Editor’s note: This article was initially published in The Daily Gazette, Swarthmore’s online, daily newspaper founded in Fall 1996. As of Fall 2018, the DG has merged with The Phoenix. See the about page to read more about the DG.
StuGov met on November 16th, 2014 to discuss the next round of committee appointments, budgetary issues, and other plans for spring semester.
Regarding the committee appointments, a large round of appointments is impending with about 45 vacant seats on various committees. David Ding ‘16 will be contacting all committee chairs to get an updated, concrete list of qualifications and goals for each committee. The effect of this change is twofold: the appointments committee will be able to match the best applicants to a given committee, and the old guidelines sent out in the semiannual committee application email will be replaced. More information will be released in the coming weeks.
There was also discussion on major spring events, such as the Large-Scale Event (LSE) and Worthstock. Because LSE has separate funding from SBC/SAC funded events, StuGov must act judiciously in deciding, given their budget constraint, which comedian or musician to bring to LSE. Meeting with Mike Elias next week will help construct a survey that StuGov wishes to send out to Swatties in the upcoming weeks. This survey will ask students whether they want one major act or a series of smaller entertainers to come to Swarthmore. This survey will not be a Doodle poll, but rather a Qualtrics poll to obtain a better response rate. Prizes will be raffled off to incentivize students to respond to the survey. Additionally, StuGov also forsees LSE purchasing a large amount of tickets to a specific concert or series of concerts for students to attend. LSE’s first committee meeting will be this Tuesday.
The next SGO meeting will be on December 7th, 2014. Before this meeting, the StuGov members in attendants were asked to ensure that their new committee members be familiar with how SGO meetings will run. Co-President Jason Heo ‘15 also plans to meet with the class representatives to begin a side project for each of the classes for the remainder of fall semester. Details regarding these side projects were not disclosed. Co-President Sun Park ‘15 reiterated the importance of being leaders at this critical moment, “Everybody in this group must step up to be a leader, which is what you were elected to do. Don’t be afraid to ask for help.” Due to the recent re-organization of StuGov, many newly elected members will be at the upcoming SGO meeting; Park and Heo hopes that it will run smoothly and successfully.
The final announcement was done by Chair of Student Life Policy Steve Sekula ‘17. This Wednesday from 9:00-10:30 PM, StuGov will be holding another study break by giving out 700 Insomnia Cookies. This SAC-funded event will be friendly for people who are lactose intolerant as there will be a variety of dairy-free milk and ice creams available. This will be followed by another study break on December 8th, 2014. StuGov is bringing a hypnotist to campus who will hypnotize people on stage. StuGov emphasized to continue the momentum that they started with the first study break, and hopes that students will come out to StuGov events more often.
