The Student Government Association came close to revoking the charter of SLU TV this week, while Dean of Students Scott Smith, Ph.D., said to students that, lately, he has had to “look in the mirror a lot and learn.”
In what SGA Executive Vice President Samantha Howard said was an effort to “clean house,” Senate members voted in the meeting on Wednesday, April 9, to revoke the charters of 41 student organizations that have no student members and are “inactive,” including the Pub Club, the Fantasy Role-Playing Club and the End-the-Apathy Club.
Several clubs were saved from the initial bill for de-chartering, including the Life at SLU Television Network-known as SLU TV, which was on the list because senators who proposed the bill were not aware that the two were the same organization.
To save the active chartered student organization, the rules were suspended and SLU TV, along with 10 other previously-removed CSOs, was removed from the de-chartering, which then passed unanimously.
President and Co-Founder of the Gun Awareness and Marksmanship Education club Tom Applewhite spoke to the Senate about the possibility of making GAME a CSO.
Smith joined Applewhite to talk to the Senate about the process the two had taken in exploring the possibility of chartering GAME.
“I had anticipated that [the discussion about chartering GAME] would not go smoothly,” Smith said.
He has been working with Applewhite to make sure that the chartering process is clear and professional. He said that his feelings about the gun issue are not affecting helping the group pursue becoming a CSO.
Applewhite said that GAME is concerned with safety and education about guns.
He said that the organization has no intentions to change SLU’s gun-free campus policy, or to encourage the breaking of this law by its members.
“We’re not big on meetings; we’re big on events,” Applewhite said about the club’s activities, which have been entirely self-funded thus far. College of Philosophy and Letters Sen. Ronald O’Dwyer, S.J., asked Applewhite about the timing of the attempt to charter the club, considering the recent college shootings and the local Kirkwood shootings.
“This group was started before [the Virginia Polytechnic and State University] shootings [on April 16, 2007],” Applewhite said.
He said he does think that gun violence would be reduced if potential gun-crime victims had “a means of protecting themselves,” but said he and GAME in no way support the tragic school shootings.
During the spot-funding request from the flight club, Flying Billikens, a long debate ensued. The Flying Billikens requested $5,172.68 to take 16 of their members to a national flight competition in Murfreesboro, Tenn., for nine days.
Financial Vice President John Curry and the Finance Committee recommended that the Flying Billikens only be allotted enough money to take 10 members. The senators voted to amend the bill and give the CSO $4,109.08.
Also in Wednesday’s meeting:
College of Education and Public Service Sen. Kevin Grillot resigned at the beginning of the meeting, to “focus on passions that are life-giving,” he said.
Senior Arts and Sciences Sen. Patrick Devney and Administrative Vice President Priyanka Veerlapati gave a presentation about the SGA Excellence Awards, to be awarded on April 30.
The Muslim Student Association requested and was awarded $500 in spot-funding to bring author Dahr Jamail to speak about his book Beyond the Green Zone in an event that will be open to all SLU students.
SLU TV was awarded $870.35 for a new DV-VCR. The CSO initially requested two VCRs to replace two previously broken ones, but Senior Grand Forest Sen. Ben Corrado, who also works with SLU TV, was able to fix one. The bill passed to replace the remaining VCR.
Curry spoke for Club Baseball to request $130 in spot-funding for the use of a field for an upcoming game.
He said that the Division One baseball coach asked that the club team host games at somewhere other than the Billiken Sports Center, SLU’s baseball complex. The spot-funding was awarded for an upcoming triple header against the University of Missouri, to be hosted at Forest Park.
