Four weeks ago, during the State of the Association Address,
Student Government Association President Nick Sarcone mentioned a
mandate passed last fall by the University administration, which
has come to be known as the “Biondi Mandate.”

Numerous chartered student organizations, both undergraduate and
graduate, expressed grievances that their organizations were being
required to hold their events on campus, as long as the University
had adequate facilities for their purposes.

In the past few weeks, this mandate came under much scrutiny
from many parties and, through many different channels, their
criticisms reached the ears of the proper administrators.

Vice President for Student Development Kathy Humphrey and
University President Lawrence Biondi, S.J., discussed the
University policy and came to the conclusion that this mandate,
while originally created because of liability concerns, might not
be ideal for student organizations.

They agreed that if, and only if, the SGA agrees to work with
the administration to help offset most of the liability concerns
the university will be fully behind CSOs having events off campus.
However, the main concern raised by Humphrey was that if a
liability occurs at a function off campus, the University is held
responsible. This is what has to change, according to Humphrey.

“It is a blessing that there has never been an issue where this
has come up, but we have to be responsible,” Humphrey said. “The
University does not want to be solely responsible for the liability
of student groups if they hold events off campus.”

The exact policies for the SGA to adopt are still up in the air,
but they are being hammered out by Sarcone and Humphrey. There will
most likely be an ad hoc student committee formed to consult on any
of the policy changes. However, as Humphrey mentioned, there are a
few good examples of how the SGA and other CSOs can help offset
some of the liability that already exists on this campus.

“Greek organizations are a very good model for us to use. Their
safeguards are the types of safeguards we will need to look into
having,” Humphrey said.

The sudden policy shift is just one of a handful of recent
victories for the Sarcone administration, which also includes the
recently done away with $5 mandatory per person charge for all
damages in residence halls and the one time; $10 laundry fee for
residents of residence halls, instead of the current coin operated
system; the recent admission by the administration that it will
start looking into different food options in the Busch Student
Center and addition of a fund-raising drive to take part in the
Capital Campaign, which will have the sole purpose of generating
around $5 million for upperclass scholarships.

“We are just now starting to hit our stride as an SGA and
allowing ourselves to address a lot of the everyday problems that
students are having and have had and we are getting most of it
done,” Sarcone said.