SGA discusses class reports

By Kayla Fleming, contributing writer
Posted on September 27, 2007

Sens. Ashley Elstro and Lee Brooks proposed a bill at Tuesday night’s SGA meeting to extend a congratulations and a thank-you to all those who made Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s visit to JMU successful. The bill was met with no objections, and was passed immediately.

“It’s a great thing to recognize JMU people and organizations when they do great things,”

Brooks said. “It was an awesome event.”

The meeting opened up with Lindsay Dowd, vice president of student affairs, announcing the SGA’s nominations for Mr. and Ms. Madison.

“Each club gets to choose one graduating male and female to compete in the pageant,”

Dowd said. “The nominees for SGA are Lee Brooks and Stefanie DiDomenico.”

Dowd then asked for class officer reports.

The senior class said they chose T- shirt design and will begin selling soon. The shirts will be black and will say “Centennial Senior.” The senior class is also beginning a countdown to graduation.

“Oct. 16 marks the 200th day until we graduate,” Senior Class President Katelyn Grant said. “After that, for the 150th, 100th, and so on, we will be having a dinner for the seniors.”

The junior class has plans to hold a Quad lighting ceremony this semester. The sophomore class suggested hosting a hot cocoa day on the Commons next Wednesday.

Executive treasurer Robert Burden, talked about the current budget amount of $48, 249. Program grants are due by Oct. 30, and the first bill of contingency will be proposed next week. 

“Right now we want to get all that money out and give out as many program grants as we can to benefit the students,” Burden said.

Committee reports followed the class reports.

Sen. Elstro of the Diversity Affairs Committee said the committee wants to establish a stronger relationship with the Center for Multicultural Student Services (CMSS). The committee is planning to host movie nights at Grafton-Stovall, a high school college fair, a CMSS/SGA mixer, and events during Martin Luther King Jr. week.

“I worked with CMSS before, and I thought it was another aspect of diversity that we should be involved with,” Elstro said.

The Student Services Committee said they want to add ISAT as a location for Finals Fuels, where free drinks are distributed during exam week, as well as the Commons. The committee also suggested a tobacco prevention week and a campaign to get tobacco out of campus convenience stores.

“Eight out of ten people do not smoke on campus, but there are still those two people who do,” senator Lexi Hutchins said. “It’s a serious health risk to everyone.”

Sarah Pineres, in charge of the elections commission, declared that a representative from the NAACP will be moderating the candidate debate on Monday night in Taylor Down Under.  The commission will be present to have impartiality for the candidates’ sakes.

Senator Jeff Watson ended the meeting by explaining a new idea for an event. As a spin-off of the television show “Gay, Straight, or Taken,” one person will be paired with three people of the opposite sex from different organizations. The objective is to get everyone to work together.

“This is a chance to throw away first impressions of people and to get all the organizations on campus to work together as a whole,” Watson said.