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Posts tagged ‘sga’

Jan 29

SGA Sound-Off: Finances, MiddView & Fighting Gastro

In a nearly two-hour long meeting, the SGA was the place to be tonight! SGA Finance Committee Chair Scott Klenet ’12 presented the Finance Committee Mid-Year Report, followed by a discussion and vote on the MiddView Revision Bill,  and discussion and vote on the Gastroentitis Resolution. Two additional resolutions (Book Reserve Resolution and International Financial Aid Resolution) were tabled until the next meeting. So here’s the scoop:

 I. Mid-Year SGA Finance Committee Report

Finance Committee (FC) Chair Scott Klenet ’12 and several members of the FC were present to discuss the Mid-Year Report. (This will be emailed to all-students shortly, so stay on the lookout!) In summary: we’re looking pretty good.  With an operating budget of over $1.085 million, the FC has over-budgeted from their actual revenues ($950,000), but this has historical precedent and Klenet made clear was not a cause for concern. Many student organizations do not fully spend allocations for the year, and will return money into the reserves, thus making up for this gap. The reserves stands at approximately $413,000, however by the end of the year Klenet expects that the total reserves amount will be between $325,000 to $350,000.

Klenet countered the stereotype that the Finance Committee is a group of  “Soul-less misers who don’t like to let out funds…,” showing a graph of average allocations given from the Finance Committee per week. “Hopefully this graph will show us that we’re not like that… we’ve seen a lot of great presentations, a lot of thoughtful understanding as far as what organizations really need.”

Klenet presented the Senate with the amount the Finance Committee has allocated groups in the fall (New Budget Requests), as well as additional funding requests groups received (New Money). An interesting trend Klenet addressed is that of Student Org expenditures being quite low. While Student Organizations received $583,490 for their fall allocations, $314,454 of that allocation remains unspent. Regarding how much the Finance Committee expects to see returned by the end of the year (in the case of increased spring programming perhaps), Klenet explained that it’s tricky to predict, but that “we [SGA Finance Committee] expect a lot of money to come back to us this year, for better or for worse.”

II. MiddView Bill Revisions:

Senator Michael Polebaum ’12 presented the MiddView Revision Bill (co-sponsored by Senators Brittany Gendron ’12 (full disclosure: this being myself) and Luke Carroll Brown ’13.5). In a nearly hour long discussion, the floor was ceded to all senators, though primarily to Dean of Students Katy Smith Abbott, SGA Finance Committee Chair Scott Klenet ’12, Senators Carroll Brown ’13.5, myself (Senator Gendron ’12) Nathan LaBarbara ‘14, Joanie Thompson ‘14, Danny Zhang ’15, former Senator Charlie Arnowitz ’13, and Mountain Club Treasurer Caroline Santinelli ’14.

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Jan 24

SGA Sound-Off: Thoughts on Earnest Discussion, Needed Debate, and the Problems of Silence

An open letter to fellow senators, students, and the Middlebury College Community,

This past Sunday, the SGA voted on a MiddView bill, approving up to $98,000 in funding (half the cost of the trips) for the next three years. See previous coverage here. We, the undersigned, believe it was an injustice to the Middlebury College community, and a disgrace to the principles of Student government for us, as a senate, to vote on the MiddView Bill this past Sunday.

Our grievances on this matter are two-fold:

First, the process by which the bill passed and the consequences for not observing proper decorum. It was irresponsible of the Senate not to delay the vote on the bill to the next meeting, seeing as there had been no time for prior review of the bill (as the by-laws require), nor were there thorough and/or official presentations of the facts and consequences of this case. It was reckless to vote on a bill of this importance (allocating nearly $300,000 of student activities fee monies (if the administration needs the full half contribution each year)) without giving it the proper time for debate and discussion.

Second, the funding method itself (who is paying for these trips, and at what percentages) is problematic, and deserved a full discussion not provided for at Sunday’s meeting.

Now, we are 110% behind OINK as the philosophy of having outdoor and other educational experiences before or during orientation. As some of the few members of the senate who were here for MiddView Trips and not OINK trips, we can personally attest to their value. However, this bill  and its potential consequences (good and bad alike) deserved to have an actual debate in the SGA, not just to be hastily pushed through without time for a fully informed discussion and vote.

It seems that somehow, it was forgotten that our role as senators is to discuss the merits of the issues, and present the clearest representation of potential impacts of any legislation. Upon the proposal of said bill, it was clear there were opposing views. These opposing views expressed concerns with regard to funding that could not be immediately or coherently addressed in full. They also expressed concerns with the agreement reached with the administration, and at no time was an explanation or presentation on those meetings given to the senate.

There was an attempt to table the vote of the bill until next week when more research could be done (senators could speak with constituencies, an official finance committee presentation could be made regarding fiscal impacts, presidential cabinet members could offer their insights, etc.). Regrettably, however the vote to table the bill until next week lost with a five to seven vote.

There are several issues with the course of this past Sunday we’d like to address:
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Jan 24

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SGA Sound-Off: JusTalks, MiddView and Printers

In a very eventful second meeting of the New Year, the SGA discussed and voted on several pieces of legislation. Still surprised we have an SGA? Wondering what it does? Check out a former SGA Sound-Off post from earlier this year for the sparknotes rendition of SGA and read below for the very latest!

JusTalks: If you haven’t already heard about JusTalks, be on the lookout (and check out their website)! A group of 20 students from the Social Justice Coalition are working to bring about mandatory workshops during all students’ first Jterms — the idea being that these workshops will be safe, inviting spaces for people to engage in conversations relating to all kinds of societal and personal issues that are all too often neglected in wider campus discussions such as race, sexual orientation, ethnicity, disability, gender, and privilege.

As they say in their call to action, and as Rhiya noted in her discussion to the senate Sunday evening, the idea is that JusTalks “will be a forum dedicated to free communication, thoughtful discourse, supportive self-analysis, leaning into discomfort, and dynamic community building.” They are reaching out to the entire campus community for feedback and ideas, so be sure to lend your voice, if not in person, then on the web. The SGA passed the proposed resolution in support of the spirit of JusTalks, to be renewed as further details of the program are delinted in the spring.

OINK/MIDDVIEW: After a heated discussion of sources of funding, the SGA voted and approved of the MiddView bill as sponsored by Joanie Thompson ’14 and Nathan LaBarba ’14 with eight votes for the bill, two votes against, and two abstaining. The bill allocates $98,000 of SGA funding for the Fall 2013 MiddView Trips (approx. half of the total anticipated cost). The MiddView Trips (focused on Outdoor activities or otherwise) all students will attend and will be embedded in the Orientation week. This differs substantially from the current OINK model of only being able to accept a certain number of applicants and having the trips occur during the first weekend of the semester. This also differs substantially from the previous MiddView model where it was co-payed by the Administration and participation fees, and the trips were opt-in by choice and before orientation.

Additionally, the bill permits for the SGA to pay up to 50% of the costs for the years 2014 and 2015, (so, potentially up to $98,000 again, though we were assured it would be less after a significant amount of one-time start up costs occurred for 2013), with the hopes that by passing the aforementioned measures of supportive funding, it is “expected” that by 2016, the funding will come from somewhere other than the SGA. Stay tuned for a post to follow regarding the debates on this vote.

PRINTERS: To close the meeting, the SGA passed a nearly unanimous vote of support for a printer station to be installed in McCullough Student Center. Be on the lookout for that soon!

Nov 14

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SGA Sound Off: Pass/D/Fail by 2012-2013?

Maybe this is just me… but I have had dreams of taking classes Pass/Fail almost as much as I dream of the joy of the end of semesters. The benefits are endless: I finally could take Music Theory or heck, maybe even a computer science class! If we truly are a liberal arts institution, why not enable this measure that will even further facilitate the ability of students to embrace creativity and exploration — without the fear of ‘failure’ by destroying their GPA?

We’d finally be joining the ranks of a myriad of schools that offer this option. Schools such as MIT, Amherst, The University of Pennsylvania, Columbia, Barnard, William & Mary, Virginia Tech, and UNC Chapel Hill (who even created a video demonstrating how to take a class this way) all boast pass/fail options.

The Student Government Association has repeatedly tried to usher Pass/Fail into action here at Middlebury.
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Nov 5

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SGA Sound Off: Yes, Midd has an SGA. This is what we do.

Student Government Association Word Cloud. Yeah, that awesome!

Whenever the SGA is mentioned here at Middlebury, it always seems to solicit a rather unusual response: “Wait we have one?!” The follow up questions come in close for second and third: “What does it do? That’s just for PoliSci Majors right?”

As a resident SGA Senior Senator, I’d like to clarify a few things. First, we have an SGA. Second,  the SGA does (or can and should do lots of things). And third, SGA is not just for PoliSci majors (take it from me, a former neuroscience, literary studies, and now finally history major).

From my approximate eight weeks in office, I’d love to quickly provide an understanding of what I’ve learned the SGA does, why you should care, and how you should get involved.

What does SGA do? SGA serves as the central voice of the student body. Students’ dreams, hopes, fears, and all types of emotions and desires should be the concern and soul of the SGA.

The SGA, feasibly, can do two things:

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