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SGA to create stronger consistency through events committee

Ethan Castro
COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE MEMBER

One of the tenure goals of Student
Government Association (SGA) President
Hamze “Leo” Sukkar was the creation of a
new Events Committee tasked with planning,
organizing, and advertising regular events
branded as SGA programs. A seemingly
universal agreement among SGA’s executive
board last fall semester was that such a task
could not realistically be delegated to a single
person; a full-fledged committee is necessary
in order to more effectively generate strong,
consistent events. Thus, with an approved
constitutional amendment creating a dedicated
events committee, all that was missing was a
chair to lead this committee. Luckily, SGA
would not have to look far to find a willing
candidate.

As was described in our last
issue’s coverage of the first senate hearing
of the semester, the new chair of the SGA

events committee came from SGA’s pool of
volunteers. Adeena Ahmed, the new events
chair, had already established her presence
among SGA members by regularly attending
both senate hearings and committee meetings
and being an active part of discussions
within both settings. Now, she stands poised
to establish SGA as an influential avenue of
change within the lives of every student on
campus. She sees the creation of the events
committee as a prime opportunity to “lay
groundwork for how future events should be
set up and figure out the best way to reach out
to students.” Indeed, when questioned about
specific plans on addressing concerns about
the planning of SGA events, she energetically
responded with her experience and dedication
to maintaining strict timelines for planning
and especially marketing events. “Being part of
Muslim Student Association for the past two
years I have assisted in planning for numerous
events on campus and have learned the ins and
outs of a successful event.”

Ahmed has begun to live up to her

promise of advance event warning and this
was evident during her chair report at the
most recent senate hearing in Stuart Building
113, on the night of Wednesday, January 25.
In her report, Ahmed laid out a framework
for upcoming SGA events all the way through
the end of March. Two of the more immediate
events are continuations of the SGA Town Hall
series, an open forum where the student body
is invited to question and have discussions with
a select department of campus administration.
On the SGA agenda, under Ahmed’s events
committee, Town Hall forums with both the
Student Health and Wellness Center (scheduled
for Tuesday, February 21 at lunch time) and
with Public Safety (scheduled for late March)
are chief among the organization’s list of
obligations. In addition, Wednesday, March 8
will see the next President and Provost Forum,
where students and faculty alike are invited to
a question and answer session with President
Alan Cramb and Provost Frances Bronet. SGA
plays a role in moderating and advertising this
event, and Ahmed’s notification of the event

now in January is a prime example of the latter
task.

Ahmed has expressed her hope that
the deliveries of these events will help spread
general awareness of both the existence and
purpose of SGA. “All these events are here to
help better inform the student body of any
questions or concerns they might have with
different parts of the school. We are also in
the midst of thinking creative ways to have a
more fun way to get involved with the student
body that people should keep their eyes and
ears open for.” In addition to attending these
events and learning about SGA there, students
interested in bolstering their involvement
on campus should also consider contacting
events chair Adeena Ahmed and taking a role
in shaping these events. “Anyone can join the
committee, they can contact me directly at
aahmed29@hawk.iit.edu or they can just email
SGA expressing their interests and they will be
directed towards the SGA interest group."

SGA prepares topics for upcoming Board of Trustees meeting during latest Senate hearing

Alexandra Detweiler
CO PY E DITOR

Illinois Tech’s Student Government
Association (SGA) Senate meetings could
go on for days if it were possible; in these
meetings, SGA attempts to hear dozens of
unique opinions, discuss myriad relevant
student issues, vote on prospective student
organizations, and update all those present
on senators’ and oflicers’ activities. There’s a
lot on the agenda, which means that although
meetings are often more than two hours long,
there is a clear emphasis put upon efliciency.
Rules state that those speaking must be
concise, cannot repeat what has already been
said, and must raise their right hand and wait
to be acknowledged before speaking as to
avoid chaos. There is also a clear order to the
proceedings, and first on the docket, as always,
are prospective student organizations.

The first prospective student
organization to be heard at the January 25 SGA
Senate meeting was an Illinois Tech chapter
of the National Organization of Minority
Architects (NOMA). The speaker representing
this organization, Ricardo Chaidez, was
dressed to the nines. Given five minutes to
present to the senate, Chaidez explained that
this prospective organization would be a way
for Illinois Tech students to get involved with
a national organization, and mentioned that
most schools in the Chicago area already
had a chapter on campus. Illinois Tech even
had a chapter itself a few years ago, but it had
since disbanded. The organization’s main goal
would be to help every minority (any person
not represented in some way) and push them
forward in their career through networking
events. NOMA would also be involved in
outreach programs, such as a summer camp
with hands-on activities such as hand drawing
and model building designed to get young
students excited about architecture. This
organization had six oflicers in place, with an
additional five members already committed,
and their total proposed budget was a
weighty $4800 due to mandatory national
chapter membership costs and travel costs for
conferences and competitions.

At first thought, NOMA might seem
redundant, as Illinois Tech already has a chapter
of the American Institute of Architecture
Students (AIAS) on campus. However, Chaidez
pointed out that the main difference between
the two is that NOMA would put more of
an emphasis upon networking and hands-
on activities, something that some senators
noted that AIAS lacked. However, these two
organizations have already spoken together
about collaborating to host events. When
asked about which students would be allowed
to join the organization, Chaidez made very
clear that all students, even those outside of
architecture, would be welcome to join. He

explained that the organization had an oflicer
that is an engineer, and a member studying
construction management. The organization
was approved, with 20 voting yes, 1 voting no,
and 1 abstaining.

The second prospective organization
that presented for the senate was the proposed
Bioengineering Journal Club. The student
representing this club was Robert Jackson, a
second year PhD student studying chemical and
biological engineering, and his casual clothing
contrasted starkly with the last presenter. With
a very serious demeanor, he began his five
minutes of presentation explaining that the
idea to create this organization began between
himself and his advisor, Professor Ali Cinar,
and many other faculty. There were 11 total
students involved as well, mostly chemical
and biological engineering students. Each
monthly meeting, one student will supply
a bioengineering research journal article to
discuss, preferably an article that includes
a connection to their own research. The
proposed budget for this Journal Club was only
$250, which exclusively covered the cost of
pizza at meetings. When asked about whether
this could potentially be more of a class than a
student organization, Jackson answered that he
had discussed this with Dr. Cinar as well, but
they would rather not have academic pressure
associated with it, no stress about grading,
just a relaxed and formal setting. When it was
time for senators to discuss this organization
before voting, many had concerns to voice,
such as the problem of using student activity
funds to pay for faculty to eat lunch. Another
concern was that the presenter himself didn’t
seem convinced that he wanted this to be an
organization, and perhaps he was doing it
purely because his professor wanted him to.
One senator thought that the organization
might be better suited as a “breakfast club type
thing,” not an actual organization; it was hard
to envision executive board meetings or other
programming that was typical of a student
organization. The organization was not
approved, with seven votes for yes, fourteen
for no, and three abstaining.

Moving on, Executive Vice President
Sonia Kamdar brought up the idea of a new
senator project spotlight, featured on the SGA
Facebook page, to keep senators motivated
and showcase work done to the student body.
Senators would have the opportunity to
nominate another individual when significant
progress was done, not just completed, so that
long-term projects could be more recognized.
Senators received this idea well, snapping in
approval. The spotlight would ideally occur
weekly or biweekly, and increase both the
organization and the senators’ visibility.

Next, President Hamze “Leo” Sukkar
called for volunteers to help move the SGA
oflice, which is being moved from the OCL suite
to next to the One Stop. The move is occurring

on Monday, February 8th. Additionally, ideas
were needed for issues to bring up to the Board
of Trustees, which were meeting on February
16th. Issues needed to be bigger in scale than
simply wanting a “pizza vending machine,”
but issues that SGA cannot handle on its own.
Akash Raina, the vice president of academic
affairs, asked senators to talk to their friends
and ask what core issues they thought needed
addressing. This discussion was continued
during open floor later in the meeting.

Jelani Canty, the Vice President of
Communications, shared his experience with
Senator Ethan Castro when they volunteered
at the Boys and Girls Club, helping students
with their homework. The after school
program is from 3 pm. to 6 p.m., and Canty
thought the impact Illinois Tech students could
theoretically make would be immeasurable.
Castro explained that he thought it was a good
way for Illinois Tech to get its name out in the
general area, and encouraged all who were
interested to get in touch with Canty to get
involved. Canty can be reached at comcom.
sga@gmail.com.

Qianran He, the Vice President of
Student Life, is working on finding a remedy
for the death rate of birds that flew into the
glass walls of State Street Village (SSV). One
idea, she said, is to find a way to deter the
birds, like a drawing on the windows. Another
project she was working on, stemming from
one of the most common student complaints
gathered by SGA last semester, was to control
the amount of smoking on campus. Some
potential solutions to this problem, explained
He, were to ask public safety to help enforce
the 15 feet rule, contact the Student Health and
Wellness Center and ask for their help to keep
students aware of the health risks of smoking,
draw a line on the ground 15 feet around the
nonsmoking area, or ask for the help of the
employees inside buildings with the most
smoking problems.

Finance Board Chair Sung Min
Choi Hong announced that the Finance Board
Hearing was taking place on February 4th in
MTCC Conference Room from 9 am. to 6
p.m., and was open to anyone in the student
body. This hearing is especially useful for new
treasurers, new presidents, or those who just
want a free meal. Rolling admissions for a new
finance board advisor next year are also open.

For the very first report of the Events
Chair, many dates were announced. The Health
and Wellness Fair will take place on February
21st, the President and Provost Forum on
March 8th, the Public Safety Town Hall in late
March, and the SGA Banquet on March 24th.
Other tentative events in the early stages of
planning include a campus-wide field day, a
student organization display competition, and
a “donuts with Public Safety” event.

Some senators chose to report
progress on their projects. Caitlin Simpson

announced that healthy food options in the
form of Hello Goodness vending machines
were coming soon. Healthy snacks are also
going to replace some duplicated snacks
in vending machines that already exist on
campus. Some of these healthy snacks include
protein Clif bars, veggie chips, and fruit
strips. Additionally, extra vending machines
are planned for McCormick Student Village
(MSV) and the Stuart Building. Simpson says
that students should see these changes later in
the semester.

Nathan Jones also updated those
present on his work with the SGA website,
which has been known to be poorly updated in
the past. Jones is working on updating member
names, photos, and bios.

Last was open floor, a time for
anybody to raise their hand and speak about
a concern, whether an SGA member or not.
Sukkar brought up an idea for a new rule,
suggesting that even if someone seconds a
call to vote, etc, there should be a call for no
objections before the senate moves on. In this
way, the senate could avoid unintentionally
suppressing a voice. There were many snaps
of agreement to this. Another topic discussed
was that WebAssign, a program used in many
Illinois Tech math classes, had a large price tag;
could there be a solution to this? With tuition
already as high as it is, some thought that there
should be alternative options for students.
After all, there are other options for textbooks,
such as photocopying pages in the library, but
there is no other option for WebAssign. One
broad issue that was suggested to be brought
up for the Board of Trustees was the number
of students getting hit by traflic on campus.
Many senators thought that the crosswalk
situation needed to be remedied. Some ideas
were huge flashing lights that lit up when
pedestrians pressed a button, or signs that are
solar powered. Additionally, many senators
expressed concerns about professors that seem
to care more about research than teaching.
On a similar note, some students from Lewis
College voiced opinions about often feeling
like a “side note.” Some were insulted by
professors often saying things like, “I know
none of you are actually majoring in this, so
it’s going to be an easy semester.” The absence
of Academic Resource Center (ARC) tutors for
Lewis College classes, excluding psychology,
was noted as well. Many agreed that this was
a serious problem, and therefore discussion
will continue at the next Board of Trustees
Meeting.

SGA Senate meetings occur every
other Wednesday night at 9:15 pm. in Stuart
Building room 113, and attendance is open to
all students.

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