A fire alarm delayed Student Government Association proceedings for nearly 30 minutes, but not the intense questions and debate after a number of organizations came up for chartering and funding.
“In my four years of being in Student Government, this is the first time a fire alarm has gone off during a meeting,” vice president of student organizations Tyler Sondag said.
Before the fire alarm, Senators were presented with a spot-funding request by SLU Dance Marathon for their 12-hour dance marathon, which is scheduled for Nov. 19th. The organization requested for approximately $2,500 for operational costs.
Senators debated the logistics of the event and requests for funding regarding housekeeping and two-way radios used during the event. After some clarifications, SGA approved funding for the dance marathon.
Vidur Sharma, an Information Technology Services Committee Representative, spoke to senate about the Tegrity program and some of its results since it had been implemented at SLU. Tegrity is a lecture capture tool which records both audio and video features in classrooms.
Sharma said that Tegrity is integrated with Blackboard and its mobile app has been used in classrooms around campus. Currently, Tegrity is used in 23 classrooms on the Health Sciences Campus and 38 classrooms on the main Campus. Sharma asked senators how to market the new system more effectively to professors and students.
According to Sharma, there were more than 16,600 views on Tegrity during the Fall 2011 semester. He said that the Tegrity program and the mobile application can be used depending upon the instructor’s discretion.
Sharma also said the professors will have post-production power over their videos and can add videos if a concept is unclear or unaddressed during class.
SGA also tabled a resolution to establish a Graduate Student Concerns Committee. Graduate student senators created this bill to help redefine the relationship between SGA and the various other graduate school government associations. The bill was tabled after a concern of allowing committee representative on the committee arose, due to the fact that they were mainly undergraduate students serving on a graduate school committee.
SGA also charted a new organization called People for Equality, Education and Promoting Scholarship, a Women’s Studies professional organization that runs workshops and seminars to aid students who are majoring women studies in finding future career and professional opportunities.SGA also recognized the Undergraduate Socio-economic Diversity scholars for the Fall 2011 semester.
