Victoria Bennett, political science and international studies senior, and Mary Mour, political science senior, were formally sworn in as the 50th Student Government Association president and vice president respectively at the April 3 Campus Commitment to Student Learning Award Ceremony.
Bennett said she is already fully focused on carrying out her new role.
“I am very grateful for the privilege of representing Indiana University Southeast and to serve as the 50th President of the SGA,” Bennett said. “Now that the inauguration has occurred, my vice president, Mary Mour, and I are ready to embark on our new journey and begin working on behalf of all the student body.”
Bennett also took a moment to thank those who helped her secure her seat as SGA president.
“We would like to thank everyone for all of their support along the way and we look forward to working with the administration, the SGA and students to make this a very productive, educational and exciting year,” Bennett said.
In a light-hearted moment, Drew Appel, criminal justice junior and SGA technology officer, offered his congratulations to Bennett and Mour.
“I congratulate our newly elected officials, and Mr. Kornberg – don’t let the door hit you on the way out,” Appel said during the April 5 SGA meeting.
Josh Kornberg, communications senior and the outgoing SGA president, reflected on his term as SGA president after handing the position over to Bennett.
“I feel we have a lot to be proud of after this past year,” Kornberg said. “We’ve really come together and worked well as a student government, so I’m really proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish.”
Kornberg’s post-SGA plans include graduation in May and completing a master’s degree in public affairs at Tennessee State University.
Matt Owen, political science junior and SGA senate chair, and Shanda-Lyn Webb, special education freshman and SGA treasurer, were also honored at the Campus Commitment to Student Learning Ceremony. Owen was presented with the award for “Best SGA Member” for the 2010-2011 academic year while Webb earned the “Best SGA Senator” award. Both awards were determined by a vote of their fellow SGA members.
Owen will be stepping down from the SGA next year as he dedicates more time to his position as a city councilman of Jeffersonville. Webb was re-elected to the SGA Senate during the March elections.
Shortly after the Campus Commitment to Student Learning Ceremony, the SGA combined their celebrations with more serious SGA business at the April 5 SGA meeting, where Kornberg issued his last president’s report.
He informed the SGA that the push to approve the Faculty Provided Course Description policy was losing momentum in the Faculty Senate.
The Faculty Provided Course Description policy would strongly encourage all faculty members to submit brief explanations of the content covered in each of their courses.
Those descriptions would be available to students during registration so they can make an informed decision about which classes to register.
“Asking faculty members to do something that they don’t have to do but that we want them to do is a really hard sell,” Kornberg said. “The only thing we’ve really got going for us is that [IU] Bloomington already has this in place.”
Stephon Moore, political science and journalism freshman and SGA press secretary, raised the idea that the Faculty Provided Course Description would benefit professors. Moore said he believed this is because fewer students would drop classes after the start of the semester if they knew what the courses entailed before the class began.
Kornberg said he affirmed this idea.
“[The Faculty Provided Course Description] is an advantage for some professors who are seeking tenure because it hurts their applications if they have high drop rates,” Kornberg said. “Less students would drop if they knew what they were getting into when they registered.”
Jennifer Reichert, international studies sophomore and SGA senator, issued her report on expanding the amount of exercise equipment in the Activities Building.
Reichert reported it is not within the Athletics Department’s current budget to purchase more exercise equipment for the Activities Building, although they are interested in doing so.
The SGA Senate came to the consensus that they are still committed to expanding the amount of equipment available to students despite athletics’ budget constraint and will look for other sources of funding for the expansion outside of the athletics’ budget.
Ryan Malone, psychology sophomore and SGA senator, announced plans for the SGA to go paperless, which will be implemented sometime in the next week. As a result, all SGA agendas will be uploaded to Oncourse, where the SGA members can read them via their computers or smartphones instead of printing them off.
By AMANDA BROWN
Staff
anb4@umail.iu.edu
