4 Ea;l sga@iit.edu TechNews I Tuesdayjanuary 18,2010 SGA status update: Recapping fall, moving forward in spring By Brian Kibbe SGA PRESIDENT Fall 2010 marked the end of the decade for most of us, but in the Student Government As— sociation (SGA) there were many new begin— nings. SGA is a collection of elected students from academic colleges, residences, and other student groups that work with the Illinois Tech administrators to improve our university. SGA Senators work in one of our three commit— tees to collect the feelings of their constituents and enact change on their behalf. I want to go through each of our committees giving exam— ples of what has been accomplished and what is left to be done this Spring. Academic Affairs The Foreign Language Program proposal team collected more data to guide recommen— dations to the College of Science and Letters under the guidance of Vice—President of Aca— demic Affairs Paola Arce and Sarah Lim. The goal for this is to implement a program for students to receive a minor in a language in addition to their major curriculum by offer— ing classes on campus. The hope is to allow students more ways to increase their foreign language skills. In the Fall the Undergraduate Studies Committee approved of the creation of the program. In the next semester SGA will work with CSL to find the best ways to achieve these goals. The IPRO 2.0 pilot program completed it’s first semester with approximately 100 stu— dents enrolled. Through student feedback and program evaluations, IPRO 2.0 is continually improving. The ultimate goal of improving the whole IPRO system to accurately prepare stu— dents for cross—curricular work environments is closer than ever before. In continuation of efforts from the previous SGA Exec Board, this semester SGA will con— tinue working with the academic colleges es— tablishing College Student Councils to provide regular direct feedback on the performance of the colleges. These exist already in the College of Architecture and Armour College of Engi— neering, and the goal is to expand to the re— maining colleges. Senator Nathan Wicker brought the idea of universal oflice hours to SGA and administra— tors. The idea is to have a time besides lunch when classes are scheduled to allow students to meet with professors, hold student organi— zation functions, participate in intramurals, or take care of administrative tasks. Surveys have been conducted, and in the spring we will con— tinue to form ideas of how this could fit in the academic scheduling. Senator Kelly Lohr voiced engineering stu— dents’ desires for development artistically. The Architecture curriculum has several art classes such as sketching and painting, and she has worked with Senator Ionathan Shillingford and the College of Architecture to open some of those sections to non—architecture majors. In the future, this project could be expanded to include exchange programs with artistic schools such as Columbia. Senator Clay Houser and the whole Aca— demic Affairs committee took a physical count of classrooms on Main Campus that did not have a clock, a clock not displaying the correct time, or a broken clock. Auxiliary Services is now working on updating all of those time— pieces as a part of larger classroom mainte— nance. Student Life The Scarlet Hawk Central website was completed in the Fall as a way to improve stu— dent access to important university services. The goal of the site is to make any department accessible in as few clicks as possible and to intuitively guide students to oflice that can help them with questions. The website is main— tained by student Piyush Sinha, who welcomes your input. Senator Kathy Rhee, in cooperation from the Oflice of Technology Services and the Ban— ner Team, has established how IIT can switch email services for students to Google. The im— plementation is slated to be completed for the Fall 2011 semester. The Student Life committee communicated with the Registrar’s oflice to ensure that U— Passes would extend through commencement to accommodate seniors. This will allow stu— dents to explore the city after final exams have concluded. Senator Ariel True interviewed Ray Marti— nez the Director of Public Safety for informa— tion on how the oflicers can further increase safety on campus. A General Assembly was also held to educate students on the services offered for them to take advantage of. In cooperation with the Commuter Stu— dents Association, Senator Shirly Nwangwa wrote a proposal to Galvin Library and Cam— pus and Conference Centers staff about relo— cating the Commuter Student Lounge in the library. SGA will continue to work on this re— location until commuters have a safe and ac— cessible space. Communications Vice—President of Communications, El— naz Moshfeghian, coordinated senators to sit on the bridge once per week to gather the thoughts and feelings of the student body. These “What’s Your Issue” tables were the source of great ideas for projects, and allowed SGA to be aware of problems on campus soon— er rather than later. Senators Rani Shah and Harshish Chitkara worked on providing content weekly for the SGA section in TechNews. They created im— portant updates for the student body and took the role of informing the broad community at IIT. Kay and Grace Durbin worked with Elnaz to address the issue with publicity on campus by creating a universal calendar. This semester we will continue working to have university departments and student organizations buy—in to advertise every event in a single place on the IIT website. Following the creation of Galvin 24/5 in Fall, SGA worked to ensure a successful turn— out. Posters to raise awareness were spread around campus so students would know what resources were available to them. All of this represents less than half of what SGA Senators worked on in the fall. Our agen— da for the spring semester all depends on what you, the students, want changed in our Univer— sity. If you have ideas for us to work on, e—mail sga@iit.edu. The Leaders '1 i P Academy proudly presents: Facilitated by Toby Causby Working with people requires . essential facilitation competencies. . stewarding the process . developing balanced participation . managing distractions- ' . dealing with difficult situations Register for this event by January 29th! TIME AND DESTINATION: February 5th,.,201 I ,1 Cam - 2pm HUB Basement (Armou‘r Dining) Open to all "T Undergraduate Students LUNCH WILL BE PROVIDED! Online | Phone | Email leadershipacademy.iit.edu | 312.567.3945 | leadership.academy@iit.edu