A l 5:!ili i : Ea campus@technewsiit.com TechNews | Tuesday, September 22nd, 2015 SGA Senate votes on new student organizations Reno Waswil TECHNEWS WRITER Last week, Student Government Association (SGA) Senate elections were held, the results of which were announced at last week’s SGA meeting. The normal progress of these meet- ings includes talking a little bit about the sub- committees that are run by the three SGA Vice Presidents on Wednesday nights when there aren’t meetings, news, progress, and voting on the statuses of new and existing student orga— nizations. Then, each senator gets to vote yes, no, or abstain to whether each club is accepted, and majority ruled. This meeting, five currently-pe— titioning organizations made presentations to try to become clubs on campus: National Society of Leadership and Success (NSLS), “IIT-GameDev,” Electrochemical Society (IIT— ECS), Model United Nations (MUN-IIT), and Electronic Gaming Club (EGC). Here is a short account of the happenings. NSLS is a nationally—recognized for~ profit organization that helps its members be— come better, more capable, and more prepared leaders. According to the speaker, Gerald Doyle, Vice Provost for Student Access, Suc— cess, and Diversity Initiatives, has expressed his support and said he would send out letters to incoming students to join. There would be a fee of $85 upon membership and then no other fees for students. Some of that money would be sent back to the national organization, and this, and their status as a for-profit organiza- tion, gives them the ability to disperse money to the schools that need help supporting them- selves financially. Concerns by the senators were fo- cused a great deal on the finances of the or- ganization, its for—profit status, and whether students would be willing to pay and what that money would be used for. Also, the redundan- cy of having this and the Leadership Academy on campus was voiced. It was generally expressed that NSLS would be less exclusive and somewhat more involved and better towards its goal at build- ing leadership skills than the Leadership Acad- emy. Also, the professional nature of and the thought put into the presentation and the fact that this was already an established organiza- tion on other campuses brought it eventually be pamed as an organization. The next was “IIT-GameDev,” a game development organization on campus that would break apart the necessary processes involved in developing a fully-functional video game and, as a combined but compartmental- ized unit, would design one. The club would be made up of non-professionals, so many of the senators there expressed that the organization’s goals were somewhat unrealistic. This would be something more conceivably done through an IPRO, and even then, something like this would need some definite direction and expe- rience to even be fruitful. Some argued that it would be a club for students just to learn if not to accomplish the overall goals, but the ques- tion of whether they could achieve the ultimate goal, whether it was something that could be done on a club level with students coming and going and changing their minds, and what it would even mean to achieve their goals, made it so that the club did not pass. ECS would be the IIT chapter of a national organization that would focus on pro- gramming educational events, attending con- ferences, and planning projects, similar to the various other engineering and science chapter clubs available for other disciplines on campus. What differentiated ECS was that, though it by no means excludes undergraduates, the bulk of the interest they have from the student body is from graduate students. Graduate students tend to be ne- glected groups in the organization base on this campus though their tuition goes toward student organizations as much as an under- graduate’s does. There were arguments still that graduate students could not be a good group to anchor an organization on, seeing that they graduate in only 2 years and tend to invest themselves more in their school work than preserving a club, so it was proposed to have SGA’s Judicial Board tell them they had to be more inclusive to undergraduate students be- fore they can be a club. They did eventually go on to passing. For MUN-IIT, the idea is a copy of the same sort of organization as Model UN. The presenters would gear it goals towards debate and discussion modeling the United Nations and geared towards politics and inter- national relations, making it different from the QED, the debate team on campus. There would also be a push to increase awareness and edu— cation of international issues as well as the pos- sibility to go to conferences with other schools. Seeing that it is such an established idea at other schools, there was not much by way of criticism about MUN by the senators besides the normal questioning what they would spend their time doing, how they would do it, and whether or not other clubs might ful— fill this already. There was actually some sur— prise that we didn’t have one of these clubs al- ready, especially given our international body. It was passed. Finally was EGC, a club dedicated to electronic gaming playing, appreciation, and competition. They would base themselves off of the numerous similar gaming clubs on campus, such as the board games, Super Smash Bros, and Magic: The Gathering clubs, but this club wants to be more inclusive than all of those and be awarded similar club benefits. The arguments from the judges were an acknowledgment of all of these clubs’ exis- tences, but a general belief that it has become too repetitive a notion and should not be car- ried on. The Bog being a suitable and under- used area for these kinds of things was also one of the larger arguments against the club’s exis- tence, and it seemed they were leading towards a desire to get rid of all of these specific clubs. It was brought up that each of these clubs offer a unique social experience and the fact that they still offer a definite benefit to the students who desire to participate. Still, EGC was denied. Many may not know exactly what goes on in the SGA Senate, what each student is capable of doing in the school, and what the senators the student body elects every fall do, so I recommend trying to a meeting at least one meeting, the next one being on September 30 at 9:15 pm. The 125th Anniversary Retrospective Olumuxewa Og'untade TECHNEWS WRITER The 125th Anniversary Retrospec— tive, sponsored by the Gunsaulus Society, was a successful attempt to present the “rich and storied” history of IIT over one hundred and twenty-five years, in about an hour. The goal of this event was to cel- ebrate the legacy of IIT, and encourage alumni to contribute to this legacy by making dona- tions to, and investing in, their alma mater. The event began with a small recep- tion and breakfast during which the 50th re- union class of IIT mingled and enjoyed some early-morning coffee since it was only 10 am. on a Saturday. About 60 people were in attendance, including members of the IIT administration such as Frances Bronet, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs; Jeanne Hartig, Vice President for Marketing and Communications; and Elizabeth Hughes, Vice President for Institutional Advancement. Har- tig and Hughes alternated as presenters, while Director of the Gunsaulus Society, Stuart Gold, opened and closed the ceremony. The Gunsaulus Society is named af- ter Frank W. Gunsaulus, a pastor and educator, whose sermon inspired the $1 million dona- tion by Philip Armour to found the Armour Institute which later merged with the Lewis Institute (also founded by an act of philanthro- py) to become Illinois Institute of Technology. During one of her presentations, Jeanne Har- tig pointed out that philanthropy still remains a relevant part of IIT today, citing the example of the ongoing Engineering 1 renovations. The building transformation was made possible by donations from the widow of John T. Rettaliata (IIT’s second president), and will be unveiled this Friday. In addition to revealing the history of IIT as it relates to philanthropy, the presen- tation explained the history of IIT as ‘Tthe story of its people,” and as “the story of the place.” The former involved recognition of the founders of IIT and their respective con- tributions. It also involved the celebration of notable alumni and their respective achieve- ments. It covered everything from Charles Pierce (class of 1901), the first African Ameri- can Chemical Engineer in the U.S., to the more recent Dane Christianson (class of 2015), the inventor of the X-Cube (a 3D logic puzzle). The second part involved the ac— knowledgement of HTS impact in the local Bronzeville community, as well as the greater Chicago area, especially in terms of architec- ture: Main Building, Machinery Hall, and SR. Crown Hall are some of the buildings listed as architectural landmarks in the City of Chicago. This impact is possible because of the work of The Icarus Account performs at Hawks Reno Waswil TECHNEWS WRITER All last week was of course Home- coming week, with events that were, for the most part, either programmed or partially pro- , grammed by Union Board (UB). In addition to these is an event that was advertised as directly relating to the Homecoming festivities, last Tuesday, September 15, also marked the sec- ond Hawks Coffeehouse of the year. For this special occasion, the band The Icarus Account was booked for a performance in the Pritzker Club at 7 pm. where there was coffee to sip and food to savor in the meantime. There was definitely some trouble with promoting the event, which included an uncertainty of location until a few days before when the programmers learned that it would not be taking place in its normal location of the MTCC Welcome Center as the model of the new Innovation Center was still on display there. For this reason, the flyers were put up only the day before and little else was done for advertising purposes. Also, since UB was hosting a movie screening every night at 7 pm. outside of MTCC for Homecoming week (this day it was “Guardians of the Galaxy”), there were two UB-sponsored events conflicting with each other, which is never helpful. Also, as is always a problem with us— ing the Pritzker Club for events, it was more difficult to attract people into the area than when it is an event in the Welcome Center. Even when there were signs hanging up all around the area telling people what event was going on in a manner implying that anyone can come in, many of the people that were there needed to be told that they were allowed to join in, which might be evidence of the more timid student body of this campus. Despite this, Brian Semrau, the president of Alien Sound and Lighting (IIT’s student-run sound and lighting organization) and the engineer of last week’s Hawks Cof- feehouse, complimented the audio quality and resonance the room and held, measuring much less sound loss per distance than one usually expects working in the sound industry. He even seemed somewhat disheartened when Alex Carlson, UB’s Office of Campus Life Ad- visor, remarked that she would try extra hardk to get the show in the Welcome Center for the next Hawks Coffeehouse on Tuesday, Septem- ber 29, 2015 for when spoken word artist Katie Wirsing is scheduled to perform. Anna Garcia and Reno Fera-Ducatt of the WIIT radio show “Unknown Talent” were ready to interview the band on their show before the performance, which worked out ex- tremely well two weeks ago for the first Coffee- house performer Laura Joy, but since the band had a gig earlier that day, they only arrived at the school about 40 minutes before the show was scheduled to start, with only, enough time to set up their equipment and do a quick sound check. Union Board provides a stipend for food for the performers from Center Court which they usually take before the show. Be- cause of their timing, The Icarus Account de- cided to take that afterwards. Despite not getting this interview, The Icarus Account, like most bands at these sorts of performances, spoke to the audience in a very personable manner and addressed a little of their personal lives, such as the fact that they had a song in an advertisement on Snapchat and that, after their performance, they were going to sing Karaoke. They played mostly personal songs, but a few covers, including a cover of a country song called “Girl Crush,” by the group Little Big Town, and a Nicki Minaj song, which came on just as SGA’s Vice President of Communica- tions Subarno Misha Saha entered the room. If you aren't familiar with the band, The Icarus Account are a folk/pop duo of twin brothers Ty and Trey, both primarily guitar- ist but also singers who utilize very well an world-class architects like Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Helrnut Jahn and Rem Koolhaas, among others. . _, A lot of facts and information were presented during that hour, but the main point to take away is that these achievements were made possible with the support of donors over the years. This is the basis of the Gunsaulus So- ciety’s message to prospective donors: “to cre- ate legacies that transform lives.” The event ended with an open-floor session during which the audience got to ask questions and make comments. Two attendees also gave renditions of the Illinois Tech Fight Song from their specific years at IIT. Students, faculty, and alumni inter- ested in learning more about IIT’s history, are encouraged to visit the archives in the base- ment of the Galvin Library. Coffeehouse element of harmonic singing in their mu- SIC. About the band and the perfor- mance, student Adam Denchfield said, “The Icarus Account coming to campus was some— thing I would have never expected. As a fan of their work, I was really excited to see them per- form. This is something I’d love to see happen more on campus!” The food available for loungers as they studied and relaxed were the usual ar- ray of coffee and tea, and this week, miniature apple pies that, though they were quite good, half of them were still there when it started. After the event was over at about 8:30 pm, the band was free to get a bite to eat (they resisted the temptation and invitation to the sweets for healthier options), and as they did so, a group of students appearing to have just come from a soccer practice or game, came into clear the rest away before catering did, perhaps tempted by a strategically placed post on the Facebook page titled “Free Food for Hawks;” a great but under-used source.