.T. to try and get pro accounts for all the clubs.
The next question was about whether the members of WWLR could continue to broadcast in the radio station. Davis confirmed that so long as they are continuing to practice social distancing and other precautions, activity in the radio station could indeed continue.
Another question came up on whether Peer Leader training would still continue as scheduled. Director of Student Life, Erin Rossetti, couldn’t confirm when that would take place since scheduling has been up in the air as of late.
The hot topic of graduation was also discussed. In one of the recent emails to students, it was mentioned that the 2020 graduation ceremony would be moved to around the same time as the 2021 ceremony. Lauren Cornell, a graduating senior, has been talking with other members of the senior class to derive a proposal for some alternative events for the graduates to take part in at the end of this school year. NVU President Elaine Collins explained that the commencement planning process is complicated and time-consuming, and that the committee has been hard at work coming up with the best time to hold graduation. They contemplated holding it during homecoming or early in the next school year, but it all came down to budgeting and space. Holding it around the same time as the 2021 ceremony was determined to be the best time by the planning committee. Collins assured the students that the ceremonies would not take place at the same time, to make sure as many people as possible can participate in both ceremonies.
Another question came up about allowing the Lyndon State College traditions of wearing hoods and having the college’s old name on the diplomas to be extended through to the 2021 graduates. Collins said she would pass the requests on to the people in charge.
The next topic was about housing. For students that live in the residence halls on campus, they had until 5:00 pm on March 25 to move their stuff out of their rooms. If they weren’t scheduled to move until after that time, then the moving time was postponed until April 15. Some students were confused about the initial moving plans being so quick to change after Vermont Governor Scott’s travel ban, and President Collins said that the state did not reach out to the state colleges to warn them about the plan. As for food services on campus, the school is in talks with Sodexo to continue providing food for the students on campus. Sodexo is having food delivered instead of keeping the buildings open restaurant-style so social distancing can be maintained.
On the subject of classes and graduation requirements, students were wondering how summer classes will be held if social distancing protocols continue past the end of the semester. Summer classes can be flexible, so there’s a possibility that some might be changed to online or postponed until later in the summer.
A question came up as to what would happen with lab fees paid for the spring semester since some students haven’t even gotten half of a semester to use what they paid for. While lab fees haven’t been considered yet, the administration will figure something out to accommodate.
A concern came up about professors that don’t have good internet access and how they’re being assisted by the college to accommodate the issue. Provost Nolan Atkins explained that Governor Scott has put together a list of public WiFi spots for everyone to use during this time and that the staff is doing the best they can to help.
Cornell also took the time to mention that the Brown House has open remote spots to talk if you need it, and there are 6 RAs on staff who can help as well.
With the move to online classes, a concern was brought up that the classes would not be challenging enough and that students might not get the skills they need for their degree field this way. Provost Atkins was receptive to the feedback, and assured the students that the faculty would be trying their best to maintain the integrity of their instruction throughout. He also brought up the possibility of altering the grading system to a Pass/Not Pass system for the semester, not unlike how midterm grades are established. This would be an optional system for each student, and the option would not affect your GPA should you choose to use it.
A question came up as to why the President’s List accolade in the VSC program is restricted to a 4.0 GPA when other universities across the country have it set at 3.8 or higher GPAs. The executive staff didn’t have an answer at the time, but they were happy to pass the question on to get one.
Housing selection has been moved completely online. Erin Rossetti explained that virtual housing selections would continue to happen over Zoom and that as of now, Selection Day would continue to happen on April 15. However, this date is subject to change, so keep an eye out for updates.
Students not returning to school at NVU-Lyndon are being asked to return their mailroom and lab keys if they have any. Students needing to return their mailroom key have to get it to the mailroom. You can give it to a member of Residential Life if you’re still on campus and they’ll get it to the mailroom staff. If you have a lab key for HAC or another place on campus, you’ll want to send it to Student Affairs. Make sure you have your name clearly marked on the package/envelope so the staff knows the key was from you. The mailing address, in case you can’t return to campus, is:
Student Affairs Office
1001 College Rd
Lyndonville VT 05851
The next meeting will take place on Zoom this upcoming Wednesday, April 1. As usual, the meeting will start at 8:00 pm, so try to tune in! We will see you then!