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Student Government Association extends reach into local volunteering

Ethan Castro
COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE MEMBER

You would be forgiven for believing
that the Illinois Tech Student Government
Association (SGA) only concerns itself with
projects centered on this campus and its
student organizations. In fact, it is true that the
recently revived coverage of SGA in TechNews
thus far has only covered SGA developments
that are immediately relevant to Illinois Tech
students, such as creating a universal course
syllabus library or the expanding role of
Judicial Board in student organization affairs.
However, the Communications Committee,
under Vice President Jelani Canty, is looking to
take SGA into the next level of involvement—

volunteering with the local community.

As Canty himself summarizes, “this
semester SGA’s Communications Committee
will be conducting a community service
outreach project. This project is centered on
the Valentine Boys 81 Girls Club.” Located at
3400 S. Emerald Ave., this local branch of the
larger Boys 81 Girls Club organization is just a
short ten-minute bus ride away from campus.
Canty himself has already been making weekly
trips to the organization to volunteer his time
helping local elementary school children.
With members ranging between 5 and 18
years of age, the Valentine Boys 81 Girls Club
offers a multitude of programs, including an
art club, poetry club, homework help, money
management, and even Mandarin Chinese
language lessons. Thus, Canty sees a prime

opportunity for increasing Illinois Tech
involvement in the surrounding community
through a partnership with this organization.
Just as there is a perceived lack
of communication between SGA and the
greater Illinois Tech student body that the
Communications Committee is looking
to address, there is also the broader issue
of increasing Illinois Tech presence in the
immediate surrounding communities. Thus,
Canty believes the best way of dealing with
these communications gaps is through
the existing opportunities provided by
organizations such as the Boys 81 Girls Club.
He believes that many Illinois Tech students
can find easy resonance with the club’s goal
of “positively influencing the lives of today’s
youth.” Volunteer opportunities already exist

in scattered pockets around campus, especially
with the connections offered by the Ofiice of
Campus Life, like the annual Big Event. It is
only logical that SGA, as one of the largest and
most encompassing groups on campus, takes
up its own volunteering initiatives.

Those who are interested in
forming a connection with the Boys 81 Girls
Club of Chicago are highly encouraged to
reach out directly to SGA’s Vice President of
Communications, Jelani Canty, at jcanty@
hawk.iit.edu.

SGA begins the new year with a new Events Chair, new office, more

Soren Spicknall
CO PY E DITO R

Two days after the start of the new
semester, the Senate of Illinois Tech’s Student
Government Association (SGA) gathered
in Stuart Building for their first meeting of
2017. With a month and a half gone since
the body’s most recent prior gathering, there
was plenty of business to attend to during
the allotted time. The organization worked
through its usual gamut of necessary business,
hearing approval requests from prospective
student organizations and reporting on project
progress within each of its committees, but
Senators and Executive Board members also
discussed a number of new business items,
some of which stands to have as much an
impact on the student body as its committees’
various projects.

The meeting began as most Senate
meetings do, with presentations from student
groups that had submitted paperwork to
become officially recognized on-campus
organizations under the Ofiice of Campus Life
(OCL). The first such group to present was
the proposed Polish Student Society, a social
organization based on Polish heritage and
interest in Polish culture. The group claimed 15
current members, more than the 10 required
for student organization status, but wasn’t
able to elaborate on any specific structure
already established within those members
when prompted. The presenters from the
Society projected a semester budget of 1,500
dollars, intending to use those funds to host
a Polish cultural festival, food-related events,
and other highly visible events. In addition,
they expressed intent to attend some events off
campus at a Polish cultural center in the city.
However, their plans were somewhat light on
details, and that combined with worries over
their perceived lack of structure to result in a
rejection by the Senate by a margin of seven
in favor of approval, twelve against, and one
abstaining. Senators largely agreed that the
Polish Student Society’s concept had merit,
and that they were welcome to present again
at another meeting, but that they were not
organized enough yet to thrive as a student
organization and have access to the university’s
Student Activities Fund.

By contrast, the next potential
organization to present was quite polished.
Students putting together a chapter of Upsilon
Pi Epsilon, an honor society for computer
science majors, spoke for just a few seconds
under the maximum allowed time of five
minutes, expanding on slides that described
a full executive board structure, elaborated
on the group’s relationship with the computer
science department, and presented a number
of concrete event concepts for existing
members and those new to Illinois Tech.
The organization representatives, who had
been working with faculty member Matthew
Bauer over the last semester to begin shaping
their proposal, came across as well-rehearsed
and ambitious, with plans to use Upsilon Pi
Epsilon to advise their academic department,
provide resources for the group’s members,
and work in concert with Illinois Tech’s chapter
of the Association for Computing Machinery
(ACM), the professional organization for
workers in computing-related fields. When it

came time for the student Senate to discuss
the group’s application privately, a motion was
sustained to skip debate altogether and move
straight to voting, with 22 in favor, 0 against,
and 1 abstaining.

After new student organization
presentations had finished, the meeting
moved on to its next section: new business.
To begin, SGA President Hamze “Leo” Sukkar
brought forward the Executive Board’s chosen
candidate for the open position of Events Chair,
an executive-level position that was created in
the Fall semester through an amendment to
the SGA constitution (it had existed informally
for a year prior, but was not codified). The
candidate, Adeena Ahmed, had been actively
attending meetings in the past as a volunteer,
including the smaller bi-weekly gatherings of
SGA’s Communications Committee. When
asked about challenges facing SGA in its past
execution of events, Ahmed spoke with energy
about the organization’s failure to dedicate
itself to significant advance planning, setting
out a goal of four weeks prior commitment
and two weeks prior advertising for future
activities. She also implored SGA members
to attend the body’s own events, something
that was also claimed as a significant past
failing. On a broader scale, Ahmed asserted
that SGA “can be very vague about what it
wishes to accomplish,” and that she hoped to
work to clarify the organization’s actions and
battle student apathy toward participation in
traditional structures of leadership on campus.
Following her answers to audience questions,
the present senators moved to skip debate (as
they had with Upsilon Pi Epsilon) and held a
vote whose results indicated 22 in favor of her
nomination, 0 against, and 1 abstaining, well
above the two-thirds threshold needed to fill
the open Events Chair position.

Next on the agenda, each member
of the Executive Board (with the exception of
the newly-inaugurated Ahmed, Executive Vice
President Sonia Kamdar, and Judicial Board
Chief Justice San Dinh) presented a brief
report on their most recent activities within
SGA. Sukkar announced that the organization’s
ofiice had ofiicially moved to MTCC 109, a
former conference room next to the One Stop
near the Commons, expressing hope that the
location would be more visible than their
previous ofiice within a space shared with the
OCL, Ofiice of Student Affairs, Union Board,
and TechNews. On the subject of visibility,
he also stated that two new banners had been
designed for display at SGA functions, one of
which was specifically intended for use at each
semester's President and Provost Forum.

After Sukkar’s updates, Academic
Affairs VP Akash Raina spoke about an
upcoming effort organized by his committee, in
which senators will be introducing themselves
in Introduction to the Profession (ITP) courses
and making themselves visible as faces of
SGA. He also provided news on a few of his
committee’s other projects, stating that an
effort to ensure syllabi were provided for every
possible class was moving forward, establishing
that a campus-wide curriculum amendment
from the previous semester had been sent to
Dr. Joseph Orgel to present at the University
Faculty Council, and asking Senators to begin
providing input for an upcoming push to set
new expectations for academic advisers. The
latter project is open to unstructured feedback,

and those who have encountered difiiculty
with advising or who have ideas about how
it takes places can contact Raina directly to
provide that information.

Communications Committee VP
Jelani Canty spoke about his time volunteering
at the nearest Boys 81 Girls Club charity, part
of a focus on service within his committee that
is intended to extend to all of SGA. He also
discussed a final push to update information
on the SGA website, which still contains some
out-of-date information and currently suffers
from a limited level of access within SGA, an
issue that is being worked through with the
Ofiice of Technology Services (OTS). Finally,
Canty proposed a concept for collaboration
with businesses along the #31 bus line, a trial
route launched last year that bisects campus on
its way through the Bridgeport and Bronzeville
neighborhoods. He admitted that he hadn’t yet
discussed such plans with his committee, but
wanted to encourage students to use the #31
bus somehow so that ridership numbers would
be high enough to warrant the CTA making it
permanent when the trial ends this Spring.

In a brief report, Student Life VP
Qianran He mentioned that the newly-formed
Technology Advisory Board, which works with
OTS to forward projects of student interest,
had begun to see the fruits of its labor. OTS is
in the process of formulating an “Athletics” tab
in MyIIT, she explained, which will eventually
contain information about past and future
games and other events from Illinois Tech’s
sports teams, including scores, schedules, and
other news. More information is expected to
be forthcoming in the near future.

The final Executive Board member
to give their report to the Senate was Sung
Min Choi Hong, the student body’s Finance
Board Chair. Rather than a traditional report,
however, he presented three new candidates
for open Finance Board advising positions:
Vishnav Ashok, Shruti Khetan, and Muneeb
Yawari. Choi Hong explained that the field
had been narrowed down from an array of
applicants that was originally much larger,
and that he had full personal confidence in
each nominee. Each candidate was then asked
about their motivations and qualifications for
the position. Ashok spoke of his experience
managing finances for the Residence Hall
Association (RHA) and his belief that finance
was a topic of utmost importance to student life
at the university; Khetan pointed to internships
in budgeting and resource allocation, and
stated she felt becoming a Finance Board
adviser was “a great way to be more involved
at Illinois Tech”; Yawari’s stated background
was similar, with experience managing startup
budgets and summer work at a finance firm,
and he stated similarly that filling one of the
open positions was “a good way to give back
to the school, since I haven't been as active as
I'd like to be." The three nominees were voted
on as a slate (as required by SGA’s governing
documents), and all three passed with 20 votes
in favor, 2 against, and 0 abstaining.

With all the structured business of
the night done, it was time for Open Floor,
the final segment of each Senate meeting
during which any person may bring forward
announcements or topics for discussion.
Sukkar once again returned to the front of the
room to get the ball rolling on strategies for
the springs upcoming SGA Executive Board

elections, which resulted in some of the most
lively discussion of the meeting. Last year’s
Executive Board elections were the most
effective of any in recent years, with nearly
twice as many votes cast as in the previous year,
but the current Executive Board hopes to spur
an even greater number of students to vote this
year. Sukkar asked senators and others present
to come up with creative ways to get the word
out and highlight the importance of SGA’s
elections, and much of the responses to his
question came in the form of input over how
to improve the debates held last year in Center
Court. A number of alternate locations were
discussed, as well as improvements to audio
and the format of the event itself. There was
no consensus on the perfect debate format,
but those present agreed that balance had to
be found between the visibility of the setting
and its ability to host an event of that nature.
Beyond debates, it was mentioned that publicly
highlighting the importance of SGA’s work and
putting a focus on its successes throughout the
coming semester could help passively spur
Illinois Tech’s students to take a more active
role in choosing those who represent them to
the university’s administration at the highest
level.

Before the meeting was set to
close, one more item was brought forward.
Food Advisory Board, a student input body
which had traditionally been overseen by
SGA’s Student Life committee and included
representatives from Illinois Tech Dining,
the RHA, OCL, and Residence 81 Greek Life
(RGL), had only met sporadically over the
past year following the departure of former
chair Ricky Stevenson, who reduced student
leadership responsibilities after accepting
a professional opportunity in his field. The
SGA senator representing RHA at the time,
Jermiron “Jay” Morris, was supposed to take
over the group, but his death early in 2016 led
to a period of uncertainty until John Munoz,
then a senator serving on the Student Life
Committee, put together a few meetings of the
board prior to the academic year’s end. In the
Fall 2016 semester, however, Munoz departed
his Senate seat and Food Advisory Board only
met a single time, and both SGA and RHA
sought a more stable arrangement. At the end
of the meeting, RHA presented the concept of
an amendment to the SGA constitution which
would permanently place chairpersonship of
Food Advisory Board within duties of the SGA
Senator representing RHA, an arrangement
that would ideally designate specific
responsibility, keep the function of the Board
accountable to two different student advocacy
organizations, and resolve occasional back-
and-forth about whose auspices the Board falls
under. RHA will present ofiicial wording of
such an amendment at the next Senate meeting,
and at that wording will be voted on during the
following such meeting. It is possible, though,
that Food Advisory Board will start up once
again in the meantime, providing a direct
forum for students interested in improving on-
campus dining.

SGA’s Senate meets in its entirety on
every other Wednesday night at 9:15 pm. in
Stuart Building room 113, and its individual
committees meeting on the alternating
Wednesdays in the MTCC colored rooms.