The Undergraduate Student Government announced that the spring election voting dates will be on Dec. 12 and Dec. 13 on TommieLink. The general council also appointed a spring transfer senator and approved the Pre-Health club’s name change to Pre-Med/PA.
Spring/Winter elections
Maggie Bau, vice president of academic affairs, announced that USG will open schoolwide voting at 8 a.m. on Tuesday, Dec. 12, and will close at 8 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 13. Voting will be available on the USG TommieLink.
The newly elected members will be sworn in at the last general USG meeting at the Iversen Center for Faith on Dec. 14.
Transfer senator
Zoe Schearer attended the general council meeting to express her interest in the transfer senator position.
“I know firsthand how life-changing and drastic this experience can be transferring to a new university,” Schearer said. “I was given a second chance to evaluate what was most important to me in my college experience at St. Thomas, and I realized that community was a core conviction and something that I was missing.”
Schearer was appointed transfer senator by USG.
Club name change
Haley Groskopf, president of the Pre-Health Club, presented a new name for the club. Groskopf suggested that the Pre-Health Club change its name to Pre-Med/Physician Assistant Club to incorporate the majority of pre-med students in the Morrison Family College of Health.
“The idea for changing our name came from the fact that we wanted to make our mission more fierce since our students are, in total, pre-med and PA students,” Groskopf said.
According to Groskopf, Students were getting the club confused with other similar clubs, seeming to be misled by the name. Groskopf also explained how Pre-Health Club events and events sent out by Michael Getty — the pre-health advisor at St. Thomas — got confused with each other.
This was because both groups had the same name and same email chain.
“We saw some of the clubs starting to branch off because the student body was getting bigger with different programs,” Groskopf said. “And so now we have a pre-dental club, a pre-PT club, a pre-OT club, but there isn’t a pre-med or pre-PA club.”
The general council approved the name change. Pre-Health Club is now a Pre-Med/PA club.
The last USG meeting of the semester will be at 12 p.m. on Thursday, Dec. 14 at the Iversen Center for Faith.
Gwynnevere Vang can be reached at vang5129@stthomas.edu.