4 sga@iit.edu TechNews I Tuesday, February 15, 2011 By Rani Shah SGA SENATOR Student Life Committee: students. Academic Affairs Committee: registration for Shimer— offered art courses. better the advising process. Communications Committee: this semester. overall school improvement. Weekly SGA roundup 1. SSV and Gunsaulus Printing: Find temporary solutions in Gunsaulus and SSV this semester and permanent print—stations for Fall 2011. 2. E1 Water Fountains: Replace water fountain piping to get rid of rusty water. 3. Red Bull: Bring the Red Bull cars to campus, especially during high—stress times for 4. Shuttlebus: Try to expand shuttle bus routes to Prairie Shores. 1. Foreign Language Program: Finish up with approval of the proposal and work on implementation of a foreign language program at UT! 2. Clocks for Classrooms: Install clocks in every classroom, and maintain existing clocks to make sure they are functional and correct. 3. Art Classes for Non—Architecture Students: Streamline the process for IIT student 4. Improving Advising: Get student input with research and surveys to see how we can 1. Universal Calendar: Unveil the UCal at the Heads of State General Assembly later 2. Bike Registration: Research benefits of a bike registration system on campus. 3. Scheduling: Meet with Administration to determine how to allow more time for stu— dents to access professor office hours and other activities. 4. Thought Drive: Host a series of events to collect input for surveys, new projects, and College Goal Sunday By The Office of Financial Aid This year IIT is hosting a free FAFSA com— pletion workshop provided by College Goal Sunday (CAP). College Goal Sunday is a statewide volun— teer program that provides free information and assistance to students and families who are applying for financial aid for post—second— ary education. College Goal Sunday brings to— gether financial aid professionals from colleges and universities along with other volunteers to help college—bound students and their fami— lies complete the FAFSA (Free Application for Federal Student Aid). Experts from the Illinois Student Assistance Commission, high school counselors, college representatives, and other volunteers will be available to help you com— plete your FAFSA. When: 10:00 am 7 2:00 pm FB March Hearing Change: Programming Where: 3301 S. Dearhorh St, Siegel Hall Chicago, IL 60616 It’s free! What should you bring? — Social Security Number. — Records of income, such as income earned from work and business, child support paid or received and other untaxed income. If you have them, refer to the W—2 forms or Fed— eral Income Tax Return IRS 1040, 1040A, or 1040EZ. — Information about assets, such as savings, certificates of deposit, stock options, bonds, 529 plans and other college savings programs; and investment real estate, business and farm. — Driver’s license number, if you have one. — Date of birth. — Month and year of marriage, separation, divorce or other change in marital status. — Alien Registration Number, if you are not a US. citizen. By Kevin O’Leary FINANCE BOARD CHAIR Finance Board hosts intercollegiate conference By Kevin O’Leary FINANCE BOARD CHAIR Last Saturday, February 5 2011, IIT Finance Board hosted its first annual ‘Student Govern— ment Finance Conference’. Other Chicago area schools’ relative stu— dent fund allocating bodies, including those from DePaul, University of Chicago, Loyola University of Chicago, and University of Illi— nois at Chicago were invited to the MTCC for a day of sharing ideas and processes. Specifically, schools were to outline their process for apply— ing for funding, describe the structure of their allocating board/committee, the structure of their actual hearings, and any governing docu— ments or guidelines to abide by. The confer— ence was designed to facilitate idea exchange, so that all the respective ‘Finance Boards’ could see the process from other perspectives and improve upon what was already in place. Attendance to the conference was sched— uled to be 12 people, with representatives from IIT, Loyola University of Chicago, and the University of Chicago, but due to last minute cancellations involving a walk from a formal dance at the Drake Hotel all the way back to Loyola (the Friday after the blizzard), the LUC representatives were not able to attend. Thus, four members of HTS Finance Board and University of Chicago’s Student Government Finance Committee along with their Student Government VP of Administration were able to attend, for a total of eight people. There were stark differences between the funding processes between the schools. While IIT’s Finance Board allocates the entire Stu— dent Activity Fund itself to respective student organizations and clubs, at U of C the SAF is divided into several different funds, including Sports, Programming Coordinating Coun— cil, Community Service, and an ‘Uncommon Fund’ to be used on particularly unique proj— ects. Each of these funds are allocated by a spe— cific and separate body, and then their general student activity fund (like ours) is allocated by their Student Government Finance Com— mittee. Also, their hearings are weekly, during which every RSO, or Registered Student Orga— nization (U of C jargon), has to come in and explain their budget. Then, the org leaves the room and the committee deliberates, and in— stead of getting a decision letter later on, the org comes back in and they are directly told their amount of funding. Since our two schools are so different (U of C has roughly 5000 undergrads, we have half that, and they have over 350 student orgs, whereas we have around 140), it is difficult to implement many of each other’s policies re— garding the funding process. However, one idea U of C really liked was the fact that we have ‘Follow Up Budgets’, which we refer to af— fectionately as ‘FUBS’. They do not currently have any type of follow—up on funding they allocate, which leads to fiscal irresponsibility within orgs and lack of accountability as to if the money is going to good use, if their events are successful, etc. They intend to put the FUB into effect immediately. The conference included much discussion of the internal functions within each school, talk of major differences between schools (like the surprising news that U of C does not get U— Passes) and mock hearings from both groups, but finally came to an end after lunch. Overall the first annual Student Government Finance Board Conference was a success, and we plan to hold it again in the future. We hope it will grow into a much larger event, and will help schools throughout the city refine and improve their student activity fund allocation processes. IIT First-Year Students and Graduating Students (Seniors) — Want tO win an iPod Touch? [I DISAGREE I] AGREE w STRONGLY AGREE TAKE THE SURVEY! HT is participating in the National Survey Of Student Engagement (NSSE). You will receive your survey by email from NSSE soon. l—>O Respond by April 1 for a chance to win one of two iPod Touches. We want to hear your feedback about |lT! Your opinions count and will help ”T to improve academic and social programming at the university. Normally, the upcoming hearing in March would only be for Capital, Conference and Competition budgets. However, the Finance Board would like to announce that it is opening up the option to request funding for Programming budgets. The Board feels that this will enable more events that will improve student life, and hopes for another . . . ? round of quality submiss10ns. 0 HAVE QUESTIONS Contact the Office of the Registrar at registrar@iit.edu. i1) ILLINOIs INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY