THE PENDULUM

by Rebecca Smith, November 10, 2009

Elon's Student Government Association has made many proposals during the semester that have the power to affect the student body. Here is a look at some of the changes:

Participation in organizations

Vice President and Dean of Student Life Smith Jackson requested the SGA make a recommendation on whether part-time students, graduate students, faculty and staff should be allowed to participate in student organizations.

Some organizations, particularly professional- oriented clubs, include graduate students and faculty in their bylaws. Two examples of these groups are Student Entrepreneurial Enterprise Development and Mu Phi Epsilon International Professional Music Fraternity.

Currently, the SGA has a statement that says "all university student organizations have the discretion of admitting graduate and part-time Elon students into their membership. Additionally, we recommend that no faculty nor staff members are to be granted membership into any university student organization."

However, the Senate has not agreed to this statement and has requested that the SGA President Justin Peterson introduce the idea to the Student Life Committee, receive their feedback and report the findings to the Senate.

Graduate students, part-time students, faculty and staff do not pay student activity fees. This raises the question on whether they should be allowed to participate in organizations that are funded by full-time students.

Another question being asked by the SGA is if students want faculty and staff to have the opportunity to join traditionally student-run organizations.

"My feeling is that student organizations should be governed by the students," Jackson said.

"There is a lot of learning that occurs when students have a passion for forming a club or organization and then there is leadership development as they run that organization. I don't think that faculty and staff should vote or be able to hold office."

Constitutional Revisions ad hoc committee

Democracy requires a checks-and-balances system, even on the college level. This realization inspired a constitutional revision to implement a judicial branch.

"As president, I have appointed a lot of people, and nobody checks that," Peterson said. "This new judicial branch will be able to check the actions of the executive board."

The current Honor Board will adapt to create the judicial branch that will be comprised of nine students. The preliminary idea is that there will be three students each from the senior class, the junior class and the sophomore class.

Another responsibility of the judicial branch will be to monitor how organizations spend university money. They will make sure each organization spends money in a way that reflects their mission statement.

Currently, this is only looked at once, at the end of the year, during the budget meeting. The SGA is hoping to now look at organizations' budgets four times a year.

"For example, organizations will have left over money and take their executive out to dinner," Peterson said. "Currently, there are no consequences."

Another constitutional revision being discussed is creating a "Senator for the Day" program. This would allow one student each week to act as a senator for 24 hours.

"This is a way to get the student body more involved," said Joe Slocum, junior class vice president. "They would get to sit in the SGA meeting, have a vote and more of a voice."

Round Table meetings

"This is my baby," Peterson said. "I want to have this established before I go."

All organizations are arranged under a cluster — academic, government, greek, honors, media, performance, religious, service and club sports. The presidents of each organization will meet with one person from SGA who serves as a representative for their cluster.

In these meetings each president will discuss their organization's successes, failures, troubles, news and need for assistance.

These representatives will act for their organizations during SGA meetings. For example, they will help make budgetary decisions for the organizations. Peterson said he will try to attend as many of these meetings as possible.

"This will allow for myself to be in constant and direct communication with the student organization presidents of the school," Peterson said. "This is something that I think SGA has not done a good job of in the past."

Changes in Student Life

On Nov. 11, some members of SGA will meet with Jackson to get approval for one of their proposals that asks for Octagon to be open 24 hours during exam week.

The plan has already been discussed with Campus Safety and Police, ARAMARK and Moseley Center. If passed, the side patio door to Octagon will remain open and security will be present from 1-7 a.m.

"Opening for the exam period will help us support the student community, but it will not directly benefit our operation," said Jeff Gazda, ARAMARK Resident District Manager. "The cost to keeping the facility open beyond the normal time frame exceeds the business generated. The true benefit comes from supporting our student community during a busy and stress filled time."

Two other pieces of Peterson's platform are becoming reality. Three or four bench swings will be added around Lake Mary Nell shortly. Also, a technology source has been found that will make it feasible for students who work at Elon to get paychecks twice a month, instead of just once a month. The change is expected to happen this spring.

"I'm happy to see so much success coming from SGA," Peterson said."I think these accomplishments are a great representation of the momentum we have gathered over the past months. I am proud of the work my organization is doing."