The first Saint Louis University Student Government Association meeting of the 2010-2011 academic year was held on Wed., Aug. 25 in the SGA senate chambers. While many of the seats in the chamber were empty, SGA tackled quite a few important issues.
Because many senate seats have yet to be filled, the lack of senators caused SGA to suspend their usual quorum.
To accommodate the currently-empty seats, SGA temporarily amended their policy so that bills and amendments would only need 15 votes to be passed. Historically, 23 votes were needed. If any students are still interested in applying for SGA, applications will still be accepted until Tues., Aug. 31.
Lack of attendance did not hinder SGA productivity. They tabled three bills for one week to be voted on next week and passed a statement of shared governance.
The first bill dealt with the recent administrative changes in the Department of Public Safety. SGA has made efforts to create a stronger relationship with campus security through its Safety Concerns Committee.
The Safety Concerns Committee will be “comprised of a minimum of 4 [SGA] members” and “will maintain contact with campus security and any other pertinent administrators,” according to the Senate bill. SGA is hoping to gather ideas as to how to handle safety concerns brought up by students through working closely with DPS administrators. Committee members are anticipating meeting with newly appointed Roland Corvington, the new Assistant Vice President and Director of the Department of Public Safety and Security Services.
Additionally, a statement of shared governance was successfully passed. It has been in the development process since the summer.
“We really want to work together [with the administration],” SGA President Courtney Anvender said.
The idea of creating a stronger sense of shared governance is something Anvender is putting a lot of effort into. Already, there has been more collaboration between the Executive Board and the SGA Cabinet (composed of all SGA committee heads).
This early collaboration is intended to allow for the SGA to successfully work with the administration in order to create a “statement” of shared governance.
“It’s not a ‘them versus us’ thing,” stated Anvender. She expressed that the SGA is more than willing to work cooperatively with SLU’s administration. Anvender explained that this “statement” is more of a collection of ideas that SGA believes to define shared governance.
“It’s been well-received by the administrators we’ve worked with so far,” said Anvender. “We just want to keep it in our back pocket so we can refer back to it if there ever was believed to be a breach of shared governance.”
SGA unanimously passed the resolution, and it will now be presented to the President’s Coordinating Council and the Board of Trustees. Anvender said that she hopes that the statement will eventually be included in the student handbook.
Though the majority of senators were in support of the resolution, they stated that they would be passing the resolution as representatives of their constituents: the students.
“I just wanted to reiterate how [SGA] is the official voice of the student body,” Senator Kripa Sreepada said. “They really need to see our transparency this year.”
Senator Patrick Grillot expressed that the resolution was something already being acted out by SGA, but this statement was “just putting it into words.”
SGA is also working toward creating a student creed and pledge that attempts to combat the diversity issues that plagued campus last year.
“This [creed] goes beyond diversity issues and it is more proactive than reactive,” said Anvender.
SGA hopes to essentially formulate a student code of conduct that describes what it truly means to be a student at SLU.
“We have been meeting with the leaders of campus multicultural groups and we want to ensure that everyone has a say,” said Anvender.
Once the creed and corresponding pledge are composed, written up and approved by the administration, SGA is intending that the documents will be strongly integrated into the First Year Experience program.
Last spring the Come Together party also expressed its disappointment in the Pius XII Memorial Library, and vowed to work with the library administrators in order to bring needed renovations to the facility.
“Rather than advocating for a short-term Band-Aid renovation, we are advocating for a truly transformative renovation of the library as it currently exists,” Anvender stated.
SGA is currently conducting research of other Jesuit Universities and their respective libraries.
“Our role is to do research and put strategic pressure where needed,” said Anvender.
Fr. Lawrence Biondi, S.J. has apparently requested that SGA present their report at the September PCC meeting.
She hopes to have SGA start working with Vice President of the Frost Campus Manoj Patankar on this project. Not only is SGA planning on working with the administration, they are also striving to include student input. This will be accomplished in part through their first Town Hall meeting that will focus on the library. The Town Hall meeting date has yet to be determined.
While SGA is making efforts to work on major administrative and structural issues, they are also working internally. Vice President of Internal Affairs, Murphy Vandenberg has been making strides in a direction that may have been lost in the past few SGA cabinets.
“We want to connect more with students and bring SGA back to the student level,” Vandenberg said.
Vandenberg hopes to accomplish this goal with a few new initiatives. One of which will be the incorporation of SGA Interns.
An idea that was inspired by the University of the Holy Cross’s student government, SGA interns will work with the vice presidents and president. It is anticipated that these new positions will create more student interest in SGA, as it is not uncommon for students to lose that said interest after not being able to hold a senatorial position, Vandenberg expressed.
Another new effort being made by SGA will be senatorial barbecues. “[The barbecues are] a chance for students to casually interact with senators and the exec board,” Vandenberg stated.
The first senatorial barbecue will be held on Thursday, Sept. 30. More details on the time and location have yet to be released.
Vandenberg wanted to express that “[The Executive Board] is more low-key than past years and [they] want to bring that feeling back to SGA.”
Anvender said that she was pleased with the year’s first meeting.
“I think it went well. It’s no a full house yet so that changes the dynamics,” Anvender said. “Discussion was good for the statement of shared governance and there is a lot of symbolism in that this was passed in the first meeting.”
