The Student Government Association unanimously approved Bill 49-16 “Allocation of Funds – New Microwaves” at its Feb. 23 meeting, which sets aside $500 to purchase three new microwaves for the Commons.
Jennifer Reichert, international studies and business sophomore, SGA senator and the bill’s co-sponsor, said she believed the approval of the bill would improve the wait-time for microwaves and shows the student body the SGA takes students’ concerns seriously.
Josh Kornberg, communications senior and SGA president, reported that the Physical Plant should be installing new outlets for the microwaves within the next two weeks.
Kornberg also delivered his president’s report about the work of the Election Committee. He reported that the Election Committee has set election dates for March 20-22.
Voting for SGA offices will open when ballots are e-mailed to all students at midnight on March 20. All students who have not voted for officers by March 22 will receive a reminder e-mail on the morning of March 22 to vote. Voting will close at 4 p.m. on March 22, and the election results will be announced at the March 22 SGA meeting.
Kornberg called on his fellow senators to help encourage students to run for SGA office and continue to build on the progress the SGA has made this year.
“My personal goal is to get 50 senate applications in,” Kornberg said. “I think that will achieve the competition we’ve been talking about and keep our momentum going. This is the time that we can really branch out and increase our representation and bring in the different schools.”
Reichert said she agreed spreading the word about elections and encouraging students to run for office is important.
“This semester, I’ve really made a point of telling my acquaintances on campus about what we do, and they’re generally really surprised,” Reichert said. “We should really tell people what we’re doing because if we don’t nobody will.”
All students interested in running for SGA office can pick up an election packet from Campus Life or the SGA office. The packets are due at 4 p.m. on March 15.
Anne Skuce, interim vice chancellor for Student Affairs, addressed the SGA about the university’s efforts to increase retention at its March 8 meeting.
Skuce said the Indiana state government has changed the way it funds universities. Instead of funding universities based on enrollment numbers, Indiana now funds universities based on completion rates. IU Southeast is shifting its focus away from enrolling large numbers of students to retaining the students it accepts.
“We can bring in a whole bunch of students here, but, if they don’t have a good experience and transfer, we haven’t kept our promise to them when we invited them to apply,” Skuce said.
In order to increase retention rates, all freshmen will now be advised in their academic school instead of the Academic Advising Center, with the exception of undecided students.
“We know that students engaged in their school earlier will have a higher persistence rate to graduation,” Skuce said.
Student Affairs is also partnering with the Career Development Center to help undecided students choose a major earlier. As a result, the Career Development Center will offer interest inventories to help students discover what career fields and majors best align with their particular interests and aptitudes.
Student Affairs is also working with Residence Life to develop living-learning communities. Skuce said other universities have had great success in retaining students through this mean and would like to reproduce those results at IU Southeast.
The living-learning communities would be open to students living on campus. The students would form a cohort and take at least one general education class together in both the fall and spring.
University officials said they hope at least one living-learning community will be ready to launch in fall 2012.
IU Southeast is also attempting to better forecast when classes will be offered in an effort to help retain students.
“We are very interested in being able to see three semesters out the courses that are being offered, especially for classes that you need to graduate and aren’t offered every semester,” Skuce said.
Senators Ashley Kern, secondary education freshman, and Micaela Dale, business, marketing and management junior, presented their report on residents’ concerns in the lodges.
Dale said the main issues residents brought up were their frustrations with the curfew and quiet hours and the fact that IU Southeast is a dry campus.
Shanda-Lyn Webb, special education freshman and SGA treasurer, reported the SGA budget had been drawn up for the next academic year and would remain the same as the 2011-12 budget.
Stephen Prather, radiography junior and SGA senate pro-tempore, introduced Bill 49-17 “IU Southeast Student Government Association Officer Salaries,” co-sponsored by Kornberg, on its first read.
If passed, the bill would more equitably distribute the apportionment of the $5,000 SGA salary budget among the salaried SGA officers. The SGA president’s salary would be reduced from 36 percent of the budget to 20 percent. The 16 percent reduction would be divided between various positions, such as executive assistant, pro-tempore and treasurer.
Matt Owen, political science junior and SGA senate chair, introduced Resolution 49-06. The resolution expresses the SGA’s appreciation to the Physical Plant and Jim Wolfe, director of Physical Plant, for their willingness to help the SGA resolve the microwave shortage.
By AMANDA BROWN
Staff
anb4@umail.iu.edu
