Student Council discussed internal changes and committee goals at its first General Body meeting of the new term Tuesday night.
The meeting began with the swearing in of new representatives, who pledged to uphold Student Council’s constitution and bylaws on their honor.
Among the major changes to Student Council is the consolidation of the Community Affairs committee and the Public Service committee into a newly-formed Community Service committee. David Birkenthal, former Community Service co-chair and second-year College student, expressed his concern over this during community concerns.
“We kind of felt really disrespected that all of our work from the past year had been disregarded,” Birkenthal said. “We really wanted to know why we weren’t included in this decision and why this happened.”
Student Council President Emily Lodge, a third-year Batten student, responded to the concern by explaining the executive committee sought to reduce redundancy and increase efficiency rather than disregard the goals of a committee.
Co-Chair of Community Service Liam Wolf, a second-year Engineering student, added that people who served on Community Affairs will be permitted to continue the projects they had already begun.
“You’d be stunned at how much overlap there was between the two,” Wolf said.
Other significant internal changes include using Slack, a team messaging app, for all communications and assigning a specific person to each community concern to take action on it during the week and follow up at the next General Body meeting. This procedure formalizes a system loosely followed in the previous term.
Representative Body Chair Brett Curtis, a second-year College student, brought up two additional community concerns — publicizing the location of microwaves on Central Grounds, and changing the parking lot permit status behind the Curry School to make it more accessible on weekends.
“No issue is too small,” Curtis said.
Following community concerns, the new committee chairs discussed their goals and recruitment processes. While most committees are maintaining their existing mission statements and using an application and interview process, the Diversity Initiatives Committee changed its name to Diversity Resources and Engagement, citing reasons of wanting to support diversity rather than initiate it.
During updates from the executive committee, Lodge although Student Council organized busses to take students to the Foxfield Races last year, it faced several logistical issues and will not be doing so this year. However, she said the council has been speaking to a company looking to invest in taking students to the races and plans to assist them in publicizing their effort if they do so.
“We will not be taking on the liability of Foxfield, but we are going to help students find the resources they need to get there,” Lodge said.
After the general body meeting, the representatives met and discussed their intentions to hold open office hours and increase their public presence.
“We’re going to look at utilizing the power of the resolution a bit more effectively,” Curtis said. “Every time we put it on paper, it’s going to be saying ‘This is the position of the student body at the University’ and I think that’s powerful.”
Read More
Board of Visitors Finance Committee hears presentation on budget process
By Cecilia Mould | YesterdayThe Committee will review and vote on the budget for the 2024-25 fiscal year when the full Board reconvenes for its June meeting.
Police forcefully clear encampment near University Chapel, detain protesters
By Thomas Baxter and Finn Trainer | 3 days agoThe University declared the encampment an unlawful assembly at 2:44 p.m.
Student Council passes appointment bill, approves new CIOs at final meeting of semester
By Arshiya Pant | 4 days agoMendoza Gonzalez also said she will be meeting with Kenyon R. Bonner, vice president and chief student affairs officer, to discuss further strategies for the Student Council Endowment Fund.
