SGA meets to discuss upcoming initiatives
Posted on August 30, 2007
The first Student Government Association meeting of the 2007-08 academic year was held Tuesday evening as old members and students interested in joining crowded into the Highlawn room in the Festival Center.
Speaker of the Senate Stefanie DiDominco welcomed everyone and called the meeting to order.
Student Body President Brandon Eickel then gave an update the projects he has been working on, which include more available bus schedules, bike racks and recycling bins, especially on the east side of campus.
Eickel also announced that throughout the year JMU is going to introduce JAC Card machines for the laundry machines in residence halls.
“[It will happen] dorm by dorm, slowly but surely this year,” he said.
At this point a student in attendance asked about the status of the Green Fund, which was answered by junior Sarah Chappel, SGA senator at-large.
Chappel said that there has been a meeting with the Board of Visitors who said they could not put the fund on their budget for this year.
According to Chappel, this is not the end of the matter.
“Progress will be made,” she said. “[We’re] still going to push that.”
Next Vice President of Administrative Affairs Andy Gibson made his report. Gibson spoke about projects he is excited about for the coming year.
First is Just People, a service initiative that will put students in closer contact with faculty to find solutions to problems facing JMU. Along similar lines, Gibson also hopes to improve student/adviser relations by expanding the “Take a Professor to Lunch” program and introducing a new “Take a Professor to Coffee” program at Java City.
Next Gibson discussed co-sponsorships, bringing different organizations with similar projects together to accomplish their goals.
Gibson then discussed JMU to U, an organization he started last year that pairs JMU students with a pen pal from a special needs school. He also talked about D-hall Dispersion, a community outreach program aiming to set up a soup kitchen in D-hall.
Before closing Gibson mentioned “Ride the Train,” where he hopes to find out the train schedule so people don’t have to get stopped by it on the way to class.
Gibson also announced committees in need of student representatives for the academic year.
Vice President of Student Affairs Lindsay Dowd, DiDomenico, Chief of Staff Todd Moore, and Minor Elections Chair Lee Brookes and CIA co-chairs Brooks and Sarah Pineres each explained their roll within the organization to potential new members.
Moore said that some of the things he is looking forward to for the upcoming year included updating the SGA handbooks.
“I’m all about communication,” Moore said. “Keeping the doors open and keeping everyone on track.”